Report by Frazer Briggs

Hawkes Bay Radio Flyers were host to the 2002 F3A Trans Tasman in mid March. Its customary to mention the weather about now, and I can assure you that after 5 comps in a row being washed out prior to the event, I had all my fingers and toes crossed that the predictable weather of the Hawkes Bay would not let me down.

When I agreed to take the job on of running the TT, I thought it would be a piece of cake. How hard could it be. Yeah right. 5 Kiwi Pilots & a Reserve. 5 Ozzy Pilots. 5 Judges. Plus a few more helpers & supporters. We’re talking 25 people all needing accommodation, info on how to find the place, the correct mix of fuel, and cold beer waiting in the fridge when they arrived ! What a nightmare …. so here goes.

Thursday

Grey skies in Hamilton. Hooked the trailer up to the Bogan mobile and hit the road for sunny Hawkes Bay. Had so much stuff to take, that a thorough check list was required. I hadn’t even got as far as Cambridge, when I realised I’d left a few spare battery packs behind. No turning back now, Muttonhead can bring those when he drives down tomorrow. It rained most of the way, and as I drove through Taupo I could hardly see the Lake…..absolutely bucketing down. oooh ….. Bugger.

It was pretty slow trip, thanks to the pallet of Cool Power Fuel (6 litres per pilot), scoring computer, printer, marker poles, flags, Matrix F3A model, TOC model and half a dozen slope soarers just in case we get time to go bonking. This was actually a cunning plan to deter the wind away, none of the bonkers were in flying order !

I arrived in the Hawkes Bay to be greeted by sunshine and a HBRF club guy mowing the field. What a marvelous site. The Hawkes Bay Radio Flyers have got a ripper, and they were very happy to host the event. A couple of the kiwi’s, Granny and Steve, had already arrived and were both carving up the sky. On the drive down I had been thinking about positioning the box markers at 150m. I knew HBRF had a big river over the fence from the airstrip, but wasn’t sure how far out or how wide it would be. Fingers crossed the marker poles would fit on our side of the river. But with the help of a tape measure, John and I soon found we only had 90 metres of paddock to play with. Bugger. Ah well, I guess we’ll worry about that one tomorrow. It will be easier with a hang over anyway !

On to the Motels in Havelock North to make sure everyone is all booked in ok. Half the ozzy contingent had already arrived. Rather than the usual “Mate”, “Gidday Mate”, “Good to see ya again Mate !” ozzy greeting banter that I was expecting, I instantly get lynched by the two Australian Team directors Rob Clarke and Henry Hutchinson. Apparently the maps to the field I had meticulously drawn and distributed the week prior to all and sundry were completely wrong….. Ay ? How can my maps be wrong ? It could not be simpler ….there’s only one turning to take ? Well it seems our illustrious NZ Team Manager and highly qualified Jaffa, “Ted”, had just finished explaining to the ozzys how he’d spent the last 3 days working in the local area, and he was now an expert on how to get to the flying field. “First of all you head off in the wrong direction and into Hastings, and from there you then head back out towards the sea to Awatoto, and there’s the field”. Bogan’s Map is all up the piss he said ! ….. nice one Ted. Great 20 minute detour, but as I expected, my map was just fine.

Off to check that all the other punters are sorted in the motel across the road. Here I bump into two more Australians. The parents of Sydney based Derek Hardie, who had both come over for the TT and to have a holiday. Wow he yells ! This Havelock place is great. Look at all these great restaurants and bars so close to the Motels. But where are all the Maori’s he yells ? I said in a lower voice, “you might see some pretty soon pal if you keep asking that loud !” As for his Wife, she was still complaining about all the bends ? What bends I said ? … oooh young man…all those ghastly bends on the way up from Wellington …. What a terrible road ! I just rolled my eyes as I headed back out to the field for a fly before dark.

Cellular Secretary ! - 5 missed calls. Ryan who wants to make sure we are still going to Firecats tonight, and Andrew Palmer from Chch who has just had a tire explode which gave him the shits and sent him off the road into a ditch. He was just on his way back to Pahiatua to have 4 new tires fitted to his car just in case…..Bugger….. End of Messages.

I get to the field, and more punters have arrived, including 3 young Victorian’s who I’d met in previous trips to Australia. Bill Bloodworth, Andrew Burgdorf and Nathan Notley. Gidday guys….any problems finding the field. Nup they said ! Excellent. Obviously haven’t met Ted yet. What's that funny engine in the front of your Matrix there Fraze ? Don’t get too excited I said, if this thing doesn’t go 100%, I’ve got a nice OS140RX sitting in the back of my car ready for a transplant tonight.

One of the ozzys, 15 year old Nathan Notley, was flying a Bolly Desafio 2000. It was his first ever comp away from Oz, and he’d had only just started flying pattern a year ago. All I can say is in that one year, he must have done a shit load of flying ! His practice flying was looking very good until his canopy blew off, taking part of the rudder with it. It floated down somewhere over the other side of the river. Another Ozzy, Andrew Burgdorf, had downed about 5 cans of Red Bull during the day and was hyped up. He was just about to swim the river in the buff when I told him an easier way. With Ross Browns cell phone in Nathans top pocket, off they went on the 5 minute drive and 30 minute hike to find the young mans canopy.

Later that night, while Ryan waited patiently for the planned Firecats visit, a Trans Tasman working bee was taking place in Harvey Stivers workshop. The canopy had been found, but the top half of the rudder needed re sculpting. Andrew Burgdorf on his 7^th Red Bull now (doesn’t drink beer ?) worked some magic with balsa sticks & CA, while I performed open cowl engine surgery on the Matrix. By the time the troublesome Mintor had been replaced with a trusty ol’ OS140RX, Burgdorf was reaching for the monokote.

So I carry my Matrix fuselage back out to the trailer which is parked on the other side of the street. It’s a dark cul-de-sac, and its drizzling with rain. With the Matrix fuselage still in one hand, I manage to swing open the trailer door. Ah Bugger, the wings are in the way. So I put the fuselage down on wet street and take out the wings. Hmmm where to put them ?…. Street is wet, grass verge is wet, roof of trailer is wet…. Ooh, here’s a neat place for them on the other side of the trailer, I’ll just prop them up here on the mud guard. Yep that’s a nice safe place. Ok, so fuselage goes in the trailer, and she’s all tied down. COME ON BOGAN ! …. What was that Ryan ? “THEY’VE DONE THE RUDDER NOW LETS GET GOING TO THE PUB, IT’S 11 O’CLOCK ALREADY AND I’VE GOTTA WORK TOMORROW ! Woohoo Firecats ….. Bloody great lets go ! I jump in my car, and off we go. The ozzys driving the rental car are right behind me in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile back at the motel a drama has unfolded. Browneys phone has not been returned after the ozzies canopy retrieval expedition, and young Nathan can’t remember what he’s done with it. Bugger … this was starting to put a damper on us all going to the pub. After another 10 minutes of explaining how he needed the phone for a 7:30am work related phone call, Browney, on his 5^th ciggy, had blue smoke coming out of his ears. After some interrogation, Nathan thinks it might have fallen out of his pocket when they trekked for his Canopy. Nathan gets tucked in for a sleep all worried about the phone (under drinking age, so no pub for him) and we all decide to stop by the field on the way to the pub to ring Brownies phone and listen for it ringing…..as you can imagine we couldn’t hear jack !

Brownie soon perked up when we got to Firecats ! What a ripper of a night. Ted had woosed out due to an early work meeting, so of course we left a few detailed messages on his cell phone describing exactly what he was missing as the night went on. Once it got past 1am, the ozzys couldn’t stand the pace and left. About an hour later while taking a pit stop, my cell phone goes. Caller ID says it’s a call from Brownie, huh ?

It was Burgdorf and Bloodworth ! They had retraced their earlier canopy searching expedition in the dark, ringing brownies phone every 10 paces and found it way out in the paddock ! What legends … Brownie was stoked.

Friday

Official Practice Day – It was raining, my head hurt, and I needed a pie ! After explaining to the ozzys that this was vineyard country, and it did not rain very often, I left for the field. Unfortunately they were not convinced and bad memories of 4 years ago in a very wet Tokoroa were all coming back for them.

By mid morning, the rain had passed and the weather came right. I get to the field and think about assembling my model to quickly test the new engine before we start marking the field out. Ewan and Aunty have arrived and are milling around close by. I pull out the fuselage, and then go back for the wings. Hmmm… where are my wings ? Can’t see them in the trailer, maybe I put them in the car ? ….nope. After a few minutes of quietly thinking to my self about where my wings could be, suddenly I felt quite sickly…. “er Ewan, before we get these poles up, I think I’m just going to pop round to Harvey’s place for a few minutes”….. “Ok”. Says Ewan. “Ummm, er, Ewan, when you guys drove out of Harvey’s place this morning, you didn’t happen to see some wings on the footpath did you ?”. “No” said Ewan. “Have you lost them ?”. I explain to Ewan and Auntie how I’d put the wings on the side of the trailer, and couldn’t remember putting them away. After a further 5 minutes of letting me stew, Aunty whips out his digital camera. “Hey Bogan. You better have a look at this”. Peering into the view finder, I see a photo of my wings, with the covers off, in what looks like a hot water cupboard. “Ok, tell me whats going on here Aunty, where are they, are they damaged ?”. “Well Bogan, early this morning at Harveys place we had a knock at the front door”. “The paper delivery guy had found these wings up around the corner on the street”. “He pulled the wings out to see Frazer Briggs written on them”. “He knew your name from an Airshow he’d seen you fly at, and also thought that someone called Stiver lived in the street nearby and flew model airplanes too”. “Your wings have been laying out on the street in the rain all night you plonker !”. Surprising they hadn’t been run over or worse, stolen. They were in perfect condition !

While both teams practiced, we set about marking out the field and positioning the poles. While Mike Sutton and Ewan made the journey to the other side (of the river), JB and I had to figure out a way of measuring the river width. It will be easy, we just get some string, tie it to this big lump of lead, chuck it over the river, get the guys to put up the pole up, then we pull the string back over and measure it all up. It will be a piece of cake ! Well perhaps if we had Olympian Beatrice Farm o weener there to throw the line over, yeah it would have been a piece of cake.. With Aunty “broken ribs” Finlay on our side making smart comments and taking photo’s, and Mike Sutton on the other side yelling even smarter comments, a dozen attempts of Zena Warrior throwing style, it wasn’t looking to successful at all. Aunty suggested a spinning hammer throw might work. After narrowly missing John, and a few more goes, Mike Sutton was silenced as the string went soaring over his head. All bets were placed, and the river measured 65 metres ! Out came the paint, the field was all marked out and the practice continued throughout the remainder of the day.

Friday Night

The Plan – Hold a welcoming meeting / official informal opening. Do the draw, have a few quite beers and opportunity for the Judges to have a quick catch up. Thanks here to HBRF member Harvey Stiver and the Lowe Walker Corporation who provided the conference room venue, and a free tab on the bar !

I did a quick welcome speech. Ewan did his NZMAA Presidents bit. The names where drawn out of the hat for the flight order. The judges and pilots argued various section of the FAI rule book and schedule P03 for a few hours and that was it. I think by 11:00 pm we were all tucked in bed ready for the big day that awaited us.

Saturday - Team Event

As in previous years, the first day of the Trans Tasman determines the Team placings. The weather dawned fine, and four rounds of P03 commenced with Adam Butler flying a warm-up flight for the Judges. After the first two rounds the total team scores were only separated by 40 points. When you consider that a zeroed maneuver could cost 100 points, it was looking like a very close competition. At lunch time the HBRF boys erected a marquee, and proceeded to serve up a great feed.

As the day continued, so did the flying, and a surprising number of spectators passed through the gates to watch.

The results for round three were posted, and NZ had pulled ahead by a further 200 points. The scores for the fourth and final round were not published, so they could be announced at the evening event. During the day I rallied around for numbers attending the dinner. I hope they can fit us all in, 36 confirmed bums on seats !

Saturday Night - Steak Out !

Saturday nights do was right opposite both the motels in a restaurant called the Steak Out. When I had to select a venue leading up to the event, the only two pre requisites I insisted were that it had to be close to the motels, and they must allow us to hold the customary NZ vs AUS boat race ! Not a problem they said, we’ll sit your party by the bar. As it turned out, the Steak Out was a great venue. A little cramped due to the extra people, but good atmosphere.

Once everyone had been fed, and the lubrication was taking effect, it was time for the Contest Director Ewan Galloway to announce the team results. As the results were announced by Ewan, the other patrons of the restaurant had no idea what was going on. We had won by 400 points ! Much yahooing and carrying on later, the Team Manager filled the big old Rothmans trophy to the brim with beer. All the team, even Auntie, had a big guzzle. I’d have to say that Andrew Palmer won that round. Ewan then announced that the last round of the days flying had been won by Auntie. A few more quick thank you speeches, and it was time for the boat race. By now the other patrons of the restaurant had been told that NZ had won a sporting event, so they were all joining in on the applauses and yahoo’s.

Boat Race

As usual, we had more than enough keen racers to make up our team of 5, but again it took a fair bit or arm twisting to get the ozzy team together. Somethings never change. It almost looked like Bill Bloodworth was going to have to go it alone, but he was finally joined by a few more ozzy’s including one of the Judge’s Henry Hutchinson. Maybe Henry was going to be their wild card ? Local man, Ryan, was required to sit in as their 5th man.

The official adjudicator, (Browny) explained the rules in detail to both teams, and the race began. We actually finished well ahead of the ozzys thanks to our impact skullers (Lurch and Granny). But the adjudicator awarded the win to Australia due to the disqualification of the final kiwi drinker who in the excitement of it all, failed to correctly place his empty vessel on his head….Bugger.

Sunday - Individual Event

3 further rounds on Sunday would determine the individual placings. Each pilot starts the day with the average of their three best flights from Saturday. Thanks to daylight savings, we all had an extra hour to recover from Saturday nights session. Again Lurch started the day with a warm-up flight for the Judges. Auntie put in a good flight early on and won the first round. Leading into round two, Auntie and I were separated by less than 1/2 a point ! The weather was great, not much sun due to high cloud cover, but absolutely no wind. It was so calm, that it was difficult to make a decision on your flight direction. In the ready box, most pilots were keeping a close eye on the person flying before them to try and pick the wind direction leading into the spin. Again the HBRF boys put on a great feed at lunchtime, and as the day went on, quite a large crowd of spectators were present.

Following the final round, the scores were secretly tallied and the prize giving was commenced. All team members and judges were presented with commemorative Trans Tasman 2002 glass plaques, and Ewan Galloway presented the individual awards. Finally the Trans Tasman Rothmans Trophy was presented to Ted, the NZ Team Manager. Thanks again to all those who helped make the event a success. Our visitors from Australia who all enjoyed their stay. Judges and Pencillers. All the HBRF club members for their help and support, particularly El’Presidente Garry McArdle, Kevin Botherway & Harvey Stiver. Airsail & Coolpower who sponsored NZ uniforms and free fuel for all contestants. Rose Galloway and Suetonia Palmer who worked in the caravan processing scores, and Ewan Galloway who CD’d the event and helped me all weekend.

By the time Ewan and I left the field, I was so knackered that I decided to stay a further night in the Motel with Browny and Ted. When I drove home on Monday morning, it was blowing its tits off ! …. Bloody great …..Later, Bogan.

P.S. The ozzys reckon the next TT in 2004 will be in Melbourne…. c u there.

Sponsors of the 2002 F3A Trans Tasman.

Back