Page 18 - MFW March 2024

N A T I O By Alec Fuller
Runner up
E Champion of Champions
M S N ABOUT THE
U 76 th The reality of nearly being the
Model Flying New Zealand
Champion of Champions at the
R NATIONALS
Clareville Nationals is just starting to sink in for
Jan 1st-5th me and it is really screwing with my
2024 head.

I am trying to rationalise what I did
and how that affected the outcome.
The reasons why we choose to compete at the Nats or even the reason
we choose to go to the Nats varies from person to person and in some
cases from year to year.

For myself, in recent times I have been to three Nats in a row. Three
years ago was my first time attending for many years and so I pushed
myself hard and built models specially for the Nats and burnt a lot of
midnight oil in the weeks leading up to the Nats and got stressed out that I
didn't manage to finish and test all the models that I wanted to and so
there were a couple of classes that I couldn't enter, that I really wanted to.

Once I got to the Nats, it was a big problem trying to balance spending
time testing and trimming prior to the competition time slot with also
spending time with my wife and doing some sightseeing/ holiday
activities to make the week seem more like a holiday for her as well.

When most of the competitions didnt go well for me because of silly
mistakes or bad luck or lack of preparation, I got upset and stressed out
and then grumpy or sullen and silent as only males can. I wasnt a nice
person to be with.

I felt that I should have done better and deserved to do better because I
was trying my best, in everything I did.
But it was all getting too much and I wasn’t really enjoying it all. And if I
wasn’t enjoying it - why was I even doing it ?

The following year the country was gripped by the Covid epidemic and
partly for that reason and in truth, partly because I didn't enjoy the

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