GBRCAA Competition

24th September 2006

Click to download Results.

See Picture Gallery for Photographs.

Proturf – West Stockwith

I arrived at the Proturf field around 3.15pm on Saturday to prepare for our reorganised competition which was rained off on the 13 August.  After John Bridgett arrived with the gate key I started to get established.  Shortly after I had an unexpected visit from Haden who I now know to be the Farm Manager, I was made well aware of the value of the turf we were stood on and received full instructions for our day, which was mainly what not to do.  It was important to follow every instruction if we wanted to have the chance of using the field again.

 Sunday 6.30am was clear with little wind, although there had been a couple of unwelcome gusts of wind during the night which rocked the caravan.  By 7.30am the mist had descended and moisture was in the air.  We did make a start at 9.30am with the odd short break for rain but the first round continued in low cloud during the morning.  I think Stuart and Darren had to abort their flight and wait for a cloud to pass before continuing.   By the time the second round arrived, the skies were starting to clear making way for a perfect afternoon.

 See the results for yourself, but FAI was closely contended with the top two separated by only half a point. Stephen Haywood in Standard was looking for his second set of  promotion points for the season and he made it by just one point, congratulations Stephen.  After a second long journey for Nick Sprankling, he unfortunately had a servo tray loosen and was only able to complete one flight in Senior, top spot was left open for Darren Mee, who was flying very well anyway.  In Masters Stuart Mellor came top of the five competitors even though he was interrupted on one flight by a low pass from (I think) the BB Dekota which got a ten for straight and level flight.

 It was good to see Steve Dunning, Trevor Plumb, Brian Gascoigne, Darren Knight and Stewart from the Retford club (who I hope will join us in Sportsman or Standard next year) and two three other visitors who I was able to talk to through the day, including the Game Keeper who showed an interest, but I think he was the most unlikely person I talked to through the day to join us in the future.

 Thanks go to our judges for a long day with few breaks, I hope that in time they will forgive me and John recovered quickly after a very short lunch break, and of course to Ken Moss for stepping in to do PCM failsafe checks.  A special thank you to Emma who totted up all the scores and relieved me of a huge chunk of the concerns for the day, although the large bribe (a fiver) did nothing for my scores.

 I hope we can use this venue again, but next time I must provide mats for the chairs used by the judges who obviously became very excited with our flying and scuffed the turf beneath their feet, and also some protection for the pilot standing area.  I think there is also an issue with model fuelling procedures where members leave the tank to vent when filling, and consequently may spill fuel.  We cannot allow this to happen on this site and our simple solution used constantly is to have a closed loop system which deposits the overflow back into the fuel container. (There are some advantages to being a tight fisted Yorkshireman.) 

 May I compliment all pilots in respecting the value of the field and complying with those little extra rules like not running their motors on the ground until they are at tickover and ready to take off.  Nick, Tom and Sam were exempt.

 Thank again to all members but mainly to our hosts, James H, Haden and John B for what for me was an excellent day.

 Ashley Hoyland, CD.