GoPro Footage from the 2012 Tas State Open Thermal Champs Nov. 17/18.

SEAT 2011 Tas. State Open Thermal Champs

Report: Chris Adams.
Photos: Lou Harris. See all 49 photos here.

Overall results here (.xls, 3KB)

Tough Conditions
on both days gave the high-class field of 8 pilots a chance to push their launching and thermalling skills to the limit. 12 rounds flown allowed 2 droppers which to some, proved very handy.

Interstate guests Greg Potter, Gary Whitfield and Darrel Blow enjoyed another terrific event at Valleyfield. They all promise to return next year (with their entourage) to indulge in some top-notch Tassie thermalling.

Gliders flown included Greg's trusty Pike Perfect Extreme, John Skinner's FOSA fresh from the F3B Worlds in China (and launching to the moon in the wind) , Gary's Perfect, Darrel's Aspire, Bruce's Cobra, Stephen's Ultra-Orange Supra (flown to great effect in the gusty conditions), Mike Taylor's Perfect and the only Explorer 3.5 from Chris Adams.

Saturday offered a mild, steady 15kt breeze all day and pilots had to make the decision to either stay with the thermal they're in and get taken a mile downwind OR leave it prematurely and stay on the field in the hope another thermal would come along. There were many out-landings.

Re-launches were popular with some rounds only permitting 3mins single flights despite 2 launches. Mostly the air was bouyant but fast-moving. Half-ballast was used by most pilots. Speaking of ballast, lunch was again sourced from the Epping Forest Servo with their quite delicious rolls and sandwiches.

Sunday morning offered great flying conditions until about 10:15am when the predicted Nor' Wester kicked-in. With 12 rounds flown we packed-up with a rain squall visible only 10 mins away.

Warwick Bonney again did a great job as CD ably assisted by Mary Bainbridge.

Kudos to John's girlfriend Lou for taking some excellent photos of the event. Trying to frame these fast-moving gliders is a tough ask but she nailed it several times.

Apres-Fly was held at the beautiful Barton Cottage (not far from the field) where Gary & Darrel had sourced accommodation. This was a terrific informal ceremony and if the weather had been warmer I daresay placegetters would have taken the plunge in the lake nearby.

Congrats to Greg 1st, Stephen 2nd and John 3rd.

Next year promises to be bigger than ever.

SEAT 2010 Tasmanian State Champs

Report: Chris Adams

Following an amazing 2 days of challenging conditions, 17 rounds flown there could only be one winner; step forward Darrel Blow! Coming all the way from Mildura with his wing man Gary Whitfield, the pair showed how a keen eye for thermals and accurate consistent landings could clinch the points. Credit goes to Florian for campaigning his vac-bagged Magic so effectively against the moldies.

The weather served up perfect thermaling conditions even for nostalgic F3B ships from the 90's. Thanks go to SEAT exec. for running a smooth fuss-free contest, Glen A. for recording flight scores and Gerry Carter for the scoring software that allowed all results to be processed reliably and very quickly.

Only 3 mild bingles all comp. but then that's why they invented glue & fabric.

Valleyfield is proving to be a perfect venue for glider comps and we look forward to running further events there.

Fancy your comp. analysis in 3-D? (thanks John Skinner)

F3F Nov. 6th Postponed

Replaced with a day of thermal flying from Frogmoore, Latrobe.:

SEAT Thermal Practice Day Frogmoore, Latrobe, Tasmania from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

F3F Oct. 9th Report

Report: Chris Adams Download the results (.xlsx Office 2007). Check out the HD in-flight footage before the comp.

Steve's Green Machine continues to impress with its natural speed and energy retention out of downwind turns. Fastest Time of the Day was Stephen's at 61sec. Breaking the minute mark at 7AD is the Holy Grail.

Conditions were very good; no rain, mild to fresh temps, wind only just tending Westerley. Buzzer system worked perfectly again (thanks Bruce). Kudos to Glen for buzzing Base B for the day.

Only casualty of the day was John's Shooter attacked by a big eagle. V-tail came off and despite full brakes, landing badly. Almost total write-off. The eagle disaappeared with its mate only to return as soon as a glider went up. Event postponed for 10mins to allow them to depart.

On a brighter note, Mike's new Crossfire 2 RDS looked the goods with impressive straight-line speed on par with the Machine. Chris had his GoPro HD cam on the Elvis Estrella; seeing the course from above is exhilarating!

Only 6 rounds flown thanks to interruptions, stopping at 3pm when the wind swung completely to the west. Next F3F TBA.

Projects Underway: Nexor Pro

After consultation with fellow pilots and rigorous competition-level flight testing, several new refinements to the Nexor design are planned.

Centre-panel dihedral
It was thought that the hands-off/ nod-off-for-40-winks-stability-while thermalling was lacking so the molds have now been modified to incorporate 3.5 deg. dihedral in the centre panel. All it took was a big circular saw, lots of shimming/ measurement, a new full-length cradle top & bottom and courage.

New Fuselage
With a view to making production easier, radio-install easier, ballast insertion/removal easier, reducing AUW by moving servos further towards the nose the Nexor Pro sports a pod/boom design. The mandrel for the boom has been designed and produced the layup for the prototype is kevlar/carbon sock with uni-carbon inner run fore-aft.

Mandrel for joiner box
The joiner boxes will also get the mandrel treatment rather than the semi-effective current method of using the molded joiners as plugs. If a mandrel is used, the boxes can remain straight when they go into the lay-up rather than the awkward method of trying to align 2 separate boxes.

Build thread here on RCGroups

Stanley 2009

Report: Chris Adams Photos: on Flickr Chris Adams/ Max Wiggins

Stanley Slopefest is an annual slope-soaring weekend event held in late Nov./early Dec. at Stanley; a small but beautifully formed fishing/farming village on the remote North-West of Tas.

For those that arrived on the Friday night the weather was bordering on apocalyptical; very angry skies that grew into a full-blown storm. Those that stayed in a Stanley Cosy Cabin reported their huts all swayed like jellies during the night.

After a thorough drenching Stanley served-up perfect West/ Nth-Westerlies. What followed was a wonderful all-day slope soaring opportunity.

Peaking at around 20-30 pilots, the sky was filled with foamies/ moldies and the occasional 1/4 scale K13 and 4.5m Multiplex Alpina. The SEAT frequency board proved a godsend and there were surprising few clashes.

Only 2 crashes during the course of the event to report; Chris and Steve may have to get the glue-in.

Pilots came from Sth. Aus (Greg), Melbourne (Marcus), Hobart, Wynyard, Latrobe and Launceston to fly off the magnificent slopes around Stanley.

After flying, our group swooped on the Stanley Hotel Bistro for enough good food to facilitate the customary passing-out-after-flying-all-day-ritual.

Sunday was miserable in contrast. Poor weather from 9am with no wind then 2-5kts and mild thermals saw most head off around midday. With only the very lightest foamies, winch launching F3J/B ships and Steve Ralph's ballistic electric wing for entertainment.

Join us next year for some great flying, great views and great Stanley hospitality.

Hi-Res pics (with captions) of the event are here on Flickr. Got pics from the event you'd like to share? Send them in to the webmaster.

Projects Underway: The Machine

The Machine is a fully-molded 3D modelled and CNC cut 3m glider.

Stephen's Machine is number 5 in an on-going build series. Each build sees small improvements made to the lay-up, hinging & production process. Weights vary according to lay-up; the lightest yet was Bruce's carbon D-box with an AUW of 1.9Kg

Steve flew his at Jerilderie 2009 as a 3rd back-up model. Further experiments with CG & model set-up including ballast loads will push the design envelope.

For further info see Projects.

Projects Underway: The Nexor

Another fully-molded 3.4 metre competition glider. This time using cheap MDF as the plug material, with the costs going towards a high-quality but easy to fabricate mould. Bruce's prototype was named "Nexor" as a tribute to it's gliding ability (it stays up so long it makes your neck sore).

The Nexor was maidened at the Milang F3J International in March 2009 and performed on a par with commercial models 4x the price!

The next iteration of the design incorporates dihedral to enhance roll-stability further.

For further info see Projects.

Projects Underway: Taslotto

Continuing the theme of using MDF as the plug material, the "Taslotto" F3B ship is based on HN-483 sections and built in one-piece. The Taslotto uses the same v-tail fuselage as the Nexor.

For further info see Projects.