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

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and the other one which had an electric motor mounted behind the pilot belonging to a flyer from
Sydney. Both had 6.8 metre wing spans and looked very impressive in the air and when coming in
to land. Unfortunately for David, on Sunday he got mixed up when making an adjustment to his
transmitter. He looked back up and followed the wrong plane as his model was going down
elsewhere. It was a complete write-off.
Greg Potter made the journey over from S.A. to fly his yellow Lunak and was having a good
time catching plenty of thermals. Steve Keep was flying a Lunak as well . Ziggy Kusiak came all
the way down from the Gold Coast to join in the fun. Normally Ziggy flies F3B competition but
wants to get into more fun flying. He certainly had fun over the weekend with his ¼ scale 4m wing
span Pirat and got onto some good thermals. On Sunday Bill Bland gave him a lend of his
Piccalario variometer. He had a grin from ear to ear and was like a kid with a new toy! I don’t
know if Bill was able to get it back off him or not because he was sure having fun flying with it.
Mark Doyle had his beautiful looking Reiher 3 – 1/3 scale – 5.4 metre wing span with gull
wings. This plane looked beautiful in the air. He also had his big ½ scale 5.2 metre Salto 101.
Also from Victoria we had Theo with his 1/5 scale Minimoa and his big Nimbus which had a tangle
with a tuft of grass on take-off and performed a cartwheel, snapping a wing. Also, we mustn’t
forget our ever reliable tug pilot Tony Greiger who likes to relieve the pressure of flying his tow
plane with a bit of thermal flying with his 1/5 scale DG 500, 3.6m wingspan.
At the initial pilots briefing Greg Voak had explained that we were going to fly with each
pilot having a spotter or caller standing beside them to make sure that there were no planes flying
on collision courses with each other. This was also to make sure that the field was clear when
coming in to land. I think this worked quite well and I think it should become standard practise as it
makes for pretty good safe flying, and, after all, that is what we all want.
On Sunday there was an Aerobatic competition for anyone who wanted to try their luck. In
1 st place, Greg Voak, 2 nd place Colin Collyer – 136 points, 3 rd place, Steve Keep with 124 points
from the 5 pilots who entered, and the winner of the PILOTS CHOICE OF THE MOST POPULAR
MODEL, Mark Doyle/Reiher, Bill Bland’s Duo Discus, David Hobby/Ventus, Ziggy Kusiak/Pirat,
Gregg Potter/Lunak.
I think everyone had a good time and certainly had plenty of airtime with plenty of good
thermals. The weather was perfect and there was plenty of all different types of accommodation
available. The local LIONS Club have their ”Chuck Wagon” there for breakfast and lunch on Sat.
and Sun. so we didn’t go hungry.
It was decided that this would become an annual event and would be held over the
Easter break to give the interstate visitors time to travel.
The pilots and their models:
Bill Bland Hots Tug, Duo Discus, Fox, Salto
Tony Greiger Tug (?), DG 500
Walter Radovich 1/3 scale Ventus (with foldaway Electric powered motor)
Mark Doyle 1/3 scale Reiher, ½ scale Salto
David Hobby 1/3 scale Ventus
Steve Keep Lunak
Ziggy Kusiak Pirat
Gregg Potter Lunak
Theo Arvanitakis 1/5 scale Minimoa, Nimbus
Greg Voak and others for a total of 14 pilots with a total of 30 models.
..... also in the May magazine was the following article related to the impending problem of
the East Link Tollway .....
Re-siting of the VARMS Power Strip.
Assumptions.
VARMS wishes to continue to provide facilities for sports power flying and aero towing.
NO flying can be permitted over the new ‘East Link’ road at any time.