F3L and F5L Monthly Postal
The F3L Contest Series board runs monthly postal contests for 2-meter RES woody gliders, in both F3L and F5L. A postal is flown at your own field, on your own schedule: each contest opens for nine days - two weekends and the week between them - and you fly the assigned task on whichever of those days suits you. Scoring is done with Gliderscore, and FAI rules govern the planes and the flying except where the contest says otherwise. F5L is F3L with an electric launch in place of the bungee.
The two classes alternate months, so a given month is either an F3L postal or an F5L one. Ryan Woebkenberg is the contest director and moderates the threads; Ed LaCroix contributes content and answers questions. You are flying for bragging rights - the contests work because everyone trusts everyone else to report scores honestly, and the point is to fly more, get better and have fun.
Each month's dates and task are posted in the RCGroups thread, and the rules for each class are attached to the thread's opening post.
Current Postal
Five rounds, flown on any day of the nine-day window.
Status: Open
Next month is an F5L postal. Dates and tasks for each month are announced in the
postal thread
and emailed to everyone registered.
How to Enter
Email your name to F3LF5LPostal at gmail dot com and you are in. You only register once: after your first postal you are added to every following month automatically, and you will be told each month's dates and task by email. Email the same address any time to be taken off the list.
Suggestions for improving the postals are welcome - these are new, and the organisers are asking for feedback.
After-Postal Zoom Meeting
Sunday, September 27, 2026 · 7:00 PM PDT (10:00 PM EDT)
Hosted by John McNeil
This falls on the September postal's closing day - a chance to talk through how the month went, ask questions, and hear what is coming next.
Meeting ID: 202 589 6304 · Passcode: 3CKs1c
Related
- Contest Schedule - the 2026 and 2027 in-person contests
- Results - standings from the series contests
- 2026 F3L Contest Series Thread - the series discussion on RCGroups