Jan 1998
By : Jon Fletcher
Jan 1998 |
By : Jon Fletcher |
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Friday 28th March dawned clear and cool with just 6 degrees showing on the car's thermometer on the way to the field. The thistle problem was going to be the worst ever so George Car had persuaded the Farmer to lend a tractor with a piece of iron railway line attached to flatten the thistles. A couple of weeks beforehand he with some help, had dragged the rail over a good part of the field's 600 acres which helped. Old acquaintances were renewed as flyers gathered but sadly there was no one from overseas and no one from Queensland this year.
Combined per cent Open In the Combined % Open the P30's of Terry Bond and Donna McKenzie showed their potential, with Donna's model out-flying the open rubber model of Col Collyer to win it. Saturday 29th - F1A 
Another clear and sunny day starting off with F1A at 7.30am. Richard Blackam, Phil Mitchell and Vin Morgan made the first round max but as the day wore on they all dropped time to give an outright win to Phil, Vin coming second. Jan Thomas flying steadily with her Pink Elephant design finished strongly to place a creditable third place. The thermal activity became intense around mid morning as the temperature climbed to the high 20's. Wind speed dropped off and soon models were drifting in all directions. As always, such conditions made lift picking difficult as models appeared to boom away but were often dumped out of the thermals to give sub max times. These conditions of a cool start leading to a mid-morning calmer period with gusting thermal infills were to characterise the whole glorious weekend. The line was moved after round 3 to the middle of the field as some models were drifting close to the road.
Open Power Open Power attracted 7 flying entries this year, up from last years 1! Stan Hinds maxed out with his F1C as did Roy Summersby with his 40 powered open model, freshly repaired from Friday's Comb. % open comp. At flyoff time Stan had elected not to contest the flyoff, leaving Roy to make a "token" flight of 3 = mins from a superb climb to win it outright. P 30 
The P30 event was strongly contested with no less than five maxing out. Phil Mitchell elected not to fly as the others wound at 4.30pm to launch into the warm evening air. Terry Bond's Mylar covered model was getting hard to see, but just managed to pip Bill Gordon for first place both models clearing five mins.
Open Rubber In Open Rubber Col Collyer and Bill Gordon maxed out to flyoff at 5pm. Leigh Morgan would have been with them, save for dropping just 3 secs. on her second flight. In the flyoff, Bill got away first and the flight looked good but Col flying later started with an indifferent climb to contact excellent air and clear over 13 mins. to win it. Sunday 30th Roshan Samuel took over as CD for the day allowing Jon Fletcher to air his F1C's. F1B In F1B Richard Blackam was unlucky enough to drop his first round but maxed the rest, leaving Leigh Morgan, Don Blackam and Dave Lacy to max the first round. Bill Pudney just got better and better to finish the day with 4 maxes while lady luck deserted lady flyer Leigh on the 4th round to spoil an otherwise perfect score. It looked like a flyoff between Dave and Don but Dave dropped the last round to give Don yet another F1B win. F1C In F1C Bill East improved on his score from last year to win it from Dave Thomas, just 3 secs. behind. Stan Hinds dropped just two flights for 3rd and Jon Fletcher's lack of practice showed in an under elevated first flight glide, retiring after breaking yet another model at round 4. Roy Summersby's model was putting in some improved climbs but wasn't able to contact good air. Vintage Rubber In Vintage Rubber those arch rivals and "Vintagents" Bill Gordon and Den Sparker maxed out but were too bushed to fly off! The flyoff was called for early on Monday with Dennis getting the better air to win it. Vintage Glider In Vintage Glider Col Collyer's colourful Mantis led the way home though it looked lost on the 50m towline. CD Jon Fletcher was heard to remark that designs of that era were happier on the 300ft towline of the day! Col was last heard lobbying for the increase. Vintage Power Pete Scott's Slick Stick was on perfect pattern and with excellent lift picking boring straight up the centre of thermals to a terrific height. Roy Summersby Swayback was having an "off" day breaking the wing to force retirement after the second flight. Dennis couldn't find the Stomper to also record zero for the last flight. Scramble Scramble was to have been flown the Saturday afternoon but with a steady breeze and perhaps the thought of the Prizegiving Dinner ahead, a majority of the flyers voted to fly early on the Monday for calmer, cooler conditions. Monday 31st and the last and busiest day. The air was dickering around from all directions and with the Scramble scheduled to start from 6am, the five that did fly found a half hour Scramble enough as the wind speed rose. Tahn Stowe won it just ahead of Terry Bond with Phil Mitchell in third. Local flyer Kevin Little was unlucky enough to have the crankshaft shear on the first flight of his Indian Mills 0.75 Scale In Scale, Dave Thomas' Hawk Moth again took out the honours looking very realistic silhouetted against the rising sun. Stan Hinds' new twin electric powered Aero Commander was very impressive in the air and Peter Scott finally persuaded the Pietenpol to fly with some delightful flights to place third. F1G - Coupe For the mini classes the line was moved to the middle of the field, delaying the start to 8am. Whilst poorly supported, Coupe de Hiver turned out to be one of the most dramatic of the events with Richard Blackam certain to win it from Bill Gordon who was unlucky to drop his first flight. However, on Richard's' last flight the motor broke when winding and after the ensuing repair the DT hung up on a test flight in a monster thermal for a 20 min. flight that eventually landed but with no time retrieve and fly. The resulting zero gave Bill a win by default. F1H - A1 Glider The strong lift and tricky nature of F1H gliders had the flyers struggling to get their models to hold in the thermals. Flights were either down in seconds or booming away in super lift. Phil Mitchell clinched it to win to make the glider double for the weekend while Donna McKenzie flew well to second spot ahead of Vin Morgan F1J - Power Both Peter Scott's and Roy Summersby high tech F1J's wouldn't go well today, leaving Stan Hind's V dihedralled MP Jet 061 powered model to clean house. Peter Wright flying Julian Hopper's Day Tripper design needed more practice to get the best out of this great and simple little model. HLG In HLG Mickey Towell looked confident until Dad came along, but disaster struck when Reg's model went OOS after flight no.4 Mickey was persuaded to lend Dad his model but Dad didn't need it anyway as he had enough scored on the first four flights to win it! At the end of the Champs a prize giving was held for the mini classes and of course the announcement of the AFFS Champion who this year was : Roy Summersby. Congratulations to Roy! Top Junior this year was Brett Mitchell who received a prize and model kit to build. As overall Contest Director for the event I am indebted to the following people for their help:
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OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI JANUARY'98 ISSUE | News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | 13th World Hot Air Championship, Saga | | Parachuting and Skydiving at the World Games : Lahti 1997 | | World Air Games 1997 - Turkey | | 20th Australian Free Flight Society Championship | | Long Range Air Race |  More articles on Aeromodelling
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