Out & About    By Jim Hardy

Out and About March 2008

An off the cuff report of things observed during the expedition to Canowindra at Easter.

This year the weather was kind to us and the only dust storm sighted was when people were attempting to fly Tomboys on Thursday afternoon. For the rest of the weekend the grass stayed green and the breezes remained playful. Processing of new and altered models went ahead on Thursday pm and Friday am without too many tantrums, but lots of teasing of the newcomers. While this was in process the Control line fans went about their business and reminded us how city modellers got their kicks in the 1950’s and 60’s. Quite intoxicating really, lots of noise, blood, frustration and dizziness, bit like a modern movie.

The first  RC assist event away was Nostalgia and we were Stomped by Rex Brown and Spaced out by the Britcher family in the fly-off with times 2 and 3 times longer than the next placing. More work needed on models for this event as there was only a couple of models that had not been seen before.

½ A Texaco was next and the air was filled with the sound of 35 Cox 049’s as their owners strove for reliability and power. 21 made the fly-off while in the rounds several headed off on a jolly on their own, courtesy of strong winds at height. Strong gusts at low level also took their toll with 4 out-landings in the fly-off. The most popular models were the Stardust Specials and Little Diamonds with 10 of each fronting up. The Little Diamonds of Peter J. Smith (Condo) and Peter R. Smith (Canberra) were well matched to finish with a mere 7 seconds between them while the 3^rd placed Stardust Special was 96 seconds adrift.

 Gordon Burford event drew 21 starters with 15 making the fly –off. The star turn during the rounds was Basil Healy’s model being shot down! No not radio problems, he put the thing in a gum tree on an attempt and Farmer Paul shot the branch holding it up about 60 ft above ground and caused both to fall. Basil went on to claim 3^rd place! Models used were many and varied, Peter R. Smiths Ollie, a model I don’t know came out on top.

Texaco!!! I vaguely remember a Scottish poem about a young man who came out of the North and stole the bride from the wedding breakfast after promising that he would “tread but one measure and drink one cup of wine”. It came to pass that Peter Cutler came from Rockhampton, refrained from excessive drink and proved that with his steed he could make off with the John Pond Trophy to the chagrin of 33 other contestants. No surprises in the model selection, except that the winner was using a 110% Bomber. In engine selection the surprise was second place getter John Diduszko’s use of a Thunder Tiger 54. John is turning out to be a bit of a giant killer with this combination, with a win at Orange in February and only a minute (1) seven (7) seconds behind the winner of this event and fifteen (15) minutes eight (8) seconds ahead of 3^rd place.

Antique!! The roar of sparkies muted by the crackle of diesels filled the air as the large field of 21 flyers went through the rounds with an amazing 11 making the fly-off. The engine of choice was the OK Super 60 with 8 entered and 6 making the fly-off. Just to fool the statistics men Bill Britcher used a Fleetwind 60 to power his RC1 to the win. However the OK’s filled the next 3 places with Chris Britcher coming home ahead of the Vintagent’s Mick Walsh and Peter J. Smith  of SAM 1788. The diesels proved their reliability in this event, but until we can “scale” models to suit their power output they will always be the poor relations as the 23 size antiques are too small and the 60 size models a bit too large in poor weather.

DURATION !! To quote a well known duration fan “ Oh, what a wonderful noise” with 23 contestants keen to prove that they could get higher than anyone else and stay up longer. With 3 McCoy 60’s on spark the sound was enough to satisfy the” wonderful noise” criteria, but the engines that set my heart pounding were the Fox 40 of Rex Brown and Brian Laughton’s Irvine 36. Ten (10) made the fly-off in rather tricky conditions, lots of down, light lift in patches.

The MAAA handicaps governed this event with the McCoy’s on spark getting 40 seconds and useful height that Peter J. Smith and Paul Farthing used to acquire first and second place. The next 3 places were filled by people who opted to use normally aspirated four strokes on 32 seconds with no restrictions on fuel. Eight contestants used engines the had a 25 second run with only the  YS63 of Robert Taylor and the 2 strokes of Rex Brown and Brian Laughton making the fly-off.

Over a third of the aircraft in the event were Playboys, with 4 Bombers the next most popular. An aircraft that was different is Basil Healy’s Megow Chief, a slick aircraft with a thin high aspect ratio wing.

Standard Duration, eleven starters for what is supposed to be a good event?

The people who voted to include further engine restrictions in this event in the 2005 rule change obviously find it easier to fly a ”chair of knowledge “in the Club room than participate in the event. The changes  have managed to make an event that should be an easy introduction to Duration into a DUD. However, the 11 starters struggled on despite the rules and recorded some pretty dismal flight times and a lot of attempts. No fly-off, Dave Markwell won with 914 seconds.

2cc. Seven starters. For the current event the Taipan Tyro seems to be the best choice, but when were they last made? Until the handicap placed on schneurle ported engines is adjusted the event will remain unpopular and flight times low.

To win Grant Manwaring did a good job with a flight time that would have taken second place in Standard Duration.

TOP GUN . Peter J Smith.

Jim Hardy reporting.