Saturday 16th February saw the first Funfly competition of the year taking place at the club, the usual sound of engines was somewhat decreased with electric setups making up half the planes. As usual high levels of pre-competition practice were evident with not just trimming flights needed, but test flights of new models/setups and radio re-installations!
With the weather improved from what it’s been for about 18 months, Climb & Glide was fine if you stayed out of the low cloud patches (Me!) and your engine quit when asked (Sean!), but with the field still wet, touch & go’s were out, as was the Tripple Thrash. So some alternatives were sought and the old favourite of one minute of loops was settled on and for a change one of the mystery rounds used at the Nats, Roops.
What are Roops I hear you cry!
Roops consist of a one minute flight including a countdown for the pilot in which to complete as many sequences of one roll followed by one loop as possible, with the plane to touch down before the minute is up. For every second over one minute, the pilot looses two points. In my case, I performed 11 sequences but went three seconds over so lost six points, in Paul’s case a score of nine with a penalty of -22 would have resulted in a score of -13, but we were generous and gave him zero!
The comp finished as usual with the Limbo, with some good scores, some not so good scores and one buckled undercarriage (ask me how I know!)
Final positions were
1st Mathew 3713
2nd Alistair 2937
3rd Brian 2912
4th Sean 2414
5th Iain 2178
6th Paul 1440
Soaring
After lunch, with conditions favourable, and the experience gained from last years highly unpredictable weather, it was decided to run the e-soaring competition scheduled for the following weekend. Fair notice had been given to be prepared for this, so suitable models were on hand. Unfortunately I had to leave early so I can’t provide a very detailed report, only the results. Two rounds were flown, with a 20 second climb followed by a glide, with bonus for spot landing, which nobody got!
1st Matthew 2000
2nd Brian 1559
3rd Paul 1207
4th Alistair 1207
Happy Landings,
Iain