ALES 200 Allan Knox
This is a brand new event this year with the rules approved at the Nationals AGM . It was flown between rounds of PD on Saturday . Weather , as noted elsewhere , was pretty awful at times and the l i f t c o n d i t i o n s challenging . Despite this 11 fliers fronted flying a variety of models . Everything
from Radians to high end machines like Joe ’ s electric Maxa . There were a number of other converted thermal soarers and couple of high end dedicated electrics including Pete Deacon ’ s Graphite and Pete France ’ s big 4m open structure machine . Allan Knox flew his own small design , a light 2m Vee tail he calls the Apex . It is very agile and has good speed range , kind of like a big DLG .
ALES 200 uses a cheap Altitude Switch to turn off the motor at 200 meters above ground or 30 seconds , which every the sooner . The goal is to complete a 10 minute flight including engine run time . A spot landing bonus of up to 50 points applies .
This contest was flown in 4 rounds with 2 groups and someone always got away to max out . Joe Wurts won all his groups as we have grown to expect from this great flier but others placed well too with Peter France ( 2nd overall ), Dave Griffin and Allan Knox ( 3rd overall ) winning groups . The little Radians struggled in the conditions but given a hint of lift they were maxing out just like the big expensive stuff . It certainly proved that ALES , 200 or 123 , can be flown effectively with these cheap ARFs straight out of the box . It was great to see Suetonia Palmer flying her Radian in this event , there are too few women in our sport . Suetonia joined in enthusiastically will all the weekend ' s activities and I noticed that husband Andrew had a broad grin on his face as she dragged yet another winch line back . Well done that lady .
The Radian Contest Dave Griffin
For many this was the highlight of the weekend ( fun wise anyway !) The event was open to all Radians ( Standard and Pro ), with unmodified props or motors . It had been announced beforehand that the task would be decided on the day to suit the prevailing conditions . We set 15 seconds motor run and 6 minutes flight time with a landing within the landing tape adding 50 points . All models were launched and climbed together for 15 seconds , and then fliers called their landing so the time could be recorded . 3 rounds were flown , with good scores posted by most fliers . Laughter could be heard much of the time - seemingly directly related to lift conditions .
Alex Hewson placed first , followed by Dave Griffin and Peter France . Congratulations to Suetonia placing 4th - ahead of husband and teacher Andrew in 5th !!
NZ F3J Team Selection Dave Griffin
The SoarChamps also doubled as the team selection for next years F3J World Champs in Slovakia . 5 Fliers were keen to try for the team - Joe , Scott , Sharn , Aneil and Dave Griffin . Scores from F3J and Premier duration were combined and the worst score dropped to select the team . As noted above the fortunes of pilots changed with the varying conditions over the 2 days . Eventually the top 3 were selected ; Congratulations to Joe , Dave and Scott . We have a world class team with these guys .
A great weekends flying and camaraderie . Special thanks to David James , DJ is the Secretary of our NZMAA Soaring Interest Group and also the guy who gets stuck in and does so much of the organising and running of our events . Thanks David !
The Radian Flypast ! No photo sorry , but one of the highlights was 7 Radians in formation ( sort of ) flying over just before the prizegiving . Great stuff . Thanks everyone who came for making this one the best SoarChamps . See you next year .
All in all this was a great launch for ALES . I think it has firm support for the future . Look out for opportunities to fly it on the NDC calendar this year .
F3K Dave Griffin
T h i s w a s f l o w n S u n d a y m o r n i n g i n b r i g h t c l e a r conditions with enough wind to need ballast and to catch pilots out ! Quite a few , perhaps even all the fliers landed out of the box at least once . Many flights found no lift while others found lift that soon carried them a fair way back , leaving models needing to push back into the strong thermal fed wind to get back to the box . 18 Pilots lined up for 6 rounds of F3K . Joe and Alex flew perfects 1000 ’ s in each round to tie for first place . Scott was 3rd .
Above : Andrew and Suetonia Palmer - new k i d s a t t h e g a m e , showing huge potential
Left : John Shaw , Dave Griffin offer advice to Joe ( yeah right )