73rd MFNZ Nationals – Clareville – Jan 3rd to Jan 7th 2021

Clareville was the venue for the 73rd MFNZ Nationals, and once again the weather was pretty good over the 6 days of flying.

Pylon was run over the first day and a half, and then we rolled into our first half day session of IMAC on Day 2, shared with all the RC Scale guys in the afternoon.

Our IMAC session started with a quick fire quiz on judging technicalities, and then a Basic demo for the newbies. We had a great turnout of guys flying in the Basic class. Stu Irvine of Auckland, young Ruben Woods of Woodville having a go for his 1st time with a low wing sport model, Rob Lockyer from the Hawkes Bay flying a 50c Extra, Kim Clarke of Tauranga flying an electric pattern model, another junior Max Briggs of Hamilton flying a 50cc Extra 330LX, and Derek Whelan of Auckland flying a 100cc Extra 260. These guys got through a lot of flying, with 4 doubles rounds flown, making it an 8 round contest for them. Looking at the scores after the first session, it was close at the top, and a case of “who can get a score for the spin” was going to win. Max, Kim, Derek all in with a chance. In the end Derek managed to take out the top spot, with Max and Kim very close behind. Derek scored a promo point averaging over 65% for his rounds, and he tells me he is already working towards Sportsman. Good stuff Derek.

 

All the IMAC Guys !!!

 

In Sportsman IMAC we had a huge field of contestants. Some newbies in there, and some diehard Sportsman guys from way back. Young Sean Galloway had some really bad luck practicing up on the farm the day prior, and encountered some damage to the Galloway 100cc Extra. A flame out miles away, resulted in one of those “jumping a fences” getting in the way. It will repair, but more than a 5 min job. So he flew the Briggs 50cc Extra on a rental policy. Another newbie, Arjen Visser all the way from Auckland, also flew Sportsman his first time, having won Basic at Matamata a couple of years back. He had lots of fun, learned some more  IMAC skills, and improved as the rounds progressed. Mike Briggs aka “Baldrick” had the 3.2m PBG 260 “Big Foot” ready for some action, now with new MTW full length tune pipes fit to the DA150, but some header problems caused a bit of running repairs over the first day and kept him on the back foot. Murray Irvine from Nelson made the journey across the cook straight, and flew a good old trusty Goldberg Extra 300, with an electric setup. Back in the 90’s when IMAC started in NZ, those Goldberg Extra’s were very popular, and they fly great, so if you can find a kit, grab it quick. John Danks “JD” (that gold card carrying Pylon guy from way back) was another guy on a rental scheme, he flew John Knox’s 120cc CAR Extra. JD did well winning two out of the 4 rounds of the Known schedule. And he got a promo point too, but his gold card status cancels it out !! Thanks Winston.

 

Max and Baldrick with the Big Foot 260

 

Aaron Maitland from Tuakau (wow all these guys from way up north, I thought the nats was too far away ?) and young Dom Clarke from Tauranga duked it out for 2nd place with only 31 points separating them in the end. Both flying really well, and both earning promo points as a result. It was pretty cool to watch these guys fly their unknown, which usually sorts out the winner when things are close. Both having moved up from Basic recently, flying an Unknown is something new and can be a bit scary at first. 1st place in Sportsman IMAC went to the Master Pattern flier Paul Tomlinson, aka Grumblingson, who over the past year has gotten into IMAC flying, says he really loves it, and I think he is hooked now. All we need to do is get him to understand that “2 of 4” means the same as “two quarter rolls”, only its quicker to call. Now he says he wants to get a bigger model … good stuff Paul, actually you will need it soon cause the other Masters Pattern flier, Ewan Galloway, has been waiting for you in Intermediate, and he flys a 3.2m with a DA-170 !!!! So you might need a trailer too !

 

Ewan and Sean Galloway on IMAC day

 

Intermediate IMAC, we have been struggling here for a while with the numbers. Where are all these guys that used to fly this class ? Out of interest I just looked up the results from the 2010 Waharoa Rumble, and 18 guys flew Intermediate that year. yep, 18. Things are looking good though, we have a number of guys in Sportsman that will soon be ready to make the move up. Ewan Galloway and Kerry Nichols flew Intermediate. Ewan had his big Slick 360, and Kerry flying his 100cc Extra 260. Kerry has been way too busy with work lately, and just hasn’t had much of a chance to get out and fly lately, and I can tell how rusty he was, cause I was calling for him … woo it was intense at times !!! Hang in there guys, more guys are coming to join you soon.

 

Kim and Dom Clarke both flying IMAC

 

Advanced IMAC – 3 guys flying this. “Slim Jim” James Farrow from Kapiti flying a 120cc Yak 54, helped by his dad Andrew. Hamish “Aircon” Galloway from Norsewood flying the big Slick, and John “Oil Tycoon” Knox from Pukekohe flying John Danks’ Extra 330, 120cc too. I judged this class, and it was a close contest between Hamish and John, both flying massive big sky sequences, and it was “Aircon” Worms that won the unknown, and the Advanced title. Both these guys got promo points, and both of them will be moving up to Unlimited soon, so I can fly too next time … right ???!!! (ask me about the Aircon reference next time you see me having a beer, its a good story.)

 

Two Johns with the redline rental Extra !!

 

The IMAC session was shared with RC Scale, which works great because a few of the IMAC guys also rolled out their Scale models, and competed with them later that afternoon, so they were busy all day. Day 3 saw another split session between Scale and IMAC, with Scale finishing a little earlier than expected, meaning we had some extra time to get IMAC cranking through again. The reasoning behind the half days slots, is if we get hit by bad weather, we have less of a chance of loosing our entire event. The weather was pretty good over the 2 days of RC Scale and IMAC flying, and plenty of sun burn, wind burn, and cold drinks required. 19 guys flew IMAC, which was a good turnout.

IMAC Results

Basic

Rank Pilot Final Score Known
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
Seq 1 Seq 2 Seq 1 Seq 2 Seq 1 Seq 2 Seq 1 Seq 2
1 Derek Whelan (100cc Extra 260) 5,995.4 1,000.0 995.4 1,000.0 1,000.0 982.6
thrown
1,000.0 1,000.0 985.7
thrown
2 Max Briggs “Twiggy” (50cc Extra 330LX) 5,698.9 832.6 1,000.0 929.1 795.3
thrown
1,000.0 803.6
thrown
937.1 1,000.0
3 Kim Clarke (Acuity) 5,640.2 879.0 946.2 824.7
thrown
824.5
thrown
866.2 988.5 981.5 978.9
4 Rob Lockyer (50cc Extra 330LX) 4,218.3 639.0 973.1 680.9 595.0 768.1 562.2 0.0
thrown
0.0
thrown
5 Ruben Woods (Tiger II) 4,127.7 484.4
thrown
608.7 491.7 478.4
thrown
787.0 722.5 815.3 702.5
6 Stu Irvine (Electric Extra I think ?) 2,841.1 791.7 657.9 718.2 673.3 0.0
thrown
0.0
thrown
0.0 0.0

Sportsman

Rank Pilot Final Score Known Unknown
Round 1 Round 2 Round 1
Seq 1 Seq 2 Seq 1 Seq 2
1 Paul Tomlinson “Grumblingson” (50cc Extra 330LX) 3,979.5 1,000.0 1,000.0 979.5 917.5
thrown
1,000.0
2 Aaron Maitland “Sparky” (Slick) 3,761.4 937.0 942.2 951.5 836.6
thrown
930.7
3 Dom Clarke (60cc Extra 330LX) 3,730.7 970.2 929.2 835.2
thrown
870.1 961.2
4 John Danks “JD” (Redline Rental Extra 330SC) 3,692.0 865.5 864.5
thrown
1,000.0 1,000.0 826.6
5 Murray Irvine (Goldberg Extra 300) 3,403.2 828.8 805.9
thrown
849.3 871.1 854.0
6 Mike Briggs “Baldrick” (Extra 260 Big Foot) 3,246.9 722.4
thrown
789.4 783.9 806.4 867.2
7 Arjen Visser (50cc Extra) 3,187.4 625.4
thrown
719.2 798.7 831.3 838.3
8 Sean Galloway (50cc Extra 330LX Thanks Uncle Bogan) 2,598.1 670.6 592.8 793.4 555.5
thrown
541.3

Intermediate

Rank Pilot Final Score Known Unknown
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 1
Seq 1 Seq 2 Seq 1 Seq 1 Seq 2
1 Ewan Galloway (170cc Slick 360) 5,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0
thrown
1,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0
2 Kerry Nichols (100cc Extra 260) 3,299.2 622.2 820.5 897.0 432.4
thrown
602.0 357.5

Advanced

Rank Pilot Final Score Known Unknown
Round 1 Round 2 Round 1
Seq 1 Seq 2 Seq 1 Seq 2
1 Hamish Galloway “Worms” (170cc Slick 360 with Aircon !!) 4,000.0 843.0
thrown
1,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0
2 John Knox “Oil Tycoon” (120cc Extra 330SC) 3,862.6 1,000.0 969.9 911.1
thrown
978.5 914.1
3 James Farrow “Slim Jim” (120cc QQ Yak 54) 2,596.7 765.5 651.5 468.2
thrown
662.8 516.9

 

Next up, Pattern. Held on Day 4 of the Nats, we had a whole day set aside for Pattern, and a busy day it needed to be, with plenty of flying to get through, and some bad weather forecast. The day started a bit rubbish, dark clouds on the horizon, and a chilly breeze. But we had hot coffee !!! Derek Whelan had scored the contact number for the “only place with good coffee” this side of the bombay’s it seems, in the form of a mobile coffee caravan. A quick text the night before to give the official thumbs up, yes please come and setup if you want, and hey presto, hot coffee was operational just behind the flightline all day. The soaring guys were very jealous when I told them, I can assure you !!!

 

Coffee and Slushees !!

 

As we did on IMAC day, we started the day with a quick fire questions and answers session to get everyone in the frame of mind for judging precision aerobatics flown in the box. Then a quick clubman demo for the newbies. As a SIG we have been working hard to promote Clubman for the past few years, and its great to see that hard work is paying off. Good numbers in Clubman !! 5 guys lining up to give it a go. Anthony Wright with a foamie did not get too far into his first flight, and suffered ESC problems , and that was him done unfortunately. He was our roving photographer for the rest fo the day, and posted lots of photos for us. Thank Ant !! Les King (Pylon guy and apparently Nats Junior Champ back in the 70’s ?) all the way from the far north, Paihia in fact, flew a pattern style foamie called a “Splendor”. Looks like just the thing for getting into Aerobatics. His partner Judy called for him, what a team these two are. They had a great nats.

 

Les and Judy King with their Clubman model. All the way from Paihia !!

 

But Clubman was no place for the boomers this time, it was to be an all out battle between 3 juniors. Ricky Maitland flying a high wing trainer “Senior Sixty” you should see him go. 11 years old and really improving with every event. Ricky had been out practicing in the wind, and he did not fear what was blowing strong enough to put any regular “sunday club flyer” off to hide in the clubhouse. Ricky was 3rd in Clubman, and he had a busy time at the Nats calling for his Dad in Scale, IMAC and Pattern. Next up local boy Ruben Woods from Woodville. Ruben has been to the nats a few times before with his Grandad Lew Woods “Pinky”, as a team helper. So it was really good to see him competing for his first time. Ruben flew a low wing sports model called a Tiger 2. Helped by Baldrick, he flew well and finished in 2nd Place. Clubman was won by Max Briggs. Max is 16 now, and has been working on Clubman for a couple of years. He’s moved up from the crusty old under powered “Kwik Fli”, to the bigger 50cc Extra 330, and he had plenty of grunt to cut through the strong wind. I explained to Max after he was presented with the new Clubman Trophy (the old one seems to be lost somewhere in the south island, so we have gotten a new Trophy, and it will be back dated / engraved with all the history we can find), that winning Clubman at the Nats means you are out of Clubman for life. He was pretty happy with that bit of news, although I’m not sure he realizes that means a move to Expert, and he will actually need to put some practice in.

 

Clubman Pattern guys and gals (and a way ward thumb)

 

Expert Pattern – This class was introduced about 3 or 4 years back, as a stepping stone between Clubman and Masters. The numbers have been building slowly, and it was great to see a really strong field of 6 guys flying in Expert. The F3A rules apply here, which means 2m x 2m x 5kg max. This limits a few of the IMAC guys who have the ability to fly this class, but don’t have the model to do it with. We are starting to see a few more guys get full house pattern models up and running now, and no surprise electric is popular and perhaps makes it a bit easier to get started.

 

Murray Irvine from Nelson with his Mythos

 

With the help of Andrews F3A Zone GPS guided box placement app, the poles went up as the Clubman guys were still flying. The box was setup running along a west facing fence line. Not directly into wind, more like at a 45 to the wind, with it blowing out. We would like to set the box up directly into wind, but the RC1 site has a few hedges and tree lines, that meant if we did, some of the poles would be hidden. The wind was probably blowing 10 to 15 knots (and I heard the Soaring guys had already canned their flying for the day) over your right shoulder, so it would be interesting to see who knew how to work the rudder !! Baldrick dusty off his “Ex Bogan” Vanquish, and made a start, but had some issues in round 3. Loss of power and landing miles away, downwind, sustaining some landing damage when he ended up in the only bit of rough river bed anywhere to be seen. Actually I heard that when it happened, Worms who was calling for him at the time, did the old “reach around”, to try and land the plane safely for him. Luckily he could see over Baldrick’s head no problems at all. Murray Irvine from Nelson was at the nats again, this time flying his Sebart Mythos. Murray has been working on Expert for a couple of Nats now, and is making improvements each time we see him. Young James “Slim Jim” Farrow from Kapiti has been coming to the nats for ages now, with his dad Andrew “The Pastie Pom” in tow. Slim Jim got his hands on an Ex Gwyn Avenell “Bi-Side” Biplane model during the winter. Bolted in a motor and ESC, got some batteries and started practicing some Pattern. He went great for his first time, and is now getting the hang of fitting it all in the box, and making it all look good. Well done Jim, and also thanks to Andrew who keeps me in check when it comes to beverage selection. Jim was a very close 4th place just behind Aaron Maitland. Aaron only just moved from Clubman up to Expert since the last nats, and he has been practicing lots up at the Airsail site in the wind. Not sure what motor he was running, every time I see that little Extra fly, it has just had a bigger motor shoehorned in  it !! Aaron is in the process of getting his hands on a 2m x 2m setup. 1st place in Expert was a battle of between two juniors, both about the same age I think ? They must be 13 / 14 ? Dom Clarke and Sean Galloway. Both winning a round each, there was some close flying between the two of them, and things look really good for the future of Pattern in NZ. It won’t be long before both these youngsters have moved through Masters and are giving the F3A Boomers a crack. That is unless cars, jet ski’s and girls get in the way ? Unfortunately there was a problem with the scoring, and it was not picked up until the following day when official results needed to be submitted. One of the flights for Sean had a single score from one judge, for one maneuver, that had not been entered, and it was not picked up before we did our on field prize giving. The margin was enough to change the result between 1st and 2nd. So we announced Dom as being the winner, but actually it was Sean that prevailed this time once the scoring error was corrected. Apologies once again from the CD that this slip up occurred, it just shows how close these two were in their flying.

 

F3A action. Hamish Galloway Angelit, Palmer next in line, looks like he’s on Oxygen, John Knox flying.

 

Masters A20 – Paul Tomlinson and Ewan Galloway were the only guys that flew Masters A20. The numbers here have been thin for a while now, but things will change soon. In fact I can here Paul Tomlinson right now in his pommy accent “I’m sick of being beaten by these bloody juniors, can they just hurry up and move to F3 bloody A ?” !! Ewan Galloway was 2nd in Masters, and Paul Tomlinson was the winner. Paul flying contra Bipe and Ewan flying his new Allure.

 

Aaron and Ricky Maitland were busy all week

 

F3A – 4 guys flew F3A, Bogan, John Knox, Hamish Galloway and Andrew Palmer. It was a pretty good crosswind day, and the rudder was needed in huge amounts at times. We have a new F3A National Champ in Andrew Palmer. Andrew was flying something new “Oxygen”, with contra setup. Hamish Galloway was 2nd flying his new model an Wolfgang Matt “Angelit”. John Knox and Bogan had issues. John managed to take off with a “mixture” of charged, and not charged batteries, resulting in a short round 2 flight. And Bogan had a problem his “mixture” in round 3, resulting in a YS big bang flame out just before starting the final sequence. On later inspection, it looks like my needle valve was knocked “very lean” at some point, either during transit to the nats, or when I picked the model up for the group photo. Another thing to add to the “Shit Happens” list. Being a 3 round contest, all 3 rounds counted, so no room for error. Congrats to Andrew who has been working on his F3A a lot in the past few years, with some great results overseas. Also .. did you see how skinny he is now !!! Says the solution to the problem was simple, he just stopped eating.

 

Classic Flyers and callers and celebrity judges too !!

 

Classic Pattern !!!  This was a lot of fun, and things are building here. We had a bunch of guys flying really cool classic models. John Knox with his “fresh off the paint gun” Phoenix, complete with Rossi on pipe. Lew Woods with his Phoenix too. Murray Nelson with his Typhoon. Not strictly classic, but with the retracts, it looks the part. Just needs the noise Murray !!! Aaron Maitland flying an Ugly Stick. Both Worms and Bogan flying Bogans pride and joy, the Magic. Its nice from far … but far from nice. We flew Classic over two flightlines, it was all over in a flash. Screaming 60’s, really loud calling from the pilots, lots of fun. Celebrity Judges too !! Thanks Ross and Noeline Craighead, Gary Mercer (who took time away from his busy job at the pet shop), and Derek Whelan. Get a classic model going and join in on the action.

 

All the Pattern fliers !!

 

Well that was the 73rd Nats done and dusted for another year. Over the weeks flying we had 25 guys flying some form of Aerobatics, IMAC, Pattern, Classic etc. A really great turnout. I think overall the nats had around 150 entries, which is good to see. There is lots of other stuff going on at the Nats to see and do, race some Pylon, fly some RC Scale, do Radian, chase an Aggy model. You can be as busy as you want to be, and like me need Day 5 off to rest and recover. For many the flying just gets in the way of the socializing. My advice for those that think the nats is “too far away”, take two spoons of concrete and harden up. Don’t be soft. Go to the Nats, you will enjoy it. 150 of us did.

See you all next time !!!

Pattern Results

 

Classic

Rank Pilot Final Score Known
Round 1 Round 2
Seq 1 Seq 1
1 Frazer Briggs “Bogan” (Hanno Prettner Magic) 2,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0
2 John Knox “Oil Tycoon” (Phoenix) 1,836.0 890.2 945.8
3 Hamish Galloway “Worms” (Bogans Magic) 1,496.5 660.9 835.6
4 Aaron Maitland “Sparky” (Ugly Stick) 1,453.8 736.0 717.7
5 Murray Irvine (Typhoon) 1,277.9 612.7 665.2
6 Lew Woods “Pinky” (Phoenix) 749.8 381.5 368.3

Clubman

Rank Pilot Final Score Known
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3
Seq 1 Seq 1 Seq 1
1 Max Briggs “Twiggy” (Extra 330LX) 3,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0
2 Ruben Woods (Tiger II) 2,773.6 839.2 994.8 939.6
3 Ricky Maitland “Tricky Ricky” (Super Dooper Sixty) 2,346.2 783.2 791.4 771.6
4 Les King (Splendor) 1,821.8 618.9 648.3 554.6
5 Anthony Wright (Foamie) 199.3 199.3 0.0 0.0

Expert

Rank Pilot Final Score Known
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3
Seq 1 Seq 1 Seq 1
1 Sean Galloway (Nuance) 2,932.7 1,000.0 932.7 1,000.0
2 Dom Clarke (Aquity) 2,883.7 898.6 1,000.0 985.0
3 Aaron Maitland “Sparky” (That little Extra with the big motor !!) 2,807.1 951.3 930.7 925.1
4 James Farrow “Slim Jim” (Bi-Side) 2,782.2 968.8 852.7 960.7
5 Murray Irvine (Mythos) 2,441.1 803.1 776.6 861.4
6 Mike Briggs “Baldrick” (Vanquish) 1,439.8 715.4 597.1 127.3

Masters A20

Rank Pilot Final Score Known
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3
Seq 1 Seq 1 Seq 1
1 Paul Tomlinson “Grumblingson” (Bi-Side Contra) 3,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0 1,000.0
2 Ewan Galloway (Allure) 2,528.5 860.2 784.4 884.0

F3A P21

Rank Pilot Final Score Known
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3
Seq 1 Seq 1 Seq 1
1 Andrew Palmer (Oxygen) 2,993.4 1,000.0 993.4 1,000.0
2 Hamish Galloway “Worms” (Angelit) 2,773.1 901.3 926.1 945.8
3 John Knox “Oil Tycoon” (Allure on 7.5S) 2,215.9 956.2 304.4 955.2
4 Frazer Briggs “Bogan” (YS Allure) 1,956.2 956.2 1,000.0 0.0

 

Aerobatic Champion Results

Rank Name Pattern IMAC Classic Bonus Average Average + Bonus Max Score Total
1 Frazer Briggs 51.12% 83.33% 2.00% 67.23% 69.23% 83.33% 83.33%
2 Andrew Palmer 81.00% 81.00% 81.00% 81.00% 81.00%
3 Max Briggs (Jnr) 77.40% 63.45% 2.00% 70.43% 72.43% 77.40% 77.40%
4 John Knox 59.84% 65.19% 76.62% 4.00% 67.22% 71.22% 76.62% 76.62%
5 Hamish Galloway 75.08% 69.01% 62.76% 4.00% 68.95% 72.95% 75.08% 75.08%
6 Paul Tomlinson 64.63% 75.03% 2.00% 69.83% 71.83% 75.03% 75.03%
7 Ruben Woods (Jnr) 71.62% 46.46% 2.00% 59.04% 61.04% 71.62% 71.62%
8 Dom Clarke (Jnr) 65.76% 71.44% 2.00% 68.60% 70.60% 71.44% 71.44%
9 Aaron Maitland 63.99% 70.83% 60.53% 4.00% 65.12% 69.12% 70.83% 70.83%
10 Derek Whelan 69.63% 69.63% 69.63% 69.63% 69.63%
11 John Danks 67.66% 67.66% 67.66% 67.66% 67.66%
12 Sean Galloway (Jnr) 66.88% 48.40% 2.00% 57.64% 59.64% 66.88% 66.88%
13 Murray Irvine 55.70% 64.08% 53.37% 4.00% 57.72% 61.72% 64.08% 64.08%
14 Kim Clarke 63.63% 63.63% 63.63% 63.63% 63.63%
15 James Farrow 63.46% 43.84% 2.00% 53.65% 55.65% 63.46% 63.46%
16 Mike Briggs 32.50% 60.81% 2.00% 46.66% 48.66% 60.81% 60.81%
17 Ricky Maitland (Jnr) 60.52% 60.52% 60.52% 60.52% 60.52%
18 Ewan Galloway 54.44% 57.98% 2.00% 56.21% 58.21% 57.98% 58.21%
19 Arjen Visser 57.73% 57.73% 57.73% 57.73% 57.73%
20 Les King 46.93% 46.93% 46.93% 46.93% 46.93%
21 Rob Lockyer 46.86% 46.86% 46.86% 46.86% 46.86%
22 Kerry Nichols 35.32% 35.32% 35.32% 35.32% 35.32%
23 Lew Woods 32.31% 32.31% 32.31% 32.31% 32.31%
24 Stewart Irvine 30.60% 30.60% 30.60% 30.60% 30.60%
25 Anthony Wright 5.00% 5.00% 5.00% 5.00% 5.00%

Calculation of Aerobatics Champion at the Nationals. The champion points are your best single percentage (of maximum possible points) for IMAC, pattern or classic.
OR if you flew multiple events, calculate the average percentage and add 2% if you flew two events OR 4% if you flew three events!

 

Bogan won Aerobatic Champion (again .. that bloody trophy is a mission to cart around), with Andrew Palmer a close second. Congrats to Max Briggs who was 3rd, and top Junior. Max was awarded the Mike Johnson Memorial Trophy for his efforts.

 

And now a big gallery of photos !!! Thanks for taking these photos guys (Anthony Wright the roving paparazzi !!!).

 

Click the first photo for a bigger view, then you can scroll through them. They are all captioned.