Acorn South Island Stunt Series - Round 2

The second of the South Island Stunt series was held at Merrylands, Christchurch Cheviot on 10th June 2000.
The F2B entries were up but the Sportsman fliers failed to materialise The day intially promised to bring strong North West breezes or alternatively Strong South Wset breezes. Certainly during the morning there was real thoughts of whether the meet would need to be postponed. But we wer lucky and had a good breeze.

The Judge situation here is really interesting at present with John Harte (Free flight flier) and Bill Long judging for the first time in the series.
With the F2B fliers being so close a good group of judges is essential. My thanks to John, Allan & Bill for judging. The judging guide published by FAI is excellent reading for all prospective judges (and also for fliers).
Weather : Overcast, fickle North west breeze - swinging to South West, about 7 degree C.

F2B
Again a very tight contest. The difference in flying standard is reducing all the time. To be competitive you need to be flying patterns in the order of 950 or better - after that there is very little gap and the winner is coming from those that have practised the most and have the best prepared models.

The models were a real variety (from ready built models to profile kits)proving that with F2B it is not all about the model but rather the model and pilot being in harmony.

Models Used
Paul - "Yes" Ukranian ready built model- from Andrei Yatschenko. Powered by Retro
Discovery LS60, 13.5 x 6 wooden prop

Kevin - Intrepid XL - Super Tigre 60, 3 Blade 12.1/8 x 5.1/4 carbon prop

Julius - Profile model - "Double Trouble" bases on reduced size Magnum wing. OS 46 LA, 12 x 5 wood prop

Bruce - Profile Cardinal - OS 35, APC 11x4 prop

Rob - Avenger , Magnum Pro .40, Taipan 11x6 prop (I think)
3 rounds were flown with Kevin & Paul & Julius being pretty equal with Paul having the very slight edge.

Bruces flying has improved significantly from Cheviot and but for a few missed maneuvers would have been well in the hunt with the top 3.
Rob had the misfortune in the first round to badly cut his finger. He disappeared off & returned later with it bandaged. And continued to fly his 3 rounds.

Many thanks to judges - Bill Long, John Harte & Allan Cumberland.

Sportsman

Saw competitors Jon Spain and Allan Cumberland. There are other fliers around the fringes who should be flying this event. Jim Boyd is preparing an Enya .60 powered Magnum & would have flown but for the intial breeze.
Jon continued to fly well to win reasonably easily using an OS 40 powered Gensis - Jon with a little bit of practice will be very difficult to beat.

Allan Cumberland had the misfortune to break his Twister in the practise flights. He borrowed Kevin old OS 40 powered Freebird. His first round shown an in-experience with the model. His second round was showing considerable improvement until he crashed in the inverted flying.

Thanks to judges Bruce Turner and Rob Fenwick.

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