Tonbridge Radio Flyers

Silent Flight Section - Leigh Park Farm

Email Newsletter from Alastair Ramsay

No: 08/08 –18^th September 2008   

Club Website: - Tonbridge-flyers.co.uk

 

Hello fellow flyers,

 

This must be the first Newsletter of 2008 when I have not had to report that the weather has interfered with the schedule of competition or club flying.  The Bromley Open thermal competition was held at Leigh Park Farm on 31^st August.  Despite occasional showers, all slots were flown, concluding in a 6 man fly-off.  The eventual winner was Colin Paddon with TRF members Peter Sainsbury, Phil Ramsey and Chris Foss in 3^rd,4^th and 6^th places respectively.

 

The Ron Finnis Memorial Team trophy was run in combination with the Thermal interclub round 3 at Canterbury on 14^th September.  Our Finnis team of Simon Smith, Keith Fisher, Phil Ramsey and Bob Hope were runners – up to the Bromley team (3/4 of whom are also Tonbridge members).  The Thermal round 3 was won by Alan Twine with Peter Sainsbury in 2^nd place, Simon Smith 4^th and Keith Fisher 6th.    I shall pass the full results tables to Ken Dean for addition to the club website.

 

The final competition of the summer season to be held at Leigh Park Farm will be the Towner Trophy on Sunday 28^th September.  Please note that there will be no club flying at the farm on that day.

 

It looks as though the weather forecast for this coming weekend (20/21^st Sept) will be good and this augurs well for the Southern Model Air show at the Paddock Wood Hop Farm.  I usually meet several club members at this event and expect that to be repeated this weekend.

 

We have been making good use of Steve Fysh in his capacity as BMFA Club Examiner this summer.  To date we have held 2 BMFA – A test (Electric) sessions at the farm with 6 members having successfully gained their certificates.  It is hoped to run a further session on a Saturday afternoon during early October for more members who are close to achieving the required standard.  If any other member wishes to be included in this session, please let me know.  In the meantime, our thanks go to Steve for giving up his time to put us through our paces.

 

My thanks also go to those Electric winter league members who gave me their views on the format of the coming winter competition.  The result of this was a clear preference for keeping the Brushed Motor class and for including the new 200 Watts/Kg class.  The most votes were registered for Option3 with the result that we shall run an Electric winter league of 3 classes with 3 slots in each class of: Brushed motors, Open Class and 200Watts/kg.  The brushed motor and Open class competition rules will remain the same as last year except that each shall consist of 3 slots.  The 200 Watt/Kg class rules will be the same as the BARCS E-Soaring rules except that slots will be reduced to 3 and no recharging will be allowed between slots. I will add these rules to our website within the next week.

 

We still have a few weeks for further attempts to be made on the Summer High-Times before the clocks change on 26^th October.  The targets are fairly high at 39 minutes 58 seconds for the thermal competition and 48 minutes 37 seconds for the Electric version.

 

The schedule of dates for the Thermal and Electric winter leagues is as follows.  For those interested in entering these competitions, please update your diaries accordingly.

 

And finally!  Reminders for your diary

 

20/21^st Sept. Southern Model Air Show – Hop Farm, Paddock Wood

28^th Sept.       Towner Trophy (Thermal) at Leigh Park Farm (N.B. no club flying on that day!)

5^th Oct.           Kent Cup (Thermal) at Medway

 

Winter League Schedule (all at Leigh Park farm from 10am unless stated otherwise)

 

26^th Oct          Thermal League R1

Nov2nd         Electric League R1

16 Nov           Thermal R2

23^rd Nov        Thermal Reserve date No1

30^th Nov         Electric R2

7^th Dec           Electric Reserve date No1

14^th Dec         Thermal R3

21^st Dec         Thermal Reserve date No2

4^th Jan            Electric R3

11^th Jan         Electric Reserve date No2

18^th Jan         Thermal R4

1^st Feb           Electric R4

15^th Feb         Thermal R5

1^st Mar            Electric R5

15^th Mar         Thermal R6

22^nd Mar         Thermal Reserve date No 3        

29^th Mar         Electric R6

5^th April          Electric Reserve date No3          

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair Ramsay – Club Secretary

(Email: AandJRamsay@aol.com – tel: 01892 534532)