1971 Josef Klima, 29, Czechoslovakia

Modellflygforbund took a gamble and bet that the tiny aerodrome at Save, near Gothenberg, Sweden, would contain F1A, F1B, and F1C, because the yearly weather almanac said that the wind would be calm during early August. Had this trilogy of Free Flight events lasted one day longer, they would have been wrong. Flying this year would begin at 4:30am, stop at 10:00am, and begin again at 5:30pm. In the "Land of the Midnight Sun" there would be no element of luck, or so the promoters said. F1C did start at 4:30am like they said, but by 8:30pm nineteen contestants were standing by ready to participate in the first round of the fly-offs. This crowd included Thomas Koster, the 1965 Wakefield Champion. When the dust cleared R Hagel of Sweden was the winner, beating Koster by six seconds. There was a fly-off in F1A also, but only for two, with P Dvorak (of Czechoslovakia, unrelated to Franisek Dvorak) declared the winner over N Munnukka of Finland by twelve seconds.

Sunday, July 4, would be F1B day, beginning at 4:30am. Twenty-seven nations had fielded 71 contestants, some in matching warm-up uniforms, in their countries national colors with nationalist bunting, umbrellas, and flags, so much for "friendly" international competition! The contest officials had banned "thermal detection devices" from the marked flying zone, in an effort to level the playing field. Lately teams were showing up more and more with "thermal detectors" that recorded the wind, change in temperature, and graphically displayed the events simultaneously on a paper record sheet. All of this required poles of varying sizes scattered all over the field, and it was these that the officials took exception to. After all the F1B aeromodel was assuming a formula characteristic that made them similar in both appearance, and flight pattern, and the "thermal detector" was only another tool like the aeromodel itself! With all this baggage, not to mention the motorcycles which were especially indispensable to the American aging population for retrieval of their F1B aeromodels, the modern free flight flying field was becoming quite cluttered.

ROUND 1-7: At 4:30am the skies were clear, and the wind was calm. Denmark was clearly in the lead with perfect rounds for the entire Team. During Round 4, Bob White of Team USA watched helplessly as his "Twin Fin" dived into the parking lot for a delayed flight. Inspection showed only the propeller to be damaged. Bob quickly changed propellers, and flew again to max the round. The "warm-up" to the "real contest", ended with round 7, where we find twelve contestants to compete for the Cup in the fly-off rounds.

ROUND 7: The round opened at exactly 8:10pm with clear skies, but cool temperatures. This would be the 240 second round. The first contestant off was Josef Klima of Czechoslovakia. Keld Kongsberg of Denmark wound up only to blow a motor, as his Team quickly worked to repair his first F1B, he then wound up his spare F1B, meanwhile his first F1B was ready, and he wound it up again! Keld did all of this winding in less than four minutes! He finished seventh. No one did the 240 second maximum, and the contest came to and end. Now the officials confiscated all of the F1Bs for final processing. There had been a spot check made at the end of the sixth round, and Bruce Rowe of GB had been disqualified for being underweight. Now consternation reigned as they discovered that Josef Klima had removed his motor from his F1B! The officials called for all of his officially weighed, and stamped, motors! Some were found to be over the weight limit! It was found that the rubber had been weighed on another scale, and the two scales were not balanced alike! Another conference by the officials, and finally Josef Klima was declared the 1971 Wakefield Cup Champion! The difference between first and tenth was one minute. And by a tip of the scakes, the winner is...Josef Klima

Josef Klima's Wakefield length 1100, span 1175, prop 570d

References

1971 FAI/CIAM Sporting Code
BMFA FF Forum 1990, N Beaumont
Aeromodeller, Sept 1971, FF WC 1971

Music: "Me and Bobby McGee"; Literature: "Being There", Cine: "The French Connection"