Radio Control Gliding Association (RCGA)

Latest reports

Results F5J VARMS 23 March 2025

Finally some nice weather greeted the 8 pilots who turned up last Sunday for our latest f5j comp. I’d say light winds, for the most part, with about 50% cloud cover. So not really conditions for fai planes, but not really for windy weather planes either. Unfortunately the wind direction started east south east, and since we can’t fly to the west at the VARMS field, it meant you had to go upwind to find lift, and leave it once above yourself to hopefully find some more lift up wind, so somewhat challenging conditions.

Wind turned to the south for the last few rounds, so back to the regular chasing lift.

Congrats to Hugh Blackburn in 1st, with some great flying after coming back from the f5j worlds as a wildcard entry,

myself (jim) in 2nd place, after screwing up round 2 and then going conservative on launch heights for the rest of my launches,

and with Theo Arvanitakis in 3rd, with some pretty low launches, which didn’t always pay off.

Thanks to Bruce Clapperton for CDing and scoring and everyone else who helped.

Link to Flights

Link to Results

See you next in Horsham for the Modelflight Midway Cup and VMAA f5j state champs. We’ve got a good number of entries so far, and theres still time to enter here

Happy thermalling,

Jim Houdalakis

Entry Midway Cup and VMAA state champs F5J

The RCGA is pleased to again partner with the Wimmera Model Aircraft Association to host the

Modelflight Midway Cup and VMAA F5J State championships 2025

on the 5th and 6th April at Horsham. Entry form and details : pdf f5j_midway cup 2025 entry.pdf

See you there,

RCGA Committee

ERes Varms 14 April 24

grouperes

Twelve Pilots enjoyed great weather for seven rounds of eRES on Sunday 14^th of April at Varms Rowville.
Winds light to variable made for some good thermal hunting.
Good to see newcomers Richard and Mark join in the fun and win one round each.

With Marcus choosing the experimental plane option the field was hotly contested at the top of leaderboard.
After seven rounds we left the paddock to the kangaroos and went inside to crunch the numbers.
Congratulations to
Hugh Blackburn winning by 0.1% ahead of Bruce Clapperton.

scores

Thanks for the report Bruce. and for CDing

Modelflight Midway Cup

Hi all,

Please see attached the entry form for the 2024 Modelflight Midway Cup.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Committee

midway_cup_entry_form_2024.pdf

F5J at VARMS 4March24

Hi all,

Please see attached the results for the March F5J event at VARMS. A big thanks to VARMS for hosting the event. The weather was very nice and a great day was had by all.

Congrats to:

Jim 1st

Marcus 2nd

Rod 3rd

f5j_varms_overall_results.pdf

f5j_varms_flightscores.pdf

F5J Varms 14 January 2024

Hi all,

even though there were a few regulars away, we still had 11 starters for F5J last Sunday with the forecast being for warm weather, with winds building.

The winds started at light to medium strength, with the forecast for them to build. Unfortunately the winds started off easterly and were occasionally south easterly. For those not familiar with the new Varms field, it's basically a large runway to take off from and land on, and the no-fly area begins at the west side of the runway. So essentially we couldn't fly down wind, making chasing thermals impossible, and making landing approaches challenging.

To the east it's an untamed field of tall flowers and bush rising to a forest of trees and hills to the east about 400 metres away, and a forest to the south about 300 metres away. Sometimes you can see the thermals / dust devils work their way through the flowers until they reach us on the runway, and this was the case in the second heat where I watched one head straight for the centre of our flight line and me wishing we could chase it down wind. With the start countdown almost at zero, the dust devil went through Bob, causing his plane to twist in his hand and crunch a wingtip. Not a good start for Bob.

So challenging conditions, where more often than not, you had to abandon thermals at the restricted zone and try to find the next one upwind, and with the wind building, and the thermal cycles getting longer, it was getting harder, reflected by a lot of short flights in the scores.
Eventually the "sea breeze" kicked in for the last couple of rounds, and the gustier winds swung to the south, which meant you could follow thermals down wind, becoming a bit of a good heat, bad heat, situation.

Special mention must go to Kevin Fryer who fought on through the day flying an Old Timer, even winning a heat. Eventually it got a bit too windy for his plane, but it flew very well for the conditions.

Anyway not being able to chase lift down wind is my Kryptonite, but others handled the upwing thermalling much better than me.
So in that regard,
Congratulations to

David Pratley 1st

Rod Watkins 2nd

Hugh Blackburn 3rd

flight_scores_f5j_varms_2024_01_14.pdf

pdf

overall_results_f5j_varms_2024_01_14.pdf

Thanks to everyone who helped me setup and pack up,

and thanks to VARMS for letting us use the field for the competition.

Next, to those going, I'll see you at Armidale NSW for the Sailplane Expo over the Australia Day Weekend

regards

Jim Houdalakis

PS I forgot to take some pics, so if anyone took any photo's of the day, could you send them through and I'll add to the website

F5J Northern Flying Group December 2023

group

F5J 3Dec23, State Field

Wow! What a great days flying. After a week of wind and rain, we had a pearler of a day! It started cool and overcast with light winds, and developed into a warm and sunny day with moderate winds. This meant the thermals changed throughout the day and you had to be constantly on your toes. We completed 8 rounds by 3:30PM at leisurely pace.

A massive thank you to the Norther Flying Group for the use of their field. All the flyers really appreciated being able to fly at a different location.

It was also great to see 10 competitors (the most for some time) enjoy the conditions, with a special mention to Jonathan for participating in his first competition and to Tom and Max who were back flying after an extended break.

In the end Jim won with both consistency, and ‘semi’ aggressive flying, although he did say at the end of the day he should have been even more aggressive. Look out if Jim really gets aggressive one day! 😊 Well flown Jim!

Marcus finished second and actually swapped the lead with Jim throughout the day. The final placings came down to the last round of the day, where Jim scored 1000 and Marcus 958.

Rod finished third with some very consistent flying and made his times all day.

1^st Jim 6940.2

2^nd Marcus 6910.9

3^rd Rod 6620.9

A special mention to Hugh who was our ‘biggest balls’ winner with lots of low aggressive launches.

A great day was had by all.

f5j_dec_state_field.pdf

f5j_state_field-flight_scores.pdf

plane

Marcus nailing the spot with his new 2PK

launch

And we are away!

F5J VARMS October 2023

Hi all,
here are the results for the F5J competition on Sunday 15 October 2023 at the new VARMS field in Rowville.

Forecast was for an overcast day, westerly wind, and with rain in the late afternoon. Westerlies can be turbulent at times at this field, downwind from trees and the huge clubhouse, but luckily the wind wasn't too strong, in the morning and abated as the day went on.

We managed to get 7 rounds in and we were packed up before the rain started int the late afternoon.

Knowing that a few regulars were away and couldn't attend, I was pleased we still had 8 competitors show up,
and it was great to see Tom Dupuche back and competing after a few years break with a young family,
and also good to see Max Kroger back and flying as well.

Being overcast all day made for soft conditions, and although it wasn't very windy on the ground, above the tree line, it was quite a bit windier, which meant what light lift you could find, was moving downwind and if you go too low it was hard to find something strong enough to get away.

On the other hand the sink was pretty soft too, so if you could hold onto some decent height, eventually you might find some get out of jail lift.

Early afternoon stabilised somewhat making it harder to do 10 minutes, then for a short while the sun appeared making lift and sink stronger and providing some lift for the last few rounds in calmer conditions.

Anyway I played it conservative with mostly 170m climbs and got 6 of my 7 times, which got me second place.
Congrats to Rod Watkins who was on fire with picking heights and won almost all his heats, to nab 1st place,
and congrats to David Pratley who also showed consistency through the day to get 3rd.

pdf

flight_scores_f5j_varms_2023_10_15.pdf

pdf

overall_results_f5j_varms_2023_10_15.pdf

Thanks to everyone who helped set up and packup, especially Bruce for doing the draw, and Rod for helping enter scores.
I'll see you at our next calendar event
the F5J Trophy West Wyalong NSW, Nov 10-12th https://www.aefanet.com/aust-f5j-trophy
Happy gliding,
regards

Jim

Winners are grinners, Rod Watkins with his Prestige 2pk (photo: Dan Haskell)

Tom Depuche with his Explorer 3, brushing off the cobwebs. (photo: Dan Haskell)

A tad overcast (photo: Thomas Rawlins)

F5J Diggers Rest Dec 2022

group

We had a cracker of a day with light winds in the morning and challenging windy conditions in the afternoon.

Marcus and Hugh started well with some launches in the 30-50m range, but it was Jim who came home the strongest in the tough conditions to take out the win. Well done Jimmy!

Marcus finished in 2nd and Dan had some excellent flights to jump into 3rd place.

f5j-dec2022-overall.pdf

f5j-dec2022-flightscores.pdf

dave

hugh

Latest reports

Results F5J VARMS 23 March 2025

Entry Midway Cup and VMAA state champs F5J

ERes Varms 14 April 24

Modelflight Midway Cup

F5J at VARMS 4March24

F5J Varms 14 January 2024

F5J Northern Flying Group December 2023

F5J VARMS October 2023

F5J Diggers Rest Dec 2022

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