November 2006 South Island JR Series Pattern Comp - Round 6 Christchurch
By Jonathan (1CAN) Elliott
Friday lunchtime rolls around and I am finished work for the day. Head home to pickup me Mrs’s (who has a big weekend of shopping planned!) and get on the road heading for CHCH. A quick stop in Oamaru at the local bike shop for some 2 stroke oil for the new DA150 and in 4 hours we are arriving in CHCH.
Arrive at Moped’s to drop off the trailer where he greets me with a mouth full of KFC, then we head off and find our Hotel.
Saturday morning arrives hot, sunny and windy (what more can you expect in CHCH, the windiest place in the South Island). After a late start to the day (thanks to the gliding folk using the field all morning) I arrive at the Willows flying site around 11am where there are already a few people hanging around waiting to get started.
Moped and myself head off for a little 4-wheel driving in his Primera to setup the poles, Moped has used his surveying skills and work equipment to setup the Willows site with marker pegs at each flag position which makes setting up the poles a piece of piss. By the time we return everyone had arrived and was ready to go.
So Sportsman was first up, we had 3 veterans and 1 new kid competing and they all flew very well. Al Woodley took charge once again and flew his Midwest Extra very consistently to finish in first place. New pattern recruit Marcus Sargent from Timaru was flying an electric powered Flinton Edge 540, he flew some very nice maneuvers which put him in 2nd place. Rob Fenwick and Mike Maurice battled it out for 3rd and 4th with Rob eventually pulling ahead with the trusty Leopard to finish in 3rd. Mike flew his consistent style with his Goldberg Extra to finish in 4th.
Advanced was next with 2 competitors. Alex Hewson who has just stepped up from Sportsman and is now flying an ex-Broad Typhoon powered by OS 140RX, and Dave Broad made his big come back flying Moped’s borrowed Matrix. Alex flew very well considering this was his second ever time through the sequence and ended up in 2nd place. He just needs to use all the power of the 140 and draw some bigger maneuvers in the sky. Dave was flying fantastically well, you would have never known he has been pissed for the last 2 years. He arrived at the field to just have a look, and ended up requesting a 3rd round as he was having so much fun. I heard mumbles of getting another plane, and starting to fly again …… you never know!!
By now there was a nice stiff breeze blowing for the F3A boys, as usual Moped and myself were the only 2 flying F3A. We put in 3 rounds, both flying fairly well with Moped ending up second and myself in First.
A big thanks to Tarsh (Moped’s Mrs) for driving the computer all afternoon entering scores. After the award’s were handed out the IMAC machine’s appeared, which seem to be getting very popular in the South Island. I had a couple of flights on my new 40% 260, and Moped put in a few flights on his DA50 powered “Wild Bunny” Extra which seems to be flying really good, he was getting it down on the deck as the wind dropped.
After we had packed up everything and made a quick stop at BK for tea it was off to some hall where we had 2 hours of indoor booked. Alex Hewson and Marcus Sargent were there with a small airforce of electric models, with everything from Marcus’s own design ‘Foxtrot’ to the prototype Joker 2. Moped and myself had our trusty Frakers. Moped had his limbo poles out which claimed the most casualties for the evening, and we were even treated to live entertainment with Phil Corfield on the guitar and High Tower providing very loud vocals!! It was a good night that ended with firework carnage on the field next to the hall, Alex had his Foxtrot out amongst the fireworks and after a rather big firework managed to fall on its side he managed to burn a hole in his brand new Flying Giants tee shirt!! That’s what you get for continuing to fly while the rest of us dive for cover.
Sunday was the day of the first South Island Freestyle Aerobatics Rally. I woke to strong NW winds so headed off to the field where I found the crew taking shelter behind a van. Once again Alex and Marcus had their fleet out and were making the most of the windy conditions. Moped and myself worked on Dave Austins new YS110 powered Goldberg Sukhoi ARF and got it running sweet. Moped put in a couple of test flights and commented that it flew very well.
The call was made to Jason Pickering from Model Airworks to bring out some lunch. He arrived with all sorts of goodies and one of his Precision Aerobatics 100” ZDZ 80 powered Extra’s. This machine looked the business complete with Emcotec power unit, after installing some “vice-grips” under the cowl for nose weight I took to the sky with it. It was flying good considering it was a near new model, quite similar to the Comp-ARF 2.6m Extra in many ways. Unfortunately I had to land after 1 of the pull-pull rudder cables let go.
The Freestyle Aerobatics Rally had a couple of sponsors (Model Airworks, and Smart-Fly) who had donated some prizes for the event. A Precision Aerobatics Katana Mini ARF kit from Model Airworks, plus a Power Expander and Turbo Regulator from Smart-Fly. Everybody who had registered for this event was put in the draw and 3 names were pulled from the hat. High Tower won the Turbo Regulator, Gary won the Power Expander and 1CAN won the Katana Mini kit. A huge thanks to Model Airworks and Smart-Fly for supporting this event.
So with my new Katana loaded into the car it was time to pick up Shazz from the Mall and head home. Thanks to the Christchurch Boys especially Moped for organizing a very successful weekend.
Cheers, 1CAN
