Nationals Report 2009

Nationals Report 2009 

August Bank Holiday, this year 28 - 31 August, sees the largest get-together of UK modelers with about 10'000 people coming for the trade fair, swap meet, demonstrations and of course the "National" championships in all the many categories. F5B took place in a nearby field on Monday 31st. In addition to being the National championship, or maybe even more importantly, it was our fifth league event, see the normal competition results page for the detailed scores.

The day was sunny, dry, good visibility and very high wind. So much so that in an earlier e-soaring competition, on Alan's recommendation, I tried landing backwards with not very good results! The F5B planes were much less affected by the wind, but as the wind was from Base B to Base A the scores were down.

Round 1 was won by George, that's me, to my great surprise. George, Nigel and Joe did 41 legs, not too bad against the wind. Unfortunately Alan had a wing flap servo fail but happily was able to land the plane OK. Round two saw Nigel getting into his stride and winning with a 42, but several people used too much energy fighting the wind and landed early. Round three saw a big push with Nigel making 44 but had to land early, not helped by using a new battery which used more energy. Joe did 43 but also used a lot of energy so that he was scratching at the end and missed the landing. That left me again winning only my second round this year! Round four was again tough. It was my turn to run out of energy and land early. Nigel attempted a subterranean last leg, Alan flew into the sun and lost it for a bit, again happily getting it back under control. So Mark won the round, well deserved as he had put in four four solid no fault rounds.

Further down the field Dick, Steve and Tony put in good solid performances, auguring well for the future. This year's new "boy" Stuart did well, but would have done better if he had been able to restrain his "pylon" instincts and wait for the Base B signal.  Phil, this competition newcomer, flying a Bandit, did well in the first round but cut case B in the second and in trying to return for it crashed in the wind. He is undeterred, happily, hopes to come to the next event, and re-join us with a new plane next year.

 When the results were tallied it was George, just a fraction ahead of Mark, and Joe our tame Dutchman third.