Page 39 - MFW June 2025

unofficial practice flight. The judges were taken on an
enjoyable and interesting sightseeing tour, river cruise,
lunch and a fantastic dance & acrobatic street
performance.

Day 2 was Official Practice, Judges training and the
Opening Ceremony, which had to be held indoors as it
had started raining.

Day 3, the first day of P25 Preliminary rounds and it was
raining in the morning. Flying finally commenced after
10am. This appeared to be orientation and familiarising
themselves with judging standards for many pilots.
Competitors flew two flights: one on each of Line A and
Line B. The New Zealand team of Sean & Hamish
Galloway, Ross Craighead and Frazer Briggs, with his
help and support of Lyndon Perry, flew their first flight on
Line B, the line I was judging on.
NZ F3A Team.
Judging the afternoon rounds was difficult as you had to
hold your hand up to shield the sun and rotate it around as
the model flew the manoeuvres. Frazer called it the big
Lazer beam, and it became an increasing issue for pilots
and judges as the afternoon progressed.

Day 4 was another two rounds of P25, and the talent of
the top pilots was emerging. Some pilots’ self-calculating
their placing to see if they were going to make the top 10
to fly in the Finals rounds. At the completion of flying P25,
Frazer had placed 11th narrowly pipped by Akiba from
Japan and Hamish placed 12th. Both pilots earning the
honour of flying the calibration warm up flights for the
Judges for the Finals rounds the following morning.

Day 5 – F25 Finals. The 10 judges had drawn their place
for judging round 1 or round 2. I drew the first round. It was
some of the hardest judging I’ve done. The precision and
mastery displayed was world-class, and very little
separated these pilots.
Final results :
1st Tetsuo Onda, Japan
2nd Christophe Paysant Le Roux, France
3rd Sandro Matti, Switzerland
4th Yuhei Suzuki, Japan
5th Christian Niklass, Germany
6th Werner Kohiberger, Austria
7th Jan Votava, Czech Republic Hamish - F 2nd round for Judges
8th Zhang XuJun, China
9th Antonin Paysant Le Roux, France
(son of Christophe )
10th Akiba Yoichiro, Japan
Congratulations to the finalists and all pilots.

At the completion of the Finals rounds, we were treated to
a breathtaking dual flight demo from Tetsuo Onda and
Yuhei Suzuki — a masterclass in control, teamwork,
showmanship of two extremely talented pilots and a
highlight to finish to event.

Reflecting on competition and the great results for the NZ
team coming 3rd just behind China, Sean Galloway 2nd
Junior, Frazer 11th and Hamish 12th, in a very
competitive field. Unfortunately, Ross was unwell
causing him to have difficulty with his model performance Hamish - F 2nd round Judges flight
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