First results at the 2016 FAI S World Championships for Space Models

Results of today - Friday, 26 August 2016

“It feels damn good!” says Robert Kreutz about his victory in today’s S1B rocket category. His best flight reached 753m, more than 50m higher than the nearest competitor. “It’s down to a clean design and a clean build,” he confided, “and good Ukrainian motors.” Kreutz has been flying rockets since 1991 and won world championship gold in the scale altitude model competition over a decade ago.

Eleven year old Wenze Li, from China, beat off older competitors in the junior S6A competition with three good flights, including one that stayed in the air for over three minutes, it’s descent slowed only by a rippled streamer which made good use of the thermal conditions, and light winds. He put the victory down to hard work and the help of a good teacher.

Also in the Juniors category, local Oleksandr Alkhimov was the only under 18 competitor who achieved a full score in all three of his rounds of the S9A. Among the most mechanically complex of the classes, the S9A rocket's descent is slowed by deploying gyrocopter blades at the top of it’s flight.

The full results can be found here.

More pictures here.

Photo Credit: FAI / Andy Pag