Preamble: The Committee has decided to discontinue Prop Torque in it’s previous form. The lack of nominations for the role of “Editor” have forced our hand on this issue. Having said that, the Committee believes the evolvement of the web site has provided an ideal avenue to communicate club news in a more timely and efficient manner. It is my intention to develop a dedicated section on the web site for “Prop Torque”. I will make available access to the site for members to become “authors” where members can submit articles to the site (subject to review). These articles can be of a varied nature and will be available to print or email directly from the page viewed. I will endeavour to achieve this over the coming few weeks. in the meantime if you are interested in becoming an author (it won’t be difficult to submit articles), drop me a line via here
This was the first Club Day for a while and a reasonable number of members attended. It is great to see the support for Club Day which raises essential funds for the club. However, the threat of cold and inclement weather still keeps a few at home in front of the fire! Thanks to the ladies as usual for preparing the barbecue.
Some observations from the day –
- Just as we arrived we saw Fred doing a couple of circuits with his “Decathalon” powered by a Magnum 160 twin with a lot of onlookers eyeing the model as it flew past. Why all the curiosity I thought? It was then that I saw that one of the undercarriage wheels had fallen off! This is not a small model and Fred was looking for somewhere “soft” to land. The long grass was the obvious choice but as we’ve seen in the past, a damage free landing in the heavy clumps is not assured. Fred made his final approach, looking for the long grass to the west of the runway, the model was coming in quite fast and Fred hit the spot with his landing. It was a quite abrupt stop and I am sure the pilot would have gone through the windscreen but fortunately no damage. Well done Fred!
Fred also brought along his Saito 125FS powered “Adrenaline 90” Pattern model. This was an ex Greg Robertson model and Fred had a lot of fun putting the model through it’s paces (or was the model putting Fred through his paces!). - Dave Jacobs brought his scratch built old timer a “New Ruler” with “test pilot” Terry Pearson at the controls. This was it’s second outing after Dave had made some adjustments after it’s maiden flight showed up some sensitivity with the controls, accentuated by excessive throws. These were tamed a bit and a successful flight was made although Dave reported that the model had “plenty of power!” and may need a bit of down thrust built in.
- Owen Cameron brought along a couple of his scratch built models, the “Hot Drop and his “Sporty Ace”. The Sporty Ace attracted some disparaging remarks about the “pink” colouring however Owen quickly jumped to the models defence declaring it was “Magenta!” – Still looks a bit pink Owen but a nicely built model nevertheless. Merv C was also in attendance as was Jason George. They might have had a Control Line session lined up after the RC’ers were out of the way.
- Greg Robertson brought along his electric “old timer” a “Senior 60”. This is a scaled up version of the Ben Buckle designed “Junior 60”. The model is finished to Greg’s usual high standard and it was able to thermal quite well in the conditions and it flew along quite leisurely. I imagine, due to it’s size, it will compete well in all conditions. There is certainly justification for an electric class now in the Old Timer event as we have done with the “Tomboy” events.
- Terry brought along a few models but were it not for a vey obliging wife in Tanya, he may have spent the day as an observer – he forgot a Tx module and a quick call to Tanya had the necessary component hand delivered! Terry flew his Liberty Sport and Terry, Dave and myself all flew gliders on the day as well – I don’t mind admitting to being a bit rusty after such a long lay off. Geoff Hays brought his usual stable of the Ugly Stik and his Tomboy.
- A welcome return to the club was Tony Berg. Tony had a “sabbatical” away for a while but was more than happy to be back amongst us. Tony flew his (Hyperion I think) electric pattern ship and seemed to enjoy being back at Symmons Plains. We certainly enjoyed having him back!
- Bill Hellinga came along too but he looks a bit lost without his old mate Chris Klimeck and the buddy box. Chris is still undergoing chemotherapy and the latest round has knocked Chris around a bit but the doctors have informed him that this is a sign it is doing it’s job. We wish Chris continued well wishes for a speedy recovery he really is a champion to make the effort to attend the field and fly whilst he is undergoing this demanding treatment.
Some photos from the day can be found here (tip: click on “slideshow” to view enlarged pictures)- Thanks to Kerry for taking the shots whilst I was having fun flying my model!