Page 24 - Demo

Two of us from NZ (David Griffin and Kevin Botherway) planned to go the largest soaring competition in Australia with 35 odd pilots entered for F5J. They had two competitions scheduled one f3J (winch 2346th JerilderieTournament2025 46th JerilderieStyle launching) and F5J (electric powered gliders) and travelling across from NZ we could only fit enough models for one event, so we picked on the most prestigious event of the two %u2013 F5J. The day before leaving David decided to withdraw so it was down to a NZ team of one, but not to worry we had a great friend over at the event David Pratley and as usual provided all the extra gear required for charging etc and we also teamed up together. As I have travelled to the competition a few times previous it wasn%u2019t too hard to get there in one day from Hawkes Bay NZ, ended up at the field at 4pm after leaving at 6am Napier. Travelling with one large plane box with 5 planes packed (one DLG model) and suitcase with backpack makes things quite manageable through airports, rental cars. This included ballast, gumboots, chargers, timing gear, beanie, gloves, Jackets and of course suntan lotion!Forecast wasn%u2019t looking nice from the Saturday onwards (three competition days) Friday was the F3J competition and F5J practice day which was quite nice although with a cool breeze and into the afternoon it dd show some thermal action. About 10 of us meet up at the opposite end of the field for F5J practice. This was so we didn%u2019t interfere with the F3J competition that was underway of which they managed 8 rounds with 17 contestants. This was a trial for the Australian team to go to Switzerland next year.Saturday was the start of the F5J competition of which we completed 7 rounds. Thermal