July 20, 2026: RC Soaring

By Mike Bergerson

So here we are…the day 60 registered pilots have been waiting for. It is the US F5J team selects. The top three pilots will compete in World F5J competition scheduled for August of 2027 here at the AMA headquarters flying site.

Imagine 60 pilots, each allowed three planes in which to compete, all scattered in their little clusters all along the field, awaiting inspection by one of the team selects officers. That's a lot of planes!

ALES was scheduled to end by 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 17 to allow for the inspection of all the planes for the F5J team selects (F5J TS). Each pilot is issued small round stickers specifically to “tag” each removable piece of their aircraft, right down to the canopy. Then inspectors check for those stickers on the aircraft and have each plane powered up to check for an approved software version on the AMRT (altitude monitoring device). The Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) has very specific arming rules in place to prevent inaccurate readings from the AMRT.

Once the pilot and his planes are approved, they receive a nice little packet that contains a score card for each day of competition, a clipboard to hold said scorecards, two very expensive pens (to record in ink one’s flights on said scorecards), and a sticker. The clipboard has a cool little thingy to hold one of said pens and the sticker commemorates the 2026 US F5J TS. Forgive me as I digress. I like stickers.

Okay campers, on to the first flights of the US F5J TS. It was a decent morning. The uppers were moving along well above 75 meters, with much lighter winds from the east. It was easy to surf the waves up high but the buoyancy of the lower air around 60 meters was excellent.

Personally, on a pre-contest practice flight ,I made my time (10 minutes) from 103 meters, surfing and riding the waves off the Site 3 parking lot. Yeah, that was cool, but a wise man came up to me during this flight and commented, “Isn't it amazing how awesome our planes fly on practice flights?” Yep, it sure didn't work in the competition (insert sad face with a tear here).

The morning rounds were flown in these conditions until the thermals began to form. Super-light conditions opened up as the upper air speeds came down. By early afternoon, most were getting their times and landings from sub-100-meter launches. One pilot, young Mr. Wilcox, began his last two flights with one sub-20-meter launch and one 19-meter launch! It was lots of fun being in one of those flying groups! I had the honor of flying in both.

To qualify this, in the group with his 19-meter launch, the other pilots ranged from 53 meters to 87 meters and 69 meters to 112 meters on his 20-meter launch. Way to get buried! He even got his Dad in one of them.

With round 5 concluding by 4:30, the organizers had an impromptu pilots meeting to ask the pilots if they wanted to continue to fly until 6:30 so we could complete round 6. A majority vote approved this option as the weather forecast for day two was not promising. Thunderstorms were forecast for the morning with higher winds in the afternoon.

It was just an amazing day competing with the best pilots from all around the country. There are those very serious pilots vying for a slot in the US team, those on last year's team who are after another shot, and many others wanting to see how they stack up against them by putting on their best performance. To others, this is the national F5J competition and they are having the best time flying their planes in challenging conditions.

Whatever their motivations on this first of three days of stellar competition, I was reminded by another wise man, amazingly dressed like Yul Brynner from the “Magnificent 7” (great movie, you should watch it!), that you're not gonna win the contest on the first day but you can sure lose it! Great pilot, great guy, spiffy hat! 

Stay tuned, and enjoy the photos.

Blue Skies!