The 2015 F3P World Championships Are Being Held In Pruszków, Warsaw In Poland From March 14th Until March 21st.

Radio control model airplane flying comes in all shapes and sizes, and the F3P indoor aerobatic competition is unique and exciting. The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) sponsors the FAI Teams, but this valuable sponsorship only pays for a small portion of the costs to send a team to a World Championship.

The 2015 U.S.A. F3P World Championship team shown to the left is, from left to right, Ryan Clark, RJ Gritter, Devin McGrath and Joseph Szczur Jr. Now that you’ve met the team, let’s take a look at what F3P flying is all about.

The National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics (NSRCA) is the U.S. Special Interest Group that supports and encourages R/C indoor pattern flying through its newsletter, website and the organization of competitions in the United States. The F3P acronym stands for:

F = Flying model
3 = Radio control
P = Indoor Aerobatics

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) class of F3P is an aerobatic event for radio controlled model aircraft flown indoors. Competitors fly a complex sequence of known maneuvers to the highest degree of precision possible. Judges are positioned immediately behind the pilot and evaluate the quality of each maneuver.

F3P models are allowed to be up 79 inches in wingspan and length, but cannot exceed 10.58 ounces…Yes, that’s ounces! Any powerplant may be used so long as it does not generate any kind of emissions, or exceed 42 volts. Construction materials generally used are foam, carbon fiber, and Mylar.

There is a complex set of competition rules, but the bottom line is, Judging is based on four basic criteria: precision (or geometry), smoothness and gracefulness, positioning (display), and size of maneuvers.

Since the team funding only accounts for a small portion of the cost, they need to rely on fellow modelers to help with fundraising to make up for the extra money to defray the costs the team will incur.  Poland is a long way from the USA and the cost of airfare alone is expensive and then they also have to ship their planes and support equipment over there as well.

The link below provide more information on how to help.

(Image provided by Team U.S.A F3P)

FMI:  http://www.teamusaf3p.com/  www.nsrca.us.