CLASSIC PATTERN

Keith Jackson reports on the resurgence of interest in old-school F3a

- Keith Jackson

Pre-1995 Classic Pattern aerobatics (officially termed F3a) is making a resurgence both here in the UK and in other countries such as Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Scandinavia and the USA. In the UK this body of aerobatics is championed by the Classic Aerobatic Association, which works with the other international groups to standardise rules for future Classic Competitions, focussing on ‘preturnaround’ models, i.e. airframes designed and flown prior to the end of the 1983 World Championships. Their website UKCAA.org.uk - is a gold mine of information, resources, galleries of models and competition reports.

Classic Pattern involves F3a models from the 10cc two-stroke era and includes designs such as the Hanno Prettner Curare and Magic, Wolfgang Matt Arrow, Dave Hardaker Lightning, Mike Birch Capricorn, etc.

There's a 5kg weight limit and power is either 10cc two-stroke, 15cc four-stroke, or electric up to 6S. Competitions and fly-ins are held around the country, dates and venues for which are on the UKCAA website. It would be great to see some of these models in action during demo slots at BMFA events such as the Nationals.

Intended to be relatively low-key fly-ins with the emphasis on fun, UKCAA meetings also include contest flying, the schedule of which is based on pre-turnaround centre manoeuvres, flown upwind and downwind consecutively. More details of this schedule, including a manoeuvre description, can be found on the UKCAA'S website.

CONTRA DRIVES

One of the principle considerations with F3a concerns the propulsion system, with contra drives playing an important role. Let's take a closer look.