Inters/sportsman alternative

[RichardV]

As the conversation about an intermediate/sportsman class after grassroots comes round occasionally, my feeling is F3N might be the answer. After speaking to mattscupoftea at the last event, he's convinced me to take part next year for the following reasons:

1) The whole thing is very low key, not many spectators and nobody films your flights. I imagine the organisers would like it to be bigger, but it isn't currently.

2) There are no classes, so you can't choose wrong or be accused of being a ringer. You fly with everyone else and they divide you up after you've been scored.

3) Up to 5 comps throughout the year. You can fly the same moves, music and freestyle, which means less preparation than going to 5 different events with different requirements.

4) Your scores are normalised to a percentage of the winner's, which means you can chart your own progression against a constant.

5) Some of the set manoeuvres are just about grassrooots level, so anyone coming out of that could compete. (loop, inverted piro, etc.)

6) If you come up with decent routines at beginning of the year and the nerves settle down, there's nothing stopping you entering AIR or 3D champs with the same routines.

7) I think the first comp is in May, so you have around 6 months (over winter admittedly) to prepare a set manoeuvres, flight to music and freestyle flight.

8) Come up with a cracking flight to music (all about the harmony) and you can outscore the top guys, not just the couple in your group.

BTW, congrats to Matt. On the last comp of the season he jumped from Sportsman to Pro level

[mattscupoftea]

Hi Richard! It was great to finally put a face to a name! Also really nice to see your flying. . . Such a nice style you have there. . .

Well, I'm excited to hear you will be in the comp next year! The more the merrier! I think you will have fun in the comp. And I imagine you are alreayd working your way through the set manoeuvres, perfecting them!

For me the most important thing of all with the comp is the focus that it gave my flying. . . We're not talking 'training' here, but having the comps coming up and knowing the format, I found myself working much harder on transition moves between tricks, creating a 'flow' in my flights whilst also (attempting) perfecting technique on moves across the board in order to have full control of them in differing wind conditions, flying them at different pace etc.

I have had conversations with people in the past who suggested that F3N was not for them as they were not into 'that accurate flying stuff'. I think there has been a misunderstanding in the community, perhaps due to the 'F3N' name - so people think of it like an 'F3' event (F3C, F3A etc) which are somewhat more structured in comparison with 3D flying.

Sure, there's a set manoeuvres round, but there's a long list of moves to pick from right through from 'basic 3D' stuff (loops, rolls, pushed stationary flips, inverted 360 pirouette) through to the harder stuff like reversing pirouetting globe moves.

But after that, the comp runs like many others. . . Freestyle round (no music) and music round are great fun, and the freestyle round can literally be freestyled on the fly, or prepared and the routine read out to you by your caller or you could just fly the same music flight without the music!

One of the greatest things with the comp is the transparent scoring system. You are given your individual score sheets from each judge between rounds from which you can see the breakdown of your scores for each set manoeuvre, or each scoring category. Judges make notes on the scoresheets which give you a good idea of where you went wrong (or what you got right!) and you are welcomed to chat to the judges at any point during the day. . . This, I believe, sets it apart from many of the other comps in which you just get a score at the end of the day (although I'm sure you are able to chat to judges on most other comps in the UK for tips etc) and is such a helpful thing in terms of flying skill progression. What this also means though, is that you receive critique from some really knowledgeable people (I won't name the judges for fear of missing anyone out, but they are all top notch!) who are there throughout the season and will notice differences in your flying, good and bad!

Why do I evangelise so much about the F3N competition? The comp has given me fresh inspiration and new direction in my practice, and put me in social contact with a really lovely bunch of people. Such a great crowd! So mostly, I would like to see that crowd grow as the experience will get better and better for all involved!

So now is the time people, to maybe take a look at the set manoeuvres here. . . F3C, F3N and Scale (Right hand side of page, 'F3N schedule') and start to have a go at them on the sim or at the field to give you a project for winter!

[Rachel]

I cannot recommend F3N enough..... it really improves your flying and is fun . there is a FB page too and its run By julie Fisher who I have huge respect for... She really works very hard indeed !

https://www.facebook.com/f3nuk?fref=ts