Practice for the millennium cup January 2007

Three members have been practicing for the Millennium Cup. This event is held at various venues in NSW including the Rebel field. There are 8 events per year. The competition is for 2 meter gliders with two channels  of their radios in use. The flight time target is 6 minutes, on the ground in 6 minutes 30 seconds to avoid disqualification and bonus points for spot landings.

Launching is done by hand towing using a reflex system usually using two towers. Each tower has a hand held pulley and the line goes from the anchor point through the pulleys, down to the turn around pulley and back to the glider. The two towers run away from each other and up goes the glider. It is possible to tear the wings off the plane with some enthusiastic running. Launch heights similar to that of a winch are possible.

• Two runners hook up man at front goes back.jpg
• Line sorted out and hooked on ready to launch.JPG
• Every one gets a go hooked on.jpg
• Ok just a touch of down, now touch of down now.jpg

NSW State Open thermal Glider championships, Muswellbrook 9th~10th October 2004.

Four club members attended this event this year (Tom Tobin, Paul Collins, Trent Collins and myself, Mark McIntosh). Unfortunately it would of been nice to see a bigger contingent, but none the less, we had a great time. Weather was the best that I have seen for the last three years and there was some great thermals going through. Here are the photos in no particular order.

Here are the Results.

• Team Rebel (Trent Collins, Mark "Macr" McIntosh, Tom Tobin and Paul Collins kneeling) Photo by Peter Pine.
• Another round starts.
• One of the F3B, guys had a Line break and they opted to replace the line.
• Carl Strautins landing his new Caracho 3.1m wingspan F3B glider.
• Carl Strautins Caracho. He test flew it in round 1. The wing section is a thinned RG15.
• Chris Staats' Caracho.
• Another shot of Chris's Caracho.
• Craig Baileys' Spirit goes up the line, for another round.
• Matt Partlett's FVK Graphite.
• Bjorn Rudgely flew Alan Lowe's Home grown glider. It flew really well as well.
• Bjorn Rudgely, gets a good spot, with his Home grown glider.
• Hutton Oddy's Ellipse 2.
• Klaus Metzger, waiting for orders to launch Peter's Thermik.
• Klaus Metzger, launching Peter Sikora's Thermik.
• Klaus Metzger's Glider. I believe he got this from a relation in Europe. Can anyone tell me the whole story and what it is called?
• Bruce Knight, built a wing of his on design, to lift his Ricochet.
• Airbarkes out on Bruce's Ricochet.
• Bruce's Ricochet going up.
• Peter Pine launches Bruce Knight's Ricochet.
• Bruce Knights modified Ricochet, coming to a stop.
• A typical launch.
• Here I am prepping my Stepp3.
• Tom, Myself and Paul, waiting with my Stepp3.
• Tom launching my Stepp3.
• My Stepp3 overhead.
• Me bringing in my Stepp3 for a landing.
• Fully spoiled landing of my Stepp3.
• Here I am coming in for a good spot landing of my Stepp3.
• Early in the comp, we realised that my Stepp3, was doing flat launches. We rectified it by moving the hook back.
• Me switching off my Stepp3 after a reasonable landing.
• Paul, Tom and myself, Heading back to pits.
• Theo Arvanitakis, waking sure he gets a good spot landing, with his Estrella.
• A view up the flight line of Fantastic Plastics!
• Pike Superior, coming in.
• The Lowe family's quiver. 2 Pike Superiors and a Furio.
• Matt Lowe flairing for one of his championship winning landings. This one with a Furio.
• Matt retrieving his Furio. Note the spot at the tail of the glider.
• Matt's Furio.
• A glider passes overhead.
• Simon Bishop and his fibreglass fuselage, Bird of Time.
• Peter's Thermik and Starlight 3000.
• I think this may be Peter Sikora's Starlight 3000.
• Another shot of the Starlight 3000.
• And another shot of the Starlight 3000.
• Peter Sikora, aiming for the spot with his Thermik.
• Theo's Ellipse 4 and Estrella.
• A different view of Theo's Ellipse 4 and Estrella.
• Tom's Eliminator 134, before its untimely demise.
• The only incident all weekend happened to Tom Tobin. A failure of a switch (it had a false on) on the Eliminator 134, caused the wings to fold as it went into a dive. It fell from a great height and the only real damage is the centre section.
• Trent attempting to jump his Stepp Upp, as it slides past the spot.
• Paul and Trent's Eliminator 134 and Stepp Upp.
• Paul Collins launches Trent Collins' Stepp Upp.
• Prepping Trent's Step Upp.
• Paul waiting to launch the Stepp Upp.
• Waiting to start another round.
• The Launch zone.
• Theo does a World class launch.

• The new 3.75m Discus for aero towing.
• Front view of the Discus showing is flowing lines.
• Shot of the Discus with airbrakes out and wheel down.
• The Discus and Tug waiting under the shade cloth.
• Tom Tobin's Multiplex Dingo, which he won at the Hunter titles last year.
• Tom's Hacker Models, Harmony.
• A shot of Macr's Stepp 3, sitting beside his electric Quant.
• Macr's new Zugly.
• A shot of the bottom of the Zugly.
• A close up of the holographic smilies on the Zugly.

• Brent's new Zugly combat wing. By far the best covering job on a wing I have ever seen. Brent cut out all the Spy vs Spy decals by hand. What a fantastic job!
• Bottom view of the Zugly.
• Right hand view of the Zugly.
• Left hand view of the Zugly.
• Top view of the Zugly.
• Sean also has two Zugly combat wings.
• Side view of Sean's two Zuglies.

• Tom's new Harmony 2.8m thermal glider. The Harmony is available from East Coast Gliders and Electric.
• The Harmony has a 3 piece wing for easy transport.
• Tom looking very pleased with his new Harmony. On the First flight the Harmony picked a thermal and 'specked' out.
• Brian's new First. 2m competition glider.
• The First on a winch launch.
• Another view of the First on launch.
• The First on a fly past.
• Here is the First coming in to land.