2006 Competition Reports and Results

Club Cross country 18th June 2006. Report by Julian Perrott

6 pilots turned up at the Long Man SW bowl for the annual Cross Country Event. Although this was not the first competition we had managed to start it would be the first that the rain, fog and wind gods allowed us to finish!

The weather was warm, sunny and not that windy to start with but all the indications were that thermals should start to form and give us some lift.

I set up a relatively easy course with 4 turning points around the bowl. Base 1 was near the gate at the water reservoir end, 2 was set up a little way back from the normal flying zone at the junction of the main paths. After Base 2 the Low Pass was required. Base 3 was set in the middle of the bowl and 4 facing a Westerly'ish direction and behind the path. The Spot landing was near Base 3 back in the bowl.

So, 4 bases with 10 points for reaching the base and 2 additional points for a full 360 degree turn behind each base within 60 seconds working time. 10 points for the low pass and 10 for the spot landing.

First off was Colin, bravely launching his foam wing on a wing and a prayer! No penalties were given for re-launches which he fully took advantage of. Some of the bases needed a thermal to aid the pilot in even getting to them and Colin was not that lucky. No turns were made behind any of the bases and only 2 of them were reachable for him. I am sure that I saw him "Spot Throw" into his spot landing! A good effort none the less! - 40 points

John Phillips flew on the course with Colin and paid the price for an early slot landing out on both the extreme East and West of the bowl due to a lack of lift which made him "happy" and also gave him a couple of long retrieval walks. A good thing that there was no time limit! Scratchy at best describes the lift John got. No dodgy tactics, fatigue and a bit of Phillips frustration put paid to his efforts. - 20 points

After Colin and John had shown us that the conditions were not quite up to scratch early on, the sun managed to put some energy back and the thermals started properly.

Myself, Tom, Gary and Jim all has good conditions with all bases being reached. The main deciding factor was the available height we could gain for the turns behind the base although Gary had a different tactic. Flying a 24" glider meant that he was able to turn behind the base land if there was not enough height re-launch and still get another turn in..... Must re-visit the rules....

Anyway is was a close run competition between the last 4 competitors with the final results being:

1st. Julian Perrott - 80
2nd Jim Taylor - 78
3rd Gary Harrison - 76
4th Tom Noble - 72
5th Colin Lennox - 40
John Phillips - 20

Speed competition 8th October 2006. Report Julian Perrott

A fairly non favourable weather forecast turned out to be half right.

Again the SW bowl of the Long Man was our site for the morning with a wind that was slightly too far South for the site.

7 competitors turned up early, the course was set up facing the Southerly wind, the starting order was drawn and we were off!

We flew 3 runs at a time to get as many rounds in as fast as possible with crow breaking (or what ever was available) used to level and slow the plane between rounds.

Bumpy, lumpy air greeted all competitors. I had an early scare when my Brio stopped responding to radio inputs causing a lucky light crash with no damage. All gear was range checked with no fault shown, a strange event.

The lumpy air caused quite a few scares, I am sure Gary was showing signs of severe stress after his Aris was jumping up and down across the hill. Time to loose some hair! Once he brought his Elita out he performed consistently with a 48 and 3 runs in the mid to low 50's.

I hit some bad air on base 1 which pitched the Brio into a stall and consequently into the hill. Another plane to mend then!

Tom flew with his usual bendy style whipping his Sting around with gusto considering the conditions, I thought he was going to make hard earth contact on more than a few occasions but his experience saw him through.

Colin was again flying his wing, at least it was slow enough to explain what F3F was whilst he was on the course... Good to have him there competing and supporting the club. Fastest time? 111.25

John brought one of his Revenges and as always flew very aggressively landing out at speed on one occasion. A bigger plane would have seen him further up the results.

Cam flew one of his own design and constructed models which was not ideally suited to either the conditions or the event but managed some respectable times up against some much more developed moulded models. It survived a few interesting landings as well!

Last years winner Jim dusted off the reliable Cito and flew it well to boot. Probably the most consistent of us all on the day.

Good fun and 9 rounds flown with 2 dropped rounds the results are:

1st - Gary Harrison - 6934.04
2nd - Tom Noble - 6660.65
3rd - Jim Taylor - 6499.93
4th - Julian Perrott - 6089.06
5th - John Phillips - 6048.09
6th - Cam Tate - 5261.47
7th - Colin Lennox - 1596.77

A spread sheet with all results can be downloaded by clicking here