Sunday Bill Vos Thermal at Karkloof [Dennis Bird]

Hi Guys,

To all that attended round two of the BVMT on 11 April (Pilots, helpers and their families) I would like to say a big "thank you". Karkloof is a wonderful place to spend an autumn day doing what we love most - hunting and chasing thermals and spending time with like minded people.

The weather was perfect and the conditions challenging. The top four finishers seemed to work out where the thermals were most of the time and Michel had an awesome day. His worst score was 9:47 and 2m while his best was 9:54 and 1m. Watch out the Goodrums! Young Ryan also had a fantastic day, finishing second overall, followed closely by dad Simon. Russell had a good day finishing 4th. Andre surprised many with a solid performance finishing 5th.

Hard luck Brad on breaking your plane. I hope you can have it fixed before the next round. You were doing so well until that unfortunate line break.
Mark also put a plane into the trees, as a result of mixed identity, on his very first launch. Hard luck. I hope you can get it fixed soon.

A special thanks to our scorer who produced the results within minutes of the final slot. What a weight off my shoulders. After the planes were packed away some folk stayed to cook some meat and enjoy the afternoon sun.
Thanks to Russ for the use of his gas braai.

Cheers until next time.

Dennis

Saturday Winston blow

Thanks to Bill for the magic pics of Russ, Brad and the lads doing some DS play during the best for a long time blow at Winston last Saturday - dozy Dave managed to sleep through the whole thing......! Russ has had to concede that Greg West has the fastest Toko Russ has seen at Winston.

Dynamic day at Winston

A strong South Westerly on Saturday meant by the afternoon we had a whole gaggle of the usual suspects gracing the slope, as well as a few others. Russ joined us which was great, and we have a newbee Johan fresh from the Cape. Brad, Greg, Russ where all flying Tokkers and coming over the back now and again for DS (dynamic soaring) attempts which was fun. Even Zigs tried some DS with his foamie. The rest of us flying our Zaggies, with occational combat and visit from a Lanner Falcon. Bill also flew his 4m Ventus. We had 2 Mikes, and Eric & Richard who joined us late in the day.

We even got an action shot of Mike as his plane hit a tree!

Swap Meet at Winston Park

A very successful swap meeting was held on Saturday 27 March at the Winston Park sports fields, organised by Eric Arnaud. There was a better than expected response to this inaugural event which may in future become a regular happening. There were plenty of bargains to be had, and I believe quite a few items were traded. I personally picked up a 1/3 scale pilot in textile jacket and hat for R60, plus a 1m wingspan Tucano, with 2 servos, for R150.

As a sloper, it was a bit disappointing not to see many gliders/slopers for sale - maybe next time!

Here are a few random pictures taken at the event.

Springfield Chickens visit the Springfield Denkit lads

The Denkit team have also been enjoying the benefit of sunrise electric flying and Graham invited us to join them Saturday morning, Hits were the idyllic venue, Kobus Red Baron mini Stick, Nelson double size Wipeout, Russ's Pluma and the formation prop hanging from Dean and Andre. Misses were the newer half thickness Wipeouts that suffered some control blow back at full speed, otherwise fine at lower tonk. A magic morning, thanks lads.

Largest 'nother use for the Witblitz motor

Mark paid a visit to Eric Arnaud who produced the foam ribs etc on his computer foam cutter for a super lightweight hollow Zagi. One can make out the ribs through the Isofoam skin. Flew a treat straight off in the magic still air yesterday morning. The Witblitz size motor providing plenty of grunt for large viceless zagi. By way of comparison is the little BD5 Mark has also built for the Witblitz motor.....

Umdloti Electron busy bees

[top] The Saturday morning brood of local yokel Wipeouts. Mike Smith's 12 o'clock, Simon Nelson's 9 'o'clock, Paul Young's centre, Mark Phillip's 3 o'clock and a lightweight 6mm wing thickness "Parkshark" version at 6 o'clock from Simon Nelson (2;-).

[Middle] Weekend project e-limit-x from Mark Phillips, inspired by Pinetown's Dave.

[bottom] Cloudy Sunday spray project from Russ Conradt, so to be covered in laminate - bright!

Population growth in Wipeouts......

Mark's and my experience so far has been that the distinctive "stripe" tween the white and colour, in contrast to the solid white underneath, is extremely effective for visibility. Mark retained this for the [top pic] Dave clone version, timed at under two hour build.

Paul [middle pic] inverted the contrast, still managing to keep the visibility - the pic does it no justice and the silver fin looked really neat. This craft scored best with me by virtue of its lightness on the 800 ma pack and felt the sweetest on the sticks. Short flight and Paul will sort the minor issues.

Simon/Ryan [bottom pic] reverted to the original "Park Shark" blaze of colours and should still be as visible, time will tell whether the whit stripe should have been retained. Mike Smith went away clutching some tracings to fit to his new cheapie brushless motor and will hopefully bear the lightness aspect in mind.

Shhhhhhhh...........

Last retro I promise..... ;-)

I had completely forgotten talk of an even earlier slope Nats at the Kloof golf course site in '72 - until seeing this Brian pic of nice spread of craft on that magic slope (all gone now in to Eagles crest development). Pardon if there is some re-posting in this lot....

This ad hoc pic of big man Ernie Morrison launching during that era probably mean little to most but he was one the first thermal bods, along with Bob (now Rob) Howse and Mike Sparks that I saw at my viewing of a Natal Thermal champs at Cato Ridge, won by Chris Goble, who my Dad knew from Barlows. That's what sparked the thermal bug. The reason for this post was because Ernie's son Mike Morrison became a legend by rolling his Dad's car down Cliffdale (so I was told ;-)

A local slope provincial or nationals.......?

I tripped over these again while looking through Brian Broad's pics he passed to me on disk. I have been spluttering excuses to the Toss guys on why we could not put something on up here. When one looks at the Natal '73 slope pic and the other '74 Key Ridge slope Nats pics below that, we are wussies......

This Basil (anyone know who?) launching off the NE part of Cliffdale, looking at Alverstone.











The slope judges - could easy be the Toss judges some 36 years later.... ;-)












Local legend Monte Malherbe. The rocky launch area is misleading, if one landed back from the launch area, there is only flat top lush green grass at Cliffdale....









About to launch at the '74 Nats.

Large size retro "Wipeout"

This pic from a bunch Brian Broad passed to me a while back - just to show the young 'uns flying with us that we were not first with contemplating a large size delta. Uncle Arthur Pienaar with one of his in 1978 at Cato Manor field. Could prop hang all day, as I remember it, team...... (there's a challenge ;-) Uncle Arthur in to his eighties and flying helicopters these days. Biggest on the similar theme I seem to recall was Neil Allen's huge flying iron.

Mark's Wipeout clone

Mark Phillips knocked off this eyeballed red/black Wipeout clone, using a lamination of two sheets of local 6mm thick "Isoboard" foam of similar texture to Depron. The fuselage a tad sleeker and a simple single main spar makes the project suitably rigid and, given that our intentions are not combat, quite rigid enough. Mark's was sixty odd grams heavier but, if anything, flew even more locked down than the original. Having watched Paul and Mark cut a fresh combination with Stanley blade in a shade over twenty minutes, it would seem that Mark's claim of a two hour build time is quite attainable. The Witblitz drive train again proved ideal for the project size, although Sy1 is about to build a double size version for displays, should be interesting........