shot from gopro on wing at alunch

Jerilderie Open Thermal Competition

The 34th Jerilderie is over.
Report (Chris Adams) on the Jerilderie page.
Check out Alan Lowe's report on hsl.org.au

Download the results here (.csv format):

Check out video from the event. Change the 360p to 720 HD and go Full-Screen to see it in high definition (broadband recommended):

Report: Alan Lowe (.doc, 20KB); thanks Alan.

Report: Chris Adams
55 pilots from all around Australia and New Zealand battled it out in another high-quality competition.

Joe Wurts eclipsed the field with consistent high-scoring flights. Joe even had time to win the F3K event! Carting his trophies back to New Zealand would provide another challenge. Well done Joe!

Top-Ten

Rank Name Team Class Score
1 Wurts, Joe 4 E 12998.6
2 Strautins, Carl 10 E 12991.3
3 Rae, Mike 6 E 12962.5
4 O'Reilly, Michael 11 E 12954.3
5 Hobby, David 8 E 12945.7
6 Kullack, Tim 6 E 12933.6
7 Ford, Brian 13 E 12927
8 Stent, Marcus 7 E 12918.5
9 Chabrel, Nick 11 E 12847.9
10 Lowe, Matt 10 E 12772.2

Dulcet Norwegian Tones
JoJo Grini's Norwegian tones lent an exotic international air to the F3J-style start system. Once pilots had become familiar with the sequence it proved a terrific success and ensured the event zipped along with 15 rounds flown over the two and a half days.

The weather on all 3 days proved tough with few strong thermals punctuating the smooth, cool Southerly air. Landing points were high thanks to the smooth air however.

Despite the soaking over summer the racecourse was rock-hard. It doesn't take long for the ground in middle Australia to return to its usual resilient texture. "Dork" landings were de-rigeur and it's a tribute to the modern composite glider that no breaks were reported. Very few casualities were witnessed with one or two structural failures and radio jitters claiming only a couple of models.

This is in complete contrast to 2010 where 14 gliders were returned to their kitted parts.

One glider which returned to do battle was Karl Knack's Satori. Minor imperfections aside, Karl had done a great job in returning it to full-competition health.

The Gliders
Explorer 3.5, 3.8 & 4.0s were most popular followed by an equal number of Supras and Pike Perfects. Spread tow lay-ups are becoming more popular thanks to the improved weight-strength ratio over conventional fabrics.

F3B Ships
F3B ships were still popular (the Cobra of Bruce Nye, Shooter of Gerry Carter and Mitch Todd's Evolution) but suffered in the light conditions early morning and late afternoon. Kudos for John Skinner for running near the top for most of the 1st day with his Fosa.

The light headwinds kept their launch advantage to a minimum all weekend although they still punched out higher than the rest.

Team F3B Australia
John Skinner, Tim Kullack & Steve Keep from Team F3B Australia used Friday for some valuable practice time with their new Fosas and Freestyler 4. The conditions on Friday were excellent and the boys launched to world-standard heights with some sizzling speed runs. The future looks bright for this team.

Unsung Heroes
Thanks to Mike O'Reilly (CD) and Greg Potter (co-CD) for running a tight comp. Manny for his sterling work as announcer & Debbie Abrahams for scoring duties. Gerry Carter's Glider Score software continues to earn its keep and is now available with foreign language support. Credit to Robert Gunn for taking care of the business side of running the event.

F3K
Another excellent display during lunch-time breaks supported with ideal weather saw a tight field of 12 pilots grapple with the same thermals. Stobels, Salpeters and Blasters put on a spectacular performance.

Congrats to Joe Wurts for leading the pack.

The Aus. F3K Team got some valuable practice in after Jerilderie, orchestrated by Marcus Stent (Team Manager). The boys are off to Sweden in 3 weeks to dice with the best in the World and we wish them all the best.

In Conclusion
Jerilderie 2011 proved what a vast depth of talent Australia has in thermal gliding and is testament to Joe Wurts's skills that he can percolate his way to the top in such company.

Will he be back in 2012 to defend his title? Will you be there to keep him on his game?

2011 Jerilderie Rules & Directives (.doc 40KB)

Jerilderie 2010
What a great Jerilderie! report Chris Adams

3 days of winter-sun with no rain and light to moderate winds. Pilot comfort was high and kept there thanks to the Lions Club stalwarts serving up bacon & egg heart-starters and hot sweet tea.

Kudos to Joe Wurts aka Joerilderie Wurts. Joe flew a solid 14 rounds with only a 997 and 999 as dropper scores!

Dave Hobby and Carl Strautins kept Joe on his game all event.

 

The task of getting 14 rounds of competition completed was down to the outgoing LSF Australia executive of Max, Alan & Graham ably supported by Tim Lennon (CD) and Mandy on scorekeeping/ frequency control/ Public Address. Great effort from the team!

Friday:
Pre-comp day. Lots of relaxed flying to get rid of the cobwebs. Winches were tested and Joe, Carl, Bjorn and Chris Barrenger hand-launched, bungeed and short-winched to get lots of landing practice.

Saturday:
Solid smooth wind all day of 10 to 15kts meant the F3B boys leveraged their massive launches to good effect. Step forward Steve Keep, Gerry Carter and John Skinner. The solid airframes of their Shooters gave them an extra 30-50m of launch height.

In the evening the traditional Lion's Club dinner went off well and featured presentations by Max Kroger LSF Aus President to individuals recognised for their contribution to an event that's been running for the last 33 years.

Sunday & Monday:
The wind settled back to 5-8kts all day with subdued thermal activity from the 8:30am start until 11:00am then similar from 2:30 until after 4:30pm. For the F3J-style gliders this was their domain.

The strategy for many in weak lift was to launch high and "park" over the township and trees off to the right. Thermals were most likely to get "triggered" by the turbulence and could then be worked downind over the "Steve Boag Aquatic Centre (SBAC) " aka sewage treatment plant.

Lunch time entertainment was provided by a vigorous hand-launch comp. run by Brett Anthony and very well subscribed. The Salpeters of Theo and Brett showed why these are the best airframes available; launch heights were up to 50ft higher than the rest of the field.

Carnage
There was an alarmingly high number of "incidents" during the event. Marcus and Bernie proved their mettle and desire to win by colliding at 400ft over the SBAC. The minor collision dropped both Bernie's Pike Perfect and Marcus's Explorer 3.5 50ft but neither gave up and away they went again, chasing the same air. It was like watching a pterodactyl punch-up.

Reports came in of 9 incidents on Sat. and a further 5 by Monday. Radio, airframe integrity & launch error were the causes of the majority.

Perfect Flight Fly-Off
If you get a perfect flight during the comp. (10:00 and 100pts.) you get to go in the Perfect Flight Fly-Off.

As testimony to the introduction of F3J landing tapes (200mm divisions for the last 2m), there were only 2 pilots in the "Perfect Flight Fly-Off"; Joe Wurts and Eric Smith both flying Explorer 3.5's. Over to Dave Pratley for details (thanks Dave):

"Both went off in their own direction and Eric hit sink out the back and had to go looking at a very low height. Then Joe was out the front and had min. sink and then lots of sink. Eric picked up a small bubble and 2-3 turns later he was off! Joe dashed downwind to try to get into the same air. Joe managed to get some air to last the 10min and then was beaten on the landing. Well done Eric, good flight!"

The Final Presentation
As is customary, pilots gathered around the CD compound and took their pick from a wide-range of prizes supplied by local retailers. Thanks go to Model Flight, Hyperion Australia, Airstrike, Carl Strautins and anonymous contributors. Everybody got a prize but significantly the best prize that anyone could have got was the weather!

Check out a few photos from the event and some videos below:

Jerilderie 2010 Steve Keep relaunching F3B Shooter. Camera: Bruce Nye from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

Nic Chabrel catches Steve's Shooter ready for a re-launch in 1 smooth movement.

Second launch was better.

Jerilderie 2010: Experience Pro X-tail: Bruce Nye Footage from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

Hutton launches for Klaus from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

Chris B landing from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

Marcus Stent at Jerilderie 2010 from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

Jerilderie 2010 flightline from Chris Adams on Vimeo.

Shot along the flightline on Sunday; a variety of launches from men in gumboots.

What every pilot will be wearing at this year's F3J World Champs ;0)

Jerilderie 2009 is over, thanks to Gerry Carter, Robert Gunn and Jeff Irvin for their reports.

New: Flightline YouTube video courtesy of Jeff Irvin:

Pilot and glider stats from the event. Find out who flew what?(.xls 50KB)

Report: Gerry Carter
gerry with estrellaHi All, Here are all the results from Jerilderie for you to review and analyse. The 'Flight Scores' report is in *.pdf format (readable) and *.csv format if you want to do your own analysis in Excel. This report includes the only two groups flown in Round 8.

Overall results (.pdf)

Flight scores (.pdf) or Flight scores (.csv)

Landing scores (.pdf)

Team results (.pdf)

DLG scores (.pdf discus launch glider F3k).
Theo Arvanitakis 1st, Joe Wurts 2nd, Brett Anthony 3rd.
For more info on Jerilderie 09 DLG go to f3k.com.au

Need for Speed F3B Speed Task scores (.xls)

Joe Wurts F3B speed task Jerilderie 2009 expertly shot by Bruce Nye on Vimeo.

Joe's run in poor conditions was still enough to bag him the top spot; 15.59s using his Standard Ceres.

Despite the weather conditions interfering with our flying, Jerilderie 2009 was still a very enjoyable event and I for one am looking forward to doing it all again next year. The standard of flying was exceptionally high particularly by the winner, Carl Strautins, and second place getter Joe Wurts. Both had five perfect flights out of seven and they finished with identical raw scores. The deciding difference of one point came in Round 3 when these two flew against each other and Joe landed one second late.

Gery Carter in rubberThis was also the F3J World Championship selection trial. The pilots who won a place are Carl Strautins, Jim Houdalakis and David Hobby. Congratulations to all of you.

Gerry Carter

Editor's note: Gerry lost his chopper in the dam on Sunday and equipped with nothing but his Superman trunks and steel resolve, found it submerged 5ft under (see photo)

Report: Robert Gunn; "First-Timer impressions"

Robert and Geoff“A Stepp Upp +” you all said and proceeded to tell me war stories of how you used to have one, or how you started in competitions with one.

A further embellishment was “I still have one in a box not even built”.

Being a Jerilderie first timer and not having a very good track record for keeping planes in one piece, my rejoinder was “name, address, phone number”.

Some of you know me for my role as a helper at the Milang F3B and F3J and I intended to make my debut at the much talked about Jerilderie event in the same role, except limiting my help to my fellow SSL members.

mike in need 4 speed eventIt was suggested that I would regret not entering and having a go at competing. So accordingly I was offered a position in team 13 as it became, and following instructions I entered as a Novice.

greg and trevor lookign skywardI travelled from Adelaide with Greg Potter and Trevor Schultz who, as it turned out, were to be esteemed company, as they took out first and second in the advanced section.

We arrived in Jerilderie on Thursday evening, and were out at the field the next morning as soon as the fog lifted. Immediately on arriving I was heartened by the warm greetings from all that were at the field, the friendly banter between the old mates and welcome to me the new flyer.

Up until this weekend I had not had a lot of success with the Stepp so when it was my turn to fly we launched and then I was given some sound coaching to bring me closer to managing the plane.

Friday, the practise day, was a good day, weather wise, and so we were able to string together a lot of launches. I must admit to major nerves on Saturday morning but I survived my first flight with at least some time on record and continued on through the day improving on my flying and getting better results. By the end of the competition I had flown 8 rounds and achieved invaluable experience, a score, plus an opportunity at least to post some of my results for LSF Level 1.

In one of the heats I flew, I created much hilarity and probably for those that know me, amazement, as I had managed to fly behind the race track finish post without hitting it!

The evenings were equally as interesting as whoever we ate with or drank with had advice to give, tales to tell and experiences to share. I was enviously listening as they compared ideas on repairing or building from scratch, the heady discussions on aerodynamics, carbon fibre and the evolution of the moulded planes being flown now.

I recommend the flying experience, the interesting gathering of flyers with their various interests and peccadilloes and the people of Jerilderie that welcomed us. They were summed up by the assistant Mayor who said they have watched us come there for 32 years and still do not understand what we do.

I would also like to echo the winners’ sentiments by saying thanks to my team mates for the line retrievals, timing, thermal spotting and all the tasks that add to making the contest enjoyable.

My last word is to Greg Roper who has that unbuilt Stepp Upp in a box;“I don’t need it”.

Robert Gunn