Well Monday morning bright and early at the field in Cootamundra saw 18 contenders front up for the start of the 62nd Nationals Pattern Aerobatics. It was  good turnout with 8 competing in FAI including our international guest Jason Shulman, 6 in Expert, 2 in Advanced and 2 in Sportsman. Overall we had 11 from NSW, 7 from VIC and Jason.

The field was a bit tricky to set up with early morning sun causing the box to be offset towards the south meaning the box was at a different angle to the runway. Forecasts were for clear skies with a East to South Easterly wind to spring up throughout the day.

We kicked off with the group Expert / Advanced / Sportsman , the wind was initially calm until just at the end of Peter Amadio’s first flight, just as he was about to flare for landing a big gust of wind caught the aircraft at a critical time and caused the aircraft to land engine first, with fairly terminal results. Bad Luck Pete. After all the tears and balsa were cleaned up Pete was quickly given a field promotion to Chief Computer Scorer and onward we marched.

Sportsman

Over both days there was a great battle for sportsman. Chris McCowage took the upper hand initially with Joe Costa off to a slow start. Joe quickly made up for it claiming the second round, where it then remained very close with Chris claiming the top spot after winning four rounds. With Chris claiming his first promotion point as well.

Advanced

Once again Advanced was another close race with Brian Green taking the early lead with the first 3 rounds, before Jason Arnold fought back winning the last 3 and scoring the top raw score for advanced giving him a narrow victory.

Expert

Expert had a great field with 3 competitors from each state. It didn’t start too well for both Peter A and myself with Pete crashing on landing (he actually won the first round), and the Inspire failing to inspire, with the dreaded engine problems from Illawarra returning (even after a complete rebuild) causing two flameouts on the first two flights. and precipitating a hasty engine change (thanks Brian D). While this was happening Tom C managed to claim one round before battling out with me for the remainder. In the end Tom had done all the work, and secured victory by leading all the other contenders. Well done Tom.

FAI

With almost half the entry competing in F3A interest was centred on the performance of our guest Jason Schulman. Jason arrived at the Nats site armed with an ex-Chris Swain Cyclone now owned by Henry Hutchinson and powered by an OS 140 RX. After one day’s practice with it in Melbourne and still coming to terms with the power delivery of the OS in comparison to the Electric setups he normally flies he demonstrated his undoubted skill and talent by winning all six rounds in convincing fashion. In a lot of ways it was probably more of an eye opener, for many of those present, to see him produce this performance with what now is quite dated equipment rather than a top line model which was fully trimmed and setup.

The conditions were quite challenging and most were struggling to find any consistency. Near the top Bill Bloodworth and Dave Macca had battle of their own with Bill being slightly the more consistent over the six rounds. In 4th and 5th Bill Garrod and Brian Dooley finished only 9 points apart but both seemed to be “on the back of the curve” throughout the contest. Brian Macca and Gavin Dark had their own contest near the tail of the field and Tom Bloodworth struggled with a borrowed model to bring up the rear. To add to the interest Jason flew Rob Clarks Hacker powered Amethyst Bipe in the final 2 rounds.

The contest flowed quite well as the field set up allowed us to circle and land behind the judges allowing simultaneous takeoffs and landings but the awkward skewed box with some additional lines left from other Nats events took some getting used to.

The dinner on Monday night allowed a question and answer session with Jason and the topics ranged from model setup to practice technique. Throughout the event Jason was free with his advice and always open to questions. His presence made the event something to remember and I think all will have taken away something valuable to improve their flying.

Nats Photos Click Here                                                        Nats Results Click Here