F3J Team Trials on Saturday 15th September.

F3J Qualifying pilots and Gliders.

8 Pilots that qualified for this event had to contented with tricky weather on Saturday morning. Congratulations to those that made the senior and junior F3J teams. The final results will be made available on the F3J Bog. Members of the BERG team helped as official timers. Here are some pictures of the mornings flying .

Timekeepers from the BERG Club.

After 6 Rounds the flying field return to normal when the Extreme club members turned up with some unusual Go Extremely Big Or Go Home aircraft. (GEBOGH) Here are some Pictures taken on the Day.

Craig doing a quick repair between flights.

Conrad having a anxious moment before the competition start.

Paul (ETB)

This ¼ scale Russian Transport plane (8 meter wingspan) had 7 Meter span Ventus 2ax Glider on top and powered by 2 Os 140 motors.

JART FEVER

It looks like someone in our midst has been infected by JART FEVER this is serious, as it is highly contageous and already seems to be spreading. I know ,as I also seem to be showing the early symptoms , I phoned my Docter and he recommends going to a windy slope and throwing your Jart away into the strong wind currents , evidently after an hour the fever will subside,
this is the only known remedy.

JART FEVER dont say you were not warned.

More on the JART

For some more info and some interesting photos go and check out the JART blog.

http://www.jartworld.com/jartworld_pgs/blog_07.html

Be sure to go through the archives, especially August 2007 where you will see and some really cool photos of a Sea Eagle formatting on a Jart.


Also more on this balsa and ply built-up Jart. You don't need composite skills to build a Jart. It looks just as good as any other.

Also, (for Piet's sake) check out the name above the door in the "Jartworld in the UK" post. (Aug 2007)

February 2007 has an interesting piece on the copyright of the Jart.

The more I read about the Jart the more I want to build one. There is just something special about the whole concept and uniqueness of these beautiful looking slope soarers. It is not just the looks, it's the idea of being part of this "Jart International" family that appeals to me.

Shongololo, nicknamed Barbi, is Born

Why be normal! Who said pink is for girls!


Shongololo No.9 was born last night. Nicknamed Barbi.




Trevor and Peter opening the molds. Herman looking on.

I have seen Dion's pink models and I know Michell and Wolf have pink in theirs but when Trevor brought the paint around he shocked us with this pink. It's pink, very pink.I would look shocked as well Trevor! But it's very nice!

Jart Slope Soarer

For anyone interested in a very nice looking Slope Soarer check out this site.

http://www.jartworld.com/

Free plans and lots and lots of help and advice. Apparently the latest rage in the UK and by the looks of it, I'm not surprised. These beautiful high performance slope soarers are not available commercially, so you will never see hundreds of them on the slopes. Instead, the designer, Reed Sherman encourages us to rather build one for ourselves. He provides you with a personalised set of plans for free (got mine already with my name on it!) and his web site is full of advice and help.

One can follow threads of other people who have built these beauties all over the world.

There are many different ways of building too. From low tech Ply and Balsa with built up wings to high tech fully moulded ones. But the most popular method seems to be medium tech, bagged wings with lost foam fuselage.

If one follows the threads you will learn all the tricks without having to re-invent the wheel.

I think I might even be tempted to make one of these little beauties myself.

You should see some of the color schemes that people have made them!

So if you ever want something unique then this is the model to build!

7000 AND COUNTING

There is a lot happening on the BERG blog . the counter has passed the 7000 mark, Piet, Evan and myself were fairly confident that we would celebrate our birthday with 6000 visits but lately the counter has been ticking over at a good rate , and our Zagi cake was almost spot on.
The Zagi cake had no chance of flying in the marginal slope lift, at Volksrust...........
so we ate it instead and it was good and polished off in no time.
Piet is about to promise another scale replica Ventus cake when the blog hots 10,000 with proper frosted white icing also built with hand tools on the kitchen floor.

Thanks for your support.

EAGLES

If you visit the pages below you will see some amazing photos of an eagle diving after a TOKO. This is not the first time we have witnessed this type of event but I wish to add a perspective to this that we should all consider.
The airspace around the slopes is the domain of raptors and they view our gliders as competitors in their territory. Adult birds will fly with and investigate these strangers sometimes formatting with a glider for long periods before moving off.
In this case a Juvinile Marshall Eagle (I am told by Evan) decided to actively attack the aircraft, probably with the intention of scaring them away. When they continued to fly around, this bird became more determined ending in physical contact. (see a picture of the glider)
What we need to be aware of is that eagle do not know the gliders are sometimes made of hard materials (carbon fibre, fiberglass etc) and have sharp edges. In a contact situation the bird may become injured, but fortunately, in this case the eagle flew off and it appeared okay.
Many of our raptors are endangered species and appear in the Red-Data book. It is a privilage to see and fly with them, but ultimately we are visitors in their space and we should respect that and try and avoid contact with these birds at all costs.

The above is the view of the B.E.R.G. committee.

Action at the Big 5 Fly in.

Mike May’s large scale Swift maiden launch. Philip and Piet (on wing tip)

Derek helping Martie.

Cobus, Trevor and Wesley

Evan and Tony

Big 5 Fly-In at Volksrust

A few special moments will stick in my mind about the Big 5 trip to Volksrust.

1. On Saturday morning an immature Martial Eagle (?) joined us at the slope. He started attacking the models that were flying at the time. He seemed to be more aggressive towards the models with tail booms and didn't bother too much with the Zagi's. He would actively chase a model and try and grab it. But the models were too fast for him so he tried to intercept a model head to head and he managed to grab Conrad's Toko on the leading edge. The impact was very hard which, the Eagle obviously did not expect. He immediately let go and flew off never to return. He did not seem to be hurt, but the same could not be said for the Toko. There were talon marks on the LE, both sides of the fuselage and the LE was split open from the impact.




2. The late afternoon thermal valley release on Saturday when the wind had died down and the thermal ships could climb up in strong thermal that just didn't seem to stop providing lift.

3. The evening and braai around the camp fire with BERG Blog Birthday Cake by Piet and Robert serenading us with his Guitar, was very special.



4. Sunday morning breakfast at Oom Louis place is always something to look forward to.


5. The awesome lift on the North Point on Sunday. First time I have flown there and I was impressed. Very strong clean lift, allowing nice close in Zagi combat. The landing area is unfortunately restricted, because of bushes close to the edge, but a short walk back gets you into a clearing which made landings easy enough .


For those that came, thanks for making it such a lekker weekend and for those that didn't, all I can say is you missed out and we hope you can all make the next BERG Slope trip. Watch this space.

And then, all too soon it's over and you have to head home again.

PS. Derek and Martie will hopefully have some better photos of the Martial Eagle, amongst others which they will shortly upload for us !

Big BERG Blog turns in to a Bakery

Somehow the cat got out of the bakery ……ag sorry I meant …. Out of the bag.
The picture above show the Zagi that I have built for the BIG 5 this weekend.
Instructions and specifications are as follows.

Cake mix…. 2 bags full.
Water…….. one glass
Eggs………. 5 Bartlett Eggs Large

Add salt and butter to taste and mix with your Black and Decker drill for 10min.
Place mix in to vacuum bag and bake in oven for 2 hours at 350 deg C.
Let the contraption cool of for 50 min then cut with hacksaw to size and plaster with icing sugar using a putty knife.
(don’t forget to add red and yellow food coloring to icing sugar.)

Specifications.

Cake Span ………….600mm
Wight……………….2.5 Kg
Cake loading ………2 slices per stomach
Power required……..1 Candela.

All this was done using every day tools in one evening on my kitchen floor.
If you like to have a slice of this cake then join us at Volksrust over the weekend.

Birthday Bash at Berg

Dear fellow Berginites,

It has now been confirmed that Piet has started baking us a cake , I just hope Joshua from next door does not find it.

Oh dear ....

Piet please wont you mail me your recipe I also want to get into cake baking.

Composite layered and vacumn bagged chocolate cakes just imagine.

Flying the Big 5

Well it looks like the excitement and anticipation for the Big 5 outing is building up to a climax.

My good friends Mike and Evan cannot wait to see the Zagi cake that I had to bake for the BERG Blog Outing to Volksrust.

Well without letting the cat out the bag let me tell all the BERGIES now that if we cannot eat it ,
I can assure you that It will definitely fly!!!.

BERG s Big Blog Birthday Bash

Hi there boys and girls , dogs and cats.

The Berg club is shortly to celebrate our Blogs 1st Birthday at Volksrust complete with a Birthday cake kindly supplied by our old reliable friend Piet.
The celebration really comes about because of the huge success the Berg Blog has become.
Many other clubs have also started Blogs as a method of sharing our wonderful hobby.
During the month of August we broke all records for our viewership which now includes several regular overseas visitors.
The Berg blog logged 1303 page loads for the month
456 unique visitors and
282 first time visitors.

The conclusion we draw is that our content is varied and interesting and we aim to keep
it that way..............................thank you for your surport.

Best wishes
Mike

Spring HTL - Silverton Gliding Club & more on the Big 5

. Group Photo

Text by Piet Rheeders, Pictures by Evan Shaw

Sunday the 2nd September saw the Silverton leg of the HTL 2007 taking place in just about perfect weather. Some of the BERG team, consisting of Evan, Robert “Prince Charming” Davies, Peter Joffe, myself and Justice, met at 7am at my home. After loading Evan's kombie, we set off to SCG field just east of Pretoria. Other team members, Derek and Martie were travailing on there own. From the outset it looked like it was going to be a good thermal day. We arrived at field early and straight away Justice and I went about setting out our winches, leaving Evan to assemble his glider.

. . Derek setting up his winch while I assemble my models

One thing about the HTL is that you always meet up with old friends, like Hugh Edmunds and his "OMGC" (One Man Gliding Club) all the way form Wolmaranstad (Diamond country) +/- 300 km west of Pretoria. Hugh is in the diamond game and if you happen to find a rock that looks like it could be a diamond that is 2 X bigger than the Cullinan Diamond (+/- 4000 Carats “The World Biggest Diamond” then you must definitely consult him.

Anyway, Diamonds are forever but Thermals are not, so back to the action of the day. Apart from light lift in the first and last slots of the day most pilots managed to max their rounds regularly and it was a sure thing, that if you could hit the spot well, you were going to be up there with the best. I decided, with such good conditions, to fly my Ellipse "V", and from a thermal point of view this worked for me, but what did not work for me was the landings. I could just not slow the thing down and time after time slide from 20 meter in front of the spot to 10 meters on the other side of the spot.

Peter Joffe and Derek had their share of bad luck. Peter’s Shongololo wing was cut in half in a midair with Peter Eagle's model while on landing approach, while Derek's Shonogolo wings broke up in the most fearsome dive (from spec height) I have seen in a long time due to suspected battery failure.

On the other hand Evan and his Emoyene were giving us a good thermal lesson and his landings were as good. However one bad flight spoilt the party for Evan but even so, he did the best of the BERG open teams ending in 12th place (open class).

Another BERGish team of Mark, Kurt and Alan Smith put in a good showing, with Kurt 2nd junior and 7th overall, Mark ending in 13th place and Alan, the only RES pilot. Alan also flew in the 2 meter class with his hand launch glider.

In the 2meter class, the BERG team however did very well, with Derek coming first and our new upcoming star “Prince Charming” Robert, 2nd in his first ever competition. Well done Robert!

All results and a full report can be found on the MGA Blog. http://www.mgasa.blogspot.com/

The Big 5. (Volksrust 8th 9th September)

All is set to go with plenty space at Oom Louis place.
According to the weather people we can expect some good winds. Looks like 10 to 15 members to come along. There is still one week left so if you would like to join us you can email me at pietlewis@absamail.co.za



"Prince Charming" and his 2M Spirit. ...............BERG Open team- Evan, Piet, Derek



Setting up the flight Line

Landing area with planes all approaching at the same time. Typical F3J style!



Early Morning set-up!

Lionel, the scorer, pondering the results at the end of the day! And Anton, the overall winner.