2006 Gliding Nats -- Evan Shaw

Hi All

Let me just remind everyone that the Glider Nationals will be held at BERG on the 14th to 16th July.

Time to start planning and getting you models ready. Please remember that no entries will be accepted without two frequencies per event. So make sure you get your crystals in good time.

Are we going to see anybody from the Cape Town, PE or East London areas this year? I wonder? It would be nice!
Also all you old timers! How about you lot? We have a class for especially for you guys - RES/100 (A model with Rudder, Elevator and Spoilers only or any model not exceeding 100 inches (2540mm) span) Planes like Aquila's, Olympic's, Grand Espri's, Viking's, Sagitta's, Wind Drifter's, Spectra's, Bird of Time's, etc. There must be hundreds of you guy out there who haven't flown in a comp for ages because you didn't have a class where you could fly with similar models. Having to compete with fancy molded ships all the time was always putting you off. Well now is the time to dust off those old "Gas Bags" and come and have some fun again!

It is also the first F3B qualifier. F3B will be held on the Friday with as many rounds as we can squeeze in and any spill over will be first thing on Saturday & Sunday mornings.
The main emphasis of the NATIONAL will be Thermal Duration, which will take place on the Saturday and Sunday. F3K will also be squeezed in there somewhere.
There will be no electrics at this event as there is an Electric Nationals planned for end of October at Groen Goudt.

The days are short in July with sunrise at just before 07h00 and sunset at just after 17h30, so we have to try and get as much flying as possible in about 11 hours of daylight.
Because of this we need to keep a tight schedule. We would also like to work out the program so that everyone can get as much flying as possible in a day, without having to sit around for ages waiting. We need to cater for Open, RES/100 and 2 Meter in the Thermal Duration. Open & RES/100 - 12 minutes working time with 10 minute flights. For the 2 meter - 8 minutes working time with 6 minutes flights. (Maybe)

Now for the main reason for this email:
It would help a lot if we can have some sort of indication as to how many people will be attending and who will be flying what. Open and 2 meter is pretty much a given. There will more than likely be enough pilots to fill three slots per round.
My concern is that there will not be enough pilots to make up 3 slots per round of RES/100.

So, can I ask you to please let me know what you are going to fly. Just your name and which class/classes you would like to enter.

Club Chairpersons, please gather the information from people who are not on the mgasa and SARFly groups and send it to me as well.

Examples:

Joe Blog - F3B, Open, RES/100 & F3K
Joe Moer - Open & 2 Meter
Joe Wie? - RES/100 & 2 Meter

The main entry forms will be made available shortly here and in both the SAMAA News and South Easter. This is just a prelimmmery request to try and judge the entries and to help us plan the event so everyone is catered for.

Many thanks
Evan Shaw
evshaw@telkomsa.net
083 254 1809