Australian Indoor Nats 2002

Australian Indoor Nats 2002 at the Albury Sports Stadium

Posted January 2002

Click on a picture for a larger version in a new window

Charlie Leeson EZB	Jim Fullarton F1D
Jim Fullarton F1D	Jim Fullarton VP Prop
John Firth F1D	John Firth F1D
Ken Osborne EZB	Michael Towell EZB
Richard Blackham EZB	RichardBlackham F1D
Richard Blackham Slitting Rubber	Ron Bird Processing Instant Results
Sean OConnor EZB

First F1D and F1L:

Venue was the Albury Sports Stadium, we had one end, about a basketball court with movable tiered spectator seating at one end. Ken Osborne re-checked the ceiling accurately for me today. It is 8.7 metres high at the 7 metre radius of the high point. Lights and a hanging cluster of speakers (along with a steel cable from wall to wall) meant that one could hang up as low as 7 metres -as a few did. Time was 1700-2200 on Thursday 03 Jan 2002. Weather was about 25 deg C with no major drift.

As I was the CD I grabbed the flyers before the events and asked them how they preferred the comps to run (some flew both classes).

We decided on approx 30 minute slots with F1L to kick off.

Preliminary processing was offered to the contestants (go/no-go gauges and the official scales) an hour before the event and I printed off a few copies of the current rules and spread them around with the reminder that random processing was going to happen during the event.

A few modellers (whom should have known better btw) checked out oversize and underweight. Oversize F1L was fixed with a bit more tip dihedral and other models had small amounts of clay added.

Better they find out before they fly officials than get d/q'd later.

F1D:

7 entered, 4 flew in the first Nats F1D event for many years.

A few hangups spoilt some potentially good times and it was great to see Jim Fullarton make his first F1D at 80 years +.

All contestants used v/p and Y2K film except Richard Blackham who used microfilm - when asked Richard said he could not obtain any Y2K - lol- I told him he was not trying hard enough (but he is really a dedicated F1B flyer nowadays and had the w/c to distract him). Ken Osborne told me that Richard was selling his film frames at the swap-meet btw. All models were braced.

Richard Blackham's winning model was further processed as with the new rules, the winner was a National record holder. Model weighed 1.25 grams and rubber was legal (< 0.6 gm). We had to adjourn to a sealed room for the weighing as the slightest wayward zephyr caused the model to fly. A few of the nats administrative staff were present and they were amazed - handy to have witnesses for a record claim too I figured.

AUS 8740 Richard Blackham (Vic)
10.56, 8.13, 14.09, 13.2, 3.25( bad hangup), 9.18
Total 27.29

AUS 1639 Sean O'Connor (Vic)
12.17, 6.48, 5.03, 8.31, 3.48
Total 20.48

AUS 15985 Charlie Leeson (NSW)
9.39
Total 9.39

AUS 7 Jim Fullarton (Vic)
2,53, 2,22, 4.23, 4.25, 4.07, 4.57
Total 9.22

F1L (EZB)

11 entered, 9 flew.
Once again the dreaded obstructions caught a few models but the consistent flights of the experienced campaigners with the models built right on spec came through. (Sucked me in anyhow so now I'm building one). Drift came up in one round and Jim Fullarton's model cleared the peanut gallery and made the adjoining basketball court - timekeepers looked at me quizzically and I told them "You got 10 seconds to find that model" lol - never seen a timekeeper move so fast - and it was a good flight. We fixed the drift with blankets over the entry and asked the r/c electric seminar to close their door ( a/c was off for the event and they were getting warm).

AUS 8740 Richard Blackham (Vic)
8.13, 8.57, 7.21, 5.36, 11.07

AUS 7 Jim Fullarton (Vic)
8.14, 2.54, 8.28, 8.38, 7.17, 2.30

AUS 1639 Sean O'Connor (Vic)
2.48, xxx, 4.59, 5.15, 6.30, 10.56

AUS 27414 Ken Osborne (NSW/Vic - we live on the border so are bi-state-ual)
1.34, 7.34, 7.04, 1.29, 2.15, 1.25

AUS 25263 Robert Rowe (NSW)
1.59, 3.27, 5.51, 6.47, 5.49, 7.1

Hangar Rat.

35 entered, 26 flew.

This event was popularised here in Australia by the late Max Starick and it is contested by all types of aeromodellers as an intro to indoor flying. 32 entered and 26 flew.

Newbies built kits with plastic props and trimmed on the night - yaaayyyy! With some of the hottest rubber and against all advice they had spectacular climbs and drilled the roof!

The rat-pack were more cunning and used conservative winds and balsa props. A few had access to rubber strippers but most failed flights caught obstructions.

Ken Osborne's winning rat weighed 4.5 grams and had a high time of 196 sec. My old girl weighed 6 gm but used a very tired stripped from a P-30 motor lump of April 2001 to keep him honest with a 188 sec first flight. We spread rubber, lube and advice around but cleaned up for 1-2. My model won in 1996 and Ken won at Nowra in 2000, we tied in Art Lane's postal for 3rd at the same venue.

Ken also won peanut again and second to Len Surteess in IHLG, sorry I have no more details but can discover them if required