Great job and congrats PJ, you were totally in the hunt. Please don't beat yourself up either, you didn't use a timer.
But he
could have used a timer! If I'm not mistaken (and I often am...), the Australian Nats was run under FAI rules. Those rules now allow a glow engined model to use a timer to shut the engine off. Yes, I know that it is far easier to do this in a closed-loop electric system where no mechanical bits are required to effect the shutdown, but the fact remains that it is legal and is not
that hard to do. Those who fly glow and choose to take advantage of that rule eliminate just one more variable.
To those who still feel the need to continually snipe at those who choose to use electric power, please consider just how pitifully sad you are starting to appear. Electric is here; it's staying; those who choose to use this mode of power will win some contests and lose some contests. Thankfully neither electric power or glow power actually moves the handle up and down to control the path of flight. Glow will also stay. The name of the event is Precision Aerobatics here in the states. It's F2B elsewhere. Nowhere does it state that it is Glow Powered Precision Aerobatics or Glow powered F2B. The goal is to fly the most precision pattern of geometric maneuvers. Do that using glow power, electric power, steam power, nuclear power, or with two chipmunks on a turntable spinning the prop.
It's interesting to note here that virtually no one but PJ and Derek has congratulated the winner of the contest. PJ has also taken ownership of his performance. I highly congratulate PJ for his aerobatic performance
and for his exemplary sportsmanship. I also want to congratulate Joe Parisi and Russell Bond for their fine aerobatic performances.
To try to mitigate PJ's unfortunate error, and intimate that he was at some disadvantage because he chose to fly glow, takes away from Joe's outstanding accomplishment. I'm sure that PJ will take a long, hard look at electric power for his next project. He's a true competitor and will evaluate thoroughly his performance and what he could have done better. If you've read any of the articles that PJ has written in
Stunt News of late, then you know just how analytically he thinks about everything concerning this event.
For those who will not take delivery of this message, please consider that electric powered models captured the top four spots at the last World Championships, won the last US Nats, won the last two European F2B Championships, captured all three places on the 2014 USA F2B FAI team, and now the top two places at the Australian Nats. All the fliers in those contests had the choice of what power system to use. If they failed to achieve the top performances, then perhaps it's time for them to re-evaluate their equipment. I'll bet none of them are trying to find an
excuse for the shortcomings of their current systems however... That's how true competitors think.
Again, congrats to Joe Parisi, Russell Bond and PJ Rowland for their fine AEROBATIC performances!
Bob Hunt