February 21 saw one of those rare events when the powered models, electric or IC, gave way to the pure RC event, thermal glider. The weather gods looked after us with virtually calm conditions and a warm day with temperatures reaching about 24c.

A very good turnout demonstrated that this is an event that is liked by a number of members. Anecdotal reasons varied from "relaxing" to "I like the challenge of silent flight" but all agreed that the challenge of flying with no motor to rely on and the relaxed manner and camaraderie that surrounds such an event was too good to miss. Two winches were set up, one utilizing the new battery purchased by the club and the other provided by Richard Cooper. Initial wind heading had the winch lines set up facing south. After a pilot briefing by CD Chris Klimeck, at around 10:30 the event got under way. Greg Robertson kindly provided the skills to operate the winch for most members who seemed a little daunted by the thought of operating the winch and the Tx at the same time. Both Greg and Richard seemed adept at doing both. For the next event Greg intends to provide some coaching to enable the pilots to do their own winch operation. I think I'll need a mouth stick!

Dave Jacobs had the first flight and took no time in finding a thermal to set the pace. Whilst Dave is not getting any younger he still has the skills to build all his models from scratch and showed he hadn't "lost it" when it came to thermalling.

Other participants were myself, Greg Robertson, Richard Cooper, Gerry de Groot, John de Groot and Geoff Hays. John de Groots model revelled in the conditions. Being particularly light and with the polyhedral wing, lift seemed easy to come by. With that John soon found out it was much easier going up than it was coming down! He was often caught at a great height with time running out to get down within the allotted time. This often resulted in a hurried descent and a very unnerving sound ensued - the dreaded "flutter"! As the model descended rapidly the tail feathers could be heard groaning and fluttering - John then had to slow the descent in order to avoid a mid air disassembly of his model. Time eventually beat him.

One pilot, who shall remain nameless, thought my Tx antenna was not fully extended and proceeded to pull it out. I was watching my model at the time and was unaware. As the Tx left my hands I pulled the spoiler on. With the Tx quickly back in my hands a re flight seemed inevitable. As I was proceeding on the downwind leg in preparation for landing, I was just above the pine trees on the west of the strip when I noticed a "bubble" above the trees as I went over them. A quick turn and circular flight path saw the Silent Dream climb as though it was on a string being pulled upwards. No re flight necessary - "Ah I did you a favour" was the cry from the Tx puller! It was probably my best flight of the day.

Geoff Hays had ongoing problems with the set up on his glider and appeared to have some control problems. I am sure Geoff will sort it out eventually.

This particular event had some non glider fliers intrigued and ready to join the ranks. Terry Pearson, a very skilled pilot in IC pattern and one time pylon racer, commented "There is a lot more skill in glider flying than it looks from the sidelines. I wouldn't mind giving this a go!". We can't wait for you to join in Terry!

Almost at the end of the competition, one time member and now a member of SEAT, Steve Boag paid us a visit and brought along his Pike Superior glider. Whilst this version of the Pike has now been replaced by a newer one (which Steve also has) it is still a beautiful molded ship. Once owned by two times World F3J champion David Hobby, I would love to have seen it flown. After a few of us left for the day, Steve was coaxed into flying it and all who saw it fly were most impressed! We told Steve that we would like to see him and a few others from SEAT participate in our next thermal glider event. Let's hope they take up the invitation as I for one could learn a bit from the experience.

In the meantime I can't wait for the next thermal event!

Put a SPARK in your life and fly electric! George (or maybe just thermal?)