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Log inNorth West Aerobatic Championships 2008
North West Aerobatic Championships 2008
Charl on Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:16 pm
The weekend of 26 to 27 January saw the start of the Model Aerobatics flying season with the first event of the year being the North West Championships held at Klerksdorp Radio Flyers.
After being practically drowned by the weatherman over the past few weeks, there was some talk of a canoe marathon as an alternative, but the Klerksdorp chaps were never ruffled. Not only did they organise a successful event, they went out of their way to make special arrangements to import great weather. The formula was perfect: ideal weather + great people + planes = successful and fun event.
New schedules, a new season and the opportunity for a qualifying round made for a fabulous start to the year. Our competitors showed their usual dedication and determination, arriving from far and wide from early on Friday. All this to get in some practice and iron out the ever present little niggles before official start of the competition. The usual mix of happenings were in play over the weekend, with some rather interesting and creative flights, very educational to say the least. In every area of the event there was some excitement.
We had a total of 23 pilots participating, 8 Sportsman, 3 Advanced, 3 Expert, and 9 F3A. Welcome to the new pilots who have joined us, we look forward to seeing you at many of our events in the future. Four rounds were flown over the 2 days with breaks and some serious socialising in between.
Saturday morning saw the beginning of the event with the pilots briefing opened by Nico Erasmus who gave the all important “how we are going to do it” speech. This was followed our Chief Judge, Ivan Olivier, affectionately referred to in the past as “The Don” on the all important matters of how to ensure you get some decent points on the board. Pierre Marais, one of our elite F3A pilots briefed all the contestants on the karaoke that would take place that evening, highest and lowest points get to sing us a song. Then with all the officialdom under the belt it was time to fly.
Some fantastic flights were on display, you could definitely see that out dedicated members had put in some practice on the new schedules. They were determined to show their “stuff” and hopefully get some qualifying points on the board for the Masters at the end of the season. On the other side, there were also the usual “interesting and creative” flights that took place during the event.
The up elevator club were represented in full force with one of our sportsman competitors somehow achieving a fantastic inverted low pass over the Barnstomers camp site during his flight. A mighty feat indeed. Not to be outdone, later in the event one of our advanced chaps seemed to be under the impression that he could impress our esteemed judging panel, with an adjustment to his schedule, which included an inverted low pass a mere one meter over the runway. Looks like the masters are going to have to watch the up and coming innovative competition.
Of course the expert division could not be left out of the running for ingenuity with a specialised conversion during the course of the event. A plane with uncooperative retracts early on, later became a plane with fixed landing gear, compliments of the ever faithful and important cyno.
The evening of the first day, and socialisation begins with full force. The braais are lit, the chairs are brought together, and here we are, one big happy family. Then, something new, Pierre warms up his vocal cords and wow, he can sing. Then as warned at the pilots briefing, first and last place in each class at this stage of contest get to serenade the rest of us poor souls with their off-key attempts at entertainment. We hear that a formal invitation to Pierre, to sing all future pilots briefings is being considered.
F3A, our best of the best, are always in the running for something interesting. Pierre Marais after a stern recommendation from our judges has agreed to put in as much effort to his flying as to his singing achievements, after being advised that he could then possibly improve on his scores.
Fortunately with all this activity, we had the ever-reliable CD to keep us all under control. While the rest of us are sitting down and taking a break between flights and activities, there is Oom Danie, on the go, never resting, and making sure that all runs smoothly. From chasing pilots to the flight line, to making sure our esteemed judges are watered regularly, while always having time in between to share a chat and a joke. No competition is complete without him.
And then we come to our esteemed and amazing judges, led by “The Don”. Past reports have shown there were vision impairments causing load-shedding problems in the points department. This time round we were most honoured with a judging panel with 20/20 vision. These guys were on the ball, never missing a trick, and very determined to keep all the pilots in their box during their flights. This did, however, result in heavy load-shedding on the points for those who tried to perform “out of the box”, especially our creative and ingenious pilots with their amended schedules.
The end of the event on Sunday culminated in the ever important awards presentation. Prizes were awarded to our top pilots in each division, with some of the scores being so close, that we can see the rest of the season is going to be very interesting and competitive indeed.
Special thanks to all who participated and especially those individuals who volunteered their time to make this event such a great success. To Nico Erasmus and his Klerksdorp team for the use of their field and active participation in the arrangements and running of the event. To our dedicated and patient judges, for all their hard work and assistance. To our CD, Danie Potgieter Snr, without him keeping everyone in line and under control, we could never keep on track. To the sponsors who contributed to all the ever important bits and pieces and those special extras. To Pierre Marais for the karaoke, something new, different and fun. To the Barnstormers team for the night flying display with those amazing deltas. And to all those who are not mentioned (you know who you are) a very special thank you for your behind the scenes work.
I am sure you will agree that this has been a great start to a new season and we can look forward to more great flying and events.
After being practically drowned by the weatherman over the past few weeks, there was some talk of a canoe marathon as an alternative, but the Klerksdorp chaps were never ruffled. Not only did they organise a successful event, they went out of their way to make special arrangements to import great weather. The formula was perfect: ideal weather + great people + planes = successful and fun event.
New schedules, a new season and the opportunity for a qualifying round made for a fabulous start to the year. Our competitors showed their usual dedication and determination, arriving from far and wide from early on Friday. All this to get in some practice and iron out the ever present little niggles before official start of the competition. The usual mix of happenings were in play over the weekend, with some rather interesting and creative flights, very educational to say the least. In every area of the event there was some excitement.
We had a total of 23 pilots participating, 8 Sportsman, 3 Advanced, 3 Expert, and 9 F3A. Welcome to the new pilots who have joined us, we look forward to seeing you at many of our events in the future. Four rounds were flown over the 2 days with breaks and some serious socialising in between.
Saturday morning saw the beginning of the event with the pilots briefing opened by Nico Erasmus who gave the all important “how we are going to do it” speech. This was followed our Chief Judge, Ivan Olivier, affectionately referred to in the past as “The Don” on the all important matters of how to ensure you get some decent points on the board. Pierre Marais, one of our elite F3A pilots briefed all the contestants on the karaoke that would take place that evening, highest and lowest points get to sing us a song. Then with all the officialdom under the belt it was time to fly.
Some fantastic flights were on display, you could definitely see that out dedicated members had put in some practice on the new schedules. They were determined to show their “stuff” and hopefully get some qualifying points on the board for the Masters at the end of the season. On the other side, there were also the usual “interesting and creative” flights that took place during the event.
The up elevator club were represented in full force with one of our sportsman competitors somehow achieving a fantastic inverted low pass over the Barnstomers camp site during his flight. A mighty feat indeed. Not to be outdone, later in the event one of our advanced chaps seemed to be under the impression that he could impress our esteemed judging panel, with an adjustment to his schedule, which included an inverted low pass a mere one meter over the runway. Looks like the masters are going to have to watch the up and coming innovative competition.
Of course the expert division could not be left out of the running for ingenuity with a specialised conversion during the course of the event. A plane with uncooperative retracts early on, later became a plane with fixed landing gear, compliments of the ever faithful and important cyno.
The evening of the first day, and socialisation begins with full force. The braais are lit, the chairs are brought together, and here we are, one big happy family. Then, something new, Pierre warms up his vocal cords and wow, he can sing. Then as warned at the pilots briefing, first and last place in each class at this stage of contest get to serenade the rest of us poor souls with their off-key attempts at entertainment. We hear that a formal invitation to Pierre, to sing all future pilots briefings is being considered.
F3A, our best of the best, are always in the running for something interesting. Pierre Marais after a stern recommendation from our judges has agreed to put in as much effort to his flying as to his singing achievements, after being advised that he could then possibly improve on his scores.
Fortunately with all this activity, we had the ever-reliable CD to keep us all under control. While the rest of us are sitting down and taking a break between flights and activities, there is Oom Danie, on the go, never resting, and making sure that all runs smoothly. From chasing pilots to the flight line, to making sure our esteemed judges are watered regularly, while always having time in between to share a chat and a joke. No competition is complete without him.
And then we come to our esteemed and amazing judges, led by “The Don”. Past reports have shown there were vision impairments causing load-shedding problems in the points department. This time round we were most honoured with a judging panel with 20/20 vision. These guys were on the ball, never missing a trick, and very determined to keep all the pilots in their box during their flights. This did, however, result in heavy load-shedding on the points for those who tried to perform “out of the box”, especially our creative and ingenious pilots with their amended schedules.
The end of the event on Sunday culminated in the ever important awards presentation. Prizes were awarded to our top pilots in each division, with some of the scores being so close, that we can see the rest of the season is going to be very interesting and competitive indeed.
Special thanks to all who participated and especially those individuals who volunteered their time to make this event such a great success. To Nico Erasmus and his Klerksdorp team for the use of their field and active participation in the arrangements and running of the event. To our dedicated and patient judges, for all their hard work and assistance. To our CD, Danie Potgieter Snr, without him keeping everyone in line and under control, we could never keep on track. To the sponsors who contributed to all the ever important bits and pieces and those special extras. To Pierre Marais for the karaoke, something new, different and fun. To the Barnstormers team for the night flying display with those amazing deltas. And to all those who are not mentioned (you know who you are) a very special thank you for your behind the scenes work.
I am sure you will agree that this has been a great start to a new season and we can look forward to more great flying and events.
Charl- Posts: 17
Join date: 2008-01-04
Age: 36 
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