6th Area Meeting Results / Ashdown Forest / 7 October 2007
1 |
G Oulds | Crawley A | 7.30 + 2.02 |
2 |
M Cook | MFFG | 6.39 |
3 |
R Willes | Crawley B | 6.20 |
4 |
A Cameron | Crawley A | 6.07 |
5 |
J Oulds | Crawley A | 5.39 |
6 |
K Taylor | East Grinstead | 5.36 |
7 |
T Knight | Crawley B | 3.49 |
8 |
A Clark | Crawley B | 3.16 |
9 |
D Bird | MFFG | 2.43 |
| Crawley A | 19.16 |
| Crawley B | 13.25 |
Pete Cameron and Gary Oulds both made the fly-off
1 |
P Cameron | Crawley | 6.00 + 1.54 |
2 |
K Taylor | East Grinstead | 6.00 + 1.53 |
3 |
J Shephard | MFFG | 5.26 |
4 |
M Stagg | MFFG | 4.39 |
5 |
P Norman | Crawley | 3.30 |
6 |
D Bird | MFFG | 1.37 |
1 |
G Stringer | East Grinstead | 10.00 + 3.32 |
2 |
N Allen | East Grinstead | 10.00 + 2.28 |
3 |
M Stagg | MFFG | 10.00 + 1.09 |
4 |
M Richardson | East Grinstead | 7.29 |
5 |
R Taylor | East Grinstead | 2.32 |
6 |
R Willes | Crawley | 2.21 |
class |
% |
points |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
G Oulds | Crawley | C/G |
100.0 |
18 + 4 |
1 |
G Stringer | East Grinstead | Coupe |
100.0 |
18 +3 |
1 |
N Allen | East Grinstead | Coupe |
100.0 |
18 + 2 |
1 |
P Cameron | Crawley | Min Vin |
100.0 |
18 + 1 |
1 |
M Stagg | MFFG | Coupe |
100.0 |
18 + 1 |
1 |
K Taylor | East Grinstead | Min Vin |
100.0 |
18 + 1 |
7 |
J Shephard | MFFG | Min Vin |
90.6 |
15 |
8 |
M Cook | MFFG | C/G |
88.7 |
14 |
9 |
R Willes | Crawley | C/G |
84.4 |
13 |
10 |
A Cameron | Crawley | C/G |
81.6 |
12 |
11 |
M Stagg | MFFG | Min Vin |
77.5 |
11 |
12 |
J Oulds | Crawley | C/G |
75.30 |
10 |
13 |
M Richardson | MFFG | Coupe |
74.8 |
9 |
14 |
K Taylor | East Grinstead | C/G |
74.7 |
8 |
15 |
P Norman | Crawley | Min Vin |
58.3 |
7 |
16 |
T Knight | Crawley | C/G |
50.10 |
6 |
17 |
A Clark | Crawley | C/G |
43.6 |
5 |
18 |
D Bird | MFFG | C/G |
36.2 |
4 |
19 |
D Bird | MFFG | Min Vin |
26.9 |
3 |
20 |
R Taylor | East Grinstead | Coupe |
25.3 |
2 |
21 |
R Willes | Crawley | Coupe |
23.5 |
1 |
1st Area |
2nd Area |
3rd Area |
4th Area |
5th Area | 6th Area |
total |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Grinstead | 20 |
21 |
85 |
33.5 |
32 |
78 |
269.5 |
| Maidstone | 16 |
35 |
26 |
40 |
14 |
76 |
207 |
| Crawley | 0 |
26 |
40 |
23.5 |
20 |
95 |
204.5 |
Weather - Light NE winds
Compiled by Mike Cook - CD
Report from Gary Oulds
We were at Bushy Willows normally a favoured side to be on for the Ashdown final fling of the year. Winds were very light erring easterly then later on north easterly.
On arrival it was impossibly foggy, you couldn’t actually see Camp Hill at all and visibility was estimated at barely 80 metres. A mile square of Ashdown had virtually disappeared from view into the white and grey, like some spectacular vanishing trick set by a master illusionist. After an hour the sun eventually revealed all.
The light winds made it tricky for glider flyers to judge anything near good enough to keep a model actually airborne for the required two and a half minutes, consistent lift proved tricky to find. And downers were a plenty from what looked initially like good launches - disappointing many. As we watched, lots of glider flights decayed rapidly, struggling even to clear the launch area let alone ‘Doom Valley’ and well short of the max. Robin was flying a large (hideous crooked nose) looking own-design glider with no name. This however showed the way when its first flight just floated majestically away off a 75m line…the fuse d.t was judged a tad overkill at 7mins but fortunately the model had gone hardly any distance and soon he was away again with almost a repeat performance. One flight now away from maxing out Robin’s glider looked nicely set from launch or at least high enough to make it …I followed up after with my first flight of the day, only turning round after I launched to see how Robins model was doing, almost in. What had happened? It seems rotten luck mainly and a sticking rudder had scuppered Robin’s fly-off hope. (Even humming skiffle “Ma Ma don’t come a round here no more” couldn’t save it….) My model was still flying OK, or so I thought but heading out high across towards the woods, having been repaired after an earlier trim flight landing had pulled the wing tip open at the dihedral joint. The model still looked to be close to trim. But the following DT was just terrible (let us pray) as it sycamored down from height it looked likely it might be badly damaged or smashed to bits if it hit the deck…. But I got a nice slice of luck the model stopped suddenly on the drop, lodging about 35 foot up in some lonesome pines just off the firebreak, practically saving the model. With the glider safely hooked out of these, a few adjustments made, and two further flights at the end of the day I’d made the fly- off. Unfortunately I was the only one…team-mates Alex and Dad also in Crawley A had missed out this time with 1in3 flights maxing apiece. Both Terry Knight and Tony Clark also faded, missing flights for Crawley’s B team along with a very lowly looking flight from East Grinstead’s Ken Taylor which practically landed at Bobs feet for 37seconds…not an easy day for glider at all.
The day was much better suited for rubber flying - Martin Stagg, Geoff Stringer and Neil Allen all maxed out in Coupe. Ken Taylor and Peter Cameron made the Mini Vintage fly-off. At 4.45 we all got set for the final fling of the year!
Geoff was neatly away early with his Coupe model, and I wish I’d followed closer with my glider but delayed my launch (he who hesitates and all that) the air he caught wasn’t great but still proved best of the bunch to clear 3mins. I got a reasonable token fly off flight I think from I’ve been told repeatedly was another fairly poor launch, the glide saved it eventually but it was still down at just over 2mins, Neil Allen’s Coupe I think landed around the 2.30 mark, Martin around 1.40ish then there was a very close battle for top honours in Mini Vintage between Ken and Peter just a second in it I believe.
There was a short on-the-field presentation made specially in honour of Maidstone’s Peter Harris, a particularly nice touch I think from all the flyers being one of our long-term flyers for his efforts over all the years he’s been flying at Ashdown - a very nice bloke and very much deserved.
I think that’s about it for another year at Ashdown - roll on 2008!
Thanks to CD Mike Cook for running the show and Neil Allen, Keith Miller, Bob Cutter for their support.
And all the flyers
Keith Miller was sounding out the possibility of maybe holding free flight events on Sheppy Island again… Food for thought.
And Dennis Bird thinks we may even see a welcome return of the legendary John Foster sometime next year…..Clapton is God!
Congratulations to East Grinstead in the RAFA Shield - run away winners yet again!
And I’m sure many thanks also go to all those not mentioned that are behind scenes supporting us all both flying and non-flying on the forest.