Martin made the inspired decision to get permission from the National Trust to hold this years annual Winter League culmination on the dune slopes at Rhossili. What a fantastic call! The forecast was still looking decidedly damp and the direction of the substantial wind wasn't square on the slopes, but it was much better than sitting in our cars in the clouds!
Nearly 30 pilots met at the Sainsbury's car park at Macarthur Glen on Saturday morning and scooted west on the M4 to Swansea and then meandered through the Outstanding Gower Peninsular until we parked up at Rhossili. A quick check with the anemometer that the wind speed wasn't too high and we made our way down the hill to the beach. I can't vouch for everyone, but I was surprised at just how far we had to walk! I really didn't mind at all though because I was as excited as a kid in a Cadbury's outlet!! I haven't flown a low coastal site in years and it is one of my very favourite things to do in the universe!
I had preconceived ideas about the low slopes at Rhossili. I was expecting 10 - 15 foot dunes with a really narrow lift band. The dune/cliff was substantially higher than that. More like 50 foot plus and the edge was far more ripply than I was expecting also! It was definitely a learning experience though!
We got the course set up in almost record time (I obviously wasn't the only one excited!) and then sat around and waited for the wind to turn towards the slope and bring the direction within 45 degrees and into the 'legal for competition' range. This was a bit boring for everyone............ except one lucky sod. This lucky sod had left his transmitter in the hotel. The same hotel that he had just driven over an hour from to get to Rhossili. Lucky? not normally! On this occasion though, he managed to get back to his hotel, collect his transmitter and return to the slope in time for his first flight! That is why I reckon he is lucky!!
While we were waiting for Pe.. the wind to square a bit, we were all taking in the beauty of the amazing surroundings and quietly staining our underwear brown thinking about how we would manage to fly on a low coastal slope with a severely crossed and reasonably strong wind. And we also took a group photo (courtesy of Martin Newnham) before any planes were lost or broken!!
We drew a number out of the hat for the first pilot and Simon Thornton was first to go. I'm not sure of the time of day, but it was well into the afternoon. It didn't matter though because we were off and running! Simon's flight showed us two things. 1) it was crossed......duh! and 2) you could fly 10 laps and land safely after walking beyond the holiday letting.
Simon's time was a very respectable 58.02 and was only beaten by 4 pilots! The times in round one ranged from 92 seconds (not the slowest of the comp!) to 53 seconds by Mark Redsell with the vast majority of pilots recording times well over a minute. It was definitely a learning experience! Rich Bago just pipped me to second place in that round with 56.47 and I was 3 tenths behind him. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after that flight! Maybe too pleased? Mark Abbotts was the 4th pilot to beat Simons time with a 57.97.
I was really impressed with everyone's ability to learn and develop in what were very challenging conditions on a new slope. There were a couple of landing issues and no-one destroyed their plane on the slope (on day one)........ Result!
Round 2 saw the beginnings of the usual few cementing their leads and showing us all how to fly and manage the conditions. Mark Abbotts took the honours for the round with an excellent 52.55 and Ewan Maxwell flew a fantastic 55.8 to claim the 4th place! Greg Dakin and Simon Thornton were in 2nd and 3rd. I was dead last in this round with the slowest time of the weekend. It was actually one of my most rewarding flights I have ever had in a competition! The conditions were trying to make me crash or land on the beach and for 97 seconds I coaxed my fully ballasted Skorpion around each base and squeezed every last poofteenth of lift under her wings to stay aloft and finish the course! I rocketed through the leader board from 3rd to 18th in that round! The slope had just put me back in my place.
The conditions were still very marginal with a severely crossed wind for round 3 and Tony Livingstone took the win with a very smooth 53.14 and Ronnie Lampe pushing hard for 2nd with a great 55.83. I couldn't believe we hadn't had any rain by now! I love it when the forecasters get it wrong in our favour! Looking at the timing sheet I think I can see that the slight variability in conditions made a significant difference in the achievable times. If the wind was bouncing around the legal limit of skewiffness the times were pretty dramatically effected. If they were bouncing around just inside the afore mentioned legal limit, and flown very well, mid to low 50's were achievable.
These couple of F3F runs by Joel West and Mark Abbotts should give you an idea of the conditions!
Unfortunately I didn't get many runs on Video. I was too busy flying, launching, talking and enjoying the spectacle!
Round 4 saw the wind drop a little and swing around towards the west and square up a bit. There was still some variability but the improvement in times overall was significant with times in the 40's now achievable!
The Top 5 times were all sub 50 and saw Pete Gunning take the round with a 46.15, Joel West in 2nd with 47.50, Daniel Schneider all the way from Germany in 3rd with his Polish Repect and a time of 48.58, Mark Redsell in 4th with 49.11 and Mark Treble in 5th with his Toxic and 49.17.
The final round for day 1 was the 5th round and we started 10 minutes before the last round in progress time of 1730. It was going to be a push to get back to Bridgend in time for our curry, but I reckon it was worth it! The conditions were nicer again with the WSW breeze creating plenty of lift to play in. The majority of the times for this round were under a minute with Simon Thornton grabbing the fastest time by a stretch with a 43.87 and snatching the day 1 lead from Mark Redsell. Joe Cubitt took second in the round with a very nice 49.96 with his Vampire (what a fantastic looking plane! Glider porn!) and Rich Bago took 3rd in the round with a 50.50. Pete Gunning Ended the day in 3rd pace after posting a 50.65 to take 4th in the round. Greg Dakin and Mark Abbotts finished day 1 in 4th and 5th place respectively with some excellent flying all day.
I had managed to claw my way into 14th place at the end of round 5 and was hoping to continue the trend on day two ....... if the weather played nice. It was looking wet! Could the forecasters be wrong two days in a row?!?!? Don't be ridiculous!
Who would take the trophy??
After a late curry at the Natraj in Bridgend and a quick nap, we met at Rhossili on Sunday morning at a very respectable 10am to get day 2 underway. Yes the forecasters were wrong again!
Due to the shift in the wind we set up the course a bit closer to the carpark end of the beach and were underway with round 6 sharpish!
Not much time for cuppas, socialising or photos! but I managed a few (they could have been from Saturday, who knows?)
Simon Thornton and Mark Redsell started as they meant to go on with both times in the 38 second bracket and Simon taking fastest time of the competition with a 38.33 for the round win and Mark in 2nd with 38.64. Daniel Schneider switched to his Radical Jazz for day two and got under way with a 3rd place and 40.15 with Greg Dakin and Peter Gunning right on his tail. I had a great start to the day with the first of my three 7th place rounds and a 45.43. I had decided on day 2 to force myself away from the edge a little and to aim to fly a little higher. So I stood right out on the edge and only had to duck a couple of times! It seemed to work for that slope quite well.
Round 7 saw Joel West take the honours with a 39.87 and his first attempt in a comp at EM style turns. He was saying that he was resisting using EM as he doesn't want to develop any bad habits when he is doing his very impressive and effective reversals. However he relented as he realised that reversals just weren't working at Rhossili in those conditions. It was an impressive flight to say the least! Mark Redsell claimed second spot with a 40.05 and Greg took third with 40.50. Rich Bago and Graeme Mahoney took 4th and 5th. Graeme Mahoney, Tony Livingstone, Martin Drewett and Andy Burgoyne are my current targets to beat in any competition. They always fly impeccably and are a great target to aim at (on the results table, not on the ground or in the air!). My second 7th placed round and my fastest time of the comp with a 43.29 had me in the mix again and on point for beating the crew and I was just behind Tony and Graeme.
Daniel Schneider took the 8th round with a time of 42.99 with Mark and Simon right behind him with 44.04 and 44.52. Mark Abbots, Graeme Mahoney and Greg Dakin were all within a second and Graeme had pulled further away from me compared to my 12th place (50.51).
Round 9 was won by Simon Thornton as the only pilot to go sub-40 with a 39.19, Greg (43.01) and Joel (43.51) were 2nd and 3rd with Mark R, Rich and Pete taking the next three places. I'm wanting to finish typing now and my memory is fading! I'd really like to mention everyone that took part as I'm sure everyone has something memorable to take from the comp. Sorry that I can't!
The Final round saw Rich Bago (43.64) take the round win with Simon Thornton (43.82) second, had he done enough to take the title? Pete Gunning (44.28) was third and Joel West (45.88) 4th with Mark Redsell (46.28) 5th, Greg Dakin (46.45) 6th and myself (47.59) in 7th. Who won? Did I beat Tony and Co.?
As the last pilot landed, we got the course down and lugged the gear back up to the carpark (Gets the heartrate WAAAAAY up!!) and waited for the results and trophy presentations.
We had much squarer conditions on Sunday and I was surprised to see that there were quite a few mishaps both on the slope and while landing. Due to the crossed wind on Saturday our brakes had more to bight into so landing was definitely easier, not sure what caused the issues for some on the slope though, maybe it was that we could fly faster? Maybe it was issues in the planes?
An honourable mention has to go to Les Wood. He had a torrid comp! he flew 3 rounds on Saturday and managed to de-commission his 2 gliders so sat out the rest of the competition. He came back on Sunday and manned the base A buzzer for ages and did heaps of launching. Thankyou very much Les! Mark Treble had a disgustingly horrible Sunday. His Toxic tried to bury itself in the face of the slope and his Needle tried to do a rolling landing (the rarest of all aerobatic manoeuvres!!) and finished with a very accurate impersonation of a Lawn Dart! Not a great day.
Martin Drewett did a fantastic job as buzzer supremo all weekend. Really appreciated it!
Joel's left arm must have been aching on Monday as he tirelessly flung model after model towards Ireland! Thanks mate! Great chucks!
Andy Burgoyne and Martin Newnham were splendid in the centre as our CD's and I'm sure everyone would agree with me that the organisation and running of the event was outstanding and a massive thanks goes to Martin Newnham for his effort, organisation and enthusiasm!
Big thanks to Peter Gunning and Adam Richardson for the trophies too, they look fantastic and can't wait to try to get my name on it next year!
I can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, but Keith had us all staring in awe and amazement at his impression of a 'crow-through' for a re-flight. Some would say senior moment, but this senior had the last laugh as he took the trophy for the first placed 60+ pilot! Congrats Keith!
Greg Dakin quietly had an outstanding competition to take third place. Congrats Greg!
Mark Redsell did all he could to take the title of Champion of Champions but had to settle for a very well deserved second place. Congrats Mark!!
Simon Thornton and his Shinto showed us all how it was meant to be done and was our well deserved Champion of Champions! CONGRATULATIONS SIMON!!!
I had a fantastic weekend. and finished the competition in a very pleasing 9th position! One place back from Graeme and ahead of Tony, Andy and Martin D. Andy (CD) and Mart (Buzzer Supremo) had some official duties to help distract them but I'm still pleased with myself!!
I also have some exciting news! I will be steering a Willow2 around the courses across the UK and Europe (German Open at Rugen) for the season!! I will hopefully have it ready for round 1 of the BMFA Summer League on the 12th of April at the Hole of Horcum, but it's more likely that I will have it ready for the second round at the end of April at Whitesheet.
From what I have seen of the second iteration of the Willow, it looks like it has some great potential and I can't wait to put it through its paces!! Thanks Ian!! They are available through T9 Hobbysports.
If you'd like to see the complete results for the Champion of Champions event, check out the GBSRA website under the results tab or email me and I'll flick you a copy.
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