Spot Landing Competition 5^th June 2011

Omens did not look good, first thing in the morning as heavy rain bombarded most of the north west, but thankfully and with a huge sigh the rain cleared before any serious flying took place, (little did we know what part the mornings rain would play in the day’s events) With the promise of cake the turnout was very good (it ‘says a lot for the waistbands at our club!) and virtually everyone present took part, only the wizard tea maker declined to take part, although he did confess to me later it was because he had forgotten how to set the brake on his electric prangster !! Never mind Gordon, you more than made up for it by being my ace measurer all day, ably assisted by Daniel Ellison’s eyesight! Thanks guys I would be stuffed without your help!

Well after a fraught pilots briefing, where I tended to make the rules up as I went along we eventually decided I was right and everyone agreed with me!

The Spot landing comp has two elements to it

1. The Power on landing

2. The Dead stick landing

I decided that this year we would run both elements consecutively to save time, names were drawn from the hat by Gordon Elliott and he delighted in announcing that part time stand up comedian Mark Royle would be first up, this was changed by our “guvnor” and PPL holder Dan the man Fitton, whose late arrival ensured Mark would go second, I soon had the target set out and measurer's were at the ready Dan took to the air and immediately demonstrated how well he trims his aircraft with a big dipper style take off (that PPL needs looking at) Despite this Dan showed real talent with his first landing at 6.75 from the target, going back up for his Dead stick attempt, he got even closer at 3.9 meters. Next up was Mark Royle, whose preparation and attention to detail is a lesson to us all, he took off and scored a creditable 4.5 meters despite his model doing the splits and stopping his engine that incurred him a 3 meters penalty, his dead stick landing was even better at 2.4 meters giving him a total of 9.9 meters and the lead!! Brian Rottier was next in the air and despite incurring a penalty for stalling his engine on landing in the first round, he scored well with 5.7m for his powered landing and 9.53m in the dead stick, not bad considering he had not flown for nearly 2 months! Dave Buckley was up next with his electric Magic fun fly, Dave had had one of those days that we all have from time to time and things were about to get even worse, his first powered landing initially looked good, but his magic just seemed to float on and on, with the end of the strip fast approaching Dave put her down still quite fast and she eventually hit the long grass at the end of the strip, parking herself nose down and tail high up, this brought jeers of condemnation from the onlookers, we were all still laughing from this when Daniel Ellison (who had gone to retrieve Dave’s model) came running back like he had just seen a rabid dog. But there was something stranger going on, as we were all about to witness the mythological happening of spontaneous aircraft combustion, as Daniel came haring past us, a large pall of smoke rose up and then burst into flames, like Linford Christie I was off and swiftly amongst the smoke and flames, whilst laughing I tore the battery off the ESC and after a few attempts I blew out the flames, suffice to say everyone present (except maybe one) was laughing uncontrollably, Dave who by now had, had enough of his luck this day promptly picked the remains of his magic and re-launched it at the hyenas’ in the pits, scattering them, thankfully it landed short and this is where I took the measurement from, for his landing.

A good 10 minutes or so passed to enable changes of underwear, before flying started again with Daniel “scaredy cat” Ellison scoring fantastically with 2.23 for his powered and 4.51 for his dead stick taking the lead with a fine total of 6.74m, Daniel was followed by his father Andy who was quite concerned that he would have to pull it out of the bag to make sure he would not be beat, rising to the challenge Andy scored 1.51m on the powered and then incredibly 0.29m for his dead stick giving him a total of 1.8m, Glyn was next up and struggled with the wind on his powered landing scoring 20.8 before showing some real class on his dead stick with 2.86. Kev Senior was next to go, and despite struggling with the wind scored well with 6.61m and then 11.70 although this did include a penalty for an engine stop. Colin “kamikaze” Nolan followed and kept his reputation intact with 6.95m and then 6.68m for his dead stick, which could have been better described as an arrival rather than a landing. Before I knew it, it was my turn and thankfully the wind dropped for me and I managed 1.48 and then 1.40 for my dead stick, I was well pleased! John Christian was next up and with an over revving engine struggled to get her back on the patch, after numerous attempts John scored a max and 15m for his dead stick, Dicky was last up and scored very well with 0.94m for his powered approach and 3.47m for his dead stick, still laughing, a 10 minute recess was called to allow for wildcards to be announced.

Wildcards were called by Mark Royle, Dan Fitton, John Christian and Dave “Twisted Firestarter” Buckley, Dan was first up and threatened the top 3 with a very good 2.16 before blowing it when the wind picked up for his dead stick, with 12.52m giving him a total of 14m 68. I personally thought Mark Royles call of a wildcard was a bit strange as his current score was actually very good, but Mark being Mark was not contented and so set off again his first powered landing was not so good with 4.97m so his dead stick would have to be very good to even match his previous score, this was thwarted almost immediately for as mark took off his normally ultra reliable Irvine quit on the climb out and rather foolishly he called dead stick and he was upwind, so it was going to count ! needless to say Mark made a complete hash of it much to the hilarity of all watching and scored 28.14m for his dead stick, going from 5^th to last in one easy step.

Dave Buckley was next with his fire retardant Wot 4, and despite all our prayers it remained un-ignited and scored well with 3.56 and 3.59m respectively, John Christian was last up and with a slightly slower revving engine did well with 7.8 and 5.3 meters, so came to the end an eventful spot landing comp and the results stood at