Queanbeyan 2016 Report (Prepared for the first time by your President).
Well, the third NSW Pattern Comp for the year has been successfully executed at Queanbeyan.
The field was marked out the same way as last year, with the centre line perpendicular to the fence instead of at an angle. This made flying a line a little easier (well, that is the theory) and with the competition been run in March, the sun was not so much of a problem.
Twelve pilots comprising three Advanced, three Expert, four F3A and two Sportsman were greeted to almost perfect flying conditions. Unfortunately, Joe Costa had to withdraw from the competition for personal reasons.
The format for this competition appears to following a trend where F3A and Sportsman are grouped together and Expert and Advanced together.
The Competition got underway with Advanced and Expert first up followed by F3A and Sportsman. Although there was only a relatively small number of competitors, it was decided to fly only three rounds on Saturday and the remaining three on Sunday.
Advanced was dominated once again by Phil Tallack, wining all but one round for a perfect score of 5000. Well done, again, Phil. With some good consistent flying, Felix took second place scoring 4639.72. With a couple of rounds one would like to forget, I (Gavin) took last (third) place on 4601.92, although I did win round three but, rounds four and five, well, what can I say. What did I say earlier about the centre line and the fence.
Expert was the closest fought competition with no one pilot dominating. In the end, Brian McFarlane took first place wining four of the six rounds for a score of 4982.53. Second place honours went to Brian McGowan, winning rounds one and three and a final score of 4817.45. Richard Knox took third place with a final score of 4729.10.
Both Brian McGowan and Richard had at least one round win, I think they would honestly say, was well below par for them. What is it they say about consistency?
F3A was the best represented category with four pilots. David McFarlane once again proved why he is one of Australia’s best winning all six rounds for a perfect 5000 and achieving a Masters promotion point. The fight for second was a hard fort battle between Brian Dooley and Bill Garrod with Brian coming up trumps on 4547.91 and Bill on 4430.29. Both Brian and Bill achieved an F3A retainer score. Gavin Dark finished in fourth place on 4086.17.
This was the maiden competition for David’s new model, the Arbalista and only the second time Bill’s Arbalista had flown in competition. Both David and Bill think they are on a real winner with this model and Bill flew two of the best rounds I personally have seen him fly.
Sportsman was represented by only two competitors, Roger Chapman and Ray Smith with Roger winning every round scoring a perfect 5000 and gaining his first promotion point. Unfortunately for Ray, he suffered the same fate as I suffered at Fletchers with an undercarriage failure.
Lastly, let us not forget to thank the members of the Queanbeyan club for hosting the comp and keeping us well fed with what I can only describe as some of the most mouth watering steak sandwiches one could hope to taste.
Competition Results:
F3A-FAI: David McFarlane
Expert: Brian McFarlane
Advanced: Phillip Tallack
Sportsman: Roger Chapman
Competition Promotions:
F3A-FAI: David McFarlane
Expert: Nil
Advanced: Nil
Sportsman: Roger Chapman
Competition results: HERE.
Competition promotions: HERE.
