MAAA Wingspan - Quarterly Magazine

21 FEBRUARY WING SPAN MAAALogo. The flying conditions were vastly different fromwhat he was used to in Australia, with thermals quite a lot weaker. Also, due to the geographic position of the runway, pilots were susceptible to wave and curl over fromone side of the field to the other, depending on the wind direction. Despite a bit of bad luck during Pre- Worlds- his GPS gear not working, John decided to enter in both classes (Scale and Self Launch System) in the Worlds. During the first round flight of the SLS class, the prop parted ways with the hub causing massive vibration, as well as the canopy falling off. Luckily, Johnmanaged to land safely and was able to ballast and repair the damage enough to be able to fly in the Scale class without losing any rounds. Unfortunately, in the SLS class he was out for two rounds. John flew one round of Scale and all was ok, but in the second round the GPS stopped working at considerable height. With eight minutes to go, he was ready to start racing for his final laps when the GPS cut out completely. He did manage to get in four laps, as this was all that registered before the GPS unit died. John said despite this, he was happy with the performance of his sailplane, being only one of five homemademodels out of the total 90 competitors. Philip Kolb fromGermany took out top honours, winning both classes and the World Masters overall. John said flying in the 2017 World Masters was a great experience, enjoying the thrill of competitive flying as well as meeting guys that he had talked to online for several years. He was impressed that the aeromodelling camaraderie stretched far and wide across the globe. “I couldn’t have done this without the local support of friends and family. Most of all I would like to say thank you for the support from the MAAA, MASA, Modelflight and the Barossa Model Aero club,” he said. “We need to promote GPS Triangle Racing in Australia. Australia has perfect weather to do some great flights. It is a lot of fun and exhilarating and adds another dimension to scale sailplane flying.” If anyone or any clubs are interested in GPS Triangle Racing, please feel free to contact John at Joroco2@internode.on.net or 0427609408