Time passes so quickly these days, it’s hard to believe that 6 months have passed and I’m just getting around to finishing this report and getting ready for the 2004 event, which will be on the 19th&20th of June at the usual venue of Aberdeen Aeromodellers club site to the south of Aberdeen. We hope to have a better turn out this year and to that end we are looking into reformatting the event to make a greater emphasis on the 3D or Free-style event. The problem we have is fitting everything into the two days. The final format of the event will be posted in plenty of time on the web site.
Anyway on with the report. Saturday was the better day with light winds and dry, even sunny. As usual the Saturday was dominated by the FAI F3C competition and the Clubmans. Being light on competitors we ran two rounds of FAI without a break and followed by the same of Clubmans. A short break for lunch followed during which Dave Wilshere demoed his turbine aircraft for those interested in these, and there were quite a few, and the last round of FAI and Clubmans followed on to round off the main competition. This left plenty of time for some fun off the peg flying before the 7pm curfew. There were no big surprises during these events and the final results are in the table below.
As per the last few years the Heli nats Saturday evening being the one closest to the longest day means that it is the Aberdeen Aeromodellers Club electric evening. Again some of the local members arrived with electric models for the fly-in. The Motors and Rotors team again stole the show with their usual selection of electric models. Those who read this last year will remember that Dave W. took my Pico-Jet out with his mini-cub. Well not to risk the replacement for the Pico-Jet I kept out of his way this year and tried to fly while he was on the ground. Good plan I hear you say but he almost got me again and my mini-starjet has the prop marks of a mini-cub across the top of the fuselage to prove it!
Sunday was close to being a total wash out. It rained and rained and you could only just see across the field. Just as we were about to call it a day the weather lifted a little and so the free-style, all be it slightly curbed by a low cloud base, took place, followed by the Scale event. The scale event did bring a surprise because the hot favourite Dave’s turbine NH90 didn’t win, why, because it was buried at the front of the van and to get it out was more than Dave was willing to do for one flight, shame on him. Anyway the first place went to the deserved Ronnie Ford with his rather nice Augusta 109. We even managed to get the Auto-spot fitted in all thanks to the total co-operation of all the competitors.
With the delayed start to Sunday we did manage to get through all the competition without incident and the presentation was held only slightly later than usual. There are no photos of the presentation as this had to be run from the caravan door due to the light rain at the time. Once again I think everyone had a good time and it only remains for me to thank all those who come year on year to support the event and those who help me run the event for them. I always look forward to seeing old friends at this event and make some new ones into the bargain. Don’t forget to put the date in your diary 19th & 20th of June
Don’t forget to visit the web site for updates on the event, entry forms, directions and maps etc at www.shn.ukf.net.
Ian Corse
Contest Director.