Page 44 - MFW Dec 2024

some time, and the other event is a rather high-tech event
with fancy composite aircraft. We started in the morning
with Radian, with good conditions, light winds, sunny, and
fluffy thermals. It once again became apparent that both
timing and landing accuracy would determine the results.
After the first round, Stew Cox was in the lead with a
perfect flight, followed by Joe, Rowdy, and Andrew
Hiscock with a single second error in landing. In the
second round, Joe was the only person to get a perfect
flight, with Rowdy a single point behind, with Richard
Thompson and Andrew Hiscock just three points behind
Rowdy. Both Joe and Rowdy had perfect flights on the
eRES Results third round so they finished 1st and 2nd, with Richard
1 Joe Wurts 4000 7 Stew Cox 3817 Thompson pipping out Andrew Hiscock by a single point in
2 Kevin Botherway 3994 8 Andrew Hiscock 3788 the last round. It was a great morning to fly Radians!
3 Peter Williams 3980 9 Rob Morgan 3638 Radian Results
4 Richard Thompson 3962 10 Peter Glassey 3601 1 Joe Wurts 1409 6 David Crook 1379
5 Wayne Bilham 3829 11 David James 3508 2 Kevin Botherway 1408 7 Stew Cox 1370
6 David Ackery 3824
3 Richard Thompson 1404 8 Peter Glassey 1351
It was nice to return to flying F3J. There is something 4 Andrew Hiscock 1403 9 Rob Morgan 1147
special about executing a high tension F3J launch 5 Peter Williams 1396 10 David James 1119
correctly, followed by a change of pace to doing efficient 11 Wayne Bilham 1022
thermal flying. There were thermals around, so launch After the Radian event concluded, we flew two rounds of
time was important. Landing accuracy was also very F5J before lunch. The first two rounds had low wind, but
important. For landings, Joe dropped five points over four the thermals were a bit difficult to sort out. There were a
rounds, Rowdy dropping fourteen points, and Peewee few sub-100-meter launches, with Joe doing a 44m
dropping eighteen points. Joe had the two longest flight launch in the first round, followed by a 33m launch in the
times of the contest, with a 9:56.8 and a 9:56.9, securing second round, with Peter McEvoy doing a 55m launch in
the win. Rowdy was close behind in second, with Peter the second round and Rowdy doing a 95m launch in the
Williams in third and Peter Glassey close behind him in first round.
fourth. It was nice to have a newcomer to F3J, Pete Brown
flying in his first every F3J event. He isn't a newbie, just The hot lunch was smoked chicken with streaky bacon.
new to these fancy composite soaring planes. If only he After lunch, the sky turned cloudy, and the wind off the
did not have to depart a couple of rounds early to burn ocean picked up. There were only a few sub 100m
kerosene, he could have finished much higher! launches in the last four rounds as the wind picked up and
F3J Results the cloud cover increased. It even got kinda cold! Rowdy
1 Joe Wurts 4000 did an excellent 49m launch in the third round, which
2 Kevin Botherway 3991 8 Stew Cox 3309 unfortunately ended up as his dropper due to a late start
3 Peter Williams 3977 9 Wayne Bilham 3262 from technical issues. Joe did an 89m launch in the fourth
4 Peter Glassey 3949 10 Rob Morgan 3160 round against Rowdy’s 114m launch, with Joe and Rowdy
5 Richard Thompson 3695 11 Pete Brown 1926 doing 78 and 82m respectively in the fifth round when
6 David James 3617
7 Andrew Hiscock 3567 flying against each other again (both received 1000 points
in round five as Rowdy had two more seconds flight time).
Round six had Joe with a 91-meter launch with a full time
with nobody else getting more than six minutes. Rowdy
launched to 94m in round six which was a challenging slot.
Chris Kaiser showed fortitude in this slot, climbing out
from a rather low height while being rather downwind.
There were many memorable flights from many pilots. It
was a fun flying day overall. After the flying concluded,
most of the pilots met up for a social and meal at the Dukes
in Taradale.
F5J Results
1 Joe Wurts 5000 9 Chris Kaiser 4470
2 Kevin Botherway 4982 10 David Ackery 4164
3 Peter Glassey 4874 11 Rob Morgan 4005
Friday evening had a very nice BBQ and social hosted by 4 Peter Williams 4850 12 David Crook 3974
Andrew and Jane Hiscock. They always provide an 5 Andrew Hiscock 4792 13 Wayne Bilham 3705
6 Dave Larsen 4788 14 Richard Thompson 3548
excellent feed that should not be missed.
7 Peter McEvoy 4756 15 Aniel Patel 2837
8 Stew Cox 4621 16 David James 1564
Day 3 Saturday Radian and F5J
Time for the events that are most hotly contested. It is Day 4 Sunday F3K (Discus hand launch) and F5K
interesting in that one event is the most low-tech event (Electric Hand Launch)
with aircraft that have not been in production for quite This was again another stunning Hawkes Bay forecast
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