Bendigo Radio Controlled Aircraft Club

B.R.C.A.C.

Calendar

Day Date Event Details CD or Organiser Location
SAT/ SUN19-20th MayVIC STATE CHAMPSPATTERN AEROBATICS Marong
SUN27th May 1pmGLIDER - COMP4 Flights for 20 mins Total Marong
MON28th MayMEETING K Flat
SUN3 JunPYLON - COMPCPR- Club Sport Pylon Marong
SUN17th Jun 1pmGLIDER - COMPElectric Glider - Climb and Glide (can use Radian Glider) Marong
MON25th JunMEETING K Flat

... full Event Calendar

Sunday 6th of May - FUN DAY

Don't know how I got picked to be CD for the Fun Day comp, but I did, and it turned out to be a great comp on a beautiful Sunday arvo, with very little wind and not to cool. Just ideal for flying this type of event.

At 1pm all pilots were called for a briefing, first to welcome them and second to explain what this fun day was all about. Round 1 was as many loops as possible in a one minute time slot. Round 2 was a 120 second self timed flight with 2 aerobatic manurers, 3rd Round a climb and glide off 30 second time engine run, and the 4th Round was 3 touch and goes between two line markers.

In the looping round all pilots did well with the numbers of 7 to 9 loops all very close scores. Next was the self timed 120 second flight, where Cliff Goullet did the best with only missing by 5 seconds off the exact time and worst was by the best CD in the world, missing the time by 27 seconds.

Climb and glide was next, and Les Davis almost went out of sight in the climb, and scored very well with over 6 minutes and the rest could only manage scores less than 3 minutes. Then came the final round, touch and goes. This was not that easy, with small scores recorded, and one model slightly rearranged.

Before I give the results, thanks to the pilots and timers/counters, as well to the spectators who a had come to watch. There was quite a crowd who enjoyed our antics, which produced quite a bit of laughter, and thanks to Bill with his new camera, click click click.

Results

First PlaceLes Davis14 points
Second PlaceShaun Power8 points
Equal Third PlaceMatt Young7 points
"Gary Schmedje7 points

Gary Schmedje CD. Photos by Bill

Sunday 15th of April - RADIAN GLIDER COMP

Our first Radian Glider Comp was held under perfect weather conditions for this type of event, warm and sunny with a light northerly wind blowing, just the ideal for our newest club competition.

Nine entries lined up for a new and exciting event, and all with the same aircraft, the Std Radian glider, although some had managed to re colour the gliders for orientation purposes. Entries were split into two groups, one of 4 and the other of 5, as we didn't have enough time keepers to fly all at one time.

In the first round it looked like everybody was going to get max scores easily, the lift was plentiful and everybody seemed to find it with ease, until half way through the second round. Then it was dead air for quite a while before the lift came back again, in the fourth and the final round.

It took the Fifth round before we knew who would be the winner, as nobody could get four straight maxes. It required the fifth round before anybody could get the fourth max, and one pilot did manage to just scrape in that last max score.

Placings:

First PlaceRoy Butterfield1200 points ( perfect score)
SecondLes Davis1159 points
ThirdAlan Uren1132 points
FourthBrian Deason1131points

5th, John Newman, 6th Bill Matthews, 7th Noel Frost, 8th Frosty, 9th Andrew Thomas.

Thanks to the time keepers and helpers, and our picture man Bill.

Hope you all enjoyed the Comp. It is different, but is certainly lots of fun.

Report: Les Davis

Sunday 1st April - Old Timers - Club Texaco

The weather was near perfect but a dismal attendance with only three contestants and myself. Later Andy Thomas and John Newman turned up and helped with the timing.

First round Alan & Les achieved max's, Brian only getting just under four min. Second round Brian & Les max't. Start of third round Bill Mathews arrived. He had been working on his plane but did not get it going.

Alan had the only max this round. Forth round no max times with Les missing by five seconds & brian by only two seconds. We had a fifth round in which Brian's motor cut out twice so that was the end of his day. Les scored another max which made him the winner, with Alan second & Brian third.

Thanks to Andy & John for their help. Regards Ian Heather.
(Report delayed due to computer probs!)
Photos by John.

Sunday 18th March - Glider 4 in 20

Seven competitors turned up on what could be described as the perfect glider day.

The only thing missing were the thermals.

The first round scores were pretty poor, the best being 4:14 by Alan Uren. Second round things got better, with both Alan & Graeme getting over nine minutes.

Best in the third round was Alan Uren again with 6:42.

Come to the final round and it was anybodies comp apart from Bill Mathews who had a less than average day. Les Davis tried his hardest over the trees along the creek but fell short of the 8:44 needed managing to score 7:58.

It was a day enjoyed by every one that attended.

Special thanks to young Will Beagley for getting the bungee & my wife Marg.

RESULTS

1stAlan Uren19m.21s
2ndLes Davis19m.14s
3rdRoy Butterfield18m.07s
4thGraeme Beagley18m.06s
5thAlan Roshier13m.07s
6thLarry Bethel11m.31s
7thBill Mathews11m.15s

Report by Roy Butterfield, CD; Photos Bill Matthews

4th March - Duration Day

At last the weather favoured us. Yes we managed to get a competition in, the first one for the new year, and the weather was just fine, not too hot but with a little turbulent wind blowing from the west.

Nine entries paid up to fly in the Duration event using only 150mls of fuel (first time entries received 200mls). You must use all your skills to keep the aircraft in the air for as long as possible, flying just at the point of stall for the whole flight.

No special aircraft are needed. Usually your left over 40 size trainer, either high or low wing, is very suitable, using a larger prop like a 11x7 and fuel with reduced oil and that's all that's needed.

A little bit of fine turning on the carby to get the engine to run at 4500 revs, and your ready for some fun.

Two rounds are flown and your best score is used for the results. Most flyers did best in their first round for some reason, maybe a change in the temperature made a difference to the tuning.

The results:

1stIan Heather73m 31s
2ndLes Davis46m 55s
3rdGary Schmedje41m 34s

The two first time flyers, Noel Frost and Matt Young, finished with the times of 32m 35s and 27m 35s, which was a great effort for then to achive. Well done to those two.

Thanks goes to the flyers who helped the other flyers, and vice versa, also to the President who came along for the day,and did the timing for us, this all made it for a really good day.

Report from Les Davis. 5620, and thanks for Bill's Photos

26 Feb - SAM Old Timers Comp

Far better numbers turned up this year for the SAM event. Although the wind was a problem they still decided to push on with their comp. The wind was creating quite a bit of havoc for the small aircraft, that really struggled to penetrate the tough wind conditions, thus causing a few reconfigured aircraft, which was not real good.

The canteen had a few problems as they didn't know if the event was on or off, due to the rough wind conditions. So it turned out it was on, and a rush supply of frozen food arrived at the field to be thawed and heated ready for lunch, and just made it, phew!

After lunch the flyers got quite a few flights in, although the carnage was rather large with wings, tails coming off at different stages, plus a radio failure along with the ground flip overs, breaking more bits loose.

Even with the amount of aircraft failures, 2 pilots still managed to get to the fly off, which was a great achievement, for them.

Thanks to our canteen staff for doing the best they could under the circumstances, and to Bill who sat out in the sun for that time to get that once in a life time shot, of a Old Timer in full flight........

Results are still to come in, a waiting for the SAM Pres. to forward them on to us.

Report from Les Davis; Photos Bill Matthews

19 Feb - Electric Fun Day

In the past Electric Day-Fun Fly has been well patronized, with all types of aircraft from little foamies to quite large aerobatic types and a few electric gliders as well, but not this year.

The weather was almost perfect. Warm without too much wind, plenty of cloud cover. Just ideal for flying. Larry from St Arnaud was first to arrived and had a ball with his new Radian glider, had many climb outs and long glide times, and even a loop or two.

Les and Brian were the only other two flyers who arrived with electric aircraft to fly, they also had long thermal flights in the ideal conditions, after making quite a few flights, Billy and Andrew arrived without their aircraft, and Larry had to go home as he had work commitments, the flying came to a holt, as we had a bit of chat time.

A large black cloud started to loom, was it going to rain? Because there was so few of us we decided to pack up and call it aday, did it rain? A few spots was all, could of kept flying..........

Thus an end to a disappointing Electric Flight - Fun Day.

5th February - Glider Comp

First comp for the new year and quite a few members were waiting and willing to have a go at this Glider event, of Loops and Duration, to get as many loops as possible off a bungee launch. Then next flight to see if they can fly out the duration time of 10 minutes, with as many rounds as possible.

But today was not the right day. The winds were gusting to near on 50 kph, and a dust storm as well went through, so the event has now be cancelled. One might say it was a blow out, or it has been blown out, whatever, it didn't happen.

Yes, some members did go to the field just to check the wind was as strong as it was at home, and they were right. Same bloody wind conditions! Lets hope for better weather to come, it would be nice to get a comp or two in this year. Lets just wait and see.

Les Davis

27th January - Tragedy in Maryborough

VALE - David A Oxley, 1/1/1940 - 27/1/2012
VALE - John Fisher, 27/1/2012

Our club lost a member today and another friend of many members. David Oxley was a passenger in a Tiger Moth which crashed just after 5pm. Flown by John Fisher of the Old Aviators Flying Museum, the aircraft apparently had a problem and failed to make it back to the airstrip. Both men lost their lives.

David was an active member, whose friendliness and good nature made him a pleasure to be around. His primary interests rested in the vintage aircraft models, both RC at the Club and static models for the Old Aviators Museum displays. He was also a volunteer at the museum as well as taking an active role as Reporting Officer and grounds-man for the Maryborough Airport.

John Fisher was an Aviation enthusiast, owner/operator, specialising in classic era English deHavilland aircraft whilst Director of the museum and an avid supporter of expanding Maryborough's aviation facilities. Other BRCAC club members were also volunteers assisting John in his aviation pursuits.

Both David and John will be greatly missed, and our thoughts go out to their families at this dreadful time.

David Oxley

John Fisher


18th January - Warning - No Butts !

With the Fire season upon us for the next 4 or 5 months we need to be very, very careful about what we do at the field, mixing hot engines with fuel, and electrics with hot batteries. What about humans with cigarettes???

Cigarette butts have been noticed on the field, in and around the shade shelter and near the starting benches. No, engines don't use cigarettes, and no, electrics don't use cigarettes, but humans do, so who is smoking cigarettes on the flying field? Is it YOU?

There is a defined smoking area, in the fenced car parking area with butt trays for those who must smoke. If you have to smoke please use this defined area, and the butt trays.

Members please note, that when you signed your membership form you agreed to abide by the club's Bylaws, and Bylaw number 16 states, Quote "There shall be NO SMOKING on the FIELD"

Failure to comply with these Bylaws can cause your membership to be revoked, meaning you'll be asked to pack up and leave the club, no ifs or butts.

We can't risk losing the flying field over a dropped cigarette butt, so if you see someone smoking on the field please advise them of the field regulations of, NO SMOKING ON THE FIELD.

Its up to all of us to protect our flying field because, where there's smoke there's FIRE !

Happy New Year 2012!

Here we are at the start of another year. Will it be a Good year? Lets hope so.

To start off we get one extra day this year because its a leap year, yep February has 29 days. So what can we do with the extra day? We may have to think about for awhile, can you come up with a good suggestion? If so please send it in, we would love to hear from you.

What's your new years resolutions, To stay in bed longer. To fly more offen. To buy aircraft that don't fall apart. To have less aircraft maintenance. To have less mishaps, (read crash). To remember to take all required gear to the flying field. To try and beat Les...

Or the old common ones , To give up smoking, To loose more weight, To drink less grog. How boring, lets just go to the Flying Field and enjoy ourselves, as ground based pilots. YES !

To make this year a good one, please watch out for the TOTAL FIRE BANS. I'm sure we will get quite a few this year, with the growth that's on the ground at present. We need to be very, very careful, it wont take much to start a fire with the conditions we have at present. "Got the Message"?

Check our club's web site, left hand column has a link to the CFA, for Total Fire Bans in the Northern Country which covers Bendigo and Marong.

No flying of ANY powered aircraft on TOTAL FIRE BAN DAYS.

Our Club membership is still rising , there is a steady flow of inquires for info on our club, and requests for membership applications, which is another great sign for a good year ahead. Let's hope the weather is reasonable this year and we all can get out and enjoy the great facilities we have at Marong Flying Field.

The home of the Bendigo Radio Controlled Aircraft Club.

Les Davis




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