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

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occurs at the turnaround where the line whips around it very quickly. Tim, who was at
the turnaround end said that it was deafening.
• I had two spectacularly good launches and on both occasions I completely lost sight of
the model after the ping. The first time that this happened I wasn’t expecting it and was
naturally worried until the model came into view again. The second I reasoned that it
must be “about there” somewhere so I pushed down elevator at about the normal time
and sure enough, there it was. But I do feel a little cheated. I would have liked to have
seen the whole thing myself rather than just hearing about it later.
• Another happening was where the Ellipse had a fight with somebody else’s winch line.
This line became jammed between the left flap and aileron. From there it cut sideways
into the aileron for about three quarters of an inch and then ripped the corner of the
aileron off, releasing the model. While I wasn’t too happy about this, at least the model
was otherwise undamaged and I went on to win the heat!
• The day progressed with good flights, bad flights, broken winch lines, broken models,
good landings, poor landings, spectacular launches, interesting launches, people falling
over in the mud to retrieve my model (thanks Tim). On one flight Tim Mellor’s
“Flamingo” went off the air, crashed and broke into many, many pieces. The end of a
very nice model, and the second Flamingo to be lost (Dave Jones lost his when it broke
up on launch. The Competition Director was using a new computer program to do the
scoring and this was great because it could print out a leader board immediately after
every round. You could see exactly how well or badly you were going and who you
weren’t beating, yet!
It was a very tired group of fliers that left the field that afternoon and once again retired to the
Colony Inn for dinner and some very lively socialising into the night.
MONDAY JUNE 12
These were the conditions we were waiting for. Floater weather. Or were they? Tim set up his
big floater and Alan Mayhew paid out the hand tow line before the first heat (scheduled for
8:30am). Well, everything went fine for the first 100 ft of the launch and then..... well, the
notorious Jerilderie wind shear just ripped the model apart. Anybody who had been thinking
about using a floater had been put on notice! Only one that I saw of any size and used on that
day was a Stepp 3 with carbon reinforced spars. It survived. Others didn’t.
The final two heats were flown and the team had mixed fortunes. I managed to find a thermal
(with the help from a bird) and work it and win my final heat, so I went out on a high. Al
Mayhew did the same. Alan Gissing destroyed his Eclipse on launch (apparently an aileron
control horn ripped out of the control surface on a very high tension launch, flipping the model
around uncontrollably into the ground). Tim flew his “Apollo” but lost out in the landing points
because of this models lack of sufficient control authority for landing. Scott continued to fly
steadily and consistently, as he had done all weekend. Probably won his heat.
CONCLUSION
Jerilderie is a bit of winter madness which is a lot of fun, despite the sometimes atrocious
conditions. The weather was fine last year. Not such good weather this year. Next year at
Easter..... well, who knows? I’ll be there. I hope that I see you there too. Don’t be put off by
the apparent carnage in this report. There were many more undamaged models than damaged
ones. Some people did not to fly in the conditions. You can do the same. It’s an experience
not to be missed and it’s all about having fun, meeting people and becoming better pilots in
every way. The tournament is very well organised, everybody gets a fair go, we all learn a lot
about flying and about ourselves and in a very real sense, we all come away winners. Thanks
to the LSF Executive for yet another great tournament. The effort that you all put in is
appreciated.