UK HLG Comp' Results 2003

BMFA comp's are flown -7 flights from 7, with a 10 second attempt.

BMFA 2^nd Area Centralised

March 16th

We must be blessed, the weather was almost perfect, for this, the first competition of the year.

The almost cloudless sky made lift picking difficult, dropped flights were seen often, good launches became dissapointing flights as the thermal detecting streamer played their tricky games !

Mark Benns had a new model fly away when his Cool Tube D/T failed to bring the model down - it was last seen at a great height heading out over Rutland Water. Mick Page was flying a model which looked like a cross between a Butterfly and a Voodoo. Other fliers were sticking with proven designs ( me included ) but the conditions allowed for testing of our latest creations.

Mick Page goes for some BIG air at North Luffenham.

The event was in the hands of at least four fliers but dropped flights sorted the men from the boys - the most patient fliers 'winning' out.

North Luffenham HLG result

Meanwhile - Andrew Hewitt (Muppet) was flying his new " Nuclear powered glider" at Church Fenton and recorded 6.23 in similar conditions.

But, E. Baxter-Jones recorded 6:54 !

UK Free Flight Nationals 2003

RAF Barkston Heath - 23 entries.

We had to wait a year before this event came around again, many of us would have been considering our previous performance in 2002, new models would have been built, some of us even adopted new or increased training schedules in order to improve on last years scores, but what happened ? I'll tell you - Mother Nature took over again and crushed the hopes of many a perspective podium hopeful !

Last year we had clear skies but a constant wind gave problems to all that were not used to such flying conditions, this year we also had clear skies, the temperature was around the 19c mark but the wind was stronger and gusting above 25 mph ! (8/10 mps)

Many fliers were having launch problems and debris from broken models was a common site. Andrew Hewitt snapped the wing of his new 'nuclear powered' model badly early on and despite repairing it he had to switch to another model, which he also snapped the wing !

The fliers that weren't suffering damage problems were having launch problems. Those that mastered high wind launches were then finding the model back on the ground inside 20 seconds ! It wasn't a day for the faint hearted. I have the scores, I can tell you that from 23 entries (154 flights), there were only 13 maxes !

Fliers that we would put in the 'expert' class were happy with 40 sec' flights and if a 50 sec' flight or a max came along there was sheer jubilation !

As Len Surtees once again found, the whole of the day was required to find those elusive thermals. 'Fido' and Martin over from Sweden were also having lift finding problems. Mick Page couldn't do anything right - his trimming flights looked perfect but his official times were well down on the leaders. As the day began drawing to a close it seemed that Mark Benns and Chas Campen were jostling for the lead. I was in a confident mood until flights five and six clocked only 24 and 21 seconds !

Now it had come down to the last flight to find who would be in first, second and third places - everything hinged on this one last chance. As the clock ran down we were into the last ten minutes and all eyes strained ahead to spot some lift. Phil Ball had made a last minute appearance an hour earlier and was running between us waiting fliers and making lift picking look easy. Quick retrievals on his bicycle had him racking up scores in no time at all, until his D/T mech' broke, with no time to fix it he tied off the thread around the nose of the model and launched! Yes, you guessed right, his model sailed off into the wide blue yonder - thus ending his HLG challenge.

So there we were, Mark and myself. As the clock approached the final five minutes of the competition the streamer began to show signs of lift. I set my D/T and signalled my timer, as I turned back Mark and Kevin Tatlow ran in front of me to launch, I ran diagonally across the rear of them and threw with all my might and made a perfect launch, the model (Hybrid) turned to the left after transition and was away in a strong thermal. Kevin and Mark were away but after some time began to descend, my Hybrid flew to the right of their models and continued to climb - bringing me a superb max'. Mark's '2Kan' model was down before the minute but he had resolved who the winner was - it was himself. I had to check the scores before I found that my max' had taken me into third place.

Congratulations to Mark (2Kan) on achieving his second victory and to Chas flying his Voodoo design.

Result of the 2003 UK HLG Free Flight Nationals.

The Bronze 'Gong'

More notes from the 2003 UK F/F Nats.......

A notable performance came from D.Gregoire (France) who is a junior, he placed 5th. His father told me he would have done better if he hadn't taken his father's advice !

The wind was so strong it snapped Mark Benns's 24' fibreglass thermal detecting streamer pole.

The lift came and passed so quickly that users of D/T fuse had no time to 'light up' before the thermal had gone through. I coped on my last flight by having an eighteen inch length of lit fuse hanging from the model. I snipped off the surplus immediately before launching.

Many modellers are now using friction type D/T 'timers'. Len Surtees is using his 'cool tubes', many British fliers are using the button type.

Fliers from the UK, France, Sweden and Australia entered HLG - a truly international event.

Six former British champions entered.

The Peterborough fliers all seem to be using Mark Benns' 2Kan design - Mick Page's version having different wing tips. (Chas Campen is still using his Voodoo).

Andy Hewitt's models are getting so large that he is using glass booms intended for A/1 gliders ! !

The Millennium Dome Event

London, England, 2003

As I sit here at my computer I have all three of my specially built models still intact. This surprises me as I thought that any attempt to fly Hand Launched Gliders indoors meant many broken pieces of balsa stuffed unceremoniously into plastic bags! But then again I have never been inside the Millennium Dome.

 Mark Benns organised a whole day inside the Dome for about twelve ‘hand picked’ HLG fliers. As most people know the whole Millennium Dome project was a disaster but that bad luck was our good fortune. The whole place is completely empty and I mean empty.

We were allowed to drive our cars inside the Dome to unload our models and equipment, the site that greeted us was fantastic – it’s huge inside. Andy Hewitt (my driver) and I unloaded our models then parked the car in ‘our own’ car park. We then took time to inspect this incredible structure called the Millennium Dome. What appears to be normal, like the supporting legs, are suddenly given scale when a diminutive figure walks by, only then do you realise what a colossal structure it is. The height to the top of the Dome is 162”, a cluster of speakers hangs in the very centre at about 100” but there was no likelihood of us hitting those (or anything else) with our Open models.

Practice lasted for two hours; during that time we were able to trim our models for the 12”catapult class, the 12” HLG class and the Open HLG class.

 The first competition to start was the catapult class. Shortly into the session our BMFA representative Jo Halman found that the rulebook only allows for a wing chord of three inches! That eliminated Andy’s model and a couple of others. We were reaching some great heights with these little planes, it was possible to pull the rubber back to maximum stretch and launch in any direction and still you wouldn’t hit the Dome, but the trick was to get them to glide like a feather and Mick Page was the most successful at that and set a British record in the process.

The main event was to be the Open HLG, we knew that Len Surtees (Australia) was well experienced and the noble art of indoor flying and was capable of around 75 seconds. But for the rest of us, what we wanted was to reach the magic figure of sixty seconds. I was drawn to fly first and from my first three attempts of nine I was able to clock 56 and 58 seconds. The other competitors were clocking mid to high forties and some low fifties. Len Surtees banged in a 66 second flight and then a 73 second flight. Martin Larsson from Sweden was looking good and eventually recorded a 66 second flight, which is a new Swedish record. A couple of fliers were unfortunate to wreck there models whilst launching which just goes to show that everyone was giving 100%.

 We all seemed to suffer a stall off the top after transition; we knew if that could be avoided the flight time went up at least ten percent. I wasn’t able to improve on 58 seconds, but immediately after the competition had ended Andrew Hewitt clocked 62 seconds. I got Chas Campen to time a flight for me that clocked 63 seconds! - Now I know we can do it, I will be improving my models and technique to hopefully get nearer to 70 seconds the next time we visit the Dome.

 Our thanks go to Mark Benns for organising our day in the Millennium Dome. Mark presented mechanical stopwatches to Len, Mick and Martin for their efforts.

 We ran out of time so were not able to hold the 12” HLG competition, but who cares? it was an amazing day.

As we started the drive home Concorde flew over low, making it's landing approach for Heathrow airport, what a finish to the day !

Oxford Dreaming Spires

(The nightmare Tumble Drier)

This was a combined Catapult / HLG event - I'm not in favour of combining events like this but the weather was a bigger worry !

About fourteen competitiors battled each other and the elements at the 21st Oxford meeting. The competition was flown to local rules - ten flights with a ten second attempt.

The day started with no wind at all, but it soon whipped up speed and threw in a few rain showers for effect, combine that with a complete 90 degree change in direction and the nearby upwind trees and river creating a tumble drier effect then you have some idea of what it was like to fly at the 'Dreaming Spires' meeting !

The Nationals wind was difficult to fly in but Oxford was almost impossible. There was plenty of lift but flights away in boomers were suddenly on the ground in two seconds flat ! I had one model dissappear OOS, another had the fin ripped off, my new Hybrid2 came in with such force that the Carbon boom and wing snapped. Even the larger Coupe D'Hiver and Classic gliders were not coping with the wind -have you ever seen an A/2 do a barrel roll ? Many models were reported lost.

They even had a fly-off for one of the rubber competitons, two models were sent on a one way trip, their owners didn't even bother to chase them ! What was the point of that ?

I suppose we'll all be back next year for mare (sic) of the same !

Result of combined HLG/ Catapult

 

Mick Page has sent me details of the Saturday evening combined HLG/CLG event.

 Unlike Sunday the wind was calm, giving Mark Benns an easy win with a score of 4.30 as he was allowed to use his catapult model in a five flight HLG competition!

Mick was 2^nd with 3.48 and was top HLG flyer for the evening, Andy Crisp came 3rd with 2.40.

---

Indoor Nationals 2003

Millennium Dome - 2 July

There were about 80 competitors inside the Dome for the second day of these championships. Each group of fliers had their own segment of the Dome to fly in, the microfilm fliers to one side, a group of fun-fly scale fliers nearby to ourselves who were flying HLG.

The catapult fliers were the most numerous, with the 'zip - zip' noise that they produce continuing all day. Mark Benns came out top of the pile and created a British record in the process! My attempts in catapult finished after my first flight - I 'fired' it somewhere into the 162' ceiling and lost sight of it completely, not only that, I couldn't find it! Later it was returned from the microfilm section where it had hit a chair and snapped the nose (?). Indoor catapult has come on in leaps and bounds at these two Millennium meetings, 70 seconds plus is now the norm, a vertical climb with a perfect flip-out transition is required from a 7-8 gram model. My question is, how do you improve in this class? four fliers were very very close, only a stopwatch could separate them, visually they all seemed as if they could glide for ever ! - great fun.

My main objective for the day was the Open HLG (F1N) category, I had built a new bigger and lighter model that I was convinced would be capable of 70 seconds or more, but even though I could get it to a magnificent height I could not get it to transition properly! consequently about a third of it's height was lost before it settled into slow level flight. No amount of bending or tweaking and moving the CG would persuade it to do as it ought. I was able to pass the 60 second mark three times but only one of those flights was an 'official'. Marks Benns had no such problems and with the aid of an adjustable pylon/wing mount was able to get a semi spiral type launch pattern which gave consistent patterns. Chas Campen was getting near to the 'magic 60' as was Jonathan Walker who had a collection of models, one was particularly large. Mike Hadland was having another break from his scale flying, his flights were very consistent, unfortunately by the time he decided to put in his official flights his arm was going 'off' and he wasn't able to increase his times. I had an embarrassing moment when my OHLG 'collected' a microfilm model which wrapped itself around my model like bubble gum, the two of them soon ended up on the floor.

12" HLG didn't get much attention Mark Benns was the only person to put in a proper set of scores - Chas and myself spent a mad few last minutes of the competition adding some times to the score sheet.

Results.......

Indoor Nationals 2003

Open HLG

1	Mark Benns
2	Mike Chapman
3	Chas Campen

12 " Catapult

1	Mark Benns
2	Mick Page
3	Chas Campen

12" HLG

1	Mark Benns
2	Chas Campen
3	Mike Chapman

 

Marks Benns is dominating this season of Hand Launched Glider and Catapult competitions and we only have two more outdoor comps' to try and break his grip. I wrecked myself trying at the Dome, but a look forward to our next meeting when I unleash Hybrid2 ! ! !

In the mean time I'll take some more Ibrufen to ease my aching body.

Another great meeting at the Dome, if you weren't there, go out and thrash yourself with a big stick !

Southern Gala

Report by Mick Page

This year the Southern Gala was held on the Marlborough Downs near Swindon. Just imagine long green sweeping fields, actually corn fields on a slope! The breeze was coming from a high ridge running the full length of the field, which actually was a nice green. The mind boggled as to the turbulence and how many models would be damaged on the sun drenched soil? Moreover, the BMFA notice was at the wrong entrance to the field, by now the image was somewhat dented !

We parked the car and waited for the dust clouds to settle as the ground was covered in about 3” of dust, which made walking a bit strange until one got used to it. The HLG box was positioned on a slope Mick Page tried to run uphill on this dust only to conclude that it was impossible! However, Andy Crisp just chucked his model and away it went for an easy max followed by a few more! Mark Benns followed soon afterwards and was also coping with the launching conditions. The expected turbulence did not appear other than a gentle stall as the models came into land. In fact, it was extremely pleasant to watch models glide away from the top of the slope into the panoramic landscape below. However, walking back up the slope on the dust left one completely knackered!

Latter in the day control had to be moved and this time the box was positioned on flatter dust. Meanwhile Page had finally got his beloved 25” Butterfly flying like it use too and followed this up with demonstrational thermal picking leaving him a full 31 sec ahead of double British champion Mark Benns. However, Phil had only just started, his superb HLG was gliding forever max and near max flights appeared like clockwork, even a miss-launch produced a 54 sec flight! In-between HLG flights Phil was also flying his latest catapult model, which was near as perfection as one could imagine, although something must have gone wrong as he finished 16 seconds short of a perfect score. As Phil started to retrieve his HLG for his last flight you could see the dusty ground slowing him down. Had Phil the past master of just in time finally got it wrong, or would he produce his best win ever with just seconds to spare? Unfortunately when only feet away from the box the hooter went thus robbing him of victory, yet he still came 4^th with only six flights!

Final scores HLG ......

  Catapult .......

The BMFA Autumn Mini Gala

9th November 2003

This event was postponed from it's original date in July (Summer Mini Gala) but was very well attended. There were many classes being flown other than HLG, which meant that there were two staggered flight lines in use.

The weather was not as forecast (windy with rain), the wind was almost none existent and we only felt a few light drops of rain towards the end of the day. The problem was that it was very dull and overcast and there was no lift - none that would give a comfortable Max. In the words of Mick Page "This weather is a gift for Andy Hewitt and Phil Ball" - what he meant was, the Ibis models they use will just glide and glide without the help of thermals and so it was - for Andy anyway.

I have never heard so many top line HLG fliers offering excuses for there performance ! I kept mine to myself but only four good launches from seven tells its own story. It must be said that the ground anywhere within North Luffenham airfield is pretty rough (the Army now use it for manoeuvres) it is covered with deep track marks and holes. We moved the launch box so that it gave the opportunity to launch from either the runway or the grass. I chose the grass but now (with hindsight) I wish I had tried the runway.

I only heard one max being called, many fliers were recording 50 secs and above but if you missed the 'lift' you could be down for 30 seconds ! We were all plugging away merrily when Phil casually mentioned to me that 6:11 was the total to beat, "You" I said, "No Andy" came the reply. Andy had been quietly producing 50 second flights without his well known miss-launches.

Technical note : I had hoped to un-leash my new Hybrid models at North Luffenham but found that the Cool Tube DTs do not like cold weather - the 'potty putty' that is used becomes hard and non-viscous allowing the inner tube to slip - so a 1 minute DT could become a 30 sec DT ! I put the models to one side not wanting to risk a premature DT, I should had just locked off the mechanism and carried on using them because there really was no chance that any model would fly away in those gloomy cold conditions. Some flights later in the day were very encouraging but the models were getting very wet by then.

Well done to Andy, his scores put him well ahead of all the other fliers.

HLG result.

Catapult result.

Will you be ready for next year ?

Happy hibernation everyone.