Becsta.COM

A Mixed Weekend at Jerilderie LSF

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:32:50 +0000

The 2007 Jerilderie LSF tournament will be an event I will not forget for a long time to come, for lots of reasons, one being that my TD Icon “died” during its first flight of the competition. That failure really capped off a very traumatic few weeks for me, actually.

I went into the Jerilderie tournament full of anticipation, and expecting to do quite well, but in the end would rather have not turned up. The only consolation was that I managed to add nearly 2000k’s to my new Subaru Forester XT, and that I finally managed to trim my F3B Icon to near perfection.

But the lasting memory will always be of watching my 6 month old TD Icon literally blow itself apart at the top of the launch on my very first flight in the event. I’d never seen one of these big F3J class sailplanes explode on launch, and (from a disjointed observer’s perspective) mine was quite spectacular to watch, but from a personal perspective, I was shattered, distraught, quite upset, and never really recovered afterwards. I’d lost my beloved Icon, the one plane I’d spent nearly $5k on, and it ended its flying life in an orgy of carbon fibre, balsa, fibreglass, and kevlar.
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The 2007 Ice Hockey Winter League Begins!

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 02:18:03 +0000

It’s been a mixed couple of weeks for the Sydney Bears Womens Team. Our first game for the 2007 Winter League was against the Penrith Phantoms, and we were utterly smashed by them, losing 20 to zip. Not a good start to the season.

Last weekend, we went down to Canberra, to play against the Canberra Ice Caps, losing 4 to 1. It was a pretty good game, actually, which the score doesn’t reflect. The girls will enjoy playing against Canberra, as they’re a developing team, just like us. On Sunday, we had our first victory for the season, against Liverpool (my club from last year), beating them 6 to 4. Again, another great game. The Liverpool girls impressed me, as they’re passing the puck around a lot more than last year, which had us on the ropes a bit there.

Lizzie and I rocked in defence - we only let in one goal for the game.

Next games will be in a few weeks, where we play Erina @ Blacktown, and then a rematch against Canberra @ Penrith.

It’s about time I updated…

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:41:13 +0000

Updates are fun sometimes. The rebuild of my website went fairly well, and all I need to do now is add more content. I’ve just added a page on my radio-controlled Gliding Addiction, which details some aspects of the hobby I enjoy, and some that I don’t.

I’ll be adding more pages on other aspects of my rather boring, hermit-like life in the coming weeks.

Cheers,
- bec

Success at Hunter Valley Championships

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:10:29 +0000

I attended the Hunter Valley Championships on the weekend, competing in the Open Class Thermal Glider division, and flew some great flights with my trusty Icon. So much so that I ended up flying into second place, which was a huge surprise!
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Millennium Cup 2M Comp at IMAC

admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 09:45:46 +0000

A few weeks back, I attended the Millennium Cup 2M Glider competition being held at IMAC, and came third, which was a bit of a surprise. It was my first trophy win since I started flying in this competition last year. Given the conditions on the day (strong breezes, some lift bands, passing showers, no thermal activity as such), it was very tough flying, especially since I had no ballast in my First.

My flying strategy on the day was aggressive launches, point her into the breeze, and fly for maximum flight times. Landings were a bonus, but not really required, as just about everyone were landing out. I never considered circling the glider, because it was suicide to do so, but I was slide it from side to side across the breeze.

The strategy seemed to work.