Tipperary Championships 2009
By Leslie Cowpar
Photos from this event can be viewed in the gallery -- click here.
The Aerobatic Competition season got under way early this year with the first event being hosted by the "Carron Model Flying Club" at Limerick Junction. The reason for an April start was to allow for better spacing of events and leaving one free weekend that may be used by a club who may have lost out to the weather. The week prior to the event was almost wall to wall rain and showed in the lower field, with many cars needing to be towed out of the mud. Many thanks to Niall and Dave with the 4x4 kit, not bad at a fiver a pull.
Saturday Day One
After a pilots briefing in the club house with the rain still coming down it was decided to review the weather at 1:30pm. To fill out the time some went to the pub and some of us went to Gordon’s where we had tea, biscuits and watched flying videos from the lower shelf. We all meet up for lunch and decided to call it a day based on the visible sky line and weather report, sure enough 1 hour later the weather improved no end, too late to call a round and haul everybody back through the mud. An enjoyable evening meal in the local hotel was to see more eating than flying.
Sunday Day Two
Sunday was to prove much better with the planes getting to the air on time after a demo flight by Angus for the judges. After round 1 of tier 1 first place was to see a draw between Shane and Ray with very little to separate the entire tier. Judging was to be a cold station for all on the day. Several layers needed to keep even mildly warm. Tier 2 with only five entrants were next up, Angus was to be a clear winner here.
A second round of tier 1 got through just before rain set in. Shane was to take the 1000 with Niall putting in a very strong second flight. Lunch from the Bar-B-Q was a must at this stage and many thanks to Johnny and Ita for the cooking and Sylvia for the food preparation. The weather did not know what it wanted to do with it spitting on and off. Ray flew a demo round of F-09, it had been hoped to fly a round if the weather allowed. After a bit of a wait, round 2 of tier 2 was launched once again, Angus a convincing winner and this now releases him from the shackles of tier 2 and he will carve his way up through tier 1. Nice to see fuel power cdi’s win both tiers in an electric world I think you will agree Gordon. The weather once again was to play a hand in events and it was decided to call it a day.
Many thanks to all who entered, helped, judged, cooked and to Luke and Libby for their help with the scoring.
| Ranking | Pilot | Total Normalised | Raw Score | Normalised | Raw Score | Normalised |
| 1 | Shane Robinson | 1000.0 | 469.5 | 1000.0 | 462.0 | 1000.0 |
| 2 | Ray Keane | 1000.0 | 469.5 | 1000.0 | 442.0 | 956.7 |
| 3 | Niall O'Sullivan | 981.6 | 434.5 | 925.5 | 453.5 | 981.6 |
| 4 | John Martin | 949.1 | 445.0 | 947.8 | 438.5 | 949.1 |
| 5 | Gordon James | 940.4 | 441.5 | 940.4 | 423.5 | 916.7 |
| 6 | Brian Carolan | 928.6 | 424.0 | 903.1 | 429.0 | 928.6 |
| 7 | Paul Houlihan | 913.4 | 419.0 | 892.4 | 422.0 | 913.4 |
| 8 | Noel Barrett | 777.1 | 321.5 | 684.8 | 359.0 | 777.1 |
| Ranking | Pilot | Total Normalised | Raw Score | Normalised | Raw Score | Normalised |
| 1 | Angus Balfour | 1000.0 | 490.5 | 1000.0 | 487.5 | 1000.0 |
| 2 | Les Cowpar | 808.0 | 396.5 | 808.4 | 393.5 | 807.2 |
| 3 | Stu Holland | 736.0 | 353.0 | 719.7 | 359.0 | 736.0 |
| 4 | Dave King | 664.0 | 326.0 | 664.6 | 323.0 | 662.6 |
| 5 | Jim Howard | 560.0 | 268.5 | 547.4 | 273.0 | 560.0 |