Bloobirds and the Kent Interclub Gliding Competition 2011

Bloobirds and the Kent Interclub Gliding Competition 2011

 

Relatively new members won’t recall that Bloobirds were a major contender in Interclub competitions from the 70’s to the 90’s.

 

Last year I.Nicholls flew with the Aerosport Club in one of the glider competitions and decided that this year that he, as part of a Bloobirds team should enter all of them.�� A three man team resulted with J.Payne and G.Hayfield (who kindly paid the �25 entrance fee on our behalf!), was accorded Bloobird status.

 

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�Above: The Stork (Mark 1 through Mark 4) gliders used by the Bloobirds Interclub Team.

 

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J.Payne and G.Hayfield roll their fags before a flight.

 

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Basic rules to the competition .

 

The object of the competition is to launch the glider (by electric 300m turn-around line [the line starts at the point of launch goes to a pulley 150metre away then returns to a winch drum that pulls it in] or hand winch with 150m line) and then to glide for as long as possible, all within a ten minute time slot. A landing bonus will be awarded as follows. Where the nose of the model comes to rest within 2.5 metres of a fixed landing spot: a bonus of 50 points; 40 points where the nose is between 2.5 and 5 metres; 30 points for between 5 and 7.5; 20 points for between 7.5 and 10; 10 points for between 10 and 12.5 and no bonus points if further than 12.5 metres of the fixed spot. Timing will stop at the end of the slot and if the flight continues after the end of the slot 30 seconds will be deducted from the flight time and no landing bonus will be allowed.

 

To level the playing field each club flyer will fly [as much as possible] against different competitors in each slot [a matrix is used], depending on the number of flyers the number of slots are typically be 4 – 6 and with 4 “rounds”��

 

The Scorer will, for each slot, award 1000 competition points to the highest scoring competitor and award competition points out of 1000 to the other competitors according to the ratio of their scores to the highest score.

 

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Results for the Ron Finniss Trophy 2012 Glider competition run at Sutton Valence on May 20th 2012

 

This Trophy was started in 1976 and in 1978, the third event, Bloobirds won the trophy for the only time.

 

We tried to emulate that this year but the overall winners were again the Tonbridge club, with us closely following them.

 

Weather was windy but with intermittent thermal activity if you could find it.

 

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Team Name Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total Team Total Percent Position
Tonbridge P.Ramsey 983 1000 555 1000 3538 � � �
� S.Smith 1000 666 1000 900 3566 � � �
� M.Ranger 518 1000 – 1000 2518 9622 100% 1st
� � � � � � � � � �
Bloobirds G.Hayfield 1000 1000 1000 1000 4000 � � �
� J.Payne 444 364 948 931 2687 � � �
� I.Nicholls 1000 476 536 604 2616 9303 97% 2nd
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Invicta K.Fisher 409 936 1000 531 2876 � � �
� R.Harris 763 559 523 927 2772 � � �
� R.Potts 308 415 601 779 2103 7751 81% 3rd
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Canterbury T.Wood 689 339 607 929 2564 � � �
� I.Eggleton 289 811 768 448 2313 � � �
� N.Jackson 249 499 527 682 1957 6834 71% 4th
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Kent Interclub 2012�� Results of Glider 2 (Glider 1 was cancelled) SADMAC May 27th. 2012� at Sittingborne.

 

Weather was sunny but little thermal activity, however there were some “ridges” of general lift.

 

East

 

Pos E/W Name Club 1 2 3 4 Best 3 ��� Flyoffs FO 1+2 Points
1 E G.Hayfield Bloobirds 1000 �823 1000 1000 3000 �708 �641 1349 50
2 E T.Wood Canterbury 1000 1000 �899 OOF 2899 – – – 49
3 E N.Jackson Canterbury �814 �873 1000 1000 2873 – – – 48
5 E J.Payne Bloobirds �615 �769 1000 �927 2696 – – – 46
6 E I.Nicholls Bloobirds �798 �897 546 �645 2340 – – – 45
11 � Flew � � � � � � � � � �

 

 

Teams East Bloobirds 50 46 45 141
� SADMAC 47 44 43 134
� Canterbury������ 49 48 — 97
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Teams West Tonbridge 49 47 42 138
� Bromley 45 44 43 132
� Invicta 48 46 — 94
� Gravesend 50 — — 50
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Combined East & West

 

Pos E/W Name Club 1 2 3 4 Best 3 ��� Flyoffs FO 1+2 Points
1 W C.Boorman Gravesend 1000 1000 1000 1000 3000 1000 �985 1985 50
2 W S.Smith Tonbridge �998 1000 1000 1000 3000 �721 1000 1721 49
3 E G.Hayfield Bloobirds 1000 �823 1000 1000 3000 �708 �641 1349 48
11 E J.Payne Bloobirds �615 �769 1000 �927 2696 – – – 40
15 E I.Nicholls Bloobirds �798 �897 546 �645 2340 – – – 36
20 � Flew � � � � � � � � � �

 

 

Teams Tonbridge 49 46 37 132
� Bloobirds 48 40 36 124
� Bromley 41 39 38 118
� SADMAC 42 35 34 111
� Invicta 47 44 — 91
� Canterbury 45 43 — 88
� Gravesend 50 — — 50