Slopers out and about on the weekend

Despite the BBM moans, we are having a pretty good sloping Summer and the mob headed up to Switchblade on Saturday. Newbie Simon Vacy-Lyle was under Ant's wing and Morne had his newly finished Ninja to test fly, then gave friend (also) Simon some flying lessons. The normal suspects Travis, Grant, Luke, Russ, Dean and Rudi were all in attendance and tearing up the mountain as always. Yours truly had a scare again with the bind on Sharkie and opted out thereafter but was kept busy when oldie Dave Hooker and Alfred arrived with Phase 6 and Middle Planes to be wrung out. Guy and Dave Botterill popped in for a short while to take in the action. Most impressive plane for me was Travis's pocket rocket Swift glider - just as kick down fast as the electric version!

All in all a pleasant afternoon was had by all. The six pack of beer award goes the Dean for the first of the newbie wing fliers to achieve a "reverse Sutherland" (half outside loop coming downwind - close to the pilot's nose!) and was wise enough to keep the outside half loop smooth and large with no flicking - well done Dean, name the beer brand!

Sunday saw yours truly headed for Kingsburgh in pleasant e-fly weather conditions to take in the last chance practice ahead of the TOSS event in January. May make no difference to the TOSS result but been great fun doing the learning curve and was chuffed to crack the sixties in terms of percent result, The determined Simon Vacy Lyle found his way down there just in time for the final flights of the experts and was quite taken with the power flying.

This Dean pic says it all, "there is nothing like standing on Switchblade (or Inanda ;-) and slope flying!"

Luke's new speed freak plane just launched, Grant Dean and Russ looking on.

Morne teaching helicopter friend Simon the joy of slope soaring!

Simon and Morne display Morne's kit built Ninja after successful maiden flight -worth all the hard work!

Luke "play DS'ing" as the mist close in and we all head home.

Could not resist adding the Kingsburgh sea view pics from Colin Addis - oh for some Kzn on the coast slope sites! 

Complete change of pace for this Springfielder, flying the pattern league round at Kingsburgh for some TOSS practice.

Another special reminder from Colin of the magic day and how photographs fib - could slope a Gentle Lady though ;-)

Pattern Day Results

Dec 11th 2011

At Kingsburgh Model Aircraft Club

The next event is pattern coaching by Ivan Olivier at the Howick field on Jan 7th and 8th. The next Pattern round is on Jan 22nd at the Valley club.

Judges

Des Cooper, Bruce Clark, Ian Morris

SPORTSMAN
		Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Av of best 2
1	Steven v Niekerk	47,8	66,4	65,8	66,1
2	Dave Greer	59,6	63,9	63,9	63,9
3	Colin Addis	55,5	61,7	62,9	62,3
4	Gijs Wijgers	56,8	58,9	59,9	59,4
5	Stan Hausmann	54,6	60,0	57,3	58,7
6	Lionel Smith	21,9	55,9	53,9	54,9
MASTERS
1	Mark Savage	67,2	70,8	69,1	69,8
2	Arthur Eggar	56,1	63,0	67,9	65,45
F3A
1	Jason Barker	75,5 P	76,8 P	69,4  F	76,2
2	Neil Allen	64,5 P	63,2 P	66,1 P	65,3
3	John Dorse	59,4 P	64,9 P	64,1 P	64,5

This was our first look at the Kingsburgh club's new field at Umkomaas, which has only been in use for four months. With a brilliant view from the top of a hill overlooking the sea and the village, and good facilities, it was very successful. The pattern line we set up was not parallel to any runway or other feature, and some pilots struggled to find the correct box to fly in. The runways also required accurate flying to land on, which kept people on their toes.

Despite gloomy forecasts from Windguru of rain and wind, just the same as at our previous event, we had a stunningly good sunny day with gentle breezes. Some modellers said that it was the first time in months that they had seen their plane against a blue background.

Thank you to our two regular judges Des and Bruce, with Ian Morris joining them, for a sterling bit of work.

In Sportsman Speedy van Niekerk got his act together for rounds 2 and 3 to end up on top, with Dave Greer proving that flying slope soarers does make you a better pilot. Colin and Gijs put in a solid performance. Stan left his large plane in the car, and flew a small one instead. Lionel Smith of control line fame entered Novice, as he had not tried pattern before. When he saw that he was the only entrant he bravely went for the much more difficult Sportsman class instead, and flew well when he worked out what to do.

Mark and Arthur did good flights in the Masters class, particularly when Arthur got to grips with the flightline.

Jason gave us a good display of what the patterns should look like. I flew my ex John Brink "Superman" with Plettenberg power, and enjoyed its smoothness. John Dorse had a big shake up during the week when a battery pack burned out while flying. He landed his Wind110 quickly enough to save the model when he saw a sudden heavy smoke trail.

Regards

Neil Allen

POSTSCRIPT

Having now enjoyed a few of the pattern leagues in the second half of the year, only armed with a R1275 Diamante, R300 Dualsky 900 watt motor, cheapie ESC and a single 3300ma Hyperion battery, I can attest to just how much fun can be enjoyed in the Sportsman class, for very little cost. Gys Wygers has had similar reward from a Big Stick and Colin Addis from a scratch built Neil Allen design, not to forget Stan's Big Beast. Go on give it a tonk, you may surprise yourself and have just as much fun! Cheers Dave.