Reports and Impending Events

Central to LSF Australia is our members' participation in gliding competitions. Here you'll find information about impending events as well as reports from past events.

If you have any info. you'd like published, email the webmaster.

Impending Events:

The second WAG (World Air Games) selection trial for F6D Hand thrown gliders will be held on Saturday 15th November 2008, 1PM at (VARMS) Briggs field (High Street Road).
The competition is open to every MAAA member and the more competitors that attend then the more points Australian aspirants accumulate for their world ranking. (details, see World Air Games website)

The competition will be run to the F6D rules (details, see wag2009 website)

The competition will start at 1PM.
Sunday 16th is a BACKUP day if we can't compete on Saturday 15th November.

To enter the contest please e-mail me the following:

Your name, postal address, frequency, AUS number and Date of Birth.

Too easy! I hope to see you there.
Regards, Marcus Stent LSF President

http://wag2009.free.fr/ciam_sel_HTG_res.htm

http://wag2009.free.fr/ciam_sel_rank.htm

http://www.worldairgames.org/2009/sports-athletes/aeromodelling/selection_contests

Mildura Open Thermal Comp. 18 & 19 Oct. 2008
Download the entry form, accomm. & event info (MS Word).
Thanks Darrel Blow.

Kontrol Freak and Model Flight DLG League #5, June 21st.
Marcus for details.

RCGA Events Calendar for 2008/9 thanks Gerry Carter
Hi All, download the calendar for the coming year as submitted to the VMAA. Max Haysom managed the process of putting this together for us and we thank him for that.

The Calendar includes the VARMS training dates. If you can spare the time to help out just turn up at the field on the day. It's a fun way to give something back to the Club and to the hobby and will be greatly appreciated. Also it's good to see increased use of the State Flying field.

The Scale Group is going there in August and we will have the State Thermal Champs there in March. Both are two day events. It's a really good venue with great facilities and quite easy to get to from Melbourne.
Thanks Gerry Carter.

Event Reports:

Jerilderie 2008 Report (Open Thermal): Chris Adams

Open Thermal
Mike O'Reilly 1st (Pike Perfect Extreme)
Alan Mayhew 2nd (Muller Espada)
Joe Wurts 3rd (Supra)

The tournament set in winter in the middle of the Australian Outback this year saw the bar raised yet again no doubt helped by the presence of gliding royalty in the form of one Joe Wurts. It was great to see Joe in action; a flyer blessed with bags of natural ability and an easy manner under contest conditions.

Jerilderie 2008 (like the previous year) was blessed with glorious weather.

60 pilots gathered to test their skills against their friends and rivals. New gliders were ogled (Radicals, Eagles, Carachos, Perfects, Espadas, Estrellas), ancient ones respected (Rob Benton: Bird Of Time, Ian Avery: balsa mid-70s design) and the flyer-builders (Machine AND Mongoose: Bruce Nye, Mojo: Scott Lennon, Wormburner: Mike Reynell and an Alan Mayhew Tangent) were proving competitive against their commercial cousins from distant shores.

Need for Speed F3B
Friday has become the day to set-up winches, test gliders and try your hand at F3B speed in a "winner-takes-all" event; $5 to enter, winner takes the booty. Kudos to Steve Keep for running the event. Some blistering times were recorded with Joe thrashing his Ceres through a slightly <cough> short course than usual to a 10.19s run and taking the cash. The 4 min event time was dropped so competitors could climb out and reach dizzying heights before entering course. All good fun and spectacular! Joe and Carl took turns in treating their Icon and Supra respectively like HLGs and hooking the occasional boomer. Always great to watch.

The Main Event
Saturday saw 17 deg celcius (63 deg F) causing the t-shirts to be doffed. There were thermals aplenty after mid-morning but always hard to get the 10mins if you started at 8am! Even the heat from the pie van didn't have much to offer in the early morning. Saturday night was followed by the traditional meal at the Jerilderie Shire Council Chambers put on by the Lions Club and a raffle to raise money for the Australian F3J team for their trip to Turkey '08.

Sunday proved more challenging with colder weather, stronger winds gusting to 12kts (but never unpleasant) but smooth air generally so flying was a pleasure and landing made less awkward. There were thermals to chase but only if you dared to fly out over town 1 to 1.2Km away. Sunday night gave all pilots the opportunity to listen to Joe Wurts speak on the topic: "Finding and Recognizing Thermals".

Get Joe's Powerpoint file (1.4MB) here.

Monday became colder and windier still! Now that was typical Jerilderie weather. More lines were broken in the 1st 1 hr of competition on this morning than during Sat. or Sun. The strategy to get your time in these conditions appeared to be launch big and work the lift over the treeline and town, caressing the sticks thus letting the glider fly at its most efficient. After 14 rounds, the cream rose to the top and Mike O'Reilly with a string of 1000s took the top spot. Check out his score card.

Overall 54 "Perfect Flights" were recorded during the event which was a record.

The whole event ran well with 14 rounds of Open Thermal flown shared by 60 pilots allowing 2 rounds to be dropped.

Credit goes to CD Tim Lennon and his capable scorers, Debbie & Mandy for running the event tightly and fairly. Credit also to Gerry Carter for the outstanding scoring software. The Multiplex RX Synth scanner performed well all event.

Sponsors pitched-in to provide tremendous support for the whole field and true to the nature of Jerilderie everyone won a prize.

Top 10 Placegetters:

Results are in MS Excel 97/2003 format:
Overall results
Duration flights ranked
Flight scores for duration
Landing task results

DLG Jerilderie 2008 report to follow.

Kontrol Freak and Model Flight DLG League #4
was held at Jerilderie over the Long Weekend. The weather was excellent on the Saturday and Sunday and it was wonderful to see 13 DLGs all taking to the air at the same time. It was really spectacular.

Joe Wurts (our international visitor and previous world champion) showed the way, however Theo, David, Marcus and Brett all managed to take some points off Joe at different times over the weekend. Theo in particular flew extremely well and took points off Joe on 4 separate occasions - well done Theo.

Congratulations to the following:
1st Joe Wurts
2nd Theo
3rd Marcus
4th Brett

results here:
Jerilderie DLG Overall

A great time was had by all and we will see you for the next event on the 21st June. Marcus

Round Two RCGA DLG Series; report Marcus Stent
19th April 2008
Hi all, The second Kontrol Freak and Model Flight DLG league was run on the 19th April and again (wood touched) the conditions were fantastic with a light breeze and a variety of thermal conditions. The conditions varied throughout the day from great lift in some heats to a cool sink filled breeze in others.

We had four new competitors joining in and they acquitted themselves well and had a lot of fun; Sam Sabay, Jason Holroyd, Jim Houdalakis and Tim Lennon.

Sam and Jason are avid slop flyers who have DLGs for those light slope lift days and decided to join in. Tim (Mr Kontrol Freak) Lennon came along with his electric DLG which he is developing it to participate in the competition, and in the future we hope to have a 'ELG' class competing with the the DLGs...hmmm it could be interesting. The aim is to develop a run time to give an equal height to the discus throw. Tim loves the DLG but suffers from a shoulder problem so this way he can still participate in the comp without the throwing action.

The comp itself ran smoothly with help from our stand-in CD (a friend of Sam and Jason's - thank you).

Brett and Marcus both started well and after the first 5 rounds Brett was 21 points ahead - it was going to be close. Brad unfortunately lost his model due to radio problems and Brett was kind enough to offer Brad one of his planes to fly (very sporting Brett). Brad proceeded to post 4 1000pt rounds in a row showing us that it is all about the pilot and not about his untried plane.

During the break we discussed thermalling techniques and ran launching clinics which really helped. During the middle part of the day both Jason and Sam started to find their feet posting 1000s in rounds 9 and 10. In round 13 Jason blitzed the field by over 340 points and during rounds 11-15 was in second place. Brad was flying well with lots of high scores but laced this with 3 out landings (which score 0) trying to follow lift too far back, and his race was run. Jim was not having a good day and was struggling with the handling, weight (420g) and launching of his model.

In the later rounds the conditions started to get difficult and the thermals started to break up. You had to move from one thermal to another about every 30 seconds or you simply got dumped. Tim Joined us for the last 5 rounds and enjoyed flying his ELG and it looks very promising as he plane only weighs 360g and has great handling. Marcus held a commanding lead after 17 rounds but Bretts read on the conditions allowed him to finish with 1000, 1000, 1000 and gave us all a good trouncing. Well done Brett.

In the end Marcus pipped Brett by only 90 points, 15,805 to 15,715 (or only 0.6%). Brad finished 3rd, Jason 4th, Jim 5th, Sam 6th and Tim 7th.

Refer to attached scores for details. Thanks to everyone who came along, it was a great day and everyone had a great time. Remember also, that thanks to Model Flight and Kontrol Freak we have 10 great prizes to give away at the end of the League, so come along and give it a go. Everyone is welcome. We have also added one more event to the DLG league which is Jerilderie on the 7,8,9 June and the best 3 of 5 events will count to the final results. Due to a clash with the 2day Victorian State Titles we have moved the Kontrol Freak and Model Flight DLG League #3 to Saturday 24th May 08. I hope to see you there.

Cheers, Marcus

Round One RCGA DLG Series
Mar. 22nd. 2008
The RCGA ran its inaugural DLG (Discus Launch Glider) comp. on Saturday 22nd March and it was a great success. We had 5 competitors, great weather, lots of flying, launch training, friendly banter and overall lots of fun.

The format was a 3 minute max flight with all flyers launching at the same time and landing back in the designated launch area (the 0 scores in the score sheet represent a landing outside of the landing area). We flew 20 rounds and stopped for a social chat and re-charge after every 5 rounds. At half time we discussed flying techniques and ran a launching clinic with some one on one coaching. This format worked really well.

Marcus started the comp with some dominating flying, but as the comp. progressed both Brad and Alan improved their launching and started to get a feel for the conditions, which resulted in them taking points off Marcus in the second half of the competition. Brett was launching and flying well but missed getting back in the landing area a number of times, and in this competition it makes a potential 900 point score turn into 0.

David Hobby changed to his 30" 'Mosquito' class model for some fun and his launches were very spectacular from such a small model. There were a number of different models flown with Brad and Brett building their own Supergee based models to a very high standard, Marcus and David were flying the Sophia and Alan flew a Salome.

Congratulations to:

1st Marcus Stent on 16922 2nd
Brad Wilman on 14377
3rd Alan Mayhew on 13605

Detailed results here (MSExcel 32KB)

The next comp is on SATURDAY April 19, 1PM at Briggs field. See you there.

Cheers, Marcus

Milang F3B March 2008 Report: Chris Adams

The 5th Milang F3B International was again ably hosted by the SSL crew. F3B is a labour intensive event and the club rose to the occasion despite stifling condtions. Rumours that the amount of water drunk on the field by all those involved caused a planetary wobble have yet to be confirmed. Credit goes to the SSL for ensuring all attendees had access to cool drinks.

Since the event was sanctioned by the MAAA as a valid selection trial for the 2009 F3B World Champs the tone of the comp. brought out the best in competitors; the top 3 placegetters got in the team to represent Australia at the next Worlds. The overall standard was exceptional.

Running the show was always going to be a challenge and kudos to Mike O'Reilly who CD'd the event and also praise to the competitors who played fair, followed direction and thus ensured a very smooth-run event.

Highlights were the way pilots adjutsed to changing wind directions, the uncanny knack of some to work thermals (the thermals tended to roam & "pop" frequently just to keep you on your toes) and the terrific teamwork when pressure was on.

Our 2 German pilots, Gerhard & Helmut had to adjust quickly to the conditions which were a dramatic contrast from snowy downtown Munich. Heathrow Airport proved a barrier too since that's were the guy's gliders ended-up spending the night. They borrowed Mike's Caracho and pushed on! The box duly arrived but long after the event had started.

Credit to Gerhard who coped with a visit to the Adelaide hospital for a short-term illness and later returned to the field. Both pilots rose to the occasion in often stifling conditions. Other internationals (indeed ex-pats) were Paul Moorfield in from Indonesia & Matt Wood from Dubai.

The gliders campaigned were representative of those used at the last Worlds in Emmen in 2007; Caracho 3000s were popular, Radicals performed supremely, Gregg & Dave's Espada Rs were pushed to the limit, Mike Rae's Furio V continued to impress and the new Machine from Team Machine showed promise.

Overall, a punishing event that was well run and produced terrific performances. Look ahead to 2010 Milang for more F3B! Go to the gallery for more pics from the event.

RCGA Thermal Comp. Jan. 13th 2008 report Gerry Carter
Photos courtesty of Brett Anthony.

The forecast for the day was for changeable conditions and that was exactly what we had. The morning was dull and overcast with a fresh north-westerly wind. As the day progressed we had a brief sprinkling of rain followed by increasing sunny breaks. Also, the wind swung through west to south so that by the end of the day the breeze was at 90 degrees to the winch lines.

The landing spots were set out just to the east of the launch line and this defined the easterly boundary for flying. Pilots adhered well to the rule not to go further east than this line. When they reached it they had to leave their thermals and move west to find another thermal. This made achieving the target time more difficult than usual.

Conditions were ideal for a thermal competition. It was not always easy to find lift and if you chased somebody obviously in lift it was often difficult to find the same patch of air.

There were quite a number of heats where the scores were widely spread. We flew to the modified thermal rules where flying over 10 minutes was penalised and this caught out two pilots. The rule has the effect of eliminating "perfect" flights and thereby spreading the scores more than usual.

After the dust had settled, Alan Mayhew took first with 5000 points (out of 5000) followed by Max Kroger with 4893 and Gerry Carter with 4891. David Pratley wasn't far away on 4884.

Download the results here:

Full results (35KB .PDF)
Flight Scores (49KB .PDF)

RCGA Progressive Scores (142KB .xls)

Friday 28th September.
After re-organizing the 14 planes we had in the car and straightening our camp it was back to the slope. However, the breeze had dropped away to 8-10knot WSW, fortunately it was enough to practice in. An executive decision was made by the CDs, Simon and I, to hold a practice F3F competition for those that had arrived early for the weekend event. The forecast was looking a bit dubious for the Saturday event; at least this way we would have some competition for the time that we where there. Those that were still travelling to Esperance would be allowed to join in when they could, as it was only for practice. Even so, scores would be kept and a winner announced.

The course was set up before 11:00am between Observatory Pt and Observatory beach, nick-named Observatory cliffs. This is an ideal location as there is loads of lift and easily accommodates the length of course required and has a large landing zone and approach area onto soft topped knee high bushes. It also is a good distance from the main road and bystanders, who have an excellent view of proceedings from the car park.

The format for racing was the same as last year; each flyer would launch and fly two rounds before landing and allowing the next competitor to fly 2 rounds. This would continue until all had finished the determined amount of rounds for the day (according to conditions). This allows for more time in the air at one time and less landings being made for the day, which allows us to work through more rounds quicker.

We started with 8 flyers and ended up with 6 more joining in for their practice on the course as they showed up through the day. Even though we had set a long course (140 m), it was evident that all needed some practice hitting those turns with many of us cutting at Base B. Tim earned himself the title in this department with about 4 cuts in one round. A laser-sighting device was located to check the length of course and we would correct the length for the ensuing events. Simon's timing equipment ran smoothly once again making the job of recording that much easier.

We managed 6 rounds with an early finish allowing everyone to free-fly to make adjustments to settings etc. At the end of the day most of us gathered at Danny and Steve's apartment for a BBQ and announcement of the days results. Although this was not the competition we had originally come to Esperance for, all times were recorded and winner for the day's event determined (shown below):

1. "Enthusiastic" Richard
2. "Cheeky" Evan (fastest run of the day: 63.87 sec. on 140m course)
3. "CD and low flyer"Paul
4. "Silent" Les
5. Smokin Joe "what can I say"
6. "Technical" Simon
7. "Too many cuts" Tim
8. "Have a go" Danny
9. "Chip off the block" Warren
10. "Mad dog Englishman" Chris
11. "I'll be back" Jacob
12. "Squadron leader " Steve
13. "1st time on the slope" Dave
14. "Is this fun or wot" Nigel

Saturday 29th September
The day started out with some promise to getting the Bay of Isles Cup under way, but the wind direction and strength plagued us for the day. First up, it wafted in from the south and ended up going WSW at 5-6 knots. While waiting for the breeze 6 of us with hand launch gliders flew in the light conditions on the main slope in the large bowl, racing each other man on man with a short 50m coarse. Perhaps next year we can hold such an event if the wind doesn't co-operate. There proved to be a lot of laughs and miles of fun in it for everyone. It is funny where you can find the competitive bug.

We tried later to set up the F3F course for some real racing at the same location as the day before but only one competitor was able to fly one round before we had to abandon the day's event because of lack of breeze. Later the breeze began filling in from the SSW, which was on the main slope so we all headed back there for some light condition flying. By then it was too late to set a course up and start an event. All the unflown planes came out of the car with Simon giving his DG500 its maiden flight, we just enjoyed the remaining day with what we had and looked forward to a better forecast for Sunday.

Sunday 30th September.
The breeze looked more favorable in the morning and we were able to set up a course and be underway at Observatory Cliffs by 11:45 after a short practice session and meeting at Observatory beach car park. There was a nice SW breeze building, starting at 10kts and reaching 16 -18 during the afternoon before backing off and swinging more to the South later in the day. This time we had the course set-up at 100m with the laser sighting equipment.

In the Open class Tim flew the first two rounds of the Bay of Isles Cup for the day with his Radical turning out 57.8 seconds in round 1 and 53.86 in round 2. As it unfolded, Richard was to take round 1 and 2 with his Race M pulling off 51.63 and 52.87. Round 3 was won by Danny with his Caracho at 54.96 by .11 of a second from Tim. Then Danny broke into the 40's in round 5 posting a 49.45 with the crowd going nuts and a big cheesy grin on Danny's face; I guess all the discussion about set up paid off, well done Danny. Not to be out-done though, Tim took round 5 with 48.44 with Richard only marginally behind on 48.54 and Evan making a charge at 49.07 after having clipped a bush in the previous round and flat spinning out of contention in round 4. This was the only incident for the day and no damage. Round 6 saw some quicker times posted, Richard knocked out 46.59 but fastest time of the day and winning the round was Tim once again at 46.07. We had time for another 2 rounds each so we continued on. Round 7 Tim again stamped his foot on the event with 48.54 then round 8 again 51.9 while the breeze was good, unfortunately it began to swing and decrease in strength.

In the Lightweight class two flyers battled it out with some entertaining racing. Young Joe at 10 years of age went up against Tony 40 something. Joe had only started flying 2 days before with dads borrowed plane and Tony has only ever really flown once a year under guidance and also a borrowed plane. With some wild maneuvers and both being coached to finish the entire event with planes intact there was enjoyment written all over their faces. They both took the competitive bug very seriously.

By 4:30 we had completed 8 rounds with 16 competitors. 16 in Open and 2 in Lightweight. Two of the entrants had flown from Sydney for the event; one from Kalgoorlie and the rest of us had driven the 750km from Perth. All of us vowed to return next year, with a number wanting to hold a second event in Esperance during the year sometime. This would give us three events on the WA F3F calendar each year.

That evening we all met at the "Tea Rooms Restaurant" for dinner and presentation. The results for the Bay of Isles Cup:

Open

1. Tim Kullack 6873 Radical
2. Richard Frawley 6612 Race M
3. Evan Outram 6473 Sting
4. Jacob Bloom 6104 Cobra
5. Paul Marshall 6082 2.4m F3F
6. Danny Hales 6048 Caracho
7. Simon Watts 6021 Europhia
8. Joe Luxford 5834 Tempest
9. Steve Gleeson 5780 Fazer
10. Warren Kullack 5765 X-21
11. Les Davidson 5703 Ellipse
12. David Shue 5518 Estrella
13. Chris Martin 5190 Miraj
14. Nigel Molinou 4905 X-21
15. Joe Outram 4303 Stoogee
16. Tony Smith 4297 Oogee

Light Weight:

1. Joe Outram
2. Tony Smith

Fastest time of the day goes to Tim Kullack flying the Radical in round 6 with 46.07. There where some stand-out efforts for the day with both Lightweight flyers Tony and young Joe improving out of sight towards the end of their event. Keep it up guys hope to see you both next year with your own planes.

Other first timer on the slope was David Shue figuring out the contest and how to fly from the slope I think we have hooked another eager F3F contestant. Another big improver on the course was Jacob Bloom from Sydney flying his Cobra going from 11th on Friday to 4th on Sunday. The overall winner was Tim Kullack who performed consistently on Sunday race day. Well-done Tim.

I would like to thank you all for attending the event and helping out where you could to ensure a well-oiled event, without you there is no event. Special mention should go to Simon Watts for the development of the timing gear, it is what makes the event flow without interruption. Next year I understand we will have a laptop hooked up to it so times are recorded automatically and your position in the event given after each round. For next year a cup has been donated by Danny "Chook" Henderson for the Friday practice event, which seems to have evolved now into a regular feature of the weekend. Chook is a local Esperance flyer and is keen to join in the events. Thank you Chook. The cup will be called the "Chook Challenge Cup". I am sure this one will be highly prized especially with a colourful name like that.

Monday 1st Oct.
The day after was a casual affair for us while half of the event's competitors made their way home. Simon, Les and myself never made it out to the slope until about 1:30pm. In the pleasant 10kts we flew various planes that we had in the arsenal at the main slope of the Big bowl. Simon flew his DG500 and I flew my new 2m composite plank "Nitro"' sorting out programming problems and discussing the weekend's success with those that where left.

Tuesday 2nd Oct.
We had decided to stay an extra day and it proved a good decision. We had a morning shower or two but the wind blew in at 25 knots and treated us to excellent Esperance flying conditions at Observatory beach then a bit of Dynamic soaring at Observatory Pt followed by some big lift conditions back at Observatory cliffs where we had held the competitions. It was a good way to finish off our Esperance trip as the next day we had to make the long trip home. I will be holding the same event next year at the same time if you wish to join in, please contact me for details. I may also be running an event on the 24th of November 2007 or 1st of December 2007 in Esperance. If you wish to be part of these please contact me with the dates that suit you, if I get enough numbers then I will go ahead with the new event on the preferred date we can get the most flyers to.

Please follow the link for hi-res photos from the weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pall5599/

reporter: Paul Marshall (email)

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RCGA F3F at Mt Hollowback

Victoria. Sunday 9th Sept.
Google Map of MtHollowback here.
Having rescheduled this event by a week to avoid Father's day I was hoping the weather would play ball because there's about a 50:50 chance of windy weather in Melbourne in Spring, but with the day before being dead calm, Sunday's slope conditions were looking marginal.

Anyway after some emails and phone calls convincing people to come, we headed off for the slope. Fortunately weather conditions were ideal, with a constant 19 knots knot Northerly blowing and gusting to about 22 knots with blue skies and scattered clouds. We had 6 fliers ready to compete and a few spectators to boot, so we setup the course and started round 1 just after midday.

For those unfamiliar with the F3F format, there's a 2 pylon course setup, 100m apart on the edge of the slope. A pilot stands in the middle, launches their plane and gets 30 seconds working time to enter the course, and do 10 laps in the fastest time. Then the scores are normalised across all pilots’ times for each round. The northerly side of the slope we were on was less ideal than the south westerly side we used last year, due to its initial curved drop off, so after a few initial runs, it became clear pilots weren't pushing out far enough in their initial 30 seconds.

Then again 30 seconds isn't much time to push out against 20 or so knots. Having to stand in the middle of the course, unlike F3B, meant pilots had to also estimate both turning points. With the wind slightly off to the right, the right hand turns (base B) were usually nice and fairly tight since planes were turning slightly down wind. However the left hand (base A) pylon turns were another story with many pilots overshooting by quite a distance. Anyway it was good to see everyone's times improve as they got the hang of the task, and judging from peoples comments every really enjoyed themselves especially the guys who hadn't tried it before. The only casualty of the day was my Corracho which decided it wanted to make friends with the local rocks. Oh well! More wing repairs. So with everyone's help, we zipped through 6 rounds, and the final standings were :

1st Theo Arvanitakis
2nd Dave Pratley
3rd Tim Lennon

A big thanks to everyone who helped man a base or help a pilot and with setup and pack-up of the gear. Also a big thank you to Daryl Wallis from the local Ballarat club for the great snapshots, so seeyall next time, Jim Houdalakis RCGA

RCGA Open Thermal

• 1st David Hobby
• 2nd Jim Houdalakis
• 3rd Theo Arvanitakis

and in the new Sportsman class; 1st Bernie Sizer.

Congrats and thanks also to all those that competed and helped throughout the year, and I'll see you all at the start of the new season in September 2007! regards Jim Houdalakis.

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RCGA F3B Event

Digger's Rest 6th May '07 ; Marcus Stent report

One of the largest turn-outs for a Victorian F3B event in many years saw competitors enjoy great weather, great sportsmanship and a smooth running competition.

It was decided to run 2 speed runs per round to not only increase the amount of speed flying but to even out the variation in weather conditions that can greatly affect the final speed time.

Some of the highlights of the day were:

Duration
David Pratley scratched-out 10 minutes, below launch height, while Marcus picked up big lift and then bigger sink to be on the ground in 6:50 !!!! Other than the same thing happening to Theo for a 9:26, all of the other Duration flights made their 10 minutes.

Distance
Greg, David and Gerry had a match race in Distance; it was difficult to keep up with the frenetic pace in the lifty conditions, but when the dust settled it was Greg 28, David 24 and Gerry 23; great fun to watch.
Brad, Brian and Marcus were up in the very next distance heat and there was huge sink on the course. Marcus went early and got 10 laps and then sat and watched Brad and Brian to see if the air improved. Marcus watched nervously as the air got worse and Brad finished on 10 and Brian on on 9.

Speed
Greg's scores of 15.43, 16.66, 17.56 and 16.36 blitzed the field with his world class consistency, although I did see a couple of knife edge third legs and the occasional long base B. Look out when he is back in full swing! Steve Keep managed the fastest run of the day at 14. 92, where he used every advantage possible and crossed the site lines by the barest of margins.

Marcus clocked up a 15.8 with his brand new 'Cruciform Mongoose' to show that there is still competitive times to be had with home built models. Jim managed two flights under 19 seconds which is a big improvement over his previous competitions. Brian Hamilton had 4 flights in the 25 second bracket (one was a 22.9) which is excellent given this was his first time through the speed course and he was flying an oldie (but a goodie) in a Tragi 603V.

Well done and we all hope you continue to give F3B a go! I remember getting under 25 seconds for the first time and it is a big milestone. The most impressive 'event' was Gerry Carter's third turn of his last speed run where he over-corrected a fast turn. I could not keep up with the exact chain of events but I am sure there was a triple 'pike' a 'blender' and a 'flat spin' in there somewhere. I am sure this was Gerry's most satisfying 27 second speed run he has ever done - because he got his model back in one piece. It was a great day and I want to thank everyone who came along, helped out when asked, and had a great time.

Get the results here (.PDFs)

speed results | distance results | duration results | individual ranking

Marcus

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RCGA Open Thermal competition

Sun. 22nd April '07; Gerry Carter report

After weeks of fine, clear weather, Sunday arrived with rain and cool winds and eighteen pilots turned up at Digger's Rest for the competition.

Fortunately the rain cleared very early but low cloud was a problem for the first two rounds of the competition. In fact, pilots were routinely launching into low cloud. Although conditions at this stage were very tough, most pilots were achieving the target time and maximum landing points. Conditions improved with the cloud lifting and blue sky appearing now and again. Strong thermal activity was around, but so was a strong breeze and that meant that following a thermal down wind could result in a long flight into wind to the landing zone.

The standard of flying was very high with nine of the eighteen flight groups won with perfect scores of 10:00mins and 1 metre landing.

Despite this, in the final result the winning margin was very small indicating that the slightest mistake could have changed the placings. Also, 13 different pilots won at least one flight group.

Two Sportsman Class pilots, Mike Richardson (6th on 4953) and Bernie Sizer (7th on 4945) did very well on the day, finishing ahead of most of the Open Class pilots.

The top five results were:

• Alan Mayhew 4985
• Theo Arvanitakis 4983
• David Hobby 4982
• Jim Houdalakis 4981
• Max Kroger 4961

For a detailed break-down of results download this zipped folder here

The next thermal competition is on 20th May 2007 for details email Gerry here

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RCGA Thermal Competition

14th Jan 2007, Brigg's Field, Victoria, Australia ; Gerry Carter report.

We were lucky; the day turned out to be clear of bushfire smoke haze because of a southerly breeze and the breeze helped to kept temperatures down. Despite the lack of rain the field was in great condition. After setting up, the flying got underway at about 10:30am and in the end seven complete rounds were flown. Conditions were excellent for a thermal competition because, as well as having a restricted area in which to fly, the extent of the thermal and sink patches meant that some groups weren't able to fly out the full 10 minutes. As such, the event was not won purely on landing skills.

During the day it became evident that, on landing approach, some pilots were getting too close to High Street Road and so we moved the landing spots 70 metres further down the field. That eliminated the problem. It is apparent that our depth perception is not capable of reliably telling us exactly where we are flying relative to the ground. The only way to guarantee safety is to take whatever steps are necessary, without having to rely on depth perception, to ensure that all flying happens according to the Committee's rulings. The rule imposed was that pilots couldn't fly further towards High Street Road than the line of landing spots except when low and on landing approach. This worked very well.

The spread of results reflects the often difficult conditions and for some, reflects bad luck. For example, David Hobby had a line break on the first launch and a very low second launch to record a very short time. In another group he lost the use of both ailerons due to both control horns breaking during the launch but managed to get the model down safely. In the end, all pilots took their models home with none suffering any significant damage.

Overall a very good day with the final results being
1st Theo Arvanitakis 5996pts
2nd Jim Houdalakis 5971pts
3rd Max Kroger 5846pts

Spreadsheet of results in .pdf here

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MAAA Nationals Dec.

28th 2006- Jan. 4th 2007
Albury-Wodonga hosted the Australian Nationals over the course of a week. All aspects of aeromodelling were addressed but for the glider pilots HLG, F3J & F3B reports follow; thanks to Gerry Carter (CD) and John Skinner for the reporting.

World-class line-up

Final results in .pdf format here:
F3J
F3B

F3J Thermal (with winch launch)
This event was run over two long days in the punishing 35 - 40° heat. 13 rounds were flown to the FAI F3J rules with 200m winches allowed . This event was tougher in a number of ways to the usual Australian Open Thermal Rules. In particular, under the FAI F3J rules, there is no such thing as a "perfect" score. The task is to achieve the longest flight possible within a 10 minute period which includes the launch, duration flight and landing in the last seconds of the ten minute period. Late landings incur a penalty and loss of landing points. With fast launches, times of over 9 min.55 were frequently flown, and a few at 9 min.57!

The flight line was arranged with teams 15 metres apart so that all pilots could launch at exactly the start of the working time. It was quite a sight to see up to five high performance gliders, all with wing spans of over 3 metres, launching simultaneously.

When all pilots achieved their flight times, the landings were also all happening at the same time. Thermal conditions over the two days varied widely with some heats won with times that were much less than the theoretical 10 minutes maximum. This made the whole event very challenging in terms of testing the pilots thermalling skills.

The outstanding pilot was Carl Strautins who seemed to have no trouble finding thermals and whose landings were deadly in both timing and accuracy. At times there was massive lift, and at other times massive sink.

Competitors were very appreciative of the effort put in by the VMAA, the TCMAC and the facilities and catering provided for the pilots.

Throughout the competition the pilots also became quite familiar with the property owner Andy and his wife and family and they showed a great deal of interest in our activities. Andy is a bit of a character, a lovely man and was good fun to have around.

The final result for F3J:
1st Carl Strautins - Icon (Maple Leaf)
2nd Max Kroger - Pike Superior (Samba Model)
3rd Daniel Haskell - Espada RXL (Jaro Muller)

F3B Glider Multi-Task
This event was run at the same field as the F3J Thermal over the following two days and 6 rounds were flown.

The three tasks are;
Task A (=Thermal) 10 minute flight and precision landing in 12 minutes working time.
Task B (=Distance) The most times up and down a 150 metre course in 4 minutes wins. The 4 minutes is within a 7 minute working time. Task C (=Speed) The quickest time for 4 laps up and down a 150 metre course wins. The working time is 4 minutes.

We were fortunate and extremely grateful for the help of a group of Air Cadets who volunteered their time to help with the running of the distance task. This task requires a person at each end of the course for each pilot so that, if 3 pilots are flying, you need 6 helpers. Without this help there is no way that the event could have gone to 6 rounds. They did a great job. We were also fortunate to have two pilots (who weren't able to continue to fly) to man the pylons for the speed rounds. This enabled this part of the competition to run much more quickly than would otherwise have been the case.

Conditions were similar to those for F3J except that the wind direction for launch was at best 90 degrees to the direction of launch and more often than not, even more than this. However all pilots handled the situation well by steering their gliders around to the side (and beyond) so that the release of the glider from the line was into wind. Highlights of the competition were a number of scores for the distance task of 30 laps (of 150 metres) achieved by Steve Keep and Max Kroger. That's 4.5Km in 4 minutes with a lot of turns as well.

Speed demons stepped-up next and John Skinner peeled off a seemingly-innocuous run that yielded 14.11 seconds!. That's an average of 153 Km/Hr assuming that the bare minimum of 600 metres was flown. This is perhaps the fastest competition speed flight ever achieved by any pilot in Australia.

Once again everybody was very appreciative of the effort put in by the VMAA, the TCMAC and the facilities provided for the pilots and the property owner Andy continued to be very interested in our activities.

In the end, consistently high performance over all tasks wins F3B events and on this occasion that honours went to following;

The final result for F3B:
Steve Keep (Caracho 3000)
John Skinner (Caracho 3000)
Gerry Carter third (Estrella)

HLG (Hand Launched Glider)
The entries for this event were very low but the standard of flying was very high, particularly in the case of the winner. Marcus Stent dominated the event with his thoroughly researched and practised discus launch technique and his flying skills. Unfortunately one pilot was taken out of the event by a willi willi (small localized whirlwind) that picked up the model from the ground and broke it. Another was taken out when Marcus launched it using his advanced technique and folded the wing; Marcus' launching technique is approaching martial arts status.

Three rounds were flown with the winner being Marcus and second was Theo Arvanitakis.

Summary:
Overall the MAAA NATS glider events were a terrific challenge for competitors. It proved once again that Australia is a great breeding-ground for producing world-class pilots.

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Local & national events run year-round, go here to find your local club.