Slow Combat South Island Style 
Venue: The Palmers Farm
Amberley 11th Aug 2001
By Glen Lewis

There was a gathering of people from all around the country from as far as Auckland and Wellington for this one thanks to Freedom Air!
Jon, Shaun and I rented a camper van so we could have a pits indoors with the approaching southerly front bearing down on us! then there is of course the Skiing trip after the Slow, but thats another story.
We headed out to Doug and Lesley's farm from Jons and ariived to find Doug marking out the circle with the centre being a piece of paddock devoid of any grass! We all got our gear ready which for me was to run my motors up and put on some compression for the cold weather. Jon had a tarp laid out and we used it as a little tent for the drizzle.

There were 13 confirmed entries and bye 11am we were into the first round and would'nt you know it, Jon and I were drawn in the first bout Grrrrrrrr.
We had a great bout and for the first time in a long time we flew all four minutes hard out and no mid-airs! Jon ending up the winner after the judges missed a small cut but thats combat!

The new kid on the block was Olly a friend of Jon Spain, Jon has been teaching Olly how to fly and I believe he's only been flying about 2 months and this weekend was the first time Olly had been in a two up situation. He Drew Bill Long in the first round and had the dream start with a 2 - 0 win!

Julius and Kevin were the two quite ones scoring the wins and not being noticed until they met each other with Kevin winning. Then thet each met Bryce and that saw the end of Julius. The final was between Kevin and Bryce with a 1-1 score line with Bryce spending less time on the ground to take out the South Island "Slow" meeting.

The weather was a little bitter with the southerley front passing through but not bad enough to stop the flying even with some 'top of the North' people getting Latte withdrawal!

The BBQ was fired up under the verander at Doug's place while some of us watched the Tri Nations test and then watched a promo video from Senitz to cheer up again! The food was awesome, the hospitality was superb and overall it was a great meeting and I look forward to seeing this as an annual event.

For Jon, Shaun and myself this was the start of a great week of fresh snow and you can see how we got on from the General articles section or click here.