Premier Duration Dave Griffin
Day 2 dawned clear and calm so we set up for NZ Premier Duration . This is a thermal contest requiring a 10 Minute flight in a 12 minute working time , with precision landing . it is flown in rounds and groups like F3J
Above : Allan Knox with Kiwi Icon Below : Joe Wurtz prepares to launch Dave Griffith ’ s Maxa
Above : Long tail Maxa 4m making the most of the light air
Early on lift was light . As the weather cleared more though the afternoon we begun to see patch ’ s of lift come through and people were achieving their flight times making the landing points even more important . The battle at the front was intense with Joe Wurts , Sharn Davies , Peter Williams and Scott Chisholm all close together making it very important to ensure landing accuracy . It was great to see the rise in Sharn Davies skill levels , in the past year He gets my most improved award , he continues to get better with each event and his experience grows . It was also great to see newcomers Alex Hewson and Andrew Palmer both doing well in their first F3j competition . Andrew would have achieved a high placing if it wasn ’ t for a sad situation seeing him look away from his model for a moment then looking back at another model whilst his proceeded to destroy itself . Andrew is showing very early signs he will be at the front very soon once his new toys arrive .
Late in the afternoon and as it turned to evening it became extremely important to get good high launch ’ s and leave the model alone as much as possible to preserve its height . We refer to this as being min-sink mode and it is a very good method to achieve good flight times in marginal lift like we were seeing . These conditions can see the scores separate quite often and results change .
At the end of the day , under almost darkness , we completed round 6 . Joe was declared the winner . Yet again Joe ’ s consistency and accuracy had him at the top of the results page followed by Sharn Davies and Peter Williams in third . Again top marks must go to Dave James for achieving so much from such a small space of time . Dave it was very impressive and we all appreciated his efforts .
We managed a couple of rounds then clouds gathered and a active front could be seen heading our way on the Weather Radar . It soon arrived and the rain set in . Models and valuable equipment were covered , a gazebo erected , andcoffee and pies ordered . About 1 hour 30 later we got back to flying for the rest of the day .
In the morning lift could be found and exploited , but after the rain the lift was harder to find and difficult to climb very far in . The best tactic seemed to be to cruise around very slowly in min sink mode , working any gentle bubbles that occasionally showed a little cimb potential .
Joe excelled as usual both in the flying and landing elements of the event . Alex Hewson flying is ‘ Perfect Maxa ’ - a model made from parts of 2 damaged models - flew really well all day placing just behind Joe . Dave Griffins new Maxa 4M and some smooth flying helped Dave into 3rd place with more than one low level save to make the time target . Our Australian guest Dave Pratley , flew well all day for 4th place . Ted Bealing from Auckland , one of the older gentleman of NZ Soaring , flew really well with his new Maxa for 6th place . After a great day Friday , Sharn struggled to find form in the light conditions struggling to make much more than 8 minutes in many rounds . Scott flew well , but suffered a loss of time in the first round when he discovered his transmitter non responsive to the on switch . A blown fuse was quickly swapped and he got started late to record 5 minutes .
Both Friday and Saturday evening we adjourned to the hotel for dinner and entertaining conversation on subjects dear to our hearts . Saturday evening we were treated to a night flying demo by Andrew with his LED equipped heli . Andrew is a truly talented and well practiced pilot , really putting the machine through its paces . Via its LED system the helicopter glows various colours and flashes up a number of images such as stars , smiley faces and Pacman - very clever !