Wednesday, August 23, 2006

South African F3B Team Qualifier #2 report

First I gave you some photos, later you were able to see the results, and now I can give you a report that has been made by Charles Flee and he has published in MGASA group. He has let me published in f3b at home blog also. Thank you Charles!!!! Pay atention:

"At first the MGA was concerned as a CD was unable to be found to officiate at this contest. Malcolm Siebert then graciously offered to perform CD duties for us as he was keen to learn the intricacies (substitute "horrors of handling a group of pre-school kids on a trip to the zoo") and details of conducting F3B competitions. He felt that as long as the pilots were prepared to put up with a novice, he'd give it a go. All went well and Malcolm had no major issues to deal with and handled the competition competently.

As we arrived on Saturday we were greeted by this large green albeit patchy kikuyu grass field. As I alighted from my vehicle I breathed in deeply to savour the fresh morning air, freshly manured grass is the just best to fly off. Mind you, the field is going to be a cracker in a few weeks time once the grass has sprouted after the first rains. The helpers (all volunteers) recruited from BERG and Groengoud must be applauded for the unenviable task of setting up and the marshalling they performed at Base 'B'. A very big THANK YOU and well done for them, your efforts are most appreciated. The Catering Crew at Groengoud also deserves a special mention for the neat lunch boxes they provided. Just what the doctor ordered and no gas or fires were required at the field. There was a scare on 35.080 the weekend before the competition and it was decided to avoid that frequency and monitor it before taking further action through SAMAA and ICASA. Some demo flights were flown to introduce the novice marshals to the Base `B' requirements for the distance and speed tasks and by this time a swirling breeze had started to indicate great things for the day ahead.

Round 1: Kurt Stockton with the impetuousness of youth had a few oopsies at first, but I think he will start showing his potential very soon and the seasoned competitors had better look back over their shoulders. It was great to see old campaigners like John Monk and Peter Eagle back in the fray. There were many high scores in duration and distance this round so the buoyant air was there. Speed suffered somewhat, in general it seemed that the "eyes" or the ballast were not in yet.

Round 2: Started with the speed task but still the pilots were struggling with the buoyant air. Craig pulled the best run with a 19.9; hopefully things would improve later on. Distance also seemed to suffer as the laps dwindled. Herman Weber had a serious glitch on an outward lap, with two snap rolls and a brilliant recovery he managed to save his glider by planting it on the course. Unfortunately this put paid to his distance task as the contact with mother earth had neatly removed his v-tail. Fortunately he was able to continue – Ja! boer maak `n plan. During this round Wolfgang Steffny tried his hand at commentating and this was much appreciated by the few onlookers and the F3B crowd - Do we have a budding broadcaster here? John Monk's come back campaign startled our more serious competitors as he posted a duration score of 9 minutes 59 seconds and a 2 meter spot. Awesome John!

Round 3: Peter Eagle had an interesting speed run in round 3, Pete's pop-offs resulted from two very bright sun spots during his launch attempts forcing him to retire from the round "blinded by the light", so to say. Another good set of duration results but speed and distance seemed to fall off again. It was interesting to sit and watch the methods employed by the various helpers to assist the pilots in their turnarounds. At times during the distance tasks base `A' sounded like a morning market in Cape Town with the calls intermingling and getting louder as the scratch for laps became more desperate.

Round 4: Just as we wanted to begin the Round a rogue flyer appeared on the scene in the cul-de-sac near the Groengoud Farm entrance, one of the Groengoud club helpers paid this rogue flyer a visit and the problem soon went away. Unfortunately the demo flights earlier in the day had eaten drastically into our time available. Consequently we ended up flying round 4 as the sun was setting and had to pack up in the fading light. Despite this, the F3B pilot being the tough "guts and glory" types they are, managed to pull this off with no damage to the expensive airframes. There were good duration scores during the round and considering the time of day, distance and speed were still not quite there. It's early in the season I suppose and things can only get better as our pilots get more F3B practice.

Ultimately a great time was had by all and we now have another aspirant CD plus some more helpers that can assist in the running of MGASA gliding competitions. We're going to have to be careful about the "Park" flyers in future and all should keep a keen eye on the goings on in the vicinity of the club fields. A great contest, warm sun, the boomers are back guys, enjoy then while you can. Groengoud team, many, many thanks for a great day's soaring. Me, I'm already looking forward to the Nationals in September – its going to be Awesome folks, be there."

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