Fling Competition Report: September

The sparkle of Spring wove its magic through our competition today. A loud-mouthed electrical storm heralded the dawn but departed just as quickly as it had arrived, leaving us with a clear, crisp, highly-ionised sky for the rest of the morning, perfect conditions for the purple gliders and for the competition's first Spring meeting. The August round had been cancelled due to unruly weather conditions, as had the scheduled early date for the September round. As a result, we didn't have our full contingent of pilots here with us today. I would take this opportunity to point out to new comp pilots that if a scheduled round is postponed, by default it is rescheduled for the following Sunday. If in doubt, contact Dallas or myself.

Some days are almost perfect. Today was such a day. The only thing that would have made it entirely perfect was the presence of our club president, who'd promised to come down to the field, fire up the barbecue and cook us some of our favourite dead animal: sausage. But alas, apparently the man had contracted mad cow's disease, or horse flu, or something, and couldn't be here. None-the-less, the day rocked right along. There was enough thermal lift floating by to keep the pilots content and happy, and to keep the gliders high in the air for the full duration of most events. Every pilot won two heats, the final score card displaying the consistency with which each pilot flew during the heats that he himself did not win.

Russell the Beard's glider is flying very nicely now that it's a different colour. He'd been practicing landing on the roof of our luxuriously-appointed clubhouse when he'd bingled the wing's leading-edge to such an extent that it required internal surgery. Once repaired, he'd re-skinned the wings in a mid-green translucent film, giving the glider a distinctly different appearance in the air. When questioned, Russell explained that during repair, he performed some Voodoo on the wing's washout, hence the improved flight performance. Whatever. Personally I think it's the change in colour. As any ninety-year-old aeromodeller will tell you: green is the new purple.

Scott's always happy to push the bounds of what we consider possible. For quite a while now, pilots have been training their Flings to land vertically on the landing-spot by diving them straight down, albeit from a low altitude. But Scott's been experimenting, and bingo, it works for me. The new landing technique is quite simple: plonk it in so hard that it lodges into the ground and stays there. You see, that way, if any landing distance disputes arise, Scott can prove his point simply by pointing to his plane, still standing there, sticking vertically out of the mud.

Scott also got in some practice flying someone else's plane. Well... sort of. Mid-way through a heat, after he'd fallen into deep conversation with Ross, he subsequently noticed something strange. 'Why isn't the glider responding to my inputs?' he wondered after a minute or two. It was pointed out that the plane he thought he was flying was really Ross's, and no, no-one else had reciprocally taken control of his own aircraft, and no, no-one knew where his had gone to. He'd have to discover its location himself.

There's always something to look at in this competition, there's always something unusual happening; the visual elements often producing an 'Alice in Wonderland'-type experience. Adding to the atmosphere is the banter between the men as they fly. Seriously funny. I spend a lot of my morning laughing. Dallas, Scott and Chris are sophisticated comedians.

Gary Watson, a world renowned heli pilot, joined our ranks today, his shiny new Fling proving itself to be immediately competitive. Gary, welcome to the world of the sky pirates. May you enjoy your time amongst us.

This year's rounds are coming to a close, only two left, and we'd like to thank all the pilots involved for their continued brilliance and creativity.

Leader Board

Scott 7601 points

Gary 7119 points

Russell 6939 points

Ross 5370 points

Dallas 5212 points

Chris 4777 points

Next round: 14th October

Everyone welcome. Bring a Fling. It's carbon neutral.