Applications for the F5J USA Tour 2017 season are now closed as of June 30 per tour rules. We will begin accepting applications for the 2018 season on Nov 1. So now is a good time to review how the season is going and what things look like through the end of this season.
Regional contests
Given that this is the inaugural year for the F5J USA Tour the interest and excitement for F5J in the USA has been nothing short of amazing. On the 2017 calendar we have eleven (11) 2-day tour events and two (2) 1-day tour events. Starting in April that’s at least 1 regional contest each month. And August is packed with 4 separate events.
Pilot participation has been good. Here is a rundown of pilots who flew at least 4 rounds in each of the events so far:
F5J in the Desert – 25 pilots
F5J in Vegas – 37 pilots
F5J in Visalia – 18 pilots
The lion’s share of events are yet to come. Each one so far has been a very positive learning experience.
Club F5J activity ramping up
If you have been following the RC Groups “Electric Competition Soaring F5J/ALES/e-soaring” area you have seen more clubs doing F5J events this season. By our count there are ~10 clubs that are either already active in F5J or are just beginning to do so this year. This is great momentum to carry into the second half of this season.
2017 Tour Event Sponsors
So far we have 4 companies that have stepped up to sponsor one or more Tour events: NeuMotors, Flight Comp, Soaring USA, and Soaring Circuits. Six events are already sponsored while two are still open. We are fairly sure a few more sponsors will be added to the list before too long.
Tour expenses
In January the F5J USA Tour advisory group established a budget for web hosting and software expenses, end-of-season trophies, and shipping expenses to send the trophies to the top 10 tour finishers. When I (Chris) started the f5j-usa.com website I did not have plans for advertising. However because there were requests to post small ads those fees are now covering the web hosting fees, the domain registration fee, and the software purchased for building the website. So all of the $3/pilot tour fees due from the hosting clubs can be applied toward the trophies.
To date we have not collected any fees but will be sending out reminders soon.
Any questions let us know. Thanks to everyone so far for your support of the F5J USA Tour.
The F5J USA Tour advisory group:
Jim Monaco, Larry Jolly, Lenny Keer, Steve Neu, Lee Wolfe, Chris Bajorek