Frills and spills –ROUND 3
After two luxurious rounds of the BMAA national at Over Farm and Popham the 3rd round of the nationals took place at Oakley on the Bucks / Oxfordshire
border. The theme for the weekend had been ‘No Frills’ because of the somewhat limited facilities at Oakley in comparison to the previous rounds. The nationals this year have been blessed with fantastic weather and Saturday dawned bright and very hot. First task for the day a precision take off over a 1m tape, a simple test of machine and judgement, having a Quik R would surely mean that you would dominate a competition with one of these hot ships, the hot conditions and the higher take off speeds of the Quik R meant that after this task the somewhat vintage Sluka of David Hadley and Shadow of David Broom lead the way, achieving take offs of 65m and 80m respectively, what followed was a simple ground speed task which enabled competitors to access the following task, in nil wind conditions the level of accuracy was superb and ground speed errors of .1 and .2 were common. Task 3 was a tricky sequential navigation which involved identify photos and changing from inner, middle and outer ‘lanes’
On return to Oakley pilots completed another precision task a precision landing. David Broom once again demonstrated the arrester like qualities of the shadow and stopped in an impressive 30m however he had dropped a wheel at the start of the box and dropped the whole score. Rob Grimwood in Quik R firmly established an early lead scoring 1000mwith his trademark accuracy closely followed by the chasing Mark Fowler in the other Quik R. David Hadley flew extremely well solo to also score 1000.
After lunch the limited fuel task was set which involved collecting a number of known and unknown golf courses oh and two precision landings and also identifying symbols which would be unveiled at the outlandings, simple ? The distance covered with only 17 litres of fuel by the two Quik R’s was phenomenal and really demonstrated what can be achieved when these machines really stretch their legs. Rob and Mark both flew in excess of 100nm, achieving accuracy and precision. Andy Aiken in the Skyranger proved that a different strategy also worked hovering up all the known airfields. After any fuel task always follows a anxious wait to see if the 5 litre safety buffer is still in tact, After flying such a distance the two Quik R’s would be close to call and a uncharacteristic fuel computer error resulted in 1000pts being dropped by Rob, as a result arch –rival Mark in the other Quik R was well placed to take control.
With light winds the evening was another opportunity to complete two more precision tasks. One had a novel challenge – fly from brakes off to a 1000ft and return on a nominated time. Dave Brooo again demonstrated his precision stripes returning within 1 second of his nominated 5min and 5 seconds. Mark on the other hand showed his is still getting to grips with the Quik R at slow speed and completed one two many take offs in an effort to get out of the box, this then resulted in a hasty landing and a zero score, Rob keen to make up for the 1000pt deficit was pleased to see a slight hope of regaining points, David Hadley again showed he has the measure of 3-axis flying and scored more consistent points.
Competition flying is all about losing points not winning them and a misty Sunday morning dawned with Mark in pole position and a deserved victory, in the last 2 comps he has been showing real promise and giving the usually unstoppable Grimwood something to think about. The first task of the day a relatively simple sequential nav resulted in Grimwood clawing back a measly 100 points. An upset was on the cards, one task followed, a duration task with two precision landings which could either increase or decrease your score. Mark with no pressure went off early before the developing storms started to bubble up and all looked promising until the first precision. The Quik R can be a little tricky at low speeds and in gusty conditions Mark looked like he scored a comfortable 200 but unfortunately followed this by running out the box and scoring 0. All the time watched form height by a grinning Rob, victory could now be his with one final precision, on the last landing of the last task. It was not to be, the second uncharacteristic error of the weekend befell the Grimwod team; dropping a wheel outside the box reduced their score by enough of margin to enable the ultra consistent and reliable Hadley to come from behind to score a memorable victory.
As the rain fell Dave Broom came home in Fourth rueing the rusty start to the weekend and Neil King was another impressive 5th. The flying all weekend was impressive and really demonstrated the current quality and competiveness for the forthcoming Europeans. Thanks again to Len Tanner and Mick Broom for marshalling. Look forward to seeing you at the next round or maybe Sywell in August.