We welcome new members whose primary interest is to fly radio controlled sailpanes, electric sailplanes or oldtimer models. We do not encourage Sports power models to fly at the Club site. Pilots who wish to fly power models, will be directed to one of the many Clubs in the region, who specialise in power flying, and whose club flying fields and operating procedures have been developed specifically for that purpose.
HSL strongly encourages all members to achieve a competency level equivalent to LSF Level I. Speak with, or contact, one of the committee members to get an LSF accomplishment form and perform the tasks, to gain your level 1 competancy.
There is an information sheet available for beginner pilots.

If you haven't renewed your Club membership for 2010 - 2011, or are not a member, then you are not permitted to fly at the Club field. The property is leased to HSL Inc and is private property, for the use of members and guests. You must have current MAAA affiliation and Public Liability Insurance to fly at Maddens Plains. There is a .pdf renewal form or a membership application form for dowload, on the 'Club' page of this website.

We had a great day of Millennium Cup action at Salt Ash today. After a pretty wet week along the coast only occasional showers were forecast for the Newcastle area on Sunday, with more rain to come early next week.
Today at Salt ash we had no rain at all and the winds started off being very light from the west and then picking up a little to about the forecast eight knots, swinging to the South and then the winds eased a little during the afternoon. The day was mostly sunny with overcast periods and after a cool start in the morning it warmed up nicely.
We had 22 pilots entered in today's competition. Due the the wind direction, approaches for some of the landing spots necessitated overflying small water ponds. Unfortunately two pilots landed in the water. Mark Ceo was very fortunate as his model ended up nose down in water so shallow it didn't get past his nose cone. Everything important was dry.
With the wind gusts landing accurately was tricky. Approaches that were initiated with what appeared to be more than enough height sometimes landed well short or even outlanded, at other times an extra orbit was required to lose some of that height. Sometimes that extra orbit was about half an orbit too much. It was tough.
We managed to get in seven rounds permitting each pilot to drop their worst round. In 1st place on the day was Fred Lodden. In second place was Owen Pearcey and in third place was Jack Murphy. Congratulations to the place getters.
NOTE: The next round of the 2010 Millennium Cup will be held at Cowra on the weekend of the 12th and 13th of September 2010.

Millennium Cup sponsors are -
Airsports R.C.
Kelletts Hobbies
Model Flight
Traplet Publications

For an overview of the rounds held in the
2009 Millennium Cup Series, click HERE.
2008 Millennium Cup Series, click HERE.
2007 Millennium Cup Series, click HERE.
2006 Millennium Cup Series, click HERE.

NACA Salt Ash (Newcastle) will be holding its second Open/res/2m competition on 2/10 and 3/10 this year. In order to give people time to get here we will start the competition at 12pm on Saturday 2/10 and on Sunday 3/10 we will fly until the early afternoon in order to give people enough flying.
Australian Thermal Duration rules will be used for open class but the rules for the other two classes will be decided on the day, depending on the turn out and the weather. The res and open will be split into two classes on Sunday in order to give less experienced flyers the chance to take home a trophy.
We would really like to see more res and 2m flyers than last year, so dust off that plane sitting in the garage and come along and have fun. There will be a barbecue on Sunday, a toilet will be provided if there are enough pre entries to justify it.
Unfortunately due to our lease camping is not allowed on the site but there is a caravan park and motel accommodation locally.
Contact Paul Gibson (0249 873749, paul.gibson2 @bigpond.com) or Brian Lindsay ( 0249 589910 lindsayracing@optusnet.com.au)

On Sunday we held the First round of the 2010 Heathcote Cup. We had 14 pilots compete.
The weather was superb, with lightly overcast skies with the occassional sunny period and warm temperatures. The winds were from the South and swung a little during the day. The wind speed varied from dead calm to only just a few knots. Generally the lift was very subtle and for most flights there were areas of bouyant air.
With the number of entrants we had we were able to use the man on man system with three heats per round. A thunderstorm built up far to the South West of the field around the time we stopped for a lunch break. Around 2pm it came much closer and it started to become active with considerable lightning activity in the vicinity of the field and we called an end to the competion at the end of the fifth round.
So with just the five rounds there was no round to be dropped.
Congratulations to Matt Lowe who took out first place for round 1. In second place was Fred Lodden and in third was Matthew Partlett. Les Morris took out 1st place in the 2m class.
A reminder that the round 2 of the 2010 Heathcote Cup will be held at the Maddens Plains field on Sunday the 28th of March. This is just under four weeks away.
To see the results, click HERE for Round 1.
To see the results, click HERE for Round 2.
To see the results, click HERE for Combined result 2009.

The latest Club Newsletter, #62 is ready to download or read.
     
Just click   HERE  

Club Championship Round 4
Hi everyone,
Round 4 of the 2010 Heathcote Soaring League Club Championship was held today in absolutely superb conditions. We had a fantastic day which even more remarkable given that it is still winter.
We had a very light winds all day. Early in the morning the wind appeared to be from the NW and after the competition got under way it almost died completely. Around midday it turned to be from the SE as forecast, but never more than a few knots. The sky had some clouds in it and particularly towards midday the cloud cover was probably around 6/8ths, but it cleared in the afternoon to be sunny again. But there were areas of sunshine not far away. When the field was covered by cloud the temperature certainly took a big drop.
We had ten pilots enter the competition and so the format was the 4, 6, 8, 10 and 10 minutes target flight times. We began at 10:00am and the tasks were to be completed by 2:30pm.
With the light conditions I don't recall that any models were damaged during the launch. There were some fantastic flights had with many pilots able to get away to great height during their flights.
NOTE: Round 5 of the 2010 HSL Club Championship is on the 24th of October. See you there.
The current standings for the Club Competition, can be seen by clicking on this link

Just click on the picture to go to the calculator. Input your figures and 'presto'.