Mildura, June 2009 - and Vic won!!

Jack, one of the inquisitive and interested aeromodellers asked, “How long did you have to drive to get there?”

"Not long at all,” answered Daryl, who had just got back from the competition at Mildura.

“But it’s almost 600 kms,” replied Jack. “It must have taken you about 6 hours!”

“Really? Well, I had so much fun I didn’t even notice!”

For those of you who have gone to the Mildura competition, you will be able to fully relate to this small fictitious conversation. The truth is that most of us that went to Mildura had at least 6 hours to drive (in each direction). Gavin Wallis was about 4.5 hours, the SA boys drove about 6 hours as well and Chris Swain (ACT) drove for ten (yes, 10) hours to make it to the competition!

And it paid! GlennO, the Nugents and Sparksy (a.k.a. Sparky) and all the Sunraysia members, really go out of their way to make it one of the most enjoyable weekends on our calendar.

This competition hosts the newly created SA-VIC Challenge. The Challenge requires that each state put forth a team to fly against each other. The teams are made up by putting all the names of the pilots for a given category in a hat and the team member for each state is then drawn.

As GlennO explains, “This gives the Challenge more appeal as there is a better chance of “evency” in the teams. Yes, we all understood what he meant. I am not sure that Mr. Webster (of Webster Dictionary fame) would agree with his wording, though.

The competition is run over the Queen’s Birthday long week-end and starts at noon on the Saturday and runs through until noon on the Monday. This is very convenient as it gives everyone time to get there and leave without having to spend an additional night of accommodation. It works extremely well!

Upon arrival on Saturday, the coffee machine was up and running and the cappuccinos and lattes were flowing. Young Chris Nugent had a go at being the barista, but I think he needs some additional training. GlennO then put on his barista cap and had us all enjoying some very good coffee. Over 120 coffees and 30 hot chocolates were served over the week-end!

Only one flight line was flown and we got through 5 full flights with the 23 entries we had. It is always encouraging to see the lower classes full. We need to promote our younger pilots to have a go and give pattern a try. Well directed and we’ll see them in it for life.

We finished at around 5:00 on the Saturday and headed off to the brewery and then the pizza place at the Grand Hotel. Table for 40! A very good meal for a very good price. I didn’t hear anybody complaining.

Will Crossman gave us all a fright when he took off for his second flight and we all saw how his right wing seemed to be fluttering (or should we say flapping?). A loose linkage (see photo) meant that the aileron was not necessarily responding: zero for the flight!

The electrics were out in swine flu proportions. Heaps everywhere! Very powerful, though. Paul Marlan took off so quickly on his first flight that he left his canopy behind: zero for the flight!

The weather was like GlennO has always promised: Calm and sunny…NOT!! We had bitter cold (but lots of jumpers), wind (as usual at any and every comp) and a slight drizzle here and there (which we flew through anyway!). The club installations are enviable to say the least. For the campers (Bobby Hurst and Dave Carkeek), they were over the moon with the hot water showers!!

Darren Williams and Will Crossman helped with the line directing. Darren, who is now known as “Daryl” for some reason, did an outstanding job. Will, well, he tried…and did well as well.

Sunday morning was C O L D! Lots of coffee and jumpers kept us going. For the judge’s benefit, GlennO organised some special shelters. Unfortunately for James Nugent, during his judging stint, he had to sit on the other side as he couldn’t see over the shelter!!

Sunday evening was a great barbeque night at the Nugent’s. Darren (Daryl) Williams and David Nugent put together a Mini Swift flying wing in the Nugent’s workshop (beautiful and spacious shed!). It was damaged the next morning during its test flight because as James Nugent put it, “It was built by two drunken men and the ailerons were reversed.”

Monday came along and pretty much more of the same in terms of weather. One more flight for each class and we were ready for the presentations.

GlennO has donated a perpetual trophy for the SA-VIC Challenge. It will live in the clubroom of the Sunraysia Club.

For the team challenge, the teams were as follows:

• SA: Chris Swain (ringer!), Neil Martin, Jeff Boyd, Jeremy Angel and Graham Prestidge

• VIC: Glenn Orchard, Paul Marlan, Fernando Monge, David Nugent and Will Crossman. This year Victoria won the challenge.

Aside from Victoria getting to put their state name on the perpetual trophy plaque, each team member received a medal.

The individual results were:

• F3A:
  • 1st: Glenn Orchard
  • 2nd: Chris Swain
  • 3rd: Adam Crossman
• Expert:
  • 1st: James Nugent
    
  • 2nd: Gavin Wallis
    
  • 3rd: Dennis Travassaros
• Advanced:
  • 1st: Bob Hurst
    
  • 2nd: Brian Green
    
  • 3rd: David Nugent
• Sportsman:
  • 1st: Will Crossman
    
  • 2nd: Wally Grembecki
    
  • 3rd: Jeremy Angel

Further to this, Will Crossman was awarded a trophy in recognition for his 5 years at the service of Sportsman. Will did say a few words at the ceremony, but we cannot publish it in the report without getting into trouble!

Full Results in pdf format HERE (right click to download and keep).  And the SA write-up and some photos are over on the SA Blog

Next comp is at Nepean on June 21, 2009. Hope to see you all there.