With Winter upon us, again we come to the end of the Stunt Series and crown our champion for the 2023-2024 season. Congratulations to Kevin Barnes!
Kevin has held on to both the first and second spots overall by topping the tables in the F2B and Classic categories. A great launch pad for his upcoming adventure as our sole F2B representative at the CL world Champs in Muncie, USA in August. Well done and good luck in America! On that note, good luck also to the rest of the team going into battle in F2C and F2D.
As has become quite common in the Stunt Series, final placings are decided by remarkably narrow margins, often split by bonus points and in this case a countback. Only four points separate Kevin and our third and fourth place-getters. Between third and fourth, equal on maximum round points, equal on bonus points… it’s only a superior fourth round countback that gives Chris Chambers the edge to hold third place with his Sportsman-leading results over Owen Rogers’ Classic Stunt performances. Well done guys – you’ve kept things interesting right up to the end.
Similarly fourth and fifth have been decided by bonus points with Chris Renton’s greater number of victims in Sportsman being enough to only just surpass Roscoe Smith’s string of Intermediate-leading maxes by 0.7 points out of 3003 – a margin of just 0.023%
Top job, everyone! It’s been a very successful and enjoyable contest.
So, to summarise:
Overall Series Champion – Kevin Barnes
F2B Winner – Kevin Barnes
Classic Stunt Winner – Kevin Barnes
Sportsman Winner – Chris Chambers
Intermediate Winner – Roscoe Smith
Many thanks to all involved in producing such a great season of stunt flying – in particular our numerous judges throughout the year and the country led by Karen Barnes with frequent contributions by Don Robinson, Alina Wimmer, Gus Knapp, John Carrodus, Alan Lawrence and numerous other helpers, movers and shakers. Special thanks to Chris Chambers for stepping up to take on a big chunk of the Stunt Series admin. We greatly appreciate the time and expertise you all offer that allows these contests to take place.
Stay busy this winter and warm yourselves with aeromodelling in all its forms. Next up on the calendar is the 26th Shortest Day combat meeting at JR Airsail in Pukekawa in a few weeks. In August the NZL team jet off in pursuit of glory at the CL World Champs in the USA. Best of luck, team!
Adrian Hamilton
Stunt Series Coordinator
