Please see attached the entry form for the Rob Jess F5J Challenge, Horsham 21/22 March 2026

f5j_rob_jess_entry_form_2026.pdf

Five pilots rocked up to a cold and windy F5J  competition last Sunday at the Northern Flying Group state field.

It was good to see Dave Milward joining in again after a long break, unfortunately he only had a light Plus f5j and struggled to penetrate into wind.

It was also good to see Marcus back after the world champs and a long holiday.

Seeing as there were only five of us, we decided to fly all up at once per round, which meant no callers/spotters to help.

We managed 8 rounds, and despite the cold and wind, there were definitly thermals moving through to catch.

Results: 

Jim        1st   6820

Marcus  2nd  5990

Hugh     3rd   5619

 f5j_nfg_18_05_25_flight scores.pdf

 f5j_nfg_18_05_25_overall.pdf

See you at Jerliderie next for the LSF Nationals for F3j and F5j

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