Contest 2 of the

2002 JR / Airsail F3B Series,

hosted by HBRF at Havelock North,

on May 18-19, 2002.

CD: David James

Summary, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

The Hawkes Bay Radio Fliers hosted round 2 of the 2002 series for the first time, and they've certainly set a precedent that will be hard to top! They provided great hospitality, a large flat field, BBQ lunch both days (including a 1/2 dozen huge crayfish on Saturday), and even kept the rain away apart from a short period on Saturday morning. On top of all that a large contingent of local fliers boosted the number of competitors to 18, which was really good to see. Great work guys - we all really enjoyed the weekend and are already looking forward to the next event in your part of the country! Thanks also to David James for putting in the time and effort to work out the draw in advance, and for CD'ing.

As has become typical, we set up and started the contest only to have the wind swing around so the first round ended up with speed flown in cross- to downwind conditions. After the wonderful lunch (BBQ'd sausages and paua patties plus fresh crayfish) we turned the winches around and flew the second round. Conditions were not at all easy with a low overcast all day and the wind swinging all over the place due to the effects of the local hills and valleys. Even the locals were struggling to know where the lift was - it was pretty good if you could find it and stay with it, but sink definately dominated!

The Sunday turned on generally better conditions with a more stable wind and the sun putting in an appearance. The lift and sink cycles were much more defined, but the cycle time was quite long so if you had to fly during a "down" period it could really hurt! Also hurting were servo problems for Chris Kaiser and Aneil Patel costing them big points in distance, while Chris Tank also lost a heap after his Cobra did a helicopter impersonation on tow... The only fatality was Aaron Bilham's Minty - this model is getting on in years now and may finally be put to rest.

Fastest speed time was 16.98 by Dave Larsen, best distance was 23 legs by Chris Tank. Also congratulations to Lewis Williams who again broke his own junior speed record with a 23.55 second run.