33rd Ljubljana Cup Report

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SAVA RIVER TOUR part 3…LJUBLJANA
33rd LJUBLJANA CUP for Space Models
 7th to 9th October 2011 ~ Kamniska Polygon ~ Slovenia

by Stuart Lodge
 

TOP of the Tree…Thirty Three Ljubljana Cups ~ BINGO!!  The latest followed the standard that is de riguer…c’est magnifique!  Ljubljana reposes near the source of the River Sava and the watercourse that passes through the city – the Ljubljanica – is a forked tributary that joins the longest river in the former Yugoslavia. More geography, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Slovakia and Slovenia descended on the event headquarters at Terme Snovik, confident in their ability to synergise a dynamic World Cup finale.

Naturally, the legendary Astronavtsko raketarski klub, Vladimir M. Komarov, under the stewardship of Joze Cuden and Tone Sijanec, would be running the show. Naturally, the weather was expected to be magic…except that Friday afternoon was 6 degrees Celsius and driving rain! ..S3A-Parachute Duration re-carded for Sunday pm. Naturally, Saturday and Sunday were blessed with warm sun and very light winds. Your reporter once more to judge S7-Scale models and craving a World Class entry and World Class flying too. Podiums..

S4A-Boost Glider World Cup

Gennady Poltavets (RUS); Martina Prekopova, Denis Javorik (both-SVK); Jaromir Chalupa, Marek Pavka, Jan Sebesta, Alexander Kozlov (all-CZE) and Boris, Uros & Marjan Jenko, Alja Makuc (all-SLO). Just a few of the ingredients in the mixer to ensure a World Class event to round off 2011. Conditions were near-perfect on a Saturday morning of stunning scoring. Plenty of hard luck stories along the way…drop below a big three-figure number and drop out of the top-10. Great podium, well done Ceska!

1 Marek PAVKA            CZE    180      180      180 = 540s
2 Zoran KATANIC       
  SRB    176      180      180 = 536s
3 Jaromir CHALUPA    
  CZE    130      180      162 = 472s

S6A-Streamer Duration World Cup

You don’t see startlists of less than fifty in S6A-Streamer at Ljubljana and the 33rd no exception!  More Big Players in the list than also rans, with on-form players looking like, Przemyslaw Zacharias, Antoni Biernacki, Jakub Jaros & Tadeus Kasprzycky (all-POL); Drago Perc, Simon Urbas and the Jenko Mafia (all-SLO); Jan Sebesta & Jaromir Chalupa (both-CZE); Peter Matuska, Milan Javorik & Jozef Prekop (all-SVK) and Michael Helmert & Jonas Buechl (both-GER). Scoring was massive and the standard across the spectrum was superb…very few Zero scores, although the one that caught Gennady Poltavets (RUS) was very expensive!  But a real shock at the end, Mitja Zgajner (SLO) showed he can do more than twiddle the sticks on an RC transmitter and nailed an amazing Golden Dragon! This was a fantastic World Cup climax.

1 Mitja ZGAJNER                  SLO    178      119      110 = 407s
2 Vladimir CIPCIC               
  SRB    139      124      132 = 395s
3 Przemyslaw ZACHARIAS    POL    135      122      120 = 377s

S7-Scale World Cup

Really good mix in the hall, ranging from Arianes, Bumper WACs, sounding rockets in the shape of Meteor-1 & Sonda 1-2, Nike Apache, plus a magic Maxus 6. Nikola Cvjeticanin, Matevz Dular and Stuart Lodge had their work cut out. But this one needed to be good, as other seemingly World Class halls your scribe had judged in 2011 had failed to come up to scratch in the qualification flights. The top set was squeaky, Arianes by Krzysztof Przybytek, Wojciech Krzywinski (both-POL) and Vladimir ‘chirpy’ Cipcic were separated by only 30 points. Close?!? ..Bumper WAC-B7s of Zika Josipovic and Miodrag Cipcic (both-SRB) managed an identical 687 points in static.. Other interesting birds were the Sonda 1-2 of Jan Sebesta (CZE), though this one let down by inadequate documentation and Martina Prekopova’s (SVK) Meteor-1, the latter very accurate and realistic, scoring surprisingly highly, in static. The Maxus 6 of Michal Bobrowski (POL), flattered to deceive, but once more, the flights would make or mar it.

Wojciech Krzywinski damaged his novel Ariane 3 with the electronic control system, at the 1st Fenix Cup, in Croatia a few weeks earlier and flew its basic predecessor…to yet another first round DQ!  It later did enough for the Bronze Dragon and…the 2011 overall World Cup. Once more, several were looking at the podium, but it took a super two-stage flight by Serb junior, Miodrag Cipcic to set the standard for the rest. He was ‘leader in the clubhouse’ until compatriot Zika Josipovic, fired a marginally straighter boost and one point better…Golden Dragon!  Hard luck stories aplenty and young Jan Sebesta just a tad unlucky with a DQ’d qualification flight.

1 Zivan JOSIPOVIC             SRB    Bumper WAC-B7      687 + 121 = 808pt
2 Miodrag CIPCIC               SRB    Bumper WAC-B7      687 + 120 = 807pt
3 Wojciech KRZYWINSKI
    POL    Ariane 3                   696 +   80 = 776pt

S9A-Gyrocopter Duration World Cup

John Jacomb (GBR) wasn’t going to fly S9A-Gyrocopter at Ljubljana..  The startlist just as intimidating as S6A-Streamer had been, earlier in the day. Always the hardest to pick, as flight failures are all too common, favourites looked like, Radojica Katanic (SRB); Tomislava Cvitic, Maja Juric, Ivana Miskovic… Croatia’s good ladies! ..backed by fellas, Jozo Ivancic, Romano Suti & Tomislav Cvitic (all-CRO too..). Michael Helmert & Jonas Buechl (both-GER), unlikely to do badly. The scoring was mega, with a flyoff needed for first and second. Oh yes, John Jacomb was glad he bothered!?!

1 Jaromir CHALUPA         CZE    177      180      111 = 500 + 148s
2 Marek PAVKA               CZE    108      180      180 = 500 + 122s
3 John JACOMB               GBR     96      180      152 = 428s

S8E/P-RC Rocket Glider Spot Landing World Cup

2011 deserved a good S8E/P-RC Rocket Glider World Cup, it’d been pretty mediocre thus far…apart from one emergent superstar. Mitja Zgajner (SLO) came to the World Cup finale leading the rankings by a country mile, even ‘Chirpy’ Cipcic (SRB) always having to give best. But others determined to spoil the party, Turi Hunziker, Martin Eichenberger, Daniel Studiger & Michael Lehmann (all-SUI) had the kit to do damage. Eduard ‘Wow-wow’ Wowry, Pawel Janisiewicz, Przemyslaw Zacharias & Szymon Byrtek (all-POL) very competent and the renascent Bulgarians, Konstantin Ranov & Kancho Kanev looked to impress.

Brilliant flying, with the backdrop of snowy Julijan Alps stunning…and rounded off the Sava River Tour World Cups of 2011 superbly. The podium very predictable and well done, Mitja Zgajner..

1 Mitja ZGAJNER          SLO     1000    1000    1000 +   998 = 3998pt
2 Vladimir CIPCIC          SRB    1000     991  
    978 + 1000 = 3969pt
3 Peter MATUSKA         SVK    985      987   
   1000 +   882 = 3854pt

S3A-Parachute Duration

Re-carded from Friday and sure to be good…’til the wind freshened, that is; recovery teams on steroids!  The Jenko Mafia, Rok Spandl, Miha Rupnik, Rok Zunic, Simon Urbas and Drago Perc, looked good for the hosts; Jozo Ivancic, Ivana Miskovic, Romano Suti and Maja Juric (all-CRO); the Pavkas, Jan Sebesta & Alexander Kozlov (all-CZE), all looked capable. But who could tell, the wind deprived so many of kit to fly in round 3. The result was utterly brilliant for Jan Sebesta – a perfect score - after his disappointments in S7-Scale. Jozo Ivancic and Rok Zunic propped him up on the sidesteps.

1 Jan SEBESTA             CZE    300      300      300 = 900s
2 Jozo IVANCIC              CRO   262      300      300 = 862s
3 Rok ZUNIC                  SLO    300      300      242 = 842s

Show Models…Oddrocs beware!

No one was betting on anyone else except John Jacomb. JJ’s ‘scale model’ of Westminster’s Big Ben, just astonishing. Powered by a Serb Ultra E44-5 motor, the model flew superbly and recovered perfectly. Golden Dragons don’t come any better.

1 John JACOMB               Westminster’s Big Ben
2 Uros JENKO                  5th November bottle rocket..

Ljubljana Love Affair…

Magic! ..but Ljubljana always is. Well done ARK Komarov, Contest Director Tone Sijanec; RSOs Marjan Cuden and Matevz Dular…fantastic. The FAI Jury comprised Srdjan Pelagic (SRB), Vera Pavkova (CZE) and Joze Cuden (SLO) and had little to do. Your reporter honoured to judge S7-Scale with Nikola Cvjeticanin and Matevz Dular. After the contest, your reporter was a tourist for a couple of days, even indulging a ‘river cruise’ on the Ljubljanica. All so therapeutic, Ljubljana is what Space Modelling is all about.

ARK Komarov 2011