SRCS Gunderman May - 15th & 16th 2021
Competition Report
After missing the (apparently) memorable competition at Queanbeyan in April, I barely made it back into the air for the May contest at SRCS. With the field only lately becoming fully available after the Hawkesbury floods, and finally flyable with the arrival of a replacement mower. Kahl, Chris and I spent a couple of days before getting everything freshened up and ready for the contest. We also took the opportunity to get in some practice, in awesome conditions. Unfortunately no other Pattern pilots took the chance to join us on Friday.
The weather forecast did not look promising for the contest, however, with strong to medium force winds predicted for Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday dawned beautifully calm, with the arrival of 12 entrants in 4 classes, Sportsman (1), Advanced (2), Expert (4), and F3A (5.) A shout out goes to Tim Voight, who made the journey up from Nowra for the weekend. We also had the support teams in attendance, with Annette, Meaghan, Lori and Atsuko joining their partners for the weekend.
Advanced were first up, in sunshine and absolutely dead calm, and then we sat, with a baffling problem confronting the scoring system. We were stood down, and Sportsman got the benefit of the conditions, followed by Expert, before the system fault could be rectified. During Expert, the wind began to pick up, with the result that when Advanced finally made it to the flight line, we were confronted by quite a blustery NW wind; (my favourite conditions.......NOT!)
F3A up next found themselves flying in increasingly windy and turbulent conditions which made accurate flying, and in particular landing interesting, to say the least.
The turbulent landing approach resulted in some of the F3A, Expert and Advanced pilots sitting out rounds in the interests of model safety, while Tim again showed the way, completing all rounds. With almost 3 rounds successfully in the bag, in challenging conditions, we adjourned for Saturday when a rainstorm came through, sending everyone scrambling to pack away models. Kahl was left at the flightline, the lone pilot still to complete round 3.
With most of the contestants staying in the area, dinner was planned for the Bowling Club in Wisemans Ferry, and a congenial evening was enjoyed by all.
Sunday dawned chilly and calm, and Kahl was first into the air, completing the final flight for F3A for Round 3. While the wind did increase during the day, and become quite bumpy, it never approached Saturdays’ ugliness, and we were able to complete a further 3 rounds in reasonable conditions, before the intrusion of the afternoon sun into the box forced a halt to proceedings. With a very bright and brilliant blue sky, and complete absence of cloud, model visibility was challenging, and several pilots had problems with aligning themselves with the flightline.
Results were as follows:
Sportsman was won by sole entrant Tim Voight, who also convincingly snagged his second promotion point in style. One more Tim and welcome to turnaround.
Advanced was won by Alastair Bennetts, from Con Kyriakides. No promotion points were achieved.
In Expert, Rod O’Neil continued his recent domination, winning from Chris Tindall, with Gavin Fitz-Henry and Felix Nieuwenhuizen in the minor placings. Rod also emphatically claimed his second promotion point.
In F3A, Kahl Eckersley won from Jason Arnold and Brian McGowan, with Tom Collinge and Joe Costa completing the class. There were no promotion or retention points achieved.
With everyone packed away, we gathered for a short meeting to discuss the proposal by the APA to adjust the timing of the introduction of the new FAI schedules to align with EU and the Northern Hemisphere. Following extensive discussion, it was decided to support the proposal, conditional on a suitable accommodation for those holding promotion points, with the duration of the current schedules being cut short. It is proposed that the new 2023 schedules will take effect from the 20th July 2021.
We look forward to seeing everyone at our next competition, on 19th & 20th June at the Rebel Club at Hexham, Newcastle.
Competition Results:
F3a: Kahl Eckersley
Expert: Rod O'Neil
Advanced: Alastair Bennetts
Sportsman: Timothy Voigt
Competition Promotions:
F3a: Nil
Expert: Rod O'Neil
Advanced: Nil
Sportsman: Timothy Voigt
Competition F3a Results: HERE.
Competition Expert Results: HERE.
Competition Advanced Results: HERE.
Competition Sportsman Results: HERE.
Current Point Scores For 2021: HERE.
