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Alan's Catalina !
Alan's Catalina !
Report by Les Davis
Neil and myself accepted the invite to the Bacchus Marsh duration competition, and went along for a bit of fun. Their comp was totally different to ours, as they weighed the aircraft to work out how much fuel you were to be given, i.e. 80mls per kilo of weight for 2 strokes, and 60 mls for 4 stokes.
Neil's aircraft received 155 mls and mine recevied 153 mls, not much fuel to work with, so lets go and see whats happens.
Their flying field is small and tight, with a row of trees at one end, and the other has a pile of rocks which they suggested that you don't fly over, as it seems to have bad interference area, and the sewage farm out in the front of you. Neil took off first towards the rocks but interference took hold of his aircraft, as soon as it took off. Neil manage to get it around behind himself and land safely, with a good bit of flying.
Neil used his scanner to check the frequency, and found interference was coming in on 649, and that put paid to his days flying.
Next I took off into a fairly strong headwind. It took quite a few laps to settle down and get the trim right, flying around by our self, waiting for others to take off, became a little boring, more like a practice flight, rather than a comp.
At 40minutes and 10 seconds my aircraft had run out fuel and landed, then had to wait around for quite some time waiting for the others to fly.
Of the 9 entries only 4 where 2 strokes, and the rest 4 bangers, but the 2 stokes came through taking 1st 2nd and 4th placing's
Results :
| 1st | Les Davis | 40m10s | BGO |
| 2nd | Dete Hasse | 39m 0s | BM |
| 3rd | Steve | 29m 5s | BM |
Thanks to BMMAA and to Dete Hasse for their hospitably, we had a good time.
Neil and Les.
Christmas breakup and presentation day, was held one week later this year owing to the fact that the president and vice president were unavailable to make the set date.
About 20 or so club members attended the break up, and plenty of flying was conducted before lunch was cooked.
We had a special guest/visitor whom had been invited along by the club, he was Mr Ken Thomas.
Andy and Macca cooked a three course meal which was well received by all, well done to those members.
After lunch more flying was had by most and a small aircraft was towed behind a tug , the small aircraft did some amazing aerobatics, which brought quite few laughs, from the onlookers.
It was then time for the presentations. Various trophies were presented to members that had won clubman points during the year. Clubman for the year went to Les Davis and runner up was Neil Friswell, then a Honorary Membership was presented to Ken Thomas.
Ken was a founding member of the club when it was known as BMAC [Bendigo Model Aero Club]. Ken designed the BMAC club emblem back around the 1950's, and still calls Bendigo home, although he lives in Keilor, north of Melbourne. Ken now writes for RCM News and in his writeups loves to mention "Bendigo", his home town.
Ken thanked the club for their generosity and privilege the they granted him, as a Honorary Member.
A safe and Merry Christmas to all. Photos
Report by Les Davis
Once again flyers from Bendigo attended an IMAC event, this time at Cootamundra.
Great weather and good attendances marked the big Scale Glider weekend at the Power Field. Here is a few photos (thanks Noel and Bill) for those of us who couldn't make it!
"A month out from the National Air Races, a desperate phone call came through, Can the Bendigo Club help us, we have no pylon lights for the coming race day. The N.S.W.pylon flyers can't or won't bring their lights, and we haven't made our own lights yet.
After some discussion with Steve,John, Neil and myself, we decided that we could help them out on this occasion, but at what cost, their offer was to pay for fuel, accommodation and most meals, so Neil and myself said yes, we could come and support the racing, with our lights and electronic timer and counter etc.
So John gave me a crash course on how to operate the scoring systems and how to try and fix it if it locked up, and we all know what computers can do, stuff up at the wrong time.
Came the Friday before the racing , and we, Neil and myself, set off for Cootamundra Flying field to get things set up for the racing, that afternoon, for the start time of 9am on the Saturday morning. Half way to Coota we stopped,and four thousand flies joined us, for lunch, bloody flies every where, we asked a road side worker about the flies, and he said "it gets worst the further north you go" Great.
Saturday morning came, and so did the flies,and the racing started at 10am flies and all.
Our electronic timing equipment was working great and the rounds of racing were being pushed thru a good rate, and we saw some poor flying, good flying, slow racing and fast racing mixed with the excitement of mid airs, pylon slamming and one even went through a tree [all the way to the ground]. Four rounds were completed on the Saturday by 5pm and we went back to rest at the motel away from the flies.
Sunday morning,and we had an early start with a further three rounds completed by lunch time, and the racing was over , time to total the scores to see who had managed to fill the placing's, have a short lunch, make presentations to the placegetters, thank you the helpers and we were off for home.
Neil and myself had a great time and loved every bit of it, but next we will be flying, hopefully without the flies."
Report by Les Davis - photos (thanks Les and Neil), and results.
The Electric Glider Fly In on Sunday was flown under a warm sunny day, with good thermal activity and some flyers used this to great advantage to obtain some long flights. The others flyers flew smaller, faster aircraft around and also enjoyed themselves, all in all a good days flying.
Thanks to Les Davis for the report.
A two day Heli Fly In was held on the 24th and 25th of October. Heli flying under lights started off the fly in on the Friday night, at a local soccer field in town.
At the Marong field the daylight flying starting on a very warm Saturday, with lots of flying and the one or two mishaps, but plenty of air time for most flyers.
Saturday night a dinner was held on the field in a large tent, with most flyers and their friends in attendance, great food and a good time was had by all.
This was followed by night flying with the aircraft all lit up in many colours. It was fabulous to watch these choppers in flight.
Sunday came with daylight saving time, and things seemed to be a bit slow , but it picked up, butso did the wind. This didn't stop much of the flying from taking place. The Scale helis were put through their paces, and they really look something, they are magic to watch! Well done to those flyers.
At the far end of the field a group had a buddy box set up on mode 2, to let everybody have a chance to fly one of these Whirly bird machines.
A presentation was held to present goodies to various flyers for their great flying or for their misfortunes. All in all a great time was had by everyone.
The Bendigo Club was thanked for their hospitably and for a great weekend.
Report by Les Davis. V.President
Here's a few photos of the action on Saturday
This event was cancalled due to strong winds.
Sunday was a warm and sunny day with light winds, ideal for racing. By 11am the course was set and the helpers were ready, Andy, Alan and John, but where all of our CPR flyers? we had only 6 entries, normally we have twice that many. So seven rounds were flown instead of five. This made for some interesting racing, with all six aircraft having very close speeds, it was how many mistakes you made in your race, as well as your time.
Neil started in great style and gave Steve a big fright, and then Steve settled down and flew his normal tight low level race line, and Neil lost his tight line and flew just a little higher and a little wider and lost a few precious seconds.
Les and Graeme had some close tussles and Dete wasn't far behind until Les and Dete's aircraft touched [mid air] and Dete's tail plane was partly removed, putting paid his days racing.
Charlie's aircraft was quite fast with the smaller venturi but still has problems in finishing all races.
Results were as follows:
| 1st | Les D | 649 |
| 2nd | Steve D | 683 |
| 3rd | Neil F | 720 |
| = 4th | Graeme B | 804 |
| = 4th | Charlie M | 804 |
| 5th | Dete H | 993 |
A great day was had by all, thanks to the helpers.
Contest Director - Les Davis.
PS: A Q500 race was run for fun, with 3 entries.
| 1st Charlie | 2nd Phil | 3rd Dete. |
A great time was had in the stadium at Flora Hill! Here's a few photos from the Prez!
Some of our members attended, as always. Have a look at some of the models on show, Photos by Declan Thomas.
The Glider comp was cancelled due to high wind
Our Old Timer Event [known as "Club Texaco'] was held at Marong flying field under almost perfect flying conditions, with a warm sunny day.
5 entries were taken for the 11 o'clock start, and one round was run before lunch, Bill Matthews was the only one that didn't score, as he had engine problems.
Round two , all flyers got good scores, but Bill had airframe problems this time, and again failed to score, which was disappointing as it performed lovely in practice.
Rounds three, four and five Neil and Les were able to fly max scores quite easily, Brian and Robbie were just off the pace with good scores ,but no maxes.
Results were as follows:
| 5th place | Bill Matthews |
| 4th place | Robbie Marshall |
| 3rd place | Brian Deason |
| 2nd place | Neil Friswell |
| 1st place | Les Davis |
The CD wishes to thank the helpers, time keepers and mechanics for their assistance.
Contest Director - Neil Friswell. Photos
Twelve months have past since the last Texan Race day and Steve Davis was to make a mends, after last years big disaster, with all the testing done on the Friday, both aircraft were ready to go.
Saturday the course was set up ready for racing, and quite a bit of testing by the others competitors took place, reving their engines to the max and squeezing tailpipes on their mufflers, changing props, plugs, engines, even head gaskets.
Come Sunday morning, weather was ideal for racing, and we did start racing just a little after 10 am, with 10 of the 12 entries that were there, 3 heats in each round ,and we needed to get 3 rounds before a lunch break, so lets race!
Round 1, heat 1,Murray Ellis couldn't keep his engine running, Steve Davis and Rob Tuncks were locked into some great racing, and Justin Renolds was chasing behind them.
Heat 2, Mike Farnan lead all the way with Glen Orchard in pursuit and Phil Pope flying to high and to wide.
Heat 3 Saw Gregg Voak and Les Davis having a great battle, with the lead changes many times during the racing, and Brian Green following in behind them.
The rest of the day followed in a similar vain with two flyers having a dingdong battle and the third flyer chasing from behind in all heats.
Results were as follows:
| 1st | Steve Davis | 914.5 |
| 2nd | Les Davis | 891.2 |
| 3rd | Mike Farnan | 829.5 |
| 4th | Gregg Voak | 808.3 |
| 5th | Justin Renolds | 778.9 |
| 6th | Brian Green | 778.7 |
| 7th | Glen Orchard | 774.8 |
| 8th | Robert Tuncks | 758.2 |
| 9th | Phil Pope | 674.9 |
| 10th | Murray Ellis | 111.6 |
| 11th | Jason Sparks | 0 |
| 12th | Pat Diesslin | 0 |
The C D wishes to thank all the helpers , pylon marshalls, the starter, the tuck shop boys, the workers who help set and dismantled the course, and John who worked the scoring system for us,well done and thank you again to all of you.
Contest Director - Les Davis
The Club wishes to thank Model Engines for their donation of the supplied fuel.
Nine flyers entered the Glider comp. In this comp all flyers fly 3 rounds of a 5 minute thermal flights. The best 6 scored flyers move on to the next round, again flying 5 minute flights, and then the best 4 scored flyers to the next round, and the following round has the 2 best scores, they go into a fly off to obtain a winner.
Thirty nine flights were required to complete the comp, and only 4 maxes were recorded, but 4-59 was a very common score.
On the down side Robbie Marshall suffered minor damage to his glider, but on the up side we had 2 first time flyers in Graeme Beagley and Larry Bethal, who did very well on their first attempt, well done guys!
Mal Fields has a rebuilt glider and will get better when he gets fully trimmed out.
Results
| 1st | Ian Heather |
| 2nd | Les Davis |
| 3rd | Brian Deason |
| 4th | Larry Bethal |
| 5th | Neil Friswell |
| 6th | Roy Butterfield |
| 7th | Graeme Beagley |
| 8th | Mal Fields |
| 9th | Robbie Marshall |
Thanks to the helpers, timers and bungee chasers, and my Grandson Jordan, who chased down the bungee many times during the day
Contest Director - Les Davis
This race day is the first time that we have had, to test our new electronic lap and time keeping equipment. Using the Quickie 500 aircraft to test the new equipment, it was shown to have a few teething problems, but didn't take too long to sort out, and then we were ready for the CPR racing. With 9 entries that included, our 2 part time members Charlie and Dete from down south, on a reasonable cool day with little wind and overcast conditions.
Many good races were had, some very tight flying made it a good days racing,with very few cuts given the scores were very close.
Results
| 1st | Les Davis | 399 |
| 2nd | Shaun Power | 420 |
| 3rd | Steve Davis | 435 |
| 4th | Neil Friswell | 446 |
| 5th | Stuart Sinclair | 448 |
| 6th | Graeme Beagley | 455 |
| 7th | Dete Hasse | 459 |
| 8th | Paul Dearaugo | 529 |
| 9th | Charlie Meason | 641 |
Thanks to John, Alan, Gary and our starter Bill Mathews for their help to run this great comp
CD Les Davis.
The weather was fine, sunny and a little wind, ideal for flying.
Seven flyers entered the 4 in 20 comp, where the flyers are required to fly a total of 20 minutes over 4 flights, plus bonus points for the landing circle.
In the first round Les, Neil and Mal found good lift and scored well. Round two, Mal had radio problems and damaged his glider, putting him out of the comp. By the end of the third round, most of the flyers had enough points to be able to finish in the last round, and score close to the twenty minutes required.
The first four placing's were only separated by 8 points, thats great flying. Well done!
Results
| 1st | Les Davis | 1199 + 40 bonus points |
| 2nd | Roy Butterfield | 1198 +40 bonus |
| 3rd | Neil Friswell | 1192+30 bonus |
| 4th | Ian Heather | 1198+10 bonus |
| 5th | Bill Mathews | |
| 6th | Robbie Marshall | |
| 7th | Mal Fields |
Thanks to the helpers, etc, another great day on the field.
Contest Director - Les Davis.
Racing on the Saturday started the weekend off, with Quickie 500 and Quarter Midget alternating rounds of one then the other. In the Quickie 500 class 5 Bendigo members entered in the field of 10, with 2 of those entries from the Expert class, which would have no bearing on the results. Bendigo flyers had a good chance to really clean up in this class.
Our flyers were Steve and Les Davis, Neil Friswell, Phil Organ and Shaun Power.
To fly in the first heat was Phil, second heat saw Steve and Neil flying, and the third heat had Les and Shaun racing together.
Phil was having a far amount of engine troubles with a engine that would not needle correctly, Steve was flying his normal low level race line, until his carby can loose and required some fast attention. Neil was having radio problems and changed his receiver after 4 rounds, Les had 6 clean rounds before his carby jammed up and needed rapid repairs. Shaun also had problems, with his tank rotating during the races and having to realign the tank several times, but these little set backs didn't stop the Bendigo boys from performing at very high level.
Results of Q500 by the Bendigo flyers:
| 6th | Neil Friswell |
| 4th | Phil Organ |
| 3rd | Shaun Power |
| 2nd | Steve Davis |
| 1st | Les Davis |
Well to done to the Bendigo team, especially as it's our first time at this new an event.
On Sunday the F400 and FA1 was flown, and man do these machines move, and turn, they are almost faster than your eyes can keep up with. No blinking or you will loose sight of them!
If you have never seen them, you don't know what you missing , they are spectacular !..
Thanks to Les Davis for the report. See AMPRA for the full results.
Our Fun Day 40 had 9 Entries, on a cold day with rain on the horizon . That didn't stop
the flyers having lots of fun, with timed flights, spot landings, looping and touch downs etc.
Results were as follows:
| 1st | Les Davis |
| 2nd | Shaun Power |
| 3rd | Neil Friswell |
| 4th | Noel Young |
| =5th | Don Gray |
| =5th | Barry Thomas |
| 6th | Robbie Marshall |
| 7th | Andy Thomas |
| 8th | Garry Bright |
Neil Friswell - Contest Director (Photos)
A surprise was in store for us when we arrived at our Glider Field, on Sunday 17 June. The field has a For Sale sign on it....... Oh, and its just been registed with C A S A. !
9 Flyers entered the comp under overcast skies and winds that became very cold as the day went on. In round 1 only 3 flyers managed to land in the landing circle, but in rounds 2, 3, 4, 5 almost all flyers manage to land in the landing circle scoring points.
2 pilots did manage some small damage, but overall it was a good day, although it was rather cold.
Results were as follows.....
| 1st | Roy Butterfield | 12 points |
| 2nd | Les Davis | 15 |
| 3rd | Steve Davis | 16 |
| 4th | Brian Deason | 29 |
| 5th | Noel Young | 33 |
| 6th | Neil Friswell | 35 |
| = 7th | Bill Mathews | 42 |
| = 7th | John Newman | 42 |
| 9th | Mal Fields | 43 |
Thanks to the time keepers and bungee chasers
Contest Director - Les Davis VH 5620. (Photos)
CPR at the Power Field
Sunday 3th of June was the first CPR race day for the year, held over grass for the first time in many years. The weather was good, and some good racing was had, with some very exciting heats although some pylons did get in the way at times.
Results were as follows.....
| 1st | Shaun Power |
| 2nd | Les Davis |
| 3th | Steve Davis |
| 4th | Stu Sincliar |
| 5th | Neil Friswell |
| 6th | Graeme Beagley |
| 7th | Phil Organ |
| 8th | Charlie Mason |
| 9th | Ian Heather |
| 10th | Dete Hasse |
The CD thanks the button pushers for their assistance [Andy, Dave and Craig] and Bill Mathews for being race starter on the day
Les Davis - Contest Director (Photos)
Electric Glider Day at the Glider Field on the 20th of May
This event was held in poor weather, with rain and winds. Only a handful of flyers braved the conditions to put in a few flights. An on-field meeting was held to draft some rules for next years comp.
Draft rules for next years competion were set down as follows:
Report from Les Davis
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Steve Davis has come back from the Golden Era Racing with a 3rd place! |
