By Heather Mardon

Hi,

This month I have reports on both the North Shore Model Aero Club’s electric day as well as the Hamilton Model Aero Electric Day.

To keep with what is now tradition we were still working on a model (Volksplane) until 2am Saturday morning to get it ready for taking to the event! After a few hours sleep awoke and then started the impossible task of getting all the planes to fit into the car. My glider ended up staying at home…. Maybe two cars next time?

On the drive up there we encountered torrential rain and generally awful weather. It was not looking good.

We missed the Pylon 400 racing, it was carried out on the Saturday, but the weather was a bit hit and miss anyway. Upon arriving we phoned Lex Davidson, the event organiser, who promised us that Sunday would dawn a perfect day just as he had ordered it. Needless to say we were a bit sceptical.

Well I’ll be…. It’s not raining.

Us early risers were the first visitors to arrive at the field, which is located on a farm about 8km out of Albany off highway 17.

After a warmup flying my sport 400 to get used to mode 1, we lined up the Volksplane on the strip for its maiden flight. It flew very well and was a great relief to see it land smoothly in one piece. The volksplane was only flown once as the wind got up and was quite gusty which with a new plane was not advisable to tempt fate.

There was a good turn out of planes and pilots but for me there was no real ‘standout’ model. Oh well, we will have to fix that next year.

	Gary Carr’s ‘Junior 60’ ‘Irvine’ Cobalt 05 motor on 7 or 8 cells
Gary Carr’s ‘Ampmaster’ ~48" span Geared Speed 600 race 8 Cells
	Chris Kaiser’s ‘Super Chipmunk’ Carl Goldberg Kit Astro 40G Brushed Motor 24 Cells
	Brett Cudby’s ‘Pond Racer’ Twin Speed 400 Direct drive 2 * 7cell 600AE packs This plane is based on the Burt Rutan "Pond racer" and won the Technical Innovation prize.
	I did not get the owners name of this plane but I think it was powered by a Mega Midi brushed motor, Geared, on about 16 cells. It flew very well, performing a nice aerobatic routine.
Keith Williams "Thunder Chicken" This model deservedly won the Scrap heap challenge award. It has part of a Kyosho T33 ducted fan fuselage with a Kontronik brushless motor attached to a hacked up glider fuse and two glider wing tips joined together. It flew surprisingly well after a bungee launch.

All in all an enjoyable visit with Ian the tinny bugger taking home the prize for ‘Pilots Choice’ for his Hurricane (two cute micro servos) and a prize for being first out of town pilot to register! (a bag of sermos connectors). A DH Dragon by Martin Seay won the scale award but I missed getting a good picture.

Lex and the team put on a sausage sizzle and sold canned soft drinks to get us through the day.

This event was a smaller affair organised by Tom Charlesworth of Hamilton. Once again the Weather was not kind, gusty winds and passing showers. Their field is the middle of a dairy farm and is well equipped with a covered pits area and netting to screen off the strip. There’s even a flush loo! Unfortunately they are loosing this field in June and have yet to secure another site.

The turn out was a little disappointing but Tom cheered up a bit when the Auckland boys finally arrived. We did manage a group photo of pilots and plans.

	This is Tom’s L59. It’s scratch built from a plan that came with a magazine. It’s a pusher prop driven by a Graupner Speed 600 race motor on 7 cells. After fixing a motor timing problem it flew very well and very fast.
	Keith’s Kyosho T-33 This is a somewhat hotted up version, running a kontronik brushless 480-28 on 10 cells (Bungee Launched)

That’s all for this month, I’ve got plenty on the building board. I’ve nearly finished repairing my old Electricub plus a recent birthday has delivered a nice AT-6 Texan ARF that is just itching for my AXI Brushless motor that’s been languishing on the shelf.