The Working Bee on the Saturday morning before the scanner day on Sunday was well represented despite the weather being freezing, no doubt as a result of the snow in Ballarat the day before. Thank you to the guys who turned up to help prepare the field for the big day as there were a few bits and pieces to do.
The big Day had finally arrived with a perfect winters’ morning. I reluctantly rolled out of my nice warm bed grabbed my little flying companion and my gear then headed out to the field with anticipation of a great day at the Marsh..
We ended up with ten entries in total; five from Bacchus Marsh, four from Geelong and one from Northern Flying Group, all keen for a slice of the action. A couple of the pilots was their first time in any form of pylon racing so it was great see these pilots participating in the event.
A Pilot brief was held at 9:15am including a comprehensive safety brief from Ken Mollison our Safety officer, thanks Ken. Flying commenced around 9:30am with pilots along with their aircraft, split into three groups which allowed for two groups of three and one group of four. The first two rounds were flown extremely close, clean and with no loss of life or models.
The real entertainment started in round three with Murray Ellis losing his Scanner on the first turn. Blame was laid against his caller, who will remain nameless, as apparently he was supposed to let him know that the turn was complete and to stop turning… Hmmm. Murray was rewarded for his efforts with a bottle of ZAP which should give him many hours of joy in the evenings gluing the pieces back together. Round four was uneventful and all survived.
After round four we decided to take a break for lunch where we were able to savour some of Kevin Thomas’s culinary delights. A big thank you goes to Kevin for looking after the BBQ and canteen for the day as he kept the food coming and the drinks flowing.
After our lunch break we decided to have a fly off for the consolation prize. The rules were simple; all aircraft up at once, flown full throttle around the circuit with the last aircraft to land coming first. This was done for two reasons, one, to give Joe Finocchiaro time to tally up the scores from the mornings’ racing (Thank you Joe) and the other was for pure entertainment. There was another unfortunate incident which resulted in the loss of Jay Everett’s Scanner, but it’s OK, he wasn’t flying it when it crashed, I think he was watching another Scanner as a comment from the said pilot “has anyone seen my plane”? Peter Van Alkemade (PVA) walk the course to find Jay’s model South East corner of the field. The photos tells the story.
The event finished around 2:30pm with the recovery of the remains of Jay’s Scanner and prizes being awarded to all. Thank to those who helped and participated on the day as it truly was a fun day filled with laughs and yes, some skillful flying. This of course depends on your point of view...
A special vote of thanks goes to Ken Mollison for engaging with our sponsors, ‘Model Engines’ and ‘KMRC Jets’, and obviously a huge vote of thanks to these sponsors for their generosity with the fantastic prizes.
We will be planning another scanner event so why not come along and be part of fun day with plenty of flying thrown in.