2018 Tasmanian Pattern Championship.

Team Roaring Forties.
Tony Sheppard, Michael Rutledge, Tony Gray, Peter Alan and Mike Ralph.

The Tasmania Pattern Championships were held at the Phoenix Flyers field over two days, Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th November.  Shocking conditions, rain and strong winds, but as a number of interstate competitors had made the trip the event had to proceed.

Henry Hutchinson

17 competitors in all, 2 in Sportsman, 5 in Advanced, 4 in Expert and 6 in F3A.  Of the 17, four traveled from Victoria and South Australia. John Tonks and Nick Barker from South Australia and Henry Hutchinson and Rod Clarke from Victoria.

John Tonks

John came first in the top class, F3A, under very difficult personal circumstances.  John dedicated his trophy to his father, Jack, who had recently passed away.

Nick Barker

Saturday was a shocker of a day with gusts of over 40klms an hour.  Competitors in both the sportsman and the advanced classes very sensibly declined to fly.

F3A and Expert showed some good skills in the shocking conditions.  However the strong winds made for some testing landings.  Unfortunately Rob Clarke lost an undercarriage and a prop.


By lunch F3A and Expert had flown two rounds each.  After a working lunch another two rounds were flown by by the top two classes.

Tony Gray with his new Caelus.

                                           

Kevin Hay test driving a Valiant.

Mike with his championship winning Nuance.

                                                   

Dave Cook.

                             

Tony Gray and Tony Sheppard changing a tyre on the Fantasista.

A good day to be a judge.

After the flying on Saturday a small crowd gathered around the Roaring Forties trailer to sample a "Rattles Red" and a Japanese lager.  The red proved very popular on a cold day.  On the Saturday evening competitors, guests and friends attended a dinner at The Olde Tudor Motor Inn in Launceston.  A good time was had by all thanks to CD Andrew.

Sunday was a slightly better day and Sportsman and Advanced took to the skies.  Still some strong winds made for difficult flying and landing. Unfortunately Phil Rayner removed his under carriage when landing after his first flight.

The Roaring Forties performed well and went home with a number of trophies.  Tony Gray won Sportsman, Tony Sheppard place first in Advanced closely followed by Peter Alan in second place.  Mike Rutledge placed first in Expert while Mike Ralph placed third in F3A.

CD Andrew McEntyre.

Sportsman, Tony Gray 1st, Phil Rayner 2nd.

Advanced, 1st Tony Sheppard, 2nd Peter Alan 3rd Kevin Hay.

Expert, 1st Mike Rutledge, 3rd Rob Clarke, 2nd Terry Pearson.

F3A, 1st John Tonks, 2nd Scott Kay, 3rd Mike Ralph.

A great weekend.

2019 is going to be a great year.  The Masters at Coolum in March and a few new planes in Tasmania.  Dave Cook has bought Tony Sheppard's Fantasista, Mike Ralph  and Tony Sheppard have a couple of Alchemys on the way, Scott Kay will be competing with his new Supra Skybolt, Andrew McEntyre has a new Vanquish, Steve Reece has just taken delivery of a BJ Craft Invitation and I believe Ben Goode has ordered a Karat Biplane.

Fun times ahead.