From Jojo's diary:
DAY .. 30.March - 1.April 2007 - Istanbul Cup F3J 2007
This years first Eurotour and I had to go off course. The way we are being treated when we arrive in Turkey are excellent and they do all they can so that we feel comfrtable every time. We get picked up at the airport and there is no shortage of either food or drinking all weekend if you prefer sitting in the tent or hotel instead of flying... This year some went for North Cyprus and some for this event while me and others choose both (how could I not). I arrived Friday afternoon and should have had with me Alex from Bodø but he missed his flight at Gardermoen. The hotel we stay in is seated in Riva and is a football training senter. It is only a short way from the flying field they have used it for some years now. Very soon they will move to the new site were the World Championship will be held in 2008. This is a good thing since the old field have some slope in some wind directions. This year we started out with calm weather and first two rounds were rather difficult for many. But this changed when the announced wind came midday saturday. It turned into a launch-landing contest for some of the best pilots and this was rather cool. Maybe not for the sport? But it was very cool to watch the development of the competition. After each round the results were up and we could see better and better times on the score board. We managed 5 rounds saturday as a small drizzle turned into some rain in the afternoon. Lunch was served as a buffet on the field by chefs and if you were hungry in beetween a burger/sandwich wagon were on site with free food. Hot coffee, clean toilets and drinks is always available. I wonder when this will be available in Norway...
Sunday we started in clouded weather and the forecast were rain. So the organizers announced one last 6th round and 3 finals if we managed. How wrong could the weather man be... We had the coolest flyoff's ever when it comes to technical abillities. Very fast starts and 3 finals but also reflights of round 1 (mistake of timer) and round 2 (crash beetween Mustafa and Primoz). This made the most spectacular times I have seen and been into. I dont have the details yet but the winner Jan Kohout had all best flights beetween 14:56 and 14:57 while I had 14:55 and 14:56 and ended "only" in 4th place.
Scores of preliminaries HERE and finals HERE Details: R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6 Details finals: R1, R2, R3 - Juniors
A bunch of pictures HERE (some in the finals by Jane).
NEW logs of round 1 to 5 premiliniaries + zoom of start and round 1 + reflight of the finals + zoom of start
As for planes it was: 1. Jan Kohout CZE (Pike Perfect with last prelim round with Espada RL for testing with cool 9:57,2 flight). 2. Philip Kolb GER (Pike Perfect) 3. Sebastian Feigl GER (Experience Pro V). 4. Jojo (Pike Perfect with last prelim round with Supra for testing). 5 of 8 planes in finals were Pike Perfect.
On Monday I stayed together with Primoz Rizner in Istanbul surfing round the town center. We had lunch with a nice turkish girl and after that went to meet up with Philip Kolb in "Mustang Hobi". This is no ordenary shop as they dont look for the masses but for good customers in Turkey that wants not only the best but also help with the best. They also sells electronics of various types and photo stuff. Nice shop. Me, Primoz, Philip and Murat Esibatir (shopman and finalist in the competition) went to eat on a rather nice restaurant in one of the newer areas of Istanbul (just 10min walk) were we had traditional Turkish dishes. Thanks Murat!