Overall, the standard was a little disappointing, with similar mistakes to last year being repeated.  This tends to suggest that fliers are practicing alone and reinforcing their mistakes.  If possible, get someone to observe your practice flights and offer constructive comments, and join a club with a control line interest if you can.

Everybody got started promptly, and take-offs were generally smooth, not always easy on the rather rough surface of circle 3.

Remember, level flight is at approximately five feet (not fifteen!) and this is the first thing to establish.  If you start manoeuvres too high they will inevitably finish too high so you will lose points twice.

The most common faults in manoeuvres were loops too narrow and too high (vertical ovals), and with one or two exceptions square loops were poor, most competitors trying to make them too small so losing speed and spoiling the corners.

The Saturday afternoon round was flown in circle one, with a much better surface and clearer reference points, and most competitors showed a marked improvement because of the improved conditions.

However, Peter Jenkins was unlucky enough to catch a nasty turbulent gust in the middle of his vertical eights, causing him to crash. A pity as the flight was looking good up to that point.  In those circumstances, abort the manoeuvre and save the model!

Congratulations to Terry McCafferty on his victory.

 Keep practising chaps, but remember, Class 2 is a stepping stone to the full schedule, not an end in itself.  Now for those square eights..........