The international mini-stick postal competition 1996
The Mini-Stick, (or Living Room Stick) planes have a max. wingspan of only
7", and are the tiniest type of model plane for which regular contests are
held. As seen in the picture above they can be flown in an ordinary
living room without problems.
The Mini-Sticks are a fairly recent addition to the indoor fauna, but they
have managed to spread quickly all over the world thanks to the yearly
international postal competitions. This year's event was run by the St.
Louis Thermaleers, USA. To be able to fly competitively in halls with
different ceiling height a correction factor has been introduced
to transform the
flight times to a common standard.
This factor is: 627/(167+46*sqrt(h)),
where h is the ceiling height in feet. This "correction"
is designed to equalize the best performances in
low- and high-ceiling halls.
When one looks at this years results one notes a strong dominance of two
nations, USA and Japan. We Europeans are clearly left behind.
Best among the Swedes was Georg Törnkvist. His duration of over 4 min
in his home is, at least to my eyes, impressive,
yet it was not enough for more
than 56th place.
Georg Törnkvist steering his Mini-Stick plane. He became the best placed
Swede, with a flight of 250 sec. in this room.
Top 15 results (95 competitors)
| Place | Competitor | Country | Time (sec.) | Ceiling height (feet) | Corrected time (sec.) |
| 1 | Walt Vangorder | USA | 538 | 17.92 | 932.6 |
| 2 | Jim Clem | USA | 558 | 23 | 902.6 |
| 3 | Yatabe Toru | Japan | 563 | 29.52 | 846.7 |
| 4 | Mark Vancil | USA | 424 | 10.5 | 841.1 |
| 5 | Bob Platt | USA | 398 | 8.17 | 836.1 |
| 6 | Onishi Toru | Japan | 547 | 29.52 | 822.6 |
| 7 | Larry Mzik | USA | 473 | 20 | 795.7 |
| 8 | Gene-Francis Frugoli | France | 378 | 8.22 | 793.0 |
| 9 | Toru Yatabe | Japan | 508 | 29.52 | 764.0 |
| 10 | Walt Collins | USA | 359 | 8.17 | 754.2 |
| 11 | Tom Sova | USA | 441 | 20 | 741.9 |
| 12 | Nonaka Shigezoshi | Japan | 470 | 25.94 | 734.4 |
| 13 | Earl HoffmanUSA | 424 | 18.95 | 723.9 |
| 14 | Kihara Kazumasa | Japan | 473 | 29.52 | 711.3 |
| 15 | Tony Sabiscak | USA | 353 | 10.5 | 700.3 |
Swedish placings
| Place | Competitor | Country | Time (sec.) | Ceiling height (feet) | Corrected time (sec.) |
| 56 | Georg Törnkvist | Sweden | 250 | 7.8 | 530.5 |
| 76 | Sven Pontan | Sweden | 263 | 23.8 | 421.3 |
| 84 | Andrea Hartstein | Sweden | 181 | 19.84 | 305.2 |
