Roadtrip continued.

After spendig the night at Jiri Baudis house, we visited his workshop the next day. He has a really nice workshop with the possibility to make prototype planes in a realtive short time. His way of building planes differs from the more common ways of building F3B planes, and the sparsystem he uses for the Fosa is very light with impressive strenght.

After visiting Jiri Baudis we drove through CZ and into Slovakia. Our destination for the day was a small city called Martin. This was our main destination for the trip and we had planned to spend four days there.

As some of you may know, I work in the UAS(UAV) industrie as a testpilot for a research company called Northern Research Institute. We have a close relationship with ET-Air that produces the Cruiser 1 & 2 airframes which is the basis for our Cryowing UAS. ET-Air has their main factory in Martin, Slovakia. I was there to visit the factory and see the technology first hand.

 Miro 2 cleaning the trailing edge of a Cruiser tailplane.

 Miro Majercik  and Espen Torp discussing the fitting of the fuel tank in a Cruiser 2 fuselage

After spending four long but very interesting days in Martin we started on the long drive back to Norway. On the way back we also had planned a few stops to meet people and see more workshops.

Our first stop on the way back was to visit Marian "Majo" Maslo. He is the winner of the 2008 Viking Race. He is also the designer and producer of the famous Acacia F3F planes and the later Air One series.

 Marian "Majo" Maslo with Air One wing mould.


After the visit with Marian, we drove a bit further and met up with anther famous builder, Milan Janek.

Milan Janek has been making one of the most long lived F3F/F3B designs ever, the Wizzard Compact. This is a plane that every pilot with respect for him/her self should have in the quiver. Milan has actually been making the Compact since 1995. Most newer designs sell for 2 or 3 years and then they are obsolete. The Compact is still a great plane, and on my "want-list." Only problem is that I want the original one-piece 2,5m wing, and my appartment and car is to small for that!

 Milan Janek and me with a Compact 2 wing.

After visiting Milan Janek we had planned to meet up with two more producers that day. First we stopped by Vaclav Vojtisek in a small town called Sloupnice. Vaclav is the maker of the Sting/Viking/Ascot/Dingo and now the Stinger planes. He is absolutely one of the best craftsmen in the industry and have some intersting new ways of making light and stiff wings. As an owner of a Stinger I`m a bit biased, but it is really excellent.

Vaclav and Espen talking about Espens new Stinger.


Only a short drive from Vaclav you find another small town called Sebranice. Here is where tha factory of Samba model is situated. We met up with one of the owners of Samba, Jaroslav Vostrel and had a better meal, since it also was my 29th birthday that day.

The next day we visited the Samba factory and got to see both the new Presision F3F/F3B and their new Perfection for F3J. I was amazed by the light weight of the Perfection wing panels, each weighing only 400 grams!

The next couple of days we did a lot of driving, but we found the time to stop by fullsize glider producer HpH Sailplanes and a quick stop at TUD-model, Dresden where I picked up my new Freestyler 3 from Franz Demmler.

Freestylers - If you can`t beat them....


Kjell.