2009 HTL #6 - September at SGC

Challenging & fun!

The conditions were "interesting" , huge lift vs. massive sink would alternatively blanket the entire field for 15 - 20 minutes at a time. During the last round I saw the most amazing thermal ever - probably only about 1 metre wide, but rising at sufficient speed to push a gliders nose up by more than 30 degrees. Of course, the sink around this single column of air was equally nasty & only a few managed more than 5 minutes.

Thanks to everyone & especially the honorable Gordon Brown (our brilliant CD), SGC (field), Johan Bruwer & Jochen Schmidt (field lay-out), Martie (food &drink) & all the competitors & helpers for a wonderful day. The F3J format made for a great change & watching all the models launch simultaneously is awesome.

What made the event particularly special were the Fish Eagle calls! Watching a juvenile Fish Eagle being bombarded by a small Kite was also rather amazing & a instituted somewhat of a struggle to keep my eyes on my model. All up, we counted at least 4 Fish Eagle "spots", and a Black Eagle that also meandered across the air space after we had finished. I believe that Derek & Martie were able to get some shots of this & trust they will allow us to use these photo's for the BLOG?

The results are attached - audited as per scoresheets provided, & scored according to the 20 cm 2009 F3J rule. Congratulations to everyopne who participated, and commiserations to Axel, Trevor & Michelle for the loss of their models.

Final result (click on the table to see a bigger & clearer picture)

The next MGA event is the 2009 RC Soaring Nationals in KZN from 24 September, and the next HTL will be hosted at WHRF on 4 Oct 2009 using a similar F3J format.