BERG Field in great shape for HTL MMS #3

Guess who is Back( and with out snow boots)

Zimmy on landing!!!

Good turnout of BERG members on Sunday

Sunday morning early the weather did no look promising at all with some heavy clouds hanging around. But I haven’t flown the week before and I needed to get my fix for the next week and so I set out for the field anyway. I took the winch with just in case some other members needed it but my intention was to fly the E-Tsotsi only.

I arrived at the field at around 10.00 AM and found that Craig , Michael and Lionel were already hard at work practicing for the upcoming F3B world championship later this year.

The heavy cloud cover suddenly cleared up and we had very good thermal conditions for the rest of the day with Tony doing a 35 min flight with his normal Tsotsi and myself , 2 flights with the E-Tsotsi of more than 1 hour each.

Lionel timing for Craig(F3B practice)








Lionel's new "Wit Blitz" Electric pylon racer

MGA announcement.

Piet with the 2M Tsotsi and the team that establish a SA Record.

Yesterday the MGA made the following announcement.

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to announce that the following National Records have been ratified by the MGA:

F5 Open (Radio Control Flight): Aeroplane: Electrical Motor Rechargeable Sources: Distance in a straight line: 21 February 2009, Piet Rheeders, 35.1 km (new SA National record)

Congratulations Piet!

Lionel Brink
Chairman: Model Gliding Association

I would like to once again thank my team (Evan, James, Kayleigh and Robyn) that help me establish this record, also my thanks for the efficient way the MGA and in particular Lion Brink dealt with all the paper work that had to be done.

I am planning to do a 100 Km stint shortly and then the world record will be my next goal. But for now I need lots of Lipo cells and that means digging deep down in ones pocket so please do not tell my wife yet.

Sungazer Surprises

Nice Pic of one of the sailplanes being pre-pared for the Sungazer event next month
This beauty is and ASG 29 the latest 15mtr follow-on from the ASW27/28 with which it shares its fuselage, however it sports an advanced wing with a tapered planform and winglets.
Cant wait to see it soar.

SUNGAZER SCALE SOARING

Well it's officially the first day of autumn , and with just under 2 months to go its time to start planning the upcomming Sungazer event.

The Sungazer is an annual event which was conceived from the slope flying of medium and large scale gliders at Volksrust. It is not a competion but an oppurtunity for "like minded" RC pilots to fly scale gliders and share the experience.

Last year kicked off with a very succesfull and well surported event, nearly 50 scale gliders were at the Sungazer and we hope to equal or better that this year.
Some problems were experienced and hopefully they do not re-occur , unfortunately for various reasons 6 models crashed and this year at the pilots briefing , we will again discuss the rules and especially the frequency control and flying procedure.

Last year the shirt and cap handouts , braai,snacks, beers cooldrinks and hardluck prizes were all sponsered . This year we have decided to do the same sort of saterday braai , shirts etc, but we cant expect a handfull of people to foot the bill. As such there will be an entry fee to the event of R100 .Pre-entries will required and will be called for soon on Mgasa. An e-mail confirmation and banking details will then be forwarded to entrants.

Hopefully with a 3 day event the chances of a good day/days of wind increase but with more serious pilots often bringing several scale gliders we will limit the entries to 30x valid SAMAA registered glider pilots.

With just 2 months to go, now is the time to get cracking with that scale glider.
It can be a beautiful wood and fabric vintage ship or one of the latest glass and carbon high performance glider , but ....it must be a full or semi-scale replica of a full size glider.

Acommadation has been booked for the whole weekend at Oom Louis , and this will serve about 25/30 people , some pilots choose other places to stay and we urge you to make your arrangements early for the long weekend.

Cheers for now