Once again the site was absolutely fabulous thanks to all the hard work put in by Don and Andrew with help from Rod, Robert, & Alec. I arrived on Thursday and spent about 30 minutes sweeping the tarmac, everything else was already done. Some of us managed to test fly in the afternoon.
Practice was Friday and also a chance to fly as much as possible of NASS Sport Jet. This was to save some time over Sat and Sun because we knew we had good entries in most other classes. We also wanted to fly Classic F2C and F2F. Saturday started with Saturdays flying started with the Half A Team Race which only got to the first pit stop before the GREMLINS arrived. Ian Thompson and Grant Potter didn’ t start the second heat so they were out. Brendan changed models but still didn’ t finish a race. The final was a good race with only 9 seconds separating the 2 models which was also the time difference between the same two models in the heat. There was very little wind which of course suits these sweet little models. Both models were powered by Barny’ s little motors. What is going to happen when these motors wear out.
F2C Team Race. The premier International event had the 2008 World Champion pitman from Australia Grant Potter with his father Geoff flying. Ian Thompson had a model that I think he bought off the internet, then fitted it with what he called a Lerner / lerner motor. This was not the top of the line motor but boy did it go. Andrew and Don flew. Adrian and Graeme teamed up so we had 4 entries. The two fast times were awesome to watch. I am not sure which race it was but Ian shut off a bit late and also had to overfly Grant who was pitting one segment behind. He basically landed the model into Rods hand. How Rod hung onto it I don’ t know but it got a round of applause from everybody. They also set a new NZ record. The Potters time was only 6 seconds slower. It was also good to see Graeme and Adrian flying some F2C.
Class B Team Race. No flash times here but great to see Adrian’ s new Classic B go 10 seconds quicker than in his race in Hamilton 2 weeks ago. He used a hotter fuel but he thinks that the Enya 29 twin ball bearing motor still needs a lot more running to get the best out of it for Class B. His next problem that I see is keeping it slow enough for Classic. I had fitted a smaller venturi to the X29 to try and extract a few more laps per tank in the hope that I can complete a final on 3 tanks so cutting out one pit stop but I lost about 24 laps. So much for taking a gamble and not test flying.
F2F Good to see how these models go. Robert didn’ t finish the first race or start in the second race. The Potters second race was only 3 seconds slower than their first race. Graeme’ s second race was one and a half minutes faster than his first race. Ian had a first lap crash so the two up race was only flown over 100 laps as a final.
Sunday’ s racing started with Slow Goodyear. 11 entries, is this popular or what. We also had 8 entries at Hamilton on the grass. Good flying and some good times. Look at the times to get into the final, 14 seconds between 1st and 5th in the heats, then look at the final times. 28 seconds between 1st and 3rd.. This has to be a great event for the guys who don’ t do much flying and / or are new TR fliers.
Fast Goodyear. The Potters unfortunately crashed as they started to practice on Friday [ wingover into the deck, write off ]. The motor appeared to be okay [ it is a MK3 Rossi 15 prepared by Tim Gillot in America ] and do his motors perform. I had a spare model [ actually it was Ashley’ s Mr D rebuilt model with the GO 21.] I checked the Potters lines to see if they would fit which they did with a few connectors, then sorted plugs, props, fuel for them. They had their hot thumb so they were complete. In the heats Robert had to withdraw after bursting a tank twice, Graeme had a DQ after he picked up my lines on landing. Sometime during the heats Grant decided to fly for me, Brendan was already flicking, so Graeme
Don gets out of the way in 1 / 2A
then pitted for Geoff. My model was also a Mr D with a Rossi 21. Rob Wallace had starting problems also a Mr D with a Go21. Rod had a quick time also with a Mr D powered by an OS 21. Ian was getting tired, Rods model is fast and heavy so I think Glen flew the final. Rod finished in a good time but the starting on both of my models was going off so we withdrew and so did Geoff and Graeme. I have some mods to do.
Percentage Speed was the last event for the day and by this time it was about 3 o’ clock so it was all go for the next 3 hours. Unfortunately a lot of the team race guys had left so we didn’ t have a lot of people left for timing. We had classes 1, 2, and 3 as well as the jets. Thirty two flights with only one of those an attempt. Of course the highlight was Andrew’ s flight of 217 + miles per hour, by crikey he was running around that pylon very damn quick. I am sure most of you will have seen Glen’ s U tube clip. A great way to finish off a fabulous weekend of flying. I think there was about 6 of us left at the end doing the clean up and we left the field around 6.30?
Saturday night we had another great evening at Meg and Andrews house. Too cold for a BBQ so we all sat around inside. Meg did her usual fabulous meals for us and the left overs came out to the field for our lunch. Thank you very much Meg.
Thank you to the Potters for coming over from Sydney to fly with us. Thank you to John Taylor for coming over from Brisbane to fly with us.
Thank you to all who came to fly and also did some timing and lap counting. Something I thought was very good was Geoff Potter picking up the microphone and talking the pilots thru their flying technique, getting their positions correct which makes it easier for everybody to fly.
I am sure there is more stuff to tell the guys that weren’ t there but just a huge thank you to everybody who helped.