A report by Chris Henry
We attended another Pattern competition on the 17/18th April, at the Queanbeyan field.
The field is about 20 minutes from Queanbeyan, near Bungendore., on the huge flat plain that is the top end of the valley from Lake George. The club is quite small with only 17 members, but has a lease on ground that is adjacent to a 2km long radio telescope array, with a lovely flat outlook toward the mountains.
While it is a good place to fly, the runway is only 8 meters wide with a permanent fence on each side, so landings need to be just right. But no one seems to hit them. Go figure.
Fraunie dropped in for a while too, as he was in Canberra on grandparenting duties.
There were the usual people from NSW, mostly Sydney and Newcastle, and 3 from Melbourne, plus me. Phil had coerced 4 new Sportsman flyers into attending. All had never flown in competition before, but all said they will be back as they all learnt so much and were flying better.
The weather was just great. Nice and sunny with a few clouds, and light winds. Sunday morning was quite foggy for a while, so a late start with me up first. An interesting flight, with the plane disappearing 3 times at the top of some manoeuvres. That gets the heart rate up a bit and just hoping it reappears where you think it will be. Can’t have been too bad as I managed the highest round score on that flight. Perhaps I should fly blind more often.
The whole event ran very well with no real issues, everyone did what was needed, when it was needed. The computer scoring system worked well, no damaged planes except for one of Con’s wheel spats falling off somewhere
The only issue was a disruption caused by me being carted off in an ambulance with a suspected heart attack. Not a nice feeling really, but the situation was handled very well by the 2 AFP guys in attendance. Spent a nice evening in Queanbeyan hospital, but returned on Sunday to fly the best score of the round and place 3rd.
Overall, a really good and interesting weekend with good weather and good flying with good friends.