MAAA Wingspan

28 WING SPAN FEBRUARY DAVID HINES MEMORIAL AT WEST WYALONG Dave Hines was a passionate advocate of electric flight, representing Australia at several F5BWorld Championships and was well regarded amongst the control line fraternity after a long career in TeamRace. Last year’s event (held between 16 – 18 November 2018) in honour of the late aeromodeller, took place inWest Wyalong, at the newNational Model Aircraft Championships site. Pilot Brett Solanov explains how it all went. “After a quick lunch at the bakery inWest Wyalong, we headed to the field to investigate the options for course placement and direction,” he said. “There were plenty, with 700 acres to choose from. The wind was forecast to swing 180 degrees over the three days we would be there, so the course was set accordingly to avoid having the sun in our eyes and then practice got underway.” F5B involves flying a radio controlled electric powered glider to completemultiple tasks. It commences with a distance task where the planemust complete asmany laps of the 150 metre long course as possible in the allotted 200 seconds. However, themotor can only be runwhile flying outside of the course, so this is used to gain height and speed. Developments in power-trainmean that thesemodels now have over 7kWon tap, accelerating from rest to 300kph in just over two seconds- perfect for adrenaline junkies. “Immediately after tearing around the course as fast as possible, a ten-minute thermal duration task begins, where all motor run is penalised and finally a spot landing concludes the flight,” said Brett. “Saturdaymorning was reasonably calm, with frequent passing thermals detected. A close battle developed between Keith andmyself with scores tied after four rounds. Keith proved faster in the laps and I found a couplemore thermals. Mike Beatty was super consistent as usual, always featuring near the top of the leader board. “For the last few years [my son] Owen has been improving at a very impressive rate but not quite ready to compete for the top places. This wasn’t the case any longer.” Owen recently finished third in Junior at his first World Championship appearance, an impressive feat for a ten- year-old. “This weekend was no exception to his on-going improvement - three personal best scores on Saturday, reaching 45 laps,” said Brett. “Strengthening thermals (and sink) in the afternoonmade for some challenging conditions for the duration task and landing direction could swing 180 degrees just as one was turning final.” Brett said that on the Sunday they were greeted by stronger winds and another direction change, however it wasn’t enough to stop them. “Two rounds were flown on Sunday before everyone started their long drive home. At the end of the six rounds I was victorious, but closely followed by Keith and Bill. This was the closest result for an F5B comp in Australia for many years, with last place achievingmore than 95%of the winning score,” he said. “West Wyalong is a charming old townwith several pubs and restaurants catering for the visitors and a range of motels to choose from, but it is the NSWFFS that havemade this a ‘must-do’ town to visit. Their flying field ismassive and well equipped, with great facilities that make flying at this site a treat for everyone. If you haven’t flown there, you should check it out.” FOR SEVERAL YEARS THE F5B COMMUNITY HAVE GATHERED TO REMEMBER FORMER F5B PILOT DAVE HINES, WHO SADLY LOST HIS BATTLE WITH MESOTHELIOMA. IN 2018 THEY FLEW AT THE WEST WYALONG FIELD