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| Where
would you expect to find a waterfall, a roller coaster, a terminator, a panic and even a
blaino draino? No, not at Alton Towers but at the OG’s Memorial Sports Field on a
beautiful flying day on Sunday 4th September; these are all manoeuvres
performed in the British Freestyle Aerobatic Championships. The Wellingborough Old
Grammarians Model Flying Club hosted this prestigious event, sponsored by RCM&E, for
the first time and it proved to be a total success for the competitors, spectators and
organisers alike. Not that success comes without hard work and effort and Ian Baird and
his merry band of hard working club members spent the previous day preparing the site
hammering in stakes, defining the no-go areas, erecting tents, gazebos and banners and
looking after the early arriving competitors. At least they had the bonus of seeing some
of the practice flying, the incredible antics if the ‘shock’ flyers and a
convivial evening in the bar. |
| By Sunday morning
everything was ship shape and Bristol fashion (should that be aircraft shape and
Southampton fashion?) the early mist was lifting to give a glorious sunny day with a
light to moderate wind, certainly nothing to worry high powered 3D aerobatic models. |
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After a small hiccup with the power supply for the P.A. system, rapidly
rectified, it was time for the context and flight line briefing, our own Chris Dickens
being responsible for the flight line organisation; fortunately he had an
unstressful, the
competitors were very well behaved and responsible. The contest is divided into two
classes, advanced and unlimited, there were five entries in the advanced and six in the
unlimited, this allowed an unhurried competition with time for ‘comfort’ breaks
and demonstrations. Each of the classes has a fixed schedule for round one, which gives a
chance for the judges and spectators to assess the standard of flying of individuals
flyers. Unfortunately local man Brian Cooper had suffered an ignition module failure in
the engine of his Hanger Nine Extra and was unable to compete, this left just Lee Waples
to fly the flag for the O.G’s and he was understandably nervous in his round one
flying, it was his first major competition.
Models were
mostly ARTF’s, or professionally built, one exception was Martin Bell with his very
attractive home designed and built ‘Stiletto’; smaller than average, it was
powered by a J’EN56 and obviously less costly than some of the entries, it performed
very well and more than held it’s own against the opposition. Capiche and Synergy
ARTF models were the most popular models (most competitors brought along two models), YS
the most favoured of glo motors and Desert Aircraft being preferred by a number of the
spark enthusiasts.
After the fixed
schedule round Martin Bell took a healthy lead in the Advanced, but Thomas David and Luke
Shaw were neck and neck for the unlimited contest. Round two and three were for the true
freestyle aerobatics, the contestants choosing their own programme which is then judged on
‘Content and Innovation’, ‘Execution and Precision’,
‘Presentation Entertainment and Variety’. No doubt with the latter criteria in
mind a number of the contestants opted to fly their sequence to music, this certainly adds
to the enjoyment by the spectators, but can be problematic for the pilot. If you have a
general musical background the manoeuvres do not correlate to the music, but if you have
very positive non-synchronised tracks the model must carry out the manoeuvres precisely in
time with the beat of the music and such items as flick rolls coinciding with a climax.
Miss the beat and you have egg n your face. |
Luke
Shaw flew a magical, with music, second round, the model not only flew in sympathy with
the music style, but his precise timing must have impressed the judges, he was a worthy
winner of the unlimited class, outscoring his nearest rival by over 50 points. |
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For his
entertainment value Martin Bell attached red ribbons to the wing tips of the Stiletto and
performed some quite balletic movements, at one time it looked as though the ribbons would
surely become wrapped around the propeller. The lowest scores of rounds two and three were
discarded and the higher score added to the fixed schedule score decided the final
results, Martin coming top of the heap in the advanced section. |
| Unfortunately
Simon Johnson’s music recording was not compatible with the on-site equipment and he
opted not to fly his YAK in rounds two and three, he did, however, demonstrate the
abilities of an electric ‘foamie’ to emulate and in some cases, exceed the
capabilities of the larger aerobatic models. |
Between the rounds we were royally entertained by demonstrations of the
World 3D Masters helicopter champion, Duncan Osbourn, who not only carried out some
sparkling, death defying sequences but, with commentaries by Russ Deacon, explained each
of the manoeuvres and how they were performed. An equivalent demo by a fixed wing
aeroplane would also be informative. Brian Cooper ave an exhibition of high speed flying
with a borrowed Weston ‘Magnum’, he claimed that it was not as fast as his own
model, but it certainly impressed the spectators. |
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| The site
proved to be ideal for the contest, it had a ‘buzz’ throughout the day, the
banking proved a natural grandstand and the restricted flying areas posed no problems.
Competitors were allowed to bring their vehicles close to the flying area, spectators and
helpers left theirs at the main parking area. Club members manned a tent where the prizes
were on show and items – plus a raffle tickets and programmes were sold to the
benefit of club funds. One
thing did strike this ancient aeromodeller, competitors for these high flying skill
contests are getting younger and younger, Duncan Osbourn became World Champion at 17, Luke
shaw is 18 and Martin Bell must be feeling his age at 22! Flying standards were extremely
high, there was only one accident, Thomas David was a little over optimistic in his
pull-put (I know the feeling!). When Terry Westrop first thought about a freestyle
aerobatic competition in 1978, after watching a full-size competition, he could little
have imagined the extreme manoeuvres performed by today’s models. Thank goodness he
did not allow his dream to fade away and die, otherwise we would be left with the F3A
competitions which, having been a reluctant observer as a magazine editor, are as exciting
as watching the proverbial paint dry. The present freestyle contests are like a breath of
fresh air.
Congratulations to all of those
members involved in the organising and support of the event, ‘it were a right good
do’. Thanks also go to the Association for allowing the use of the site, Dave Howell
and Dennis Fenn for it’s upkeep, to the sponsors, including RCM&E, Freestyle RC,
YT International, Prosonic, Probuild, J. Perkins and Weston UK, to the St Johns Ambulance,
RCM&E & 3D Masters for raffle prizes, Luke Sheehan for the commentary, Paul Clarke
& Lee Waples for organising and working the RC forums, the judges Pete Brett, Bob
Ailles, Ali Machinchy, Dave Stephens, to the webmaster John Mee, and scorer Martin Smith
and of course Terry Westrop himself. |
| David Boddington |
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