On
Friday 20th
December we held our annual Xmas Bash and as usual had a
good turnout of 15
members.
The
big change this year was
provision of Hobby King gliders as sourced by
Ken Humphries.
Message from Ken 23rd
October “Pleased to say that the x24 Hobby King
gliders for the indoor
Christmas bash arrived this morning. …. The all seem to
be pretty much O.K.
As there were
x6 of red/blue/green/purple
colours, there are twelve different colour combinations
possible whereby with
each one there is a different fuz/wing/tail
colour. …
I have
"repackaged" them to reflect
these possibilities - so there are no "single colour"
models.”
So there we have it -a brand new
squadron of planes EPP foam 480mm
span chuck gliders.
The Depron gliders
built
and provided by Dave Laycock for previous yearsrequiredanything
from minor
repairs to complete rebuilds – so Ken Humpries took pity
and sourced these
gliders at a pricethat
would not even pay
for the materials for the Depron gliders.
Task 1 Spot
landings
Not any old spot
this
year but a 380mm tall model lighthouse with a rotating
light beam.This
was approved by the waiting competitors.
First round went
to Steve H as is usual.
Second round the
‘sea’
surrounding the lighthouse had a dozen foam board discs
representing ‘whirl
pools’ to catch the unsuspecting glider. Not one plane was
sunk, this time
Keith S was the nearest,
Third round as
per round
2 but addition of Depron crabs to catch the unwary glider.
Not one plane was
nibbled by the crabs, however Ray K landed his glider a
creditable 400mm from lighthouse.
Task 2Through
the gap.
The object was to
fly through a gap between two
horizontalpoles
TheseKnobbly King
gliders were proving tricky to
trim both in altitude and direction.
Three flights
per pilot were
allowed that
is 45 in total, however only
four gliders found
the gap launched by Ken
S, Tony W, Steve Hand
John S
Task 3Green
bottles
Depron
bottles balanced on 2
metre long horizontal pole, the object was to knock down
as many as possible.
The bottles had to be hit fairly, hitting the framework
and dislodging did not
count.
Three
rounds flown – first round
only John Mac had a hit of three bottles,the second not one bottle was dislodged whilst the
third
round Ken H managed 2 bottles.
Task
4 Landing strip
This
year the landing strip 3
metres by 1.5metres wide was zoned into 4 areas. Planes
landing outside did not
score.The
best landing procedures were
achieved by Ray K andKen H. There were
several commendable approaches that just overran the
‘runway’ so unfortunately
did not score so perhaps extend the landing strip for
future years.
These
new planes bought a new aspect
to the Xmas Bash, between tasks, opportunities was taken
by some flyers to
correct these wayward Wobbly King planes; however they
were reluctant to yield to
the wing warping, twisting, flexing bending and their
flight paths remained
wayward.Perhaps these
planes were in fact not made
from EPP foam but memory foam, or could be warping was
being over done or
perhaps aileron
reversal?
These
idiosyncratic gliders helped to make an enjoyable evening and
that is the object of taking
part in MSA Bashing at Xmas
The
joint winners of MSA 2019
Xmas Bash were Keith S. and Simon T. whilst Ray K came a
creditable third.
Bottles of the very finest wine to those gentlemen who
where all surprised to
have achieved their esteemed, elevated, well won
positions.
The
runners up were John S.Keith D. John F.Mike G.John Mc. Steve H. Ken A.Ken H.Hugh W. Tony Wand Dave Lin that sort of order-ish. Dave L
purposely camelast
to prevent the ignominy
of that happening to anyone else ( that’s his story)
Mince
pies were provide for
munching to end a perfect evening even though no thermals
or slope lift was
encountered.
Thanks
to those nameless
gentlemen who did the scoring, provided the planes, and
provided the obstacles,
runways, green bottles etc.
Thanks
to all those who attended
and please spread the word for the 2020 Bash.