Page 39 - MFW Dec 2024

F3K North Island
North Island
F3K
F3K
North Island
Rd2
Rd2
Series
Series
Rd2
Series
F5K Hawkes Bay
F5K
F5K
Hawkes Bay
Hawkes Bay
APO Trials Kevin Botherway
APO Trials
APO Trials
Typical Hawkes Bay weather !!!!!!!!
Good weather was once again arranged for Hawkes Bay,
amazing in that it was the start of winter! We had a
reasonable turnout of entries with 8 competitors in the
F3K and 6 in F5K. F3K being discuss hand launch with
F5K being a similar class but using a motor to climb to
around 60M for launch. Both classes have a maximum
wingspan of 1.5M. Joe had mown the field five weeks ago,
and with little growth since then, field was quite suitable
with reasonably short grass. This event was the second
round of the North Island F3K series, as well as the trials
for the Asian Pacific Open (APO) to held in Japan in
September. There are six pilots that are keen to go to this Andrew and Joe with a F5K Blaster! Myles & Andrew working
on strategy.
event. It was just a matter of sorting who would be the
three pilots representing NZ. The pilots not selected for
the team will still fly in the event to compete to be on the
individual pilots podium.

Our schedule was to have 2 rounds of F3K and 2 rounds of
F5K on an alternate basis. Prior to the start of the event,
the trialists agreed that it would be a minimum of six
rounds of F3K to have a valid trial for the APO.
Pit Model area with F5k
Saturday morning was very light lift and at best neutral air. and F3K models.
The first slot was last 5 minutes, and this was a very
challenging task! Many managed over 2 minutes, nobody
achieved 3 minutes, it was hard work. After the initial very
hard rounds, conditions improved during the morning with
some longer flights achieved. Still, no one really climbed
to great heights in the very light thermal activity. In F5K we
had two groups of three until round 3 then Peter William’s
plane started having issues and he withdrew so we ran a
single group of all up last down 3x4 minutes max for the
rest of the competition with 5 competitors. This reduced
the time required to fly each F5K round as we had
sufficient time keepers to fly everyone in a single group.

We manged five complete rounds on Saturday, then sadly
as predicted the wind came in across the trees which
resulted in lots of rotor and high turbulence which started
making the flying a bit on the risky side in terms of model
damage. The forecast for Sunday was good which made it Peter Glassey with the BAMF.
an easy decision to reduce risk and call it a day. That
evening most of the pilots met up for a great night at a Andrew Hiscock under complete control.
restaurant close to where all our HB visitors where
staying.

Sunday was as predicted another great day (for winter) Joe provided hot lunches for both days on the field (as per
and we finished up with a total of 10 rounds of F3K and 9 the new norm), with pulled pork sandwiches and various
rounds of F5k for the weekend. Glider Score with the extras. Heads-up, the next event in Hawkes Bay (F3B)
usual the QR scans for scoring which worked well and will feature smoked brisket as well as tri-tip as the basis for
certainly takes the pressure off sorting the results. sandwiches on the field.

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