ETB F3B BLAST 2005

Sunday, April 24th according to the Saturday evening TV weather forecast looked to be a decent flying day. It turned out to be a fun, but initially cold day. The wind was a strong breeze at first, tempering during the day. We had 15 pilots show up, with helpers, friends, Mums and Dads. This was a much better turnout than was originally expected.

Our erstwhile CD, Mike Spaletta, managed to get the pilots to fly three rounds of F3B starting off with duration. The new field is great for soaring and has a lot of potential. Hopefully we will be able to use it permanently. As the day progressed the wind got stronger. Eventually a huge thunderstorm developed over Kempton Park and passed over the field, dumping some rain on the way. I must say our F3B guys are the grittiest I’ve seen and they stuck to it. A quick dash to protect sensitive equipment, then a dive for any available cover. The Goodrums “baby” tent became quite a sight when even Rodney managed to shoehorn himself in. Once the electrics had passed the guys continued flying in the drizzle. This eventually became blue sky and wonderful soaring weather for the last duration rounds, followed once again by overcast. We had it all.

Craig Goodrum had an exciting achievement when he broke 16 seconds on one of his speed runs. Well done Craig, may achievements like this continue in Finland. Hugh Edmunds, unfortunately, had the incident of the day explosively losing the empennage during launch. I was told that the thing to do is extend full CROW and fly it down inverted. Any pundits out there prepared to comment on post tail-loss flight actions??? Hugh’s glider just spun down, the direction of spin being along the wings axis.

Another incident concerned ETB’s own Herman Weber. Stretching out the last lap in a distance task he caught the wing tip on the turn home and cartwheeled his glider. Never mind Herman at least it’s repairable. I noticed that some “old” hands got real excited flying their new Shongololo. Evan, we’ll try and organize some more F3B during what remains of our calendar. Craig Goodrum also suffered from the “oopsies”; he managed to overdo the launch and spun the Trinity in. Speaks well for composites, almost no damage – at least he still has the tail on. Quick substitution of the spare model and off he went again.

Well a great day’s flying, some memorable and not so memorable achievements, but all in all we all went home tired, sunburnt (don’t forget the sunscreen next time) but happy.

Charles Flee