Thanks Sparky, I'm glad you liked it.  My box took a weird route, it flew MSY-MEM-EBLG-LFPG-LROP and got trucked to the field.  I suspect the damage occurred in the last stop or 2 but I have no way of knowing that.  I do know that it flew on one of your MD11s MSY-MEM, so it's done something I'll never get a chance to do.  I'm hoping the trip home is easier, as well as the trip to England.

Good idea on the lessons learned, I'll probably share a few here at some point.

Ben

We'll start off with Mika's during our sunset photo shoot

And mine

Marcus Hausmann from Germany F4C

Matthias Hausmann of Germany, F4H.

Thomas Hochsmann of Germany, F4C

I especially liked the detail on his static prop

Rytis Kalinauskas of Lithuania, F4C

Jan Lodner from Norway, Saab Safir, F4C.  A neat model of an unusual airplane

Per Holman of Norway, F4H.  Built in 1979 it was probably the oldest plane there

Rober Nieto of France, F4C.  They had a little EDF on a stick to force air into the cowl after a flight to cool the engine.

Victor Macho Estrada of Spain, F4C

Juan Gonzalez Robles of Spain, F4C

Demarchi Gianluca of San Marino, F4H.  The blue one is his practice jet, the grey one was the competition plane.

2022 (and many others) Champion in F4C, Andreas Luthi of Switzerland.

2024 Champ in F4H, Reto Senn of Switzerland

Martin Erhardt of Germany, F4H

Alessandro Frisoll of Italy, F4H.  This was one of the few other weathered planes there.  He had his turbine lock up at the top of a loop in round 3, he deadsticked it to a perfect landing right on centerline in front of the judges.

Christos Leontaritis of Greece, Briston M1C, F4C

Gody Fischer of Switzerland, F4H.  He had a little package drop with a parachute that was neat.

Lots of really good detailing on this one.

I have some more that warrant several pictures each, I'll post those at some point.

Ben

Here's a few that I got some detail shots of.

I had been watching Argyris Giannetakis of Greece hammer out the fairings on his Ryan for the past year and was looking forward to seeing it in person.  This plane is wooden framed with formed aluminum, he's now building one that is of all aluminum construction.  It was in F4C

Adrian has already posted a picture of Gelu Ticuleanu's Albatros but I have some more of it.  He designed it from manufacturer drawings published in a Smithsonian book about the plane.  It was really well done and scored well in static, unsurprisingly it doesn't fly well in wind and it was windy during the 1st round.  He's from Romania and this was F4C

Hand painted

Note the zig-zag stitching

Vladimir Rynes, Sr, Czech, F4C, electric.  It was uncannily stable in the wind, not sure what his gyro setup was.

Frana Frantisek, Czech, F4C, electric.

David Kopal, Czech, F4C.  Really well done and seemed to fly and land well on those narrow gear.  Had an opposed twin gas hiding behind the dummy radial.

Vladimir Rynes, Jr, Czech, F4H.  Powered by that electric start Fiala opposed twin sitting next it.  It looked good and flew really well, I thought the sound of that engine was perfect.  The judges did too, he got 3rd place.

Jiri Brand, Czech, F4H, Aero 145.  Another well done model of a rare subject.  This was electric but had a really good sound system, the illusion was very convincing.  He flew it really well, including perfect touch and goes on the concrete.  4th place F4H.

Jan Doubrava, Czech, F4C.  This one garnered a lot of attention (obviously) and flew well, getting 5th place.  It also has an opposed twin gas behind the dummy radial.

David Law, Aussie, Champ in F4C.  I looked through his documentation and he did a really good job on it.  It's subtly weathered and looks like a proper used plane.

The weathering on the belly is particularly well done.  This is during breakdown

Dimitri Meazza, Italy, F4H.  Another great model of a rare subject, the Italian Procaer F-15 Picchio.   We spoke for a while about it, it was designed in the late 50's using a very clean NACA airfoil and bonded plywood construction.  With the 160hp engine it was underpowered and took a while to take off and climb, leading to some accidents.  I think it was probably a bit ahead of it's time, also later it got a 180hp engine that probably improved things. 

The model was designed from factory drawings, using the same central gearbox to actuate all 3 gear.  He said it was very reliable and proved to be so during the week.  Powered by what appeared to be an opposed Saito GK.

The gearbox under the cabin

It also had a really nice cabin interior

And the last one isn't RC.  The Ukrainians did bring a team in F4B, they were very friendly and interesting to talk to.  I didn't get any info on this one but it was fantastic.  We use the term "watchmaker's precision" way too much, this thing was built with a watchmaker's precision.  It was flown by a unique pistol grip handle with several pots on it for adjusting or actuating things, I have no idea.

The wingspan was maybe 48"

Despite it's small size it had a large gas engine with a pull start behind it.  This shot is from below, that's the fuel tank under the engine

No idea what's going on in here but you can see the precision of the mechanisms

The small details were just perfect

These are flying props, no idea how the hubs are made but they're metal.

They flew a practice flight during some very bad windy conditions and crashed it.  Damage was relatively minor but it didn't fly in competition.  With the gear apart you were able to see the line actuated drum brakes and machined wheels.  Really a work of art

Ben

I got the feeling that these parts were made in a similar manner, in an aerospace factory.  The prop blades are wood with a metal tang that fits into the hub somehow.  I didn't see a hub apart but they broke one of the blades in the crash so I was able to see the tang.

Ed, 

The tire on that wheel is around 2" in diameter, the brake lever and details are very small.  I'd say it was the most exquisite bit of machining that I've seen on a flying model.  However it all came at the usual cost, the model was very heavy and had to fly fast to stay in the air.  The load was quite evident on the small older man who was flying it.

My first Scale World Champs as a competitor, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our models all got hung up in customs and the other teams very graciously allowed us to fly our F4H rounds late, I fortunately managed to get my static judging done before the first round of control line flights.

I am still wading through my pics, and will post some when I have them sorted..... I got literally hundreds of team "yellow" Jack Buckley told me he didn't get the memo on aircraft colour.......

The Polikarpov in flight did indeed look heavy I believe 5+ kg. But that does seem to be the trend for control line, my 2.4kg Chippy suffered from the light wing loading but still very pleased to get silver in F4B.

Cheers

Danny

Cheers

Danny