Page Last Updated: 04-15-2025
April 15 2025 - You may notice a new addition to the Tour calendar, some buttons called Pete's Picks. These are links to restaurants and hotels for the various stops on the F5J USA Tour. It's named after Pete Schlitzkus who passed away late last year. Pete was an avid competitor on the Tour for many years and he, along with friend Don Richmond, made it a point to seek out the best restaurants in each town they went to on the Tour. They picked some great places over the years and we would like to honor Pete by adding a list of some of the best places to eat and sleep, along with their website links, on the Tour calendar page and make them available for everyone. The Tour would like to invite anyone (particularly CD's and locals) that has good restaurant or hotel recommendations to forward them toso they can be added to the website.
April 28 2023 - Warren Day announces that 15 minute rounds can be added to regular Tour contests effective June 1. The basic idea is to allow the CD to have up to three 15 minute rounds that can be flown at anytime during their F5J Tour contest at the CD's discretion. This is not intended to be a fly-off, and is completely independent of any fly-offs that may happen. These 15-minute rounds are intended to be flown by every contestant just like the normal 10 minute rounds and will count toward the contestant's preliminary score.
For example, a CD could choose to fly one, two, or three 15-minute rounds time sometime on Sunday morning (or whenever) depending on the conditions and level of challenge the CD desires for the contestants. These flights would be announced at the morning pilot's meeting and could be flown back-to-back or mixed in between the regular 10 minute rounds. It is the CD's decision, and the rule is designed to be very flexible.
If you would like to take advantage of this new rule for your contest, an announcement of your intention to fly 15 minute rounds must be made a minimum of 30 days prior to the contest via RC Groups and the F5J Tour website. Also note that prior announcement of the intention to fly 15 minute rounds does not obligate the CD to do so, it just makes it possible to fly 15 minute rounds if the CD so desires.
Sept 30 2022 - Warren Day has accepted the position of Tour chairman and will begin serving on Dec 1, the start of the 2023 season. Congrats and welcome aboard Warren!
Sept 1 2022 - Chris Bajorek has announced his decision to step down as Tour chairman at season's end and to greatly reduce his Tour workload. Please read his memo to the Tour HERE. See the status of open positions HERE that need to be filled for the Tour to continue in 2023. Thank you!