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    • Gary B

      Radioglide 2016 Report and Results

      By Gary B, in Radioglide,

      Once again it is my pleasure to collate a report for this year’s Radioglide event. Held at the now familiar Tudor Farm near the village of Edgcott in Buckinghamshire, the winch launch competitions were held in a new field adjacent to the previously used one as this has been ploughed and planted with crop. The weather stayed dry for all three days, a touch windy at times (some might say more than a touch!) and a great time was had by all.
      Please find the individual discipline reports below, I hope there are no glaring errors but it is difficult sometimes as a competing pilot to take in all that is going on.   
      Saturday 28th May
      F5J – Gary Binnie

      Colin Boorman. Radioglide F5J winner 2016
      The day dawned fine with a hazy blue sky initially, cumulus developed in the early afternoon with a North Easterly wind up to 12 mph but it was quite calm at times, probably due to thermal influence. It was fairly chilly in the morning requiring light jackets to be worn but warmed up to 19°C later. The air in early rounds featured weak lift with the best pilots making the most of it and flying the slots out. Pilots flew together in groups of four or five with seven rounds flown with a dropped score applied. 
      Timing and spotting in F5J is a responsible job and you can often be paired up with a pilot that you’ve never worked with before. A lighter moment for me was during a launch with Al Lipscombe, he became unbalanced somehow and launched the model awkwardly and in a downward direction instead of nose up. I heard a faint click which was his right hand coming down to the transmitter to accidentally turn the motor switch off with the model now climbing!  The model landed about 50 metres upwind and we walked over to record the flight, time was 11.8 seconds (I couldn’t bring myself to round it up to 12!) with a launch height of six metres. We handed the score card in which bagged him a mighty 13 points, this was handily voided with the drop score applied and we all had a chuckle. 

      Peter Allen launches his Tragi with Ian Duff on the watches (Photo Graham James)
      Everybody has their own preference for motor switch position, my own method is to use a latching switch on the left back of the transmitter which operates towards me during motor run with my finger holding it in the on position just in case.
      A useful break was taken every couple of rounds to enter the scores with a longer lunch break. The local red kites showed the way as usual, I joined a circling seagull once, I don’t usually trust them but it was going up!  Final positions were Colin Boorman winning, Dave East as runner-up with Graham Wicks in third place.
      F5J Results
      Rank Name Score Pcnt Raw Score Rnd1 Rnd2 Rnd3 Rnd4 Rnd5 Rnd6 Rnd7 Drop1 1 BOORMAN, Colin 5904.4 100 6676.7 959.2 1000 975.8 992.2 1000 977.2 772.3 772.3 2 EAST, Dave 5874 99.49 6409.8 995.7 960.7 1000 935.8 535.8 1000 981.8 535.8 3 WICKS, Graham 5844.5 98.99 6757.5 940.1 1000 956.9 990.4 971.9 985.2 913 913 4 DUFF, Ian 5827.6 98.7 6196.9 961.6 913.6 369.3 1000 1000 1000 952.4 369.3 5 ALLEN, Peter 5774.5 97.8 6283.2 508.7 994.6 1000 906.6 1000 873.3 1000 508.7 6 RAYBONE, Mike 5343.1 90.49 5690.8 1000 996.4 621.6 921.2 347.7 803.9 1000 347.7 7 AUSTIN, Brian 5139.7 87.05 5448.9 1000 309.2 1000 959.1 521.2 739.1 920.3 309.2 8 BEALE, Kevin 5104.7 86.46 5118.9 423.3 999.1 747.2 1000 935.9 999.2 14.2 14.2 9 PADDON, Colin 5076.2 85.97 5502.9 426.7 954.6 601.8 1000 891.1 976.5 652.2 426.7 10 GADENE, Ray 5054.9 85.61 5496.9 442 966 632.9 967.8 627.9 1000 860.3 442 11 BINNIE, Gary 4983.1 84.4 5345.4 530.6 949.5 918.3 741.3 922.9 362.3 920.5 362.3 12 DICKENSON, Bob 4973.3 84.23 4973.3 1000 1000 498.5 998.3 0.0001 476.5 1000 0 13 LIPSCOMBE, Al 4059.4 68.75 4073.3 13.9 372.6 690.8 736 945.2 906.3 408.5 13.9 14 PHILCOX, Cengiz 4007.2 67.87 4007.2 830.2 0.0001 530.5 886.3 970.9 789.3 0 0 100S – Graham James

      Kevin & Peter Newitt. Radioglide 100s Joint winners 2016 (Photo Alan Morton)
      The 100s competition was flown concurrently with the F5J in the adjacent field, Alan Morton was invited to CD. We had 13 entries in pre-allocated teams, on the day only 12 turned up so Alan juggled them around to give us four teams of three and flying started around 10.40am.
      Five rounds and two fly-offs were matrixed. The warm air and gentle breeze created some good workable lift throughout the day and all but one of the 15 slots flown during the first five rounds were flown out.
      Up until round three all models apart from one out of field had landed inside the landing zone, during the 3rd round. John Hullet misjudged and landed out and Neville Warby making his final turn, was grabbed by an innocent looking tree! It was later recovered by the farmer’s cherry picker with no damage. During the rest of the first five rounds we had excellent flight times including one from Dave Leech at 7.54 he came off the line early but still managed to fly out the slot. After a very enjoyable five rounds the top four pilots entered the fly-off, Kevin Newitt, Fozzy Devall, Peter Newitt and Graham James.

      Nesting Tracker (Photo Graham James)
      All pilots launched and were soon into decent air; Graham lost out and had to settle for 6.45 while the others
      continued to fly the slot out. Following a misunderstanding in the second fly off, in which a model was relaunched when it shouldn’t, there was an unfortunate mid-air which resulted in Peter Newitt having to land prematurely. It was apparent that but for this he was likely to have taken a clean win of the event, so in the spirit of good sportsmanship it was decided to award Peter and Kevin Newitt joint winners.
      The day ended with everyone in high spirits after what was an excellent day's flying, it was good to see pilots still enjoying a good old fashioned 100s competition.
      Results
      Rounds
      Pilot Name Rnd 1 Rnd 2 Rnd 3 Rnd 4   Rnd 5 Final Score %Score Position Kevin Newitt 1000 1000 1000 1000   998 4998 100.00 1 Fozzy DeVall 1000 996 1000 1000   1000 4996 99.96 2 13. Peter Newitt 1000 1000 861 1000   1000 4861 97.26 3 Graham James 970 967 955 976   988 4856 97.16 4 8. Alan Morton 1000 1000 628 1000   1000 4628 92.60 5 David Leech 647 696 984 961   1000 4288 85.79 6 Robin Sleight 467 850 1000 704   988 4009 80.21 7 Neville Warby 998 752 0 988   1000 3738 74.79 8 Ken Goddard 776 998 996 478   435 3683 73.69 9 John Hullet 994 688 512 515   900 3609 72.21 10 John Shenstone 915 996 675 0   0 2586 51.74 11 Dave Fogg 0 657 0 0   0 657 13.15 12 Final Positions
      1st 13. Peter Newitt 1997 100.0 1st 11. Kevin Newitt 1997 100.0 3rd 4. Fozzy DeVall 1652 82.7 4th 5. Graham James 1057 52.9 Thanks to Alan for running the competition and all the regular 100s pilots who assist in laying out the field and in particular the inimitable Neville Warby.
      Sunday 29th May
      Multi-launch – Graham James

      Multilaunch Fly-Off Pilots (Photo Graham James)
      Sunday’s weather was a bit of a disappointment by comparison, overcast with a chilly North Easterly breeze turning to broken cumulus later in the afternoon.
      Five preliminary rounds were flown plus two fly-off rounds. There was a fairly even split of winch and electric launch gliders and one DLG flown by Mike Fantham. The ‘sailboat start’ meaning that all flights are timed from the start of the slot (or end of the individuals launch phase) and electrics set to 175 metres leads to a very level playing field and some long flight times the best of which being a 9.59 by Al Lipscombe. This parity was further borne out in that the four pilots in the fly-off used a 50/50 mix of winch launch and electric gliders. 
      Good air in the first fly off slot saw flight times of 14.53 for Peter Allen (Electric) and 14.46 for Kevin Beale (Winch). In the second round, with the lift not so good Peter and different winch launcher, Colin Boorman produced times of 11.25 and 11.07 respectively. But in the end it was Peter Allen (Electric) who proved triumphant followed by Kevin Beale (Winch), Colin Boorman (Winch) and Colin Paddon (Electric). As well as the presentation of the FACCT Trophy to the overall winner, prizes were given for Best Winch, Electric and Hand Launch competitors.
      We were delighted to be visited by the legendary Geoff Dallimer, BARCS No. 1, who showed a keen interest in the model development over the years since his days of designing models such as the Zephyr 100s design featured in RCM&E.
      Multi-launch Fly-Off Results
      Rank Name Score Pcnt Raw Score Rnd1 Rnd2 1 ALLEN, Peter 1964.4 100 1964.4 964.4 1000 2 BEALE, Kevin 1934.7 98.49 1934.7 1000 934.7 3 BOORMAN, Colin 1728.2 87.98 1728.2 752.7 975.5 4 PADDON, Colin 1544.3 78.61 1544.3 606.9 937.4 DLG Pilot's Perspective of Multi-launch – Mike Fantham
      I entered Multi-launch partly out of curiosity and partly because I had helped Jef Ott to prepare a rule change proposal aimed at getting more hand launch pilots out to ML events - so I thought I'd better try one!
      The first thing I noticed was that I was quickest into the air on arrival at the field. The model was fully assembled in the car when I arrived and I just had to step out onto the field and throw. That was to be the only advantage I had because the weather seemed a bit breezy for hand launch to be the best option for me to win the event. Chas Dunster kindly volunteered to time for me and he wasn't flying himself so I had a dedicated helper.  I soon got into the swing of things except the 'finding good air' part. The hand launch flyer gets four flights added together to make up the slot score and a two second bonus for each re-launch. I hoped to 'get away' on one of these and fly out the slot each time. However, from a 35 metre launch in the breezy conditions, I only really got any help on a couple of flights all day, making about four minutes each time.  It was a bit galling seeing the others making 200 metres and having plenty of range and time to find air.
      In the end, I was pleased to see that I was 12th out of the 14 at the end of the day and I took home a bottle of wine as the best (only!) Hand launch entrant.
      I need to practice my spot landings. I can easily catch the model on most flights normally but I can also easily change my position to meet the model! When you have to stand still and land at your feet, it gets much harder!
      The best part was meeting and flying with some of the 'names' from the 'big glider world' - nice bunch of chaps and I was made welcome and to really feel part of the event. The top Hand launch pilots, launching almost twice as high as I can would be competitive in this class.  I was 7th of the 8 the next day in Hand launch....    Come and try F3K flyers.
      Monday 30th May
      F3K – Mike Fantham
      We had a low entry of eight - one original entrant had to drop out because a long struggle to finish his model had not worked out.  He still came out to help and time on the Monday which was very welcome!  We were pleased to see Liam Hawes out again and to welcome Jason Bioletti at his first F3K event - he retired early but said had a good time and that he'd be back. The forecast had been dire all the previous week and I had posted a warning of cancellation the BARCS forum on the Saturday promising a decision by midday Sunday.  On Sunday morning, I was busy with the MLG contest but checking the weather as well.  Rain looked unlikely and the wind was high but below the limit so I decided to go ahead with F3K  - we had the minimum eight required for a league-counting event and would need four rounds for the score to count.
      Monday morning saw me on the field at 08:45 choosing a site for the launch and landing 'box'.  It was fairly near the chicken farm edge of the field to try to keep the F3J field downwind, ensuring a 'friendly' area for any land-outs.  In the event nobody dared stray that far downwind. The wind was strong but it was flyable and I could range upwind on my test flights - helped by 84 grams of ballast in my already-heavy 'Bonus' – a 400 gm total weight!
      I had some problems with the sound gear but we got going soon after 10:00 with an initial aim of completing four rounds.  Pilots soon found that there was 'help' over the edge of the field - possibly slope lift from the trees/hedge.  Michael Stern only dropped 20 seconds in the 5x2 in round 1.
      He would hope to drop around five seconds in perfect weather so it was an excellent score in the rough conditions.  There was turbulence of course but we coped and I wasn't aware of too much in the way of damage.
      After three successful rounds, I had decided to go to five rounds before lunch and before I did any scoring because a fifth round means that there's one dropped round score available to pilots. The usual suspects were building a lead and Richard Swindells was ahead at lunch with Michael Stern second and Simon Barker third. Conditions still seemed pretty much the same so we decided to press on after lunch and see what happened. I started the sixth round and it soon became apparent that conditions had become more turbulent and the wind had increased.  I saw some flights upset badly and only some fast –reaction piloting got them safely back on the ground - usually 'in the box'.  After slot two of that round, I called it a day. Nobody complained!
      As to models, the top four all used a Stream NXT for at least some of their flights. The trend continues to solid core moulded wings and lighter models with lower wing areas.  Full slot-by-slot results are available in the F3K and Hand launch section of the BARCS forum.
      1. Richards Swindells 4994
      2. Michael Stern  4905
      3. Simon Barker 4599
      4. Liam Hawes 4347
      5. Alex Holswilder 4330
      6. Lorry Green 3142
      7. Mike Fantham 2661
      8. Jason Bioletti 1404
      F3J – Gary Binnie/Graham James

      Neil Jones. Radioglide F3J winner 2016
      More overcast still than the first couple of days and a stronger NNE wind requiring thicker jackets than Saturday (motorcycle jacket for me!). The forecast was to be dry all day which it was but moisture could be felt in the air but not seen. With the strong wind most pilots used the technique of hanging into wind and ‘bouncing’ any lift with the occasional circle. Conditions improved and more and more people were venturing further afield. I noticed from the lunch break scores that I was doing quite well and decided to ‘go for it’ in the next round by circling off merrily down wind, unfortunately my plan failed with my trusty Xplorer not quite making it back to the field against the headwind, c’est la vie! Landing itself quite neatly in the next field I have at last broken my duck of landing ‘au vache’ and plan to risk it more in future. 

      Kevin Beale with Spotter Colin Boormann
      The familiar Xplorers, Maxas and Tragi's dominated the models used but Pike Perfects, Shadows and Xperience Pros were also in evidence and still very competitive. Also on show were a couple of the new Optimus machines which look very good and are likely to prove popular in the future.
      Five rounds were flown followed by two fly-off rounds, all under the familiar, watchful eye of BARCS President, Sydney Lenssen. The preliminary rounds saw the top four pilots going onto the fly offs. Appropriately, Neil Jones with a maximum 5000, Kevin Beale and Mark Devall, who comprise the UK Team for the forthcoming World Championships, all made it through along with Colin Paddon who is a helper on the team. Neil didn’t have it all his own way, with Kevin winning the first slot but by only 6.3pts. In fly-off two however, the roles were reversed and Neil came out on top overall.
      And so to prize giving. Neil Jones took the Humbrol Trophy for F3J. Additional Radioglide prizes also went to Colin Boorman for the highest place competitor over the whole three Days (Victor Ludorum) and to Jason Bioletti as the Best Newcomer (Lillienthal Trophy).
      F3J Fly-Off Results
      Rank Name Score Pcnt Raw Score Rnd1 Rnd2 1 JONES, Neil 1993.7 100 1993.7 993.7 1000 2 BEALE, Kevin 1786.9 89.63 1786.9 1000 786.9 3 PADDON, Colin 1522.4 76.36 1522.4 848 674.4 4 DEVALL, Mark 1515.7 76.02 1515.7 979.5 536.2 Rounds
      Rank Name Score Pcnt Raw Score Rnd1 Rnd2 Rnd3 Rnd4 Rnd5 1 JONES, Neil 5000 100 5000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 2 BEALE, Kevin 4457.1 89.14 4457.1 1000 782.6 1000 674.5 1000 3 DEVALL, Mark 4432.6 88.65 4432.6 780.3 1000 975.2 1000 677.1 4 PADDON, Colin 4415.2 88.3 4415.2 968.5 498.6 948.1 1000 1000 5 PHILCOX, Cengiz 4411.2 88.22 4411.2 991.2 798.9 905 1000 716.1 6 DUFF, Ian 4260.1 85.2 4260.1 1000 688.7 717.5 862.2 991.7 7 OSBOURNE, Ozzie 4168 83.36 4168 864.8 821.5 892.4 796.3 793 8 DICKENSON, Bob 4034.5 80.69 4034.5 850.5 690.4 652.4 993.2 848 9 BOORMAN, Colin 3961.1 79.22 3961.1 942.4 810.1 582.6 822.6 803.4 10 BINNIE, Gary 3719.9 74.4 3719.9 785.1 1000 934.8 0 1000 11 JAMES, Graham 3560.3 71.21 3560.3 888.2 657.2 694 920.7 400.2 12 SHENSTONE, John 3542.9 70.86 3542.9 730.5 972.7 511.9 489.4 838.4 13 DUNSTER, Chas 3517.1 70.34 3517.1 483.7 1000 694.1 788.2 551.1 14 EAST, Dave 3305.3 66.11 3305.3 1000 938.5 632 0 734.8 15 ALLEN, Peter 2990.9 59.82 2990.9 998.5 992.4 1000 0 0 16 RAYBONE, Mike 2676.1 53.52 2676.1 861.8 814.3 1000 0 0 17 LIPSCOMBE, Al 2449.4 48.99 2449.4 666.1 643.2 0 692.8 447.3 18 SLEIGHT, Robin 661.7 13.23 661.7 661.7 0 0 0 0
      "Uncle" Sydney Lenssen 
      Congratulations to all Winners in the four events over the weekend. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves. Many thanks go to all the CD’s for running the event and to the organisational team behind the whole weekend.
      Long may Radioglide continue.
       
    • Austin

      John Whitaker

      By Austin, in BARCS,

      (BARCS member 35, Fellow and Past President)
      An appreciation by Denis Oglesby (Fellow)
      Jan Whitaker has sent me the sad news that early BARCS “activist” John Whitaker died peacefully on the morning of New Year’s Eve after a period of terminal deterioration following several years in a Yorkshire care home suffering from Parkinson’s.
      BARCS as we now know it, was, in the early years, actually a sub section of a slope orientated organisation of the same name founded by our first president Dave Hughes (No 2). Thermal soaring was then being promoted by Geoff Dallimer (No 1) and the late Dave Dyer (No 12) in Herts and Bedford respectively, R/C thermal soaring had started to become a practical proposition thanks to the recent commercial availability of two proportional channels. This relatively southern “outbreak” was soon racing northwards (neck and neck with Dutch Elm disease).
      Initially located in Lincolnshire, John was soon infected (not Dutch Elm) as was Terry Beedham and others of the same county. John (then in the Nat West Bank) served as BARCS Membership Secretary then Treasurer while Terry became the first Northern Area Rep and an early top flier.
      In the seventies, John was moved north to manage a bank on North Humberside and lived not far from where I worked. I was an early R/C thermal “attempter” from the very start of the seventies but had not recognised BARCS as relevant to the north. John rapidly changed all that, I often visited his house. Compared to my circumstances as a junior engineer, he seemed to live in a semi-detached mountain with a somewhat chaotic family plus a mad dog that did not like visitors! There, we would escape up two flights of stairs to his modelling refuge to discuss his latest project. He also enrolled me as member 193 (aerodynamically fortuitous!) and even tempted me onto the BARCS committee as the next NA Rep.
      From my first attendance at a BARCS AGM I was tremendously impressed at how directly democratic it was with any member who attended able to contribute to discussions, propose amendments and counter amendments to proposals, all under the wonderfully calm and correct chairmanship of Chris Tomkins (No 55). Later chairmen were sometimes less accommodating!
      By then BARCS was expanding so fast the task of greatly expanding the NA league calendar was a bit of a doddle, especially with frequent and always wise guidance from John.
      As a young enthusiast it was quite exciting to attend those early BARCS committee meetings. We were rapidly covering most of England, developing our own rules, awards, achievements etc. I was often impressed by John’s wise and moderate contributions to the few awkward problems that came along. Perhaps not many members realised that we actually had ZERO AUTHORITY in the many years before BARCS eventually affiliated to BMFA. Nevertheless, BARCS rules and activities were very well accepted and dominated nearly all thermal activities in England and soon a lot of Scotland then later to form the basis of the now international F3J thermal soaring rules.
      After just one year as NA Rep, BARCS secretary Bill Longley decided to stand down. Geoff Dallimer volunteered and was almost certain to be accepted except that, despite his considerable influence on thermal soaring, (and later helping to secure our 35MHz band) he had made other committee members a tad nervous as to how he might interpret his duties. It was then that John urged me to stand against him with the seconding of several committee members and thus I suddenly found myself a rather shocked young secretary of a national aeromodelling organisation!
      BARCS membership was booming with at least 5 thousand competition flights taking place every year when John called a special meeting of some of the principal northern area members, the meeting was accessibly located just off the A63 in my house near Howden. He felt there was a need for a nationally centralised 2 or 3 day thermal soaring event that could be hosted by each BARCS area in turn with the first to be held at Pontefract racecourse on a spring bank holiday weekend. The details were prepared and organisational aspects delegated. I suggested we call it “RadioGlide”. I sketched an event transfer and later the BARCS transfer specialist, Dave Dyer, helped me finish the design that stayed much the same for years.
      Onwards and upwards was the continuing theme, again I think it was the influence of Geoff Dallimer that led to a fully independent pre-affiliated BARCS being awarded the FAI Diplome D’ Honneur. Eventually BARCS membership hit its peak of just under one thousand members.
      All the above had been helped by John’s continuing influence in those years but it would be amiss to not also remember the joy and humour we shared in those formative years. We towed each other a lot. Main spars were home built from spruce with wire joiners and long distance gentle tows were required to coax models to full height without folding the wings. I towed John to (and in) many a flyoff. His towing was certainly never the reason for my lack of trophies - he was usually getting difficult to see by the time I unhooked! 
      John was an early deserter of the usual Graupner 12% aerofoil glider of the time (it often failed to regain the flying field). He used one of the early large fibreglass fuselages available at that time and mated it with his own 12 foot span wing using the then state of the art 9% thick Eppler 387 aerofoil and became one of the first fliers I ever saw circling downwind in a thermal then successfully returning up wind! He campaigned much the same model for many years collecting plenty of trophies but often in a style that drew much humour from his fellow competitors. Some friendly rivals asked if John could teach them how he caught all his thermals they would teach John how to land! The early requirement to achieve a landing circle while flying towards the pilot often created orientation problems for pilots so he adopted the technique of facing away from the approaching model while watching it over his shoulder. Returning from downwind was often a problem in those early days and the urge to influence a model to the limits of its capability often caused pilots to use lots of “body language” to try and squeeze more performance on the approach. This would manifest itself in the style of an angler heaving his rod (aerial) over his shoulder to try and speed a model up. In extremis the tip of John’s long aerial was occasionally seen to be touching the ground behind him!  
      The rule in those days was that timing stopped at first contact with the ground and landing points were based on where the glider came to rest. On at least one occasion I saw John’s model cruising back towards the landing circle but running out of slot time. He would bang the model into the grass at speed just before the end of the slot then bounce back into the air to make a more leisurely entry into the circle. 
      Several of us particularly remember one of his far downwind thermalling excursions, we could see his model in line of sight between two levels of some high tension electricity grid lines in the middle distance. He eventually nursed it back to the circle and we asked him if he deliberately flew between the lines. He said he did not know, he had just controlled his elevator to maintain line of site clearance in between the lines until he was sure the model was his side of them!
      Jan said it for many of us when she wrote “John was a lovely, lovely man and I loved him to bits”.
       
    • Austin

      Dave Worrall

      By Austin, in News & Information,

      From Clive Needham
      It is with deep regret I have to announce the death of Dave Worrall.
      Dave has been fighting a blood disease for several years but managed to restart flying F3B when it became possible to use electric motors for launching.
      Dave was at the top of tree for many years with his own designed "plus" models for slope and thermal soaring and took part in several F3B World Championships the last being in Switzerland 2007. Taking the Bronze medal in 1983 England, Silver Medal 1985 Australia, narrowly missing the gold, was part of the team Gold in Australia that year and silver team in 1983 plus the same in 1987.
      He took part and won many contest both slope and thermal, taking part in the very first Radioglide at Pontefract Racecourse.
      As a qualified engineer working in the aerospace industry for most of his life, spending several years in Germany, he always took a measured technical approach to producing and flying model aircraft and will be sorely missed by his many friends..
       
      Regards;
      Clive.
      Image from F3B UK http://f3b-uk.blogspot.co.uk/
    • Austin

      Radioglide 2015 report and results

      By Austin, in Radioglide,

      Once again it is my pleasure to collate an overall report for Radioglide, thanks to Alan Morton and Mike Fantham for the 100S and F3K reports. I hope my memory of events is correct, it was certainly a busy three days! Full results are available on the forum in their respective sections. Photos are either mine (F5J/F3J/Multi-launch) or Graham James (100S).
      Saturday
      F5J
      This increasing popular electric glider discipline attracted 12 competitors, I believe it was eight last year. The weather forecast predicted light winds, staying dry with an overcast sky, which was pretty much what we had. Despite the overcast the air felt warm and there was usable but fairly weak lift in every slot.
      Under the very able direction of Kevin Beale we got started, imagine my surprise when I checked the score sheet at the lunch break after four rounds to find that I was in the lead (but it wasn’t to last)!!
      We found that four minutes preparation time between slots was not quite enough so the computer timing programme was often paused.
      Another four rounds were flown after lunch and a dropped score came in to play. Following the weak lift downwind over the 100S field was the way to go and there were some squeaky final glides back but as the wind was light it looked more marginal than they actually were, most gliders making it back to the landing tape for a perfect landing.
      The majority of launches were around the 170-180 metre mark but a slot in Round 7 had everyone launching to a circling red kite at about 100 metres, this did not work well for me but it was a gamble that was worth taking.
      An amusing moment was timing for Dave East who did a lovely landing on the end of the tape, ‘100 points’ he announced, ‘I’ll give you 50’ says me with a chuckle, it’s easy to get confused!
      Models used were Maxas, Xplorers, Shadows, Tragi Clusters, an Ava and my Ray X on its second competition outing. The Ray X is a very stable model that ignores my overcontrolling flying style!!
      So…who won? In first place was Colin Paddon, second was Dave East and third was Peter Allen.
      Thanks to Kevin Beale for a smoothly run competition and a very enjoyable day out.
      F5J Results

      100S
      Report from Alan Morton
      The 100s Radioglide competition took place on Saturday 23rd May 2015 I was CD for the day but had help from Graham James and Robin Sleight as well as my usual team mates, so not much left for me to do!
      We had the usual 5 rounds and 2 fly-offs and the day was enjoyable with light lift in a cool breeze. 11 of us flew most of which attend the regular Mike Lucas 100 inch competitions. The air was up and down as were the scores, I started with 2 bad scores but then came back to 4th and into the fly-off, others started well and lost out later on. Graham James flew very well throughout the comp and finished in top position before entering the fly-off. Kevin also flew well during the rounds and only lost out to Graham in round 2.
      John Shenstone was defending his title from last year and put on a good show finishing 3rd in the rounds.
      So into the fly off went Graham, Kevin, John and Alan. The round before was nothing special so with a 12 minute slot I was not going to rush, I decided to wait until someone else tested the air. Kevin had other ideas and launched on the buzzer. My mistake, he went straight into lift, I launched and was also in lift but now trailing his score. John had also launched early and Graham had waited with me. I was doing ok and Kevin was losing out, I continued to do well and Kevin continued to drop. With 5 or so minutes left he was very low and I was very high, I was confident that the only pilot threatening me now was John who was not as high as myself. Kevin however had other ideas, he held on at low level for the rest of the slot to win the 1000 points, unbelievable.
      The second slot started and we all launched simultaneously, I did manage to win by 1 second but we all flew it out so the positions didn’t change.
      A successful days flying and a well-deserved win from Kevin.
      RG-2015-100s-Results

      Kevin Newitt 100s Winner 2015
      Radioglide 2015 100S Fly-off pilots. Alan Morton, Graham James,John Shenstone and Kevin Newitt 
      Sunday
      Multi-launch
      The forecast for Sunday was not so good, similar to the previous day but with a promise of rain showers and possibly even the whole afternoon being affected by prolonged rain. There were some showers while we were setting up and one half-hour downpour which produced a natural lunch break but generally it stayed dry and we managed to complete four rounds.
      There were 18 competitors this year, over double the number for last year which was low due to the clash with F3J happening the same day.
      The mixture of launch types appeared to be roughly two-thirds using winches, a third flying electric models and one DLG flown by Maria Freeman (a fourth third?!).
      Tudor Farm has a large population of red kites and buzzards and they have become quite used to us invading their space and were very useful allies in enabling most slots to be flown out.
      Four preliminary rounds were flown, followed by a two-round fly-off. The top three were Peter Allen first (also best winch launched pilot), Graham Wicks second and Cengiz Philcox third. Kevin Beale was best placed electric glider in fourth (notable for the fact that he was flying an own-design prototype machine) with myself in eight place, which I was quite pleased with.
      Thanks to the joint team of Robin Sleight (CD) and Graham James/Peter Mitchell (chief number crunchers!) for a smooth competition.
      The field ropes were reset for the expected wind direction for Monday’s F3J competition. A planned EGM was held on the field after flying to formalise the proposed new arrangement of holding the BARCS AGM at Radioglide instead of at Oadby in December, this was carried unanimously.
      Peter Allen Radioglide 2015 Multilaunch Winner
      Monday
      F3J
      Up with the larks and back to Tudor Farm for the last day of Radioglide for the F3J competition (also a BMFA League Event and part of the British team selection for 2016). Weather was set to be the best day of the three, overcast sky again but fairly warm with a stiff breeze at times, plenty of lift available. 23 competitors rigged and set out their winches, with the competition starting just after 10 o’clock after a briefing from the CD, Sydney Lenssen.
      There was good lift available, marked by many birds, and like Saturday’s F5J, the best technique for staying airborne was to follow it downwind. This led to some very low landing approaches. Colin Boorman won a special prize for putting his Shadow in a tree trying to glide home, twice!!
      A two-round fly-off was held after five preliminary rounds with Neil Jones, Colin Paddon and Peter Allen taking the top three positions. At one stage I was fifth but dropped to tenth after having to relaunch in Round 7, still pleased though.
      My thanks to Sydney and team.
      Radioglide-F3J-2015-Overall-Results.xlsx
      Radioglide-F3J-Fly-off-Results.xlsx

      Colin Paddon Radioglide 2015 F3J Winner
      F3K
      Report from Mike Fantham.
      Ten pilots took part in the F3K contest on Monday 25th in conditions which varied from sunny and almost calm with strong lift to cloudy with a cool breeze and virtually no lift.
      The CD, Hayley Styche, had chosen tasks with the emphasis on fast ‘turn-arounds’, where a pilot needs to land at precisely the right moment and re-launch as quickly as possible.
      In the ‘Best 5 flights’ task, flown to a two minute max in a ten minute slot, Richard Swindells (the eventual winner) made 9:46 in what were less than ideal conditions. That’s an average of over 1:57 per flight – and remember he has to re-launch four times in the ten minutes! F3J was being flown at the same time as F3K and the ‘big’ models were often sharing the lift with us and the local Red Kites and Buzzards.
      As the start of my slot of ‘Last flight only’ was being counted down, a stack of Kites and F3J models was coming right at us in lift. I looked at the well-marked thermal and picked my spot. I launched on the hooter and was soon climbing rapidly in the core of the lift. The task here is to score over 5 minutes on your last launch of the slot. Three of us achieved the ideal solution in that slot – do 5 minutes on your first launch and make that your last one too! Sadly that was my only ‘ten minutes of fame’ and I returned to my normal form for the other rounds….
      GBR Team Members Richard Swindells and Michael Stern came out on top with the Team reserve, Darius Zibikas in third. (Our third Team Member, Simon Jones, couldn’t make this event.)
      In only his second F3K contest, Carlos De Santos was fourth – a man to watch for in the future.
      It was a good contest in interesting conditions – thanks go to the BARCS committee for organising Radioglide and to Hayley Styche for getting us through ten rounds in smooth style.
      F3K Results
      A good launch sequence and model-on-approach shot by Vytautus Zibikas of brother, third-placing Darius Zibikas and his model. The model is the Lithuanian Stream, flown by the Zibikas Brothers from that country. Richard Swindells markets this model in the UK and also won the event flying one.
      THANKS TO CD'S AND ORGANISERS
      Would like to finish by thanking all the organisers and CD’s on behalf of the competitors, apologies if I missed anyone, it was a bit of a blur!!
      Overall it was a great weekend, lots of flying to be had, great camaraderie and banter. Congratulations to all competitors and in particular to Russell Mexome who took the Lilienthal Trophy for his first Radioglide and Peter Allen who took the Victor Ludorum for top placings in three events.
      On a personal note I was very encouraged by my half-time F5J result, still very much learning the ropes and benefited again from sage and calming spotting advice from Chas Dunster, the phrase ‘you can do this!’ works wonders.
      Slightly off-topic but something I’d like to add is that I rechecked my glider set-ups after the competition as I was not convinced that the poor handling I was seeing was all down to my fingers, sure enough the centre of gravities were too far aft and some of the control settings were way too sensitive. ‘Get there but get there smoothly’ I read recently (Mark Drela possibly), very true and I’ll try to keep that thought in my head.
      Cheers
      Gary Binnie

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