Page 41 - MFW Dec 2024

F5J Hawkes Bay

and Team Trials

David Griffin about to launch Rob Johnston’s Plus

We were happy to have had a total of 16 pilots competing
at the 2-day competition over this past weekend. There
was a fairly good weather forecast compared to the rest of Setup time in great conditions
NZ, although a bit of wind was predicted for the
afternoons. By the end of the weekend, we manged to
complete a total of 10 rounds and complete a successful
team trial for the upcoming F5J world championships in
Argentina in February 2025 next year. A huge welcome to
2 new pilots to the NZ soaring arena – Dave Crook and
Peter McEvoy (well, they are not new pilots, but great to
see them on the soaring field in Hawkes Bay!).

We had 2 South Islanders, 4 from Auckland, 1 from
Tauranga, 3 from Wellington 1 from Wanganui and 5
Hawkes Bay locals – so many travelled for this
competition from all around the country.
Flight line with 5 to 6 pilots per heat
We all assembled models and set up at the field on
Saturday under the usual calm Hawkes Bay conditions (!)
and then started the first round after sorting some contest
equipment issues. It was amusing in that for the first day,
the auditory count was provided manually as the
automated sound system was still safely stored away.

The launches were not low, with most targeting the 200m
mark as there wasn’t much thermal activity. There were
some short flights despite the high launches due to the
difficult conditions. There weren’t many pilots who
achieved much more than launch height all weekend, and
heaps of rounds where people found a corridor of lift which
was sufficient to almost sustain altitude for the full 10
minutes. By 2.30 on the Saturday, we had completed 5
and bit rounds with the wind building to unbearable
strength for most, so we went on pause for a little while
hoping it would drop down but not to be and that was it for
the first day.
Rob Johnston and David Ackery Kevin Campbell and Miles Moloney
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