THE HISTORY OF V.A.R.M.S The Annual Diary 1990 - 2009

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effect of moving them instantly forward to where they might otherwise have been in 5 years, or
maybe never. The preliminary plans for flying over the Easter are for two days of Thermal and
two days of F3B. Scale and X-country will probably be accommodated and two fields are
available.
Another decision was to allow aspirants (i.e. people who had started their LSF Level I but who
hadn’t completed it), to enter the LSF Tournament.
Afternoon..........
Let the flying begin!
During the LSF meeting the rainfall had gradually diminished to nothing and stayed away
(during the day) for the rest of the weekend, but the wind was still very strong. So out to the
field we went. Much of the field was an inch (2.54cm approx.) under water but the pit area was
relatively OK. Gum boots were the order of the day and out came the tarps, models and
winches etc.
Launching was a test of either not breaking your model if the winch line was the stronger, or
not breaking the winch line if the reverse was true. There were quite a few broken winch lines
through the weekend, and also broken models. Andrew Goddard ( the Competition Director)
lost his model through mistakenly flying on the wrong frequency, something he had warned
everyone about!
Flying continued until about 5.00pm so it was pack up, go to town, clean up and off to the
Town Hall for the organised dinner. This was put on by the Lions club and for $12.50 you got a
three course meals plus tea or coffee. Good value. Afterwards there was indoor flying of
hanger rats, Scot Lennon’s rubber powered helicopter and even an electric powered RC
helicopter.
Some people moved on to the pub after this.
SUNDAY JUNE 11
There was rain overnight but this had cleared by morning. Starting time was 8:30am for the
first heat and I was in it. Unusually for me, I was on time!
This was a very full day of flying. No break for lunch. You had to get it when you could which
wasn’t too difficult since the Lions club caravan was on the field not far away from the flight
line.
We set up in a slightly different position to Saturday and unfortunately for me (and some
others) my turnaround pulley had to be pegged down in a puddle about an inch (2.54cm
approx.) deep. I missed the peg with the hammer once and hit the water with the inevitable
result. The strange thing was that the ground under this puddle was like iron. Really hard to
get the pegs into it, and even harder to get them out!
I had a few interesting things happen to me on this day.
• Before the first heat I tried a full-blooded launch to see if my 200lb winch line could
take it without breaking. It broke about 150ft into the launch so I immediately set about
changing to 250lb line. I managed to break this on the first launch too, so I concluded
that “pedal to the floor” in these conditions was not the way to go. Some finesse was
required.
• Later in the day I had my first experience of a winch line breaking with the sound of a
loud pistol shot. Apparently this happens when there is extreme tension and the break