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     1985 F3C Helicopter World Championship
 


The first World Championships, were held in London, Ontario, Canada on July 14th-19th 1985.

This, the first ever F3C World Championship was initiated by Mr. Walter Knaus (Chairman) and Mr. Nick Mechaus (President) of the Canadian A.M.A. And we should all thank them for 'getting the ball rolling'.
The event started with practice on a Sunday, at a last minute change of venue, in the rain on a decidedly muddy field (part of which had just been removed - it was a turf farm!).
The first round was flown on Tuesday morning in glorious sunshine.
For this event the schedule had optional choices depending on the pilots preference of hovering or aerobatics.
The winner, Mr. Shigetada Taya (Japan) chose the hovering biased approach.
In all 37 pilots competed, most notably Pedro Caldentey (Spain), who turned up having never done a roll, a loop or a split S. He flew his Schulter Helistar attempting all maneuvers with tremendous success! He even autorotated for the first time - he was the star of the show.

 


Some of the other memorable names were: Robert Gorham (USA), Yoshiaki Nagatsuka (Japan), John Wallington (GB), Daniele Graber (Switzerland), Vago Nordigian (GB), Len Mount (GB), Ewald Heim (West Germany), Josef Brennsteiner (Austria) and Clifford Hiatt (USA).

The top ten were:
1. Taya S. JAP 4691
2. Heim E. GER 4619
3. Nakajima A. JAP 4325
4. Nagatsuka Y. JAP 4311
5. Gorham R. USA 4242
6. Muller U. SWI 4201
7. Hiatt C. USA 4082
8. Graber D. SWI 4030
9. Mount L. GBR 4025
10. Deproft F. BEL 4013

12. Nordigian V. GBR 3864
17. Wallington J. GBR 3619

18 pilots flew Mode II, 9 Mode I (out of 37). 20 pilots used fingers and thumbs, 7 thumbs. 27 flew fixed wing. 23 prefer to fly scale fuselages. 6 prefer pod and boom.

Side Note - the Hirobo Shuttle first went on sale, a revolution starting the plastic fantastic kits. Indeed Taya went on to help design the Kyosho Concept releashed 1998.