Julie returned from Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic, with the title of European Junior Champion in the category F2B Aerobatics. It was at the end of July 1995. How is it possible for a 16 year old girl to achieve this result? It is, of course, the recompense for individual work and an intensive training, but also, and above all, the result of hard work performed in the aeromodelling school of a club. Many European countries seem to look with envy at France regarding its capacity to attract young people into Control Line and to train them at the highest level of competition. Rather than just portraying Julie, this article aims to show how such a result can be achieved.
As I was the right hand man of Jean-Paul PERRET in the organisation of the Blenod World Championships, I had of course for this occasion asked for the help of all the family: Patricia, my wife, was in charge of the counting on the computer of the Aerobatics points. David, my son, was time-keeper in Team Racing whereas Julie was "courier" in charge of the collecting of the flight papers from the F2B judges.
These World Championships and the previous years of preparation gave me the opportunity to realise that I shared many of Jean-Paul's ideas especially regarding the promotion of Control Line and the training of young people. David and Julie, as for them, had made friends with the young people of the "Modèle Club des Trois Frontières" (MCTF). Jean-Paul, as for him, was looking for leaders to help him ruling the aeromodelling school of the MCTF that he had promoted a few years before; this is the reason why my own experience in Control Line and in competition was of course of a great interest to him.
Although living in the Parisian district and at 400 kms from Blenod, the Delor family collectively decided to join the MCTF. This club, founded at the beginning of the seventies by Jean-Paul, is well known abroad for the organisation of its traditional competition "Grand Prix de France" which is an international Control Line competition. This year it took place for the 12th time. Last year, the MCTF changed its name to "Cercle Modeliste de Blenod Lorraine" (CMBL) in order to display our attachment to Blenod and the Lorraine region. We shall see later in this article that this was not without reason nor without importance !
As the management of the club is composed of Control Line specialists, the aeromodelling school became, naturally, specialised in Control Line. This choice has not only been influenced by the ability of the leaders to convey their knowledge and their experience. Young people have today access to many activities and, in this context, it is necessary to be convincing to gain their attention and interest, especially as modelling requires real effort. However, the Control Line offers every chance to attract young people and to keep their interest and ambition.
Indeed, as young people quickly progress, finances soon become a problem, but fortunately only for a few of them (those good enough for the high level competition).
Therefore, the main difficulty does not only remain in attracting young people but in having enough skilled people and material and financial means in the club to organise a modelling school and to run it.
For an inscription fee of 40 dollars a year, each young person registered in the aeromodelling school receives the necessary equipment required for the construction of models. Moreover all the expenses for the competition trips are covered by the club. Financial priority is given to young people, as the leaders are voluntary (they do not receive any repayment for their supervisory or competition expenses).
A lot of time is needed to inform local authorities (town, counties and region) of the great importance of the influence on young people to obtain substantial financial help from them. At the same time, the competitions organised by the club and their results, on national as well as international sites, are enhanced to try to get sponsoring from private firms, which enables the club to find the necessary financial supplement.
Due to this structure, results were soon obtained from young people. As an example, 8 out of the 15 "cadets" or "juniors" who have been selected in the 95 French nationals belong to the Blenod club. Among those 8 young people, only 3 have parents who are modellers, which shows that it is not necessary to be the son or the daughter of a modeller to succeed, even if undoubtedly it makes things easier.
Even more convincing is the fact that three out of the four French juniors who were selected in the 1995 European Championships belong to the Blenod club: Julie Delor, European Champion in F2B and the team Fabrice PICARD/Georges SURUGUE, second in F2C.
These stages do not depend on the age but on the abilities of everyone. For example, a young student who is able to progress quickly, will have the possibility in 4 years to "cross the ditch" which separate the beginner who has never flown, from a competitor of international category. On the contrary an adult beginner will have to learn the same basic stages, exactly like a ten year beginner.
Julie, like all the beginners in the club, has followed this cycle of progression, and she started the construction of her first plane during a construction training period which took place during the "All Saints" holidays in 1990.
The second model prescribed by the club has been designed especially for the club (on our specifications) by Listopad, the well known Ukrainian modeller. The kit of this model is produced by an Ukrainian team and sold at a reasonable price (about 50 dollars). This model offers more chance of success in series 1 competitions than the Alpha. The engine is the same as on the Alpha. With this Ukrainian model Julie reached the third place in first category at the 92 French Nationals. With her score Julie reached the second category ("Serie 2"). The entering in the second catego ryis automatic when you get in first category more than 900 points on the two flights of the French Nationals.
| Manoeuvre | Coefficient | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starting | 2 |
| 2 | Take-off | 3 |
| 3 | Horizontal flight (2 laps) | 2 |
| 4 | Wing-over | 4 |
| 5 | First inside loop | 2 |
| 6 | Second inside loop | 3 |
| 7 | Third inside loop | 4 |
| 8 | First outside loop | 3 |
| 9 | Second outside loop | 4 |
| 10 | Third outside loop | 5 |
| 11 | Inverted flight (2 laps) | 8 |
| 12 | Horizontal eight | 10 |
| 13 | Vertical eight | 12 |
| 14 | Overhead eight | 12 |
| 15 | Landing | 6 |
| Total of coefficients | 80 |
After this first step of two years of modelling, a balance-sheet is made with the junior. There are three possibilities:
1- The results on competition are good and the determination for Aerobatics is still there. The junior has to continue on the same way and looks for second category of Aerobatics. This was the case for Julie.
2- The results on competition are not very good but the determination for aeromodelling is still there. In this case it is necessary to advise the junior on an other promotional category: for example Diesel Goodyear, or Diesel Combat or Speed for beginners. But we still recommend to persist some time in Aerobatics in order to learn the basics of modelling.
3- The results and/or the determination for modelling is not there. In that case it is necessary to stop modelling for another hobby! Nevertheless, the junior, sometimes, comes back to modelling by another way some years later with more determination.
| Manoeuvre | Coefficient | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starting | 1 |
| 2 | Take-off | 2 |
| 3 | Reverse wing-over | 6 |
| 4 | Three inside loops | 6 |
| 5 | Inverted flight (2 laps) | 2 |
| 6 | Three outside loops | 6 |
| 7 | Two inside square loops | 12 |
| 8 | Two outside square loops | 12 |
| 9 | Two horizontal eights | 6 |
| 10 | Two vertical eights | 8 |
| 11 | Two overhead eights | 6 |
| 12 | Four-leaf clover | 8 |
| 13 | Landing | 5 |
| Total of coefficients | 80 |
During the 94 year Julie realised many international competitions in France and abroad: Salzburg (Austria), la Queue-en -Brie (France), Piennes (France), Verviers (Belgium) and Valladolid (Spain). She improved greatly and very rapidly with a participation at such a high level of competition. During this year she gained experience and self- control.
1994 is the year of the World Championships at Shanghai in China and the first year where it was possible to put a junior in the team in addition of the three seniors. Four juniors were competing in France for that place. At the end of the French Nationals Julie could be happy: she finished at the 12 th place in F2B, before many more experienced seniors and ahead of the four juniors. But finally she was very disappointed. The selection for China was realised on different competitions and after the French Nationals she was still some points behind Georges Surugue. So finally Georges would go to China and not Julie. Don't bother about that! Julie was already thinking about her next season and about the 95 European Championships' selection. In that context we went, at beginning of October, to Valladolid in Spain. Second after the qualifying flights, Julie finally reached the fourth place of this international competi tion and dominated easily the junior category.
| Manoeuvre | Coefficient | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starting | 1 |
| 2 | Take-off | 2 |
| 3 | Reverse wing-over | 8 |
| 4 | Three inside loops | 6 |
| 5 | Inverted flight (2 laps) | 2 |
| 6 | Three outside loops | 6 |
| 7 | Two inside square loops | 12 |
| 8 | Two outside square loops | 12 |
| 8 | Two inside triangular loops | 14 |
| 9 | Two horizontal eights | 7 |
| 9 | Two square horizontal eights | 18 |
| 10 | Two vertical eights | 10 |
| 10 | Hourglass | 10 |
| 11 | Two overhead eights | 10 |
| 12 | Four-leaf clover | 8 |
| 13 | Landing | 5 |
| Total of coefficients | 131 |
At the end of 94, Julie thought that she would rapidly reach the limits of her Stylus and it's 6,5 cc engine. So she decided to build a bigger plane. She chose one of the models designed by Randy Smith (Aero Products): the Intrepid SV 12, which span is 1,54 meters. The model is based on custom foam wing and tail plane (cored). The control system components (bellcrank and horns), dural landing gear and cockpit come from Aero Products. For the engine we chose the "Discovery Retro" which is a 9,2 cc. This very good engine is produced by the Ukrainian Yuri Iatchenko and sold at a very reasonable price (150 dollars with spinner and muffler). A wooden propeller of a 330 to 340 mm diameter with a pitch of 6 or 5,5 inches is adapted to this engine. For the fuel nothing's more easy: 80/20 without nitro is sufficient.
The beginning of the 95 season made with the Stylus caused a lot of problems with carburization of the engine. Those problems were increasing as the flights succeeded .... despite many tests and modifications of the engine. Finally we decide to change the Fox 40 for a Magnum 46 ABC. It was going better so Julie managed to be selected for the European Championships.
Mid of June: First flights of her new Intrepid. Advised by Gérard Billon, the model was rapidly set right. The engine gave the flexibility and the power that we wanted from it. During the three weeks before we go to Hradec Kralové, about fifty flights were realised by Julie in order to perfectly control her model and to catch assurance. We also decided to arrive at Hradec two days before the beginning of the competition in order to get accustomed with the difficult conditions of flight of the spot.
During her first qualification flight, Julie was drawn to compete in the first group. She flew amongst the first competitors and, moreover, the first one among the juniors. It was not necessarily a lucky situation to get a good score. Julie, although a bit tense, managed a good flight without any major mistakes. When the results were published, Julie got 2395,5 points only as we had all feared she would. The Russian Alexei Solianin was the competitor who Julie feared the most (she watched him during his training). He performed a very nervous flight and got 2311,5 points. Julie therefore reached the first place of the juniors after her first flight.
The following day, inverted order of flight. So Julie flew among the last competitors and moreover the last of the juniors. The engine of the young Russian Alexei stalled on inverted flight. So Julie knew, even before she flew, that, whatever she did, she would be the European Junior Champion. She performed a splendid flight, the most beautiful she had ever done. I was very surprised when a judge came after the competition to tell that her bases of figures were too near the ground! Julie improved her score considerably (2549,5 points) compared with the first flight. With this score, she reached 39th place in the general results; it is more than satisfactory for a first participation in a European Championships.
Back from these European Championships Julie relaxed; gliding training in the mountains at Fayence and her first flights alone on board. She concluded her season of modelling with international competitions in Verviers (Belgium) and Valladolid (Spain) where she finished 2nd in the general results and 1st in Junior ones. She also competed in the French Nationals.
The results she got in the international competitions enabled her to be classed 19th in the 1995 Control Line World Cup among around 120 competitors.
For 1996 Julie aims to be selected for the World Championships in Sweden. In a parallel way, she intends to get used to other promotional categories (Diesel Goodyear and Diesel Combat F2E)
On a more modest scale, if each experienced modeller made the effort of sponsoring and helping a young, we shall see more young modellers around our Control Line circles. Control Line does continue to attract young people. Therefore, all of us should make an effort to share our passionate interest with them. If we transferred to them our knowledge and experience, Control Line would not disappear.
Modelling will always be extremely formative and enriching for young people. This hobby will teach them to work methodically and minutely, whereas the competition will develop self-control and the management of stress pressure and anxiety before entering the circle. All those aspects will be very useful in the course of their studies and during their professional life.