With all the wild and wet weather we have had lately we were lucky to get a dry, windy, but very flyable day. The thermals changed their strength and form all day which made it very tricky and all pilots had some excellent flights followed by some landouts! 

We had 4 pilots compete and so we decided to all time for ourselves, which worked well, meaning we could all fly in the same group. We had a lazy start and casual pace to finish 9 rounds by 3PM. 

In the end it was Hugh who made the best of the tough conditions to win the day. Well flown Hugh!

1st Hugh - Plus X

2nd Marcus - Vinco TR

3rd Bob Wilson - Plus X

Bob and his new Plus X

This was the RCGA's first combined F5J and 2m eERES competition and it was a very successful day with 6 rounds of F5J and 6 rounds of 2m eRES being interlaced throughout the day. The conditions were very wiindy for the most part of the day and combined with cool, low lift conditions, made getting full times very difficult. This made it important to find a nice bouyant corridor as quickly as possible or ride every little gust and bump to maximise your time.

Despite it being the middle of winter, we had our best turnout of pilots in a long, long time with 15 pilots on the field at one point during the day (not all competing). I think this shows 2 things, first we are all keen to fly after an interupted Covid year and secondly it shows the growing popularity and enjoyment of 2m eRES! The performance of these models is quite remarkable and their ability to handle the strong winds (with up to 240g of ballast) was very surprising. 

Overall it was a very challenging days flying with only a hand full of flights achieving the maximum time in both F5J and 2m eRES.

A special mention to Hugh Blackburn for winning F5J in empatic style, dropping less than 100points at the end of the day. Well done!

Final results are:

F5J

1st Hugh Blackburn Plus X

2nd Marcus Stent, Vinco TR

3rd Dave Millward, Plus X

2m eRES

1st Marcus Stent, OZeRES

2nd Jim Houdalakis, OZeRES

3rd Hugh Blackburn, Fresh

The results can be found here...

What a truely awesome days flying! We are finally out of lockdown and we had one of the best winters days at Diggers Rest in a long time. A light breeze prevailed all day and we even got some sunshine!

The thermal conditions changed throughout the day and this resulted in some great flying and some great saves.

Final results are:

1st Marcus Stent, Vinco TR

2nd Dave Millward, Plus Pro

3rd Jim Houdalakis, Prestige2PK

The results can be found here...

What an excellent days flying in windy and tricky conditions.

A big thanks to Clive Warman from NSW for coming along and joing in and also to Max Kroger for timing all day and allowing us to comple 8 rounds in the day. Thank you!

Congratulations to all the pilots who placed, they all had to work hard throughout the day and had some great flights.

!st Dave Milward

2nd Daniel Haskell

3rd Hugh Blackburn

A great day was had by all.

We had to rescedule the March F5J event which meant a few piots could not make it, but for those that did it was an awesome days flying and competition.

1st Marcus Stent - Vinco TR

2nd Hugh Blackburn - Plus X

3rd Dave Milawrd - Plus Pro, Plus X

We had to rescedule the March F5J event which meant a few piots could not make it, but for those that did it was an awesome days flying and competition.

1st Marcus Stent - Vinco TR

2nd Hugh Blackburn - Plus X

3rd Dave Milawrd - Plus Pro, Plus X

It was the inaugural Victorian F5K and 2MeRES events and it was an excellent day.

It was windy, blowing 6-7m/s with gusts up to 10m/s, but there was lots of lift around so it made it a little easier.

The 2M eRES models, although being relatively simple, were surprisingly efficient and handled the contitions well. Typical weights with ballast were around 630 - 650g.

The F5K models were all moulded and handled the wind with ease.

Lots of good scores were recorded.

The 2 events alternated throughout the day and in the end the results were:

F5K

1st Dave Milward, e-CX5

2nd Marcus Stent, e-Vortex 3

3rd Hugh Blckburn, e-CX5

2M eRES

1st Marcus Stent, FreshRES

2nd Alan Mayhew, OZeRES & OD

3rd Bob Wilson Radian

A great day was had by all and everyone is looking forward to the next one.

Full results can be found here...

f5k17jan2021flightscores.pdf

It was great to be out of lockdown and flying again.

Melbourne's catch cry of 4 seasons in a day came true as we had rain, wind, no wind, overcast and sunny conditions vary almost constantly throughout the day. In the end rain finaly curtailed our day a litte early, but we still managed to get 5 rounds completed and declared a winner.

We had one heat all score 10minutes and then the next heat had a winner with a 4 minute flight. Crazy conditions.

Most launches were over 150m but later in the day we saw a few pilots in the 50-80m range. Good fun when you can ge away from these low altitudes.

Bob Wilson had the best flight of the day when he spent the entire flight below 100m, carefully circling in multiple thermals. Very well flown Bob!

Dave Milward was the well deserved winner who adapted to the hugely varied conditions the best, and has taken his flying to the next level of refinement and consistency. Great flying Dave!

Jim Houdalakis came second with his new Prestige 2PK, so look out when he gets it really sorted!

Alan Mayhew flew very consistently into third plave with his recently refurbished Vinco.

A great day was had by all...

 

1st Dave Milward, Plus X and Plus Pro

2nd Jim Houdalakis, Prestige 2PK

3rd Alan Mayhey, Vinco