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Coupe Des Barons.


David Davis
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It was a great day out Cymaz.

This year I have shamed six of my clubmates into entering the event. So with wives, partners and signifficant others, we'll be taking quite a party down south in September.

We held a Mini-Coupe on 19th May at our local site. Five models participated. I finished third and apparently will get a cup! This was not much of an achievement as Roger's model was blown off the table by a gust of wind, damaging the wing before he'd even started the engine and Ludovic turned up with an unflown model and had trouble getting his Enya 29 which he'd mounted inverted, to run consistently.

I hit the post in the Limbo so have some repairs to do. blush

The event was won by Francois, the oldest man in the club with his electric powered Baron. Picture of Francois and Ludo's models below. Ludo works repairing people's damaged cars at the local VW agent. He always produces fine-looking models.

ludos baron.jpg

francois baron.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

This is the model I will be using in this year's Coupe Des Barons in September. It's 11 ozs or 300 grammes lighter than the Russian one which I will keep as a reserve in case I stuff in the British version. it's powered by an OS 48 FS Surpass. I'm tempted to fit a 52 but the 48 has prooved to be very reliable. I just have to paint the cowling in matching yellow paint.

bertie.jpg

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This is the club president's venerable Baron powered by an OS 30, note the brown paper repair. It's going down to La Coupe.

barons b2m interclubs 2019 (1).jpg

This one, powered by an OS 35 would have been going too but the builder's little boy had seen his parents using cigarette lighters so often that he had a go and he set fire to the bedroom! What the fire didn't destroy the pompiers flooded with water. Fortunately no-one was hurt but the Baron was destroyed in the process.

pascals baron.jpg

PS. The RAF roundels and other markings on my Baron were supplied by Tim Calvert of Model Markings, who has recently stopped trading and the cowling is courtesy of Vortex Vacforms.

Edited By David Davis on 20/08/2019 17:25:35

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Only ten days to go to La Coupe Des Barons and we've all recieved the running order. They've divided us up into eight groups of ten. I am to fly from Post 3 in the last group and the following members of my club have been drawn as follows: Jean-Luc will compete against me in the same group from Post 5. Francois is first away, Post 4 in Group 2. Gerard flies from Post 10 in Group 3, Ludovic from Post 1 in Group 5 and Roger from Post 1 in Group 6. Pictures of most of our Barons above, Gerard's Baron is shown below. I built it for him. I'm getting quite excited!

The twin fifteen year-old girls, Clara and Iris Fesquet are drawn in Groups 2 and 5 respectively so will compete against Francois and Ludo.

Last year's winner has scratched from the event so we've all got a chance!

gerard baron (2).jpg

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Hi David,

... is it still the effect of last night's 'apéritif', or do I see some Belgian roundels on Gerard's Baron, ... ??? cool

My planned deco for the Svenson Vicomte is about the same but with the use of Natural Solartex over a 'stained' airframe. Decals were already prepared nearly one year ago... next winter should have me back to the building board. blush

Enjoy yourself & good luck at La Coupe.

Cheers

Chris

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Thank you Chris for your good wishes,

Yes those are Belgian Roundels, Gerard van der Meulen was born in Holland but moved to Belgium with his parents when he was a baby. I suppose I could have used Dutch markings.

I've just had a thought though. They've put me in the last group of pilots, Group 8. Last year Group 8 featured a couple of experts who flew like demons. They finished first and second in the competition with only 8 points between them. The third-place man was a further 80 points behind. I hope I don't have to fly amongst a bunch of experts! frown

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Part 1.

La Coupe Des Barons took place on Saturday 7th September. My club, Berry Marche Modelisme or B2M for short entered a team of six pilots. All of the models except for Jean-Luc's are shown in Post 7121. In La Coupe, pilots are divided into groups of ten which are numbered 1-8. Therefore, the maximum number of pilots the event can cater for is eighty. On the day 77 pilots turned up. Pilots are allocated a group and fly from marked positions on a fence marked 1-10. For example Francois, at 79 our oldest member, flew in Group 2, Position 4 while Jean-Luc and I flew in Group 8 from Positions 5 and 3 respectively. Jean-Luc had crashed his newly-built model in practice and resorted to his old model for the event. Roger Aubard, the club's president and best pilot opted to act as guide and helper to all of the other pilots, talking them through their manouvres, except for me!

Miss Blue Eyes,aka Trish and I decided to take two days to drive down the 472kms (293 miles) to the event staying the first night in Macon. I bought some white wine there and some red Beaujolais a little further south at Chenas. We reached the town of Chambery, population 62,000, only 50 kms (30 miles) from the event at about 5pm on the Friday afternoon but there were accidents allover the place and traffic was stationary for nearly two hours but we finally reached the hotel I had booked.

Next morning we arrived only just in time to register but soon the competition was under way. We had no members flying in the first group so we watched the others flying the "Caisse Baguettes" round. In this round you have to try to knock over balsawood sticks which are only 1 metre above the ground. Some models hit the ground, others either missed each other by millimetres or collided with each other. Spectator reaction ranged from disappointment to outright schadenfreude and shocked or sarcastic cheers rang out! Then it was Francois' turn. Francois can get rather nervous but Roger counselled him throughout the ten minutes of the round. I'm not sure whether he hit any sticks but his model survived to go on to the next round.

Gerard was less fortunate in Group 3. An inexperienced pilot, after two or three passes, he flew too high and too slowly and stalled. The fuselage snapped in three places and he was out of the competition.

We had no-one in Group 4 but Ludo who built the beautiful grey and red model pictured in Post 7121, flew in Group 5. With Roger again providing advice and guidance, he flew the round without hitting a stick but the model survived to the next round.

Roger flew in Group 6. He had once finished tenth in the French National Championships and he is a much better pilot than anybody else in our team. Jean-Luc carried his model to the start line, Roger took off and circulated with the rest of them. The Contest Director sounded his air horn and they were off! I watched the models fly past but could not see Roger's. His motor, an old OS 30, had cut and he was forced to land.

With Trish and other members of out club helping, Jean-Luc and I took our models to the starting boxes. The previous Wednesday, 4th September, I had gone with Trish to our local flying field. There I flew the Baron with a 13x4 prop and which proved to be suitable for slow speed flight but with a 10x8 fitted to the OS 48 FS, the model flew much more quickly. I therefore decided to fly the 13x4 in the first round.

I had made final adjustments to the engine in the pits. The mighty OS fired up straight away. Trish carried the model to the start-line I took off, climbed magnificently and circulated waiting for the others to get airborn. The CD sounded his airhorn... ... and my motor cut! I managed to affect a forced landing.

Jean-Luc was less lucky. His motor cut and he stalled and crashed severely damaging his model. I offered to help him to repair it but he wasn't interested. He spent the rest of the day helping out his clubmates.

The next round was a pylon race around two pylons. Francois dealt with the situatation by flying his under-powerred electric model high above his competitors but nonetheless succeeded in flying around 20 pylons. Ludo with his model powered by an OS 25 two stroke giving away a lot of power to the OS 35 AXs, managed 17. Roger managed only 9.

I had changed the prop to a 10x8 and I was having a great time flying much faster than I had ever flown the model before and was over-taking several competitors. I managed several pylons before I noticed that the tailplane was vibrating. After a couple of more circuits I was ordered to land by the contest director on safety grounds. I was allowed 12 pylons. Last year with an electric powered model I had managed 23.

Then we all adjourned for a four-course French lunch.


Part 2 to follow.

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La Coupe des Barons 2019.
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La Coupe Des Barons 2019.

Part 3.

Doubtless all of this will have been recorded on the official video which will be published in a few weeks time. The group photograph, the still photographs and the provisional results are available in this link. **LINK**

Four of the B2M contingent stand at the extreme right of the group picture in our pale blue club polo shirts: Jean-Luc stands extreme right with his model finished in olive drab with RAF roundels; Your Humble Servant stands next to him, silver model RAF roundels; Roger stands next to me, cream and dark yellow model; Gérard is behind us, black and transluscent orange model, Belgian roundels; Ludo's grey and red model is held up high at the back towards the centre of the group. Francois and his Antique Solartex covered model stands about six models from the end. The main organiser and pilot of the No 1 Baron kneels extreme right in the kamikaze headband.

In the end I finished 54th overall, one place down on last year but there were more competitors this year so proportionately it was a better result for me. If I had been allowed my 10 points for the limbo event I would have finished in 50th position.I don't think I'll bother with an official complaint! Francois was the best of us finishing in 30th position,a real case of the tortoise beating the hares if ever there was! He also won a prize for being the oldest competitor! Ludo finished 46th, Roger 48th, Gerard 67th and Jean-Luc 70th.

The twin fifteen year-old girls, Clara and Iris Fesquet were among the three entrants who didn't turn up on the day. Trish said that they'd probably discovered horses. I said, "Boys more likely!"

A couple of pictures for you to look at. I don't know why one has come out sideways, neither do I know how to rectify matters, but it's happening quite a bit these days.

francois and his prize.jpg

trish and me at the starting boxes..jpg

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Posted by David Davis on 16/09/2019 19:03:23:
Posted by trebor on 16/09/2019 18:51:26:

Just watched the whole video yes looks like you had fun. The folks with the cow bells want shooting.

They were probably drunk by the late afternoon.

Well it must have been the booze or was it windy as some of the take offs were a bit vertical laugh

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Chris, Gerard's Baron's fuselage was built stock. I made a horlicks of building the centre section of the wing with the result that I had to strengthen it and it was heavier than it should have been. Despite the weight, the leading pilot in our club said that it flew, "Superbon!" and the wing survived the crash. If we rebuild it we'll use basswood for the fuselage longerons but remember, they're built to fly not to crash.

Trebor, it was a bit windy in the afternoon but some of the pilots were not that competent and the booze couldn't have helped!

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Posted by trebor on 16/09/2019 19:43:43:

One or two were faster than most when racing, did the engines get checked over first ?

Well the maximum sized two stroke you may use is a 35. The engine of choice is the OS 35 AX which is a little powerhouse in standard form. Many competitors fit throttle pipes to their engines and you can run on up to 50% nitro and stay within the rules. That accounts for the high speed of some of the entries. Of course you could use a four-stroke up to a 52 or an electric motor of up to 825 watts.

I ran an old OS 48 Surpass in mine and donated a prize, £25 worth of 4' balsa, to the leading pilot who used a four-stroke. He used an OS 40 Surpass in his which prooves that power isn't everything.

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