reports and results
Reports & results

reports and results

F3K 8 Victorian State Championships

marcusjonjamie

The palce getters at the Victorian F3K State Championships - 1st Marcus, 2nd Jon, 3rd Jamie

 

F3K 8 - Victorian F3K State Championships

7 keen Pilots made the trip to Longwood for the Victorian F3K State Championships and they enjoyed some of the nicest weather Victoria could muster. Light winds, variable conditions and 20 degrees - perfect!!

It was great to have Clive (WC TM) and Jamie (WC Pilot) attend from Newcastle/Sydney for some excellent team practice on the Saturday and a competitive hitout on Sunday - thanks for coming so far for the event. Robert Lilly made the drive from Ballarat and it was great to see Jim make a return to the fold after a bit of a break. Thanks guys!

Dave Milward flew well all day and was leading at the lunch break, but 2 unfortunate model incidents cobbled his day and he finished 4th - what could have been! Jamie had a good hitout to finish 3rd and Jon made the most of his local knowledge and love of working small bouyant thermals to finish 2nd. Marcus had his new Superlight NXT out for its first outing (and the conditions could not have suited it better) and finished 1st.

Thanks again to everyone for making the long trip and making it such a fun day,

f3k_8_2017-overallresults.pdf

f3k_8_2017-flightscores.pdf

Cheers,

Marcus

 

League progressive results below:

f3kprogressivemay2017

 

RCGA Thermal #8 Ballarat

Well, weather conditions were chalk and cheese at the Ballarat open thermal event last Sunday,

compared to the originally scheduled event 2 weeks ago, when Ballarat got record rain, and gale force winds with -3 degrees windchill.

Sunday started off with low cloud, but started lifting by the time we got started,

and by midday we had blue skies with big fluffy cumulous clouds.

Wind was pretty much zero to light all day,

so light planes handled conditions easiest.

Even though we set up winches into the forecast direction, being such light and variable conditions, we were often launching down wind or cross wind.

Lift was there from heat 1, even though very light and despite the sunny weather, got stronger, but not hugely strong at its best. It's an intersting place to fly,

because the surrounds are undulating, with a shallow about 10 metre rift to the right and swinginging behind us, a strip of trees in the rift to the right and hills in the not too far distance, make the thermals a bit unpredictable.

I was worried with the event being rescheduled that we wouldn't get enough entries for a competition, however 6 pilots turned up, which meant we could run 3 per heat, so we went ahead.

We managed to get through 8 rounds, even with a bit of a late start, mainly due to the tireless efforts of the BAMI club members in retrieving winch lines all day,

we've never been so spoilt.

To top it off they put on a free sausage sizzle and drinks, at lunch time.

So final placings:

Bernie Sizer 1st, Jim 2nd, Dan Haskell 3rd.

 

It was good to see Bernie take a break from full size gliding and join us, and also great to see Graham Norman flying with us as well.

 

Thanks to those who helped out and a big thanks to Ballarat Aero Modellers Inc for the field and their lunch and help.

 

pdf flightscores.pdf

pdf landingscores.pdf

pdf overallresults.pdf

Finally don't forget the f3k handlunch glider Vic state champs at Longwood this Sunday,

See you out there,

and happy flying

-Jim

F5J Electric Glider Vic State Champs 2017 Diggers Rest

Forecast looked great for f5j, light winds and 30 degrees, and arriving at the Diggers Rest field and it was calm but fairly overcast.

First few rounds and the air was buoyant in places with very light lift. The trick was to find the best area, when the effect was very subtle, and not fly out of it.

Anyway with the buyant conditions, launches were getting lower with pilots finding the minimum height they needed to get 10 minute flights.

This continued until around lunch time, when the sun started to peek through the clouds and the gusts picked up a little with stronger lift and sink cycles.

 

We had the usual suspects roll up, plus a couple of new faces. Scott Matthews all the way from the Sale club in eastern Victoria, and who flies a bit of everything, decided to give f5j a go.

Flying a stork, he did well and enjoyed himself in his first f5j glider comp, and I’m sure learned a lot.

The second new face was Ladislav (Laz) Safarik all the way from Newcastle NSW, and probably more familiar to interstate f5j flyers up North.

He was happy to be flying an event, as many had been cancelled up north of late due to inclement weather. Laz was also flying a Stork.

Otherwise is was the usual mix of maxas, avas, pulsars, perfections, and home brews.

Alan had a forgettable day, with a start failure in one heat, and a flat battery in another.

Bob flew fairly consistently, and was good enough to get a placing.

I think score-wise it was pretty much  neck and neck between me and David at the top end, with David doing better than me in the light conditions of the morning.

The afternoon conditions suited my flying style a bit more and my launch heights got lower, and I chased the lift more aggressively, and although I stuffed one flight,

when I couldn’t find a strong core downwind, it didn’t slow me down.

Alternatively David who performed well in the morning, also stuffed up one flight, and then got much more conservative in the afternoon, to the extent that I overtook him in the scores.

 

Placings: 1st Jim Houdalakis, 2nd David Pratley, 3rd Bob Wilson

 

Thanks to Laz and Russ for the photos

regards 

Jim Houdalakis

 

pdf overall results f5j state champs 2017.pdf

pdf flight scores f5j state champs 2017.pdf

pdf height penalty f5j state champs 2017.pdf

pdf landings f5j state champs 2017.pdf

statechampsgroup

Competitors


stork_invasion

Stork Invasion!


statechamps_lunch_break

Lunch

 

zdnek

Zdnek launching

F3K5, 6, 7 & F3K WC Selection Trials

f3kteam

F3K 5 - Aussie F3K Team Selection Trials, January 2017

The Aussie F3K Team Selection trails were held in January at Salt Ash NSW. A huge thanks to Shona Guest and Jon Day for running the event, the local club for the use of the excellent field and Clive Warman for putting on such an excellent event. Also, a huge thanks to the 9 competitors that came from NSW, Vic and SA to compete, it was a showcase of Australias top tallent. After 2 days and 16 rounds the Australian Team to represent Australia in the Ukrain in July 2017 is 1st, Jamie Cannon, 2nd Marcus Stent, 3rd, Hugh Blackburn. Well done Boys and good luck!

austeamtrialsf3k2017-overall.pdf

austeamtrialsf3k2017-flightscoresl.pdf

 

F3K 6 Diggers Rest, Feb 2017

Very windy conditons greeted 4 brave souls for some tough competition. A huge thanks to Andrew Meyer for making the trip from S.A. and a huge congratulations to Robert for his second place. Well done Robert!

f3k6feb-overall.pdf

f3k6feb-flightscores.pdf

 

F3K 7 Diggers Rest, March 2017

An unusually beautiful day greeted everyone at Diggers Rest and the group broke into teams to give Marcus and Hugh some practice for the upcoming F3K Worlds. It was a fun day. 

f3k7march-overall.pdf

f3k7march-flightscores.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Open f3j / f5j international Milang S.A. March 2017

Hi, thought I'd put together my road trip summary,
set off a day early, on Thursday, this year because I wanted to fly the f5j event on the Friday afternoon, and didn't fancy a 4am departure from Melbourne.
Arrived at the ssl field in Milang S.A. late afternoon after 81/2 hour drive  to find the 4 Kiwi entrants had already setup camp there. An Entertaining bunch, and I reckon I could hear Len's voice from the Motel. They were enjoying the warm weather, medium strength wind and doing some bungee launching of f3j planes, so I decided to join in for a handfull of flights, thanks to Kev for the throws.
Then it was off to the motel to checkin and then was off with the gang for a fine meal down the road at Sails on Clayton Bay, which, as previous years, didn't disappoint.
Friday morning and we arrive at the field to just a perfect start to the  day, weather wise, and it's time to trim and tweak and practice landings with the f5j models, ready for the afternoons competition.
Right off the bat, there is light lift around and with my f5j light-strong perfection, which is maybe on the heavy side (1.9 kg) for the conditions, I can still slowly clmb out. So i figure by the time the comp starts in the afternoon the lift will be huge, and it turned out I wasn't  wrong. The rest of the morning was the usual meet and greet and catchups as more people arrived.
The conditions stayed pretty light all day, and once the f5j comp started, the launch heights got lower and lower. the Kiwis set the benchmark lead by Joe Wurts, Kevin Botherway and Peter Williams. Of coarse the 75 meter landing zero score rule was getting a fair work out as well.when pilots pushed the low launches too far for conditions they were in. It was good to see Theo Arvanitakis, in maybe his first f5j event, even though one armed with a broken collarbone, keeping up with the Kiwis on the minimal launches and greate flights, 
(must've been my throws).
Dave Pratley was doing well too until some outlandings cost him dearly. As for myself, even though I got my times and landings, conservative launch heights only got me 5th.
I think for me, the standout flight was  one where many chased a thermal that had blown through, only to see Kevin at 19 a meter launch height, ie a quarter most pilots height, fly over my head, chasing the same thermal and climbing out to win the heat.

Congratulations to the F5J placegetters: 1. Joe Wurts  2. Theo Arvanitakis  3. Kevin Botherway

Friday night and we ended up with takeaway, and drinks back at the Milang Motel, and sitting around hearing about the interesting stuff Joe W had been working on, closing out a great day.
Saturday, and the first day of f3j, we arrive at the field and it's calm and heavily overcast, with the radar showing a bunch of shower / rain fronts on the way.
To cut a long story short, it was very low lift, if not dead conditions for the whole day. Every time you'd think conditions were improving, another shower would come through. It was perfect conditions for the lightest of aircraft, and pilots good at hanging in minimal conditions. Safe to say most of us struggled. At least my planes got a wash.
Saturday evening and the club did something different and had a bbq at the field (luckily had stopped raining by this point) and which was very enjoyable evening.
Sunday and it looked like more of the same conditions in the morning. Eventually the sky began to open up, and I think I finally started to do some actual thermal turns in lift in the last couple of preliminary rounds.
After lunch, time for the flyoffs for the six top pilots, and 3 rounds to decide a winner. We were helping Gerry in the flyoffs, against Joe, Kevin, David, Nick, and Andrew. By this time, the wind had picked up, maybe medium to strong when lift was going through. So it was big lift and big sink time. Gerry did well getting into the lift, but suffered with poor visibility against the cloudy conditions. My advice, dont fly yellow planes in cloudy conditions.
Joe and Kev managed to chase down a thermal and got their times in the first heat. A few tried to follow but left it too late.
Second heat and Joe once again got away with a thermal, Kev tried his luck down wind but ended up landing out in the next paddock, Dave managed to hang in there and get his time.
In the last heat, because of his lead on the others, Joe decided to play it safe and go around to maximise the crosswind conditions, and popped off, so relaunched, and thats how he dropped the points, since most made the time in the last heat.

 

Congratulations to the F3J placegetters: 1. Joe Wurts  2. Nick Chabrel  3. Kevin Botherway

Thanks to the organisers at the SSL club South Australia, for putting on another great event, and looking forward to next year.
regards
Jim Houdalakis
f3jinternationalpilots2017

RCGA F5j #5 26 Feb 2017 Diggers Rest

A beautiful, warm, and almost calm morning greeted us for our rescheduled f5j event at Digger's Rest,
a stark contrast to last weekend's rain and hail.

An easterly was forecast for the day,
but first thing in the morning, was blowing westerly, but not an issue when you don't have to worry about winches.
We had 8 turn up for the day, however Graham Norman was still sorting out his electrified shadow,
and Norm Ripp's new plane was damaged on a test fly, so that left 6.
It was good to see Bob and Russell back and competing after each had been unable to attend the last few months.
The first few heats were easy enough with light lift helping most make their time Then the prevailing switched to the forecast easterly,
which made lift a bit patchy at times, especially at lower altitudes. As usual with f5j as the day went on and the lift became stronger,
pilots were taking lower launches. But there were still some patchy lift heats, especially in the afternoon, to catch pilots out.
I remember at least one heat which caught all pilots out some heats with 3 minute flights. 
Of course thats the real trick, knowing when to take a high launch to find lift, when you've gotten away with low launches for a while.
Everyone enjoyed the day, and it looks like we will have some more participants soon,
the more the merrier.
Finally it was congratulations to 

Alan Mayhew 1st
David Pratley  2nd
Jim Houdalakis 3rd

Next one is in Milang, South Australia, and for those that are going, see you there!

regards

Jim Houdalakis 

pdf rcga_f5j_26_feb_2017_flightscores.pdf

pdf rcgaf5j_26_feb_2017_overall_results.pdf

RCGA Thermal #6 Results

jim

dave

tom

Congratulatios to the winners of Open Thermal #6

1st Jm Houdalakis

2nd Bernie Sizer

3rd Don Woodward

 

openthermal6_feb2017_overallresults.pdf

openthermal6_feb2017_flightscores.pdf

RCGA Thermal #5 Results

Results from the open thermal competition held on 8/1/2017

rcga overall.pdf

rcga flight.pdf

Latest RCGA Results and Report

RCGA Thermal #5 - Diggers Rest - Jan 2017

Sunday's forecast was a hot 35C with winds from the north and an expected southerly change midday... Nevertheless 6 pilots braved the tortures conditions and carefully rolled into the long grass paddock to setup, starting just after 10am. Everyone was busy all day with 2 groups of 3 however again the VICs proving you don't need to fly with a team for line retrievals, calling and even line breaks, everyone just helps......dig towards the SA boys ;-)

The strong northerly wind broke up the thermals during the first round with a couple relaunches and no one maxing their times. However by round 2 the wind had eased just a little making the thermals more predictable to read, catch and stay in. We managed to squeeze in 3 rounds before the 180deg southerly forcing us to change the winch direction and stopping for lunch.

The afternoon was fun, yet challenging with big air and big sink. Lunch time leader Daniel stumbled a little in round 4 as did his protégé Tom who was in 2nd place, so we all thought this would open up the comp again as they had a significant lead over the rest of the field. However Daniel brushed himself off and continued to fly well for the rest of the day.  We flew 8 rounds in the end at a casual pace finishing up around 4:30pm.

So congratulations to Daniel for his win! Followed by Jimmy, 130 odd points behind and Tom in 3rd, 270 points behind Dan.

For the rest of us... we clearly didn't manage the conditions and made too many mistakes...A special mention to David Pratley who flew his first open thermal comp sporting his latest titanium knee upgrade.. The field was pretty rough so kudos to David, his surgeon and medical science. 

Until next time... 

Cheers
Theo Arvanitakis

 

RCGA F3K #4 (World Champs Selection) - Salt Ash NSW - Jan 2017

The world champs selection is over, congrats to the three pilots that will represent Australia in the Ukraine in July this year. 

1. Jamie Cannon

2. Hugh Blackburn

3. Marcus Stent

Good lucks guys!! Bring home the gold!!

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