Race reports. Updated 17 Feb 2019

17th Feb 2019 Welsh Winter League.

We arrived to flyable conditions on the back of the Wrecker and quickly set up the course with the hope of getting at least one round completed before the clouds dropped enough to make landing unsafe. We made it to the pilots briefing.....

The forecasts and met office radar suggested that we were looking to be clear just after lunch and that the wind direction would change to have us on Mickey's. So we decamped and went and waited out the rain and clag in our cars.

I actually enjoy these times a little, I'd obviously rather be flying, but it gives a great opportunity to catch up with your mates as when the competition is on we are flying or launching or on a base. Especially when there are only a small number of pilots.

We caught up with each other til around 1pm when the sky lifted and stopped dumping on us, set up the course in no time and were underway with Joel West leading from the front. I struggled to find my line, especially in the first couple of rounds, leading to messy and slow runs. 

Rachel's wise words were ringing in my ears all afternoon.... "you don't practice anywhere near enough..." as they rung true.

Joel had a spectacular day with his very neat and smooth reversals yielding 6 sub 36 second runs with a 30.61 run his fastest. He won the day while winning 4 of the 6 rounds we flew. Congrats Joel!

I actually got that run on video! My phone has been having a bit of a meltdown lately.... It started in focus..... Wind noise warning!!!




Graeme Mahoney had a solid day too! He managed to top the group of 6 pilots within a poofteenth of taking second place. His best time for the day was a blistering 32.52 which gave him the win in the 4th round after also winning the 3rd.

Mike Evans had a relatively consistent day with his Jazz and Shinto to take the third place. His slower runs coincided with Graeme's fastest once, costing him second place.

I was off to a very slow start as I eluded to earlier but managed to get faster during the day with 35's and 36's. This clawed me up to 4th place just beating Mike Shellim, Dave Rumble and Tony Livingston. 
I had a play with reversals and they seemed to work best on the day although my EM line did bear some fruit when it was low and away. I think in one run I managed to do all the available turn styles plus a new one that rolled towards the slope....
I was gutted to find in the spreadsheet that my fastest time of the day (35.32) was my discard as it was against Joels 30.61. Them's the breaks!
I finally tested out my Xmas present and the Big Blue Brolly worked a treat, thanks Rachel!


Chris Studley had a stand out day! He managed to go sub40 twice with his Needle124 and set his PB first to 38.69 and then to a staggering 36.51 with some very beautifully flown reversals. Well done Chris!

Tony (33.88) and Mike S (32.57) also set new personal best times. We had 15m\sec wind pretty much all afternoon with some of it warmer than others effecting the times a little, but not a great deal.



Massive thanks to everyone for mucking in to get the competition flown! 


Roll on March!


Sunday 27th Jan 2019
Southern Winter League at Whitesheet 27th Jan 2019.

Another post-nightshift competition opportunity for me presented itself this week with some blowy conditions forecast for Whitesheet Hills in Kilmington for January’s attempt at a Southern Winter League F3F competition. I had a sufficiently chilled nightshift and headed off armed with lots of caffeine, my trusty Pike Precision, Fx-32 tranny, lots of ballast and  the Needle 124 as a back-up.

I arrived safe and sound pretty much on time and 18 hopeful competitors made their way to the NW slope of Whitesheet Hill. I forgot to take my anemometer out to the slope so I didn’t get to measure the breeze, but it was WAAAAY more than just a stiff one. Our magnanimous CD for the the Day (Stu Wallace) took some measurements and I believe they ranged from a measly 7m/sec  to a whopping 48m/sec! I put most my ballast in the Precision at the start of the day and didn’t change it. I am only running brass in the Precision and could have put more in the front of the joiner. This changes my CoG quite a bit forward from my 107mm and I am a bit loathed to do that…

It was great to catch up with so many pilots I haven’t seen for ages and also meet a few for the first time. It was my first time flying with a couple of stalwarts from the heyday of F3F in Greg Lewis and Dave Woods and I hadn’t seen Tony Robertson for years so it was great to see him at a comp, no matter how briefly….

I was really impressed by the turnout on Sunday, especially with the less-experienced racers. Winds that strong are a challenge to fly in and add to the stresses of being new to competing. I thought they all did an outstanding job!

Round 1 was a learning experience for me (actually, all the rounds were a learning experience for me!) as the hill shape and wind strength combination we were presented with isn’t one I have had before. The closest I can think of was Levisham way back in 2010-ish. Fortunately I found landing a LOT easier at Whitesheet! I posted a 40.2 for 4th in the round and Graeme Mahoney kicked off the comp in style with a blistering 36.75. Greg Lewis and Nigel Witchalls posted sub 40’s for 2nd and 3rd in the round. Allen Elliott flew his Needle 124 to his fastest time of the day of 44.01 also Stuart Wallace with his Needle 115 posted his fastest time of 46.74.

I managed to get some extra lift in round 2 which complimented my line and the flowing style I have been concentrating on to give me a 35.95 and my first round win. Greg and Nigel both went sub40 again to take 3rd and 2nd with Andy Burgoyne also in the 39’s for 4th. John Phillips broke his Pink Camo thing on landing and found a dead battery in his spare plane so was pubward bound from there. After missing round 1, Tony graced us briefly with his flying presence, then after a servo issue for one plane and a slight re-shuffle of composite material on another, he was off to the pub with JP.

I had some soggy air and over-flew the plane, trying to hurry it through the turns, resulting in a 50.08 and 10th in round 3. “that should be my discard” I stupidly thought… Mike Evans flew beautifully directly before me to take the round win with a 40.76. Closely followed by Dave Woods with his Pitbull2 and Nigel Witchalls who was having a stellar competition so far with his Pitbull. Graham Hill was performing admirably with his McMeekan Falcon for his first (?) F3F comp (Incredible conditions for number 1!) Very smooth and consistent all day.
I managed to win the 4th round with a 37.61 with Greg hot on my heals again. I only got to see brief parts of Greg’s flights as he was directly after me, kicking of each round. I had to land very efficiently to see him and when I did, he looked completely at ease and smack-bang on the bases all day. Graeme Mahoney and his Pitbull2 took third place in the round with a 40.74.

Ian Falconer flew his fastest time of the day with a 39.54 and 2nd in round 5 along with Mark Passingham who took the round win with a 37.71 with his Freestyler5 and Mike Evans 3rd with his Shinto and 39.54. I had some soggy air, but tried to fly smoother again and limited the damage to only a 43.99. Stu had been struggling with a bad neck all day and had to succumb to the pain and sit out the rest of the day from here. There isn’t much worse than being freezing cold and in pain. Hats off to Gromit for sticking it out to the end of the day!! Hope your neck gets better soon!

Round 6 was a memorable one for me. Halfway through the run I reckon I was on track for a run in the mid 40’s and then WHACK!!! The Precision took off like a Stabbed Rat or a Scolded Cat from base A and just kept getting faster each time it hit the thermal on base A! The thermal hadn’t hit base B and the wind direction difference was such that I wasn’t really turning against the wind and I had 4 legs of the fastest I have ever experienced a Radio Controlled Glider go! I ended up posting a 36.03 and won that round! I’m pretty sure I had just DS’d the edge of a thermal. Greg posted a 39.61 for 3rd and Mike Evans took 2nd just prior to my run with 39.26.

My Thermal created havoc with Round 7 and it was only the second round without a sub40. Greg took 1st with 40.25 closely followed in the order and time by Nigel Witchalls with a 40.81 and third was Andy Burgoyne with 40.87. Pete Burgess had his best time this round with his Pitbull2. The wind was extremely strong for this round and everyone had difficulty getting their planes to penetrate off the slope at all! Landing was a challenge and crow brakes or butterfly was NOT required! I managed a 48.96 this round and couldn’t get the Precision into a place where it would gain any energy. This still wasn’t my discard round though! Bruce Hudson was flying a plane I didn’t recognise but it can’t have had more than a 2m wingspan and weighed no more than a few feathers taped together. He had his second fastest flight of the comp in this round with a very respectable 52.94 (only topped in round 2 by 29 hundredths of a second)

Greg stood up after my 48 to kick off round 8 and had one of those flights I wish I had seen. He managed to set the slope record for the NW face of Whitesheet with a 33.85 run which must have looked absolutely stunning! I managed a 42.81 this round which wasn’t really too bad, but compared to a 33….. it became my discard. Rachel sent me a message asking how my day was going and I told her it was a tough but brilliant day and I’m doing pretty well but I think I might require some luck to win. I was right to assume I was in second place, but I didn’t know just how close it was at the top!! I only had 230-odd points to make up on Greg! Dave Woods took 2nd in the round with Graeme Mahoney 3rd (both with sub 40 flights) and Mike Evans set his best time of the day with a 38.28.

Round 9 was some of the ‘some luck’ I needed. I managed a very fast 35.89 run. I had found the place on the slope that was working best for me and obviously had some good conditions as although Greg came second, he was nearly 8 seconds behind me with a 43.69. Dave Woods kept his climb to the top on track posting the 3rd fastest time of 44.01 with Mike right on his Pitbull2’s heels with a 44.36.

Greg Lewis got us underway in the 10th and final round with a 47.57 while I was landing. 
I didn’t see his flight. 

I didn’t ask him how he went. 


I didn’t want to know. 


It didn’t matter. 


I just needed to fly my line as best I could. 


Jess Nichols was one of the newer F3F pilots at the comp and he had his best flight of the day with a 49.89 and Dave Woods also flew his best time of 37.55 for second in the round. Mike Evans secured 3rd in the round with 43.17.
I stepped up after Mike and the Precision let me put her on the same track as the previous round and I managed to coax her around for a fantastic 34.54!! It was all I could do. We just had to wait for the results to be published.

 

WINNER, WINNER!


I finally won my first official event! SO pleased!

I forgot to take a camera so I don't have any pics or videos for you, sorry.

Andy Burgoyne took a video of my final flight. It looks so slow! A better first leg and maybe the fastest time of the day?



Bruce Hudson took a few vids too and for some reason they are a little steppy, but they give a little indication of the day. The first one is me, second is Mike Evans, third is Andy Burgoyne and I'm not sure about the 4th sorry. Possibly Ian Falconer?

 
 
 

I had an amazing day and want to say a huge thanks to Stu and the Whitesheet club for hosting the 4th attempt at a winter league and for welcoming me along. Thanks also to Pete Burgess, Allen Elliott and Graeme Mahoney for sharing the centre duties with Stu.



Sunday, 18 November 2018


Welsh Winter League Nov 2018

Finished work at 0730 and headed up through Nantymoel to the Wrecker car park to meet 19 other hardy and hopeful F3Ffers. Greeted by the Clag and armed with a promising forecast we wandered out to the Crest to set up the course and prepare ourselves for what would hopefully be a day to remember.





The fog was clearing as we set up the course (handy for aiming across the valley! ) and after a test flight by Greg Dakin to test the ceiling and landing area, a pilots briefing by our esteemed CD, coordinator and all round good guy Joel West, we were good to go!!! Les Wood had the dubious honour of kicking things off.






Round one was a nervy one for me and after watching lots of flights in the mid 30's I was disappointed to card a 40.32 second flight. I took out a little bit of ballast before the next round as I felt a teeny bit heavy (playing mind games with myself more likely!). I was flying the Pike Precision.

I couldn't believe how quick all the planes were going on the Crest today! The noise as they ripped through the compression was beautiful! Here is a run by Greg Dakin as exhibit A for the noise!




I had been practicing a more flowing style of turn for a while now, it paid off in round 2 as I broke my long standing PB of 36.18 with a 34.06, with a cut on Base B...!!!
I didn't feel like I made the most of the air at all. More to come! 
Graeme Mahoney took the round win with a very rapid 32.14
This isn't that flight, but it IS Graeme 😊







Round 3 was a better flight for me with the same style and less errors to record a lower PB of 32.66! Getting better!

Round 4 was 32.88. Joel was so close to going sub 30, this is one of his flights in the 31 or 32 second bracket.




Round 5 had a massive cut, bunt, recovery that cost me quite a few seconds for a 35.29. Joel set the fastest time of the day with a 29.75 in this round for his 4th round win and 3 in a row to here. Again this is Joel, but not the fastest flight sorry. I missed filming that one.







Round 6 was my best flight of the day with a 30.05!!!! So close to going sub 30! ! and it was a round win for me. I'm not sure which round it was in, but one of the highlights of the day was the extra 90 degrees turn Mark Passingham inexplicably added on his 9th turn! It made for an exciting finish to his run! I did manage to catch that one on film! Sorry (not sorry!) Mark 😁




Round 7 I tried too hard and flew my worst flight (still a 33.xx tho!). I couldn't get the plane to exit my turns the way I wanted it to and I think it was due  to trying too hard to get under 30. We don't get the opportunity that often 😁. Greg Dakin took the honours in the 7th round with his fastest of the day at 31.80

Andy Burgoyne was in the centre for most of my flights and couldn't believe how easy my flights looked! He described them as metronomic 😊, I have to say that is a massive difference to the way most people would have previously described my flights 😂

I made a mistake on my landing after my last flight and now have some repairs to do on the Precision which performed incredibly well!

I have to say a massive thanks to Stefan! We went for a fly together on Friday afternoon and he helped me to come to the settings I ended up with for this comp. It was great to see him make the trip over from Zurich again and fly so aggressively so well!

It's a shame landing takes so long on the Crest, I only got to see 2/3 of the flights and I didn't get anywhere near enough on video. The ones I have are embedded in here and in a playlist on youtube

Now to the results! Joel took a commanding win.
I finished Second!!!!!!! And Stefan Bertschi was 3rd.



There were so many PB's set today! It was fun to watch Dave Rumble get so close so many times, beat it by 0.2 and then finally beat it by a couple of seconds.
It was awesome to see Chris Studley at an f3f comp again, and great to catch up with everyone and meet a few new faces.

I was borrowing Rachel's fantastic little camera for this event and it took me a while to suss it out so I haven't got many photos and the vids are a little grainy. I'll try to get them better for next time.
In the meantime I am sure Mike Shellim has taken some pics and done a report too at rc-soar.com.

here are a few more pics tho 😊













Looking forward to next months one now! Hopefully it'll be as exciting as this one 😎

2015 Champion of Champions - from Rhossili!!!! 28-29/03/2015
The forecast leading up to this competition was indicating that we would be sitting in our cars for two days on Mickeys slope hiding from the cyclonic wind and staying dry out of the low cloud or CLAG!

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?)





Rich Bago was the lucky man to be first up in each round on Sunday. The Wind was pretty much square on with a few gusts from the WSW to give some inconsistency and the strength of the breeze was much less than predicted (as it was also on Saturday) so we were in for a pretty technical day.

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.


Welsh Winter League, 5th and Final round. 15/03/2015

I've only just recovered after a fantastic, very full, day on the Wrecker for the final round of the Welsh Winter League for this winter. It has to be said that it was a little bit chilly.

We managed to get 17 rounds flown with 12 pilots all wearing themselves out and flying two rounds for each flight with a 'crow through' to launch the second round.
We got the course up straight away and after a pilots briefing in a nervous Australian accent Ron Broughton got us underway with a 60" DS Plank which was scooting along really well.

I was a bit perplexed to have found out just before my first flight that the elevator half on the right was sticking on one of my Skorpions leaving me to try to make it through the day with only one plane, ballasted to the hilt and landing aggressively in the usual landing area over the road.
I managed to start with 2 rounds in the hallowed sub-40 bracket and was quite pleased with myself.
I nearly made it all day without damage. Nearly.... After my gentlest landing, one of the tailplane halves dislodged itself leaving me to sit in the centre for the last 4 or 5 rounds. Inactivity makes the cold SO MUCH WORSE and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day.
My fastest time was a 37.53 and my best flight was a 40.81 with a cut and recovery, which could have broken my personal best of 36.19 . Oh well, them's the breaks.
The ever-generous Andzej Tabero kindly offered for me to continue flying the competition with his Ceres, but I declined as I've already broken at least one of his planes in the past! It was awesome to see Andrzej competing again after some health issues and it was great to see a smile on his dial! He did try to get the most value for his entry fee with some interesting flights! His best from the comp was an outstanding 38.72!

The standout pilot for me from Sunday was John Treble who managed to smash his PB with excellent flying and trot into the sub 40 club with a 38.38!! Well done John!!

Simon Thornton, Joel West and Martin Newnham were all on top form all day and every flight was exciting to watch and the times being delivered were astounding! Martin's fastest time, flying a Freestyler, was 32.41 with nearly every flight a sub 40 and the majority around 35 seconds!

Joels fastest time, also with a Freestyler, was an awe-inspiring 31.60 with every single round below 40 seconds leading to a very narrow victory over Simon Thornton. Simon flew flawlessly all day and just missed the fastest time of the competition with his Shinto screaming around the course in 31.63 seconds leaving Joel with the fastest time by 0.03 seconds!

Huge congrats to Joel for the fastest time of the day and for winning the final round of the Welsh Winter League. Had he done enough to snatch the Winter League Title from Simon Thornton and the absent Greg Dakin? I'll let you know in a bit.

It was the first experience of 'crowing through' for a few of the pilots on Sunday and I saw some interesting versions of eye level and full crow deployed!

The middle order was a hard-fought affair with Mark Abbotts, Martin Drewett, Tony Livingstone, Graeme Mahony and Andy Burgoyne finishing the day with only 700 points covering the group. Mark managed to fly his SRTL for a couple of rounds and scored a couple of sub 40's with it, then reverted to his Caldera's as the juices were flowing and he wanted to go faster. He managed to win one of the rounds and his best time was 32.23! 

Graeme Mahoney had an outstanding day and was next in the middle order (5th). He decided half way through the comp that he would learn to do reversals and flew them amazingly well! His best time was 35.39 and he also won a round!

Tony Livingstone found a style that worked for him that I'd like to call a Flat EM style, although others might call it bank'n'yank'! It did work really well and yielded his fastest time of the comp with a 35.65.

Andy Burgoyne had the dubious honour of flying directly after me. Unfortunately this meant he flew in the rain quite a few times but he flew the wings off his Radical (not literally!) and his fastest time of the comp was a very respectable 37.64

Hats off to everyone. The day was a great success and wouldn't have run so well without all the help we received. Special thanks to Andrzej for running the competition with me and to Graeme for being Buzzer Supremo and collecting the fees. Thanks also to Ron Broughton for tirelessly sitting on Base B for the majority of the day after packing his model away after 4 rounds. Everyone helped to carry, erect and dismantle the course so thank you all.

So........ who won the prestigious title of Welsh Winter League Champion for this year?

A huge, full blooded, heartfelt congratulations to Simon Thornton for fending off Joel West and Greg Dakin for the title! It was incredibly tight in the end with what is commonly known in my homeland as a 'Poofteenth' between the places!

I was too cold to take any pictures, although Andrzej has taken some and written an excellent report on Welsh F3F. Well worth a look!


Roll on the Ken Philips Trophy and the BMFA Summer League!!


Welsh Winter League round 4 Feb 15 2015

That was an interesting day!
On arrival at the Bwlch 12 of us were greeted by departing clag and a breeze that would have worked on the Wrecker. It was starting to swing south as the forecasts had predicted so we made the decision to move to the Crest as this should give us the best chance for getting the most rounds in. It is the longest walk at the Bwlch, made even longer by going all the way around to the SE slope after stopping at the usual spot to watch the wind cease to blow, which was a little disheartening.

The weather couldn’t make up its mind and after a false start was spoiled by low cloud we were treated to some epic sports flying Dakin style and I had a bit of a play under the fluffy ceiling too.


Tony Livingstone got us back under way with a cracking, round winning, 44.45. Tony wasn’t overly pleased at being first off today (no-one ever is, strangely!), but I’m sure a round win in the first round made it feel a little better. After a superhuman effort to come over from Switzerland for todays comp, Stefan Bertschi found himself planeless after suffering some control issues resulting in a heavy landing. He was to sit in the middle for rounds 2, 3 and 4.




Round 2 had the best conditions of the day with Simon Thornton taking the win and fastest time with a rapid 38.06. I also got my fastest time of the comp in round 2 with a blistering 49.15 and my only sub 50. Not my best day, more work required.

Tony smashed everyone in rounds 3 and 4 taking the fastest times for both but the chasing pack wasn’t ready to give up. Simon was still hot on his heels and Martin Newnham is never too far away. Greg Dakin and Graeme Mahoney were also well and truly in the mix too.



The wind started to properly die during round 5. That didn’t stop Graeme from taking the first of his round wins. Les Wood was starting to come to terms with the Crest after a nervy start and Stefan had managed to organise a ‘time share’ wing joiner to replace the Radical one he had left in the warmth of his humble home. I’m sure there is a massive thankyou to Andy Burgoyne for the loan and a collective sigh of relief that it took 3 rounds to organise as he was never too far away from the fastest time of each round.

Round 6 was horrible. Ian Mason  and Les suffered the brunt of the cruddy air with scarily slow runs that unfairly stayed legal with regards to wind speed and we had a short break after Ian’s flight to let the breeze regroup before completing the round and letting Graeme take his second round win.




Andy Burgoyne finally got some decent air under the wings of his glider and posted a very respectable time that was pipped at the post by Martin Newnham with the round win a Graeme with second in the round. I flew straight after Andy and got the post thermic, dead air for yet another slowest time that was nearly 30 seconds slower than the fastest.



Stefan took the 8th round and did some grounds keeping along the way with a trouser-browning moment removing some grass from the slope edge! Made me giggle like a nervous schoolkid! John Treble had his best round with a very well flown 48.27 and his fastest of the day, getting right in the midst of the usual suspects and leading pack.





The penultimate round saw Stuart Wallace take the cake with a brilliant 48.48, a miserly 2 tenths ahead of Martin with Simon in third and the conditions were starting to deteriorate somewhat. The final round saw the conditions fall to almost nothing by the end and 12 grateful pilots called it a day after Les had his best round result with 3rd and Martin took another round win.




Massive thank you to everyone that helped to get the competition to run smoothly, especially those that helped with the course carriage and er… ere….. erec…. Putting up and down, everyone for buzzing more than their fair share, Stu for taxing everyone and to Martin and Stefan for helping out in the centre.

Huge CONGRATULATIONS to Simon Thornton for the narrowest of wins over Martin Newnham and Graeme Mahoney. A very deserving top three. 

Full results below: (spreadsheet available on GBSRA website)

Simon Thornton8535.94
Martin Newnham8492.64
Graeme Mahoney8470.73
Greg Dakin8207.83
Stuart Wallace7899.10
John Treble7568.22
Andy Burgoyne7563.51
Ian Mason7510.26
Les Wood7240.14
Clayton Landells7073.16
Stefan Bertschi6510.46
Tony Livingstone6318.47

Welsh Winter League 2015 round 3

It was a wee bit chilly this morning but the views were spectacular and there was a bit of a breeze, so it was looking pretty good!

John Philips was first up and was whizzing around getting us all excited about some great times. It ended up that there was a bit of a thermal lottery going on and I had some dud tickets. Joel West had the golden ticket and the thumbs to go along with it although he only just pipped JP for the win with Tony Livingstone grabbing third overall.
 I managed to be the best placed welsh resident with thanks to Clive H Jones letting me just beat him to the second last place!
I've got to get the settings sorted. The air I got wasn't as bad as my times suggested and I think my thumbs were getting a bit excited.

Speaking of excited........ I'M GOING TO RUGEN FOR THE GERMAN OPEN!!!!!!
Lots of practice between now and then.

Massive thanks to Andrzej for his selflessness today to sit in the middle without flying and running the comp.
It was awesome to see everyone again today and I'm looking forward to more abd more great times on the slopes.
 See Andrzej's  blog for the results here: http://welsh-f3f.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/swsa-third-round-f3f-league-results.html?spref=fb&m=1
It's good to be back






Whitesheet Slalom Competition 9 November 2014

On Saturday I was tossing up either going to the Bwlch on Sunday for a test and set-up session in what promised to be some fantastic conditions on Mickeys slope or driving to Mere in Ingerland to have a lark about in their Slope Slalom competition. I decided to go to Whitesheet and begged for permission from the boss to leave earlier than we had planned to be at Whitesheet by 10am.

By a bit of a fluke and some creative interpretation of mr Plod's rules for the road, I arrived at exactly 10! I had intended on getting there an hour earlier to have a bit of a trimming flight, but my bed was just toooo comfy this morning.

It was great to catch up with some guys I had flown with previously and also to meet some personalities I had only 'seen' online. It was quite exciting for me to meet Pat Teakle and launch one of his scale planes and watch him throw it around the slalom course. He's quite handy with a transmitter as well as a building board!

The slalom comp consisted of launching out between the start/finish gate, flying left beyond gate 1, turning upslope towards gate 2, flying back towards gate 1 and around the outside of it, flying back out through the start finish gate and out passed gate 3, turning upslope to fly around gate 4 then back outside gate 3 and through the start finish gate. the pilot then walks back to gate 5 behind him/her and flies upslope to go around gate 5 and then out through the start finish gate. Initially we were going to try to fly a full 360 around gate 5, but the conditions were very weak at the start of the comp so just around it was called. Excuse my child-like attempt at using Paint!



There was some fantastic flying on display today with Joe Cubitt showing some class and a clean pair of heels!

My first flight was a very interesting one! The Skorp did not want to gain any height for the first couple of minutes. It stubbornly stayed below the level of my feet and would not allow me to drag it around the course. Finally a little burst of height enabled me to wring every last ounce of air out of the slope while trying very hard not to clip the deck. My hands were shaking like a leaf when I had finally finished, partly because I had not flown a glider in that manner (like it was a stolen foamy!) for ages and partly because I was just plain nervous. There were numerous Ooohs, Aarghs, gasps and the sucking of air through teeth coming from the peanut gallery as I was flying, so I'm glad it was entertaining! 4 minutes and 20 odd seconds was very very slow.

The second round was much better air and I probably could have come straight onto the course but decided to get a little bit of momentum first and flew a very respectable 1 minute 15 second run. Joe pipped me for fastest run of the day with an extremely clean 1 minute and 7 second stormer! It really was very nice to watch.

I really enjoyed the format and would like to possibly hold one at the Bwlch (VR slope or Mickeys West would be perfect). It was a great fun, relaxing format and I think the local yocals would really enjoy it too.

I took a video of Andy B doing a demonstration run and found it very difficult to flag and film at the same time. I found it equally as difficult to flag and film at the same time for my attempt at filming Martin D.

I drove for 4 hours today and flew 3 times. I had a great time and it was well worth the effort.

I had a bit of a giggle on the way home as I dropped down from the Severn Bridge into Wales. Sunny Wales wasn't so sunny and it rained nearly the whole Welsh leg of my journey. Wife said it had been raining for quite a while so I can justify quite easily the decision I made regarding not going to the local! And I don't want to hear that it was sunny and epic, from anyone!




4th and 5th August 2012 SLOPEGLIDE
The weather was not hugely inspiring for the 2012 installment of  the BARCS Slopeglide event held at the Bwlch in South Wales. Still 24 pilots arrived with anticipation for a fantastic event. For me this was my first event after having a break to concentrate on completing my study and helping at home.
I was very nervous before my first flight as not only was it my first F3F event in over a year, but it was also a re-maiden of my repaired and re-programmed Skorpion DSL. I really should have had a trimming flight before round one, but I was busy yapping to mates I haven't seen for a while.

Andrzej has written a really nice report from the weekend on the Welsh F3F blog which explaines the trials and tribulations of the event very well.

My first round flight was absolutely horrendous! Because I was too busy yapping, I had to fly the run holding 50% stick down elevator and flew a very poor 68sec run putting me firmly in last place.

We managed to fly five rounds on Saturday and by the end of day 1 I had managed to sort out the trims, gained some confidence and was flying a bit more like I know I can clawing my way up to 17th position. The rain came at about 2.30 and stopped F3F for the day and cleared in time for us to get ready to compete in the first aerobatic competition  I have ever seen. I was really quite excited about the aeros but the wind wasn't excited at all and decided to move itself to mickeys by which time it was too late to chase her over there and we called it a day after watching the legendary John Bennett go through the Aero routine for us (slightly fan assisted to get the required height) as a demonstration.

Sunday was a little bit of a brighter start to the day, but the wind had deserted us. Eventually there was enough of a blow to get underway on the Back of the Wrecker for day 2 of the event.





My first flight of day 2 should have been a round win. I will explain what happened because it might be entertaining and more so that I will remember the lesson.
I was waiting to fly, holding my fully ballasted Skorpion, watching Tom wobble about in less than inspiring lift. I had hoped that the thermal I could see just off the front of the slope would make it to the slope for my run, but decided I didn't want to 'land out' with my only F3F plane so I removed the ballast along with the spacer which I normally leave in place and popped them all in my pocket.
The thermal arrived midway through Mikes run directly before me and I knew I had a chance of getting a great time.
I launched into the thermal and found that my plane had become the most unruly, twitchy and naughty little beasty who went vertical every time I moved the elevator even a tiny bit. It was the ugliest flight I have had for a very long time but still managed to be a half decent time. I was thinking on the day that the removal of the spacer might have altered the CG from 110 to 111 creating ultra-sensitivity. On further reflection today I think the combination of the further rearward CG and very aggressively rising air with a very light plane, caused any upward movements to be exaggerated and I couldn't get the plane to fly low enough. I also cut base B by a LONG way and did a very poor recovery. 

The rest of my flights had the spacer in place and I flew fairly well to get myself from 17th place overnight to 11th place by the end of the competition.

Andy Evans had his very first F3F event on the Sunday of Slopeglide and flew very well without any damage. It was great to see a new flyer taking part from Wales and am looking forward to watching Chris and Mark take part in their first events too.

Massive Congratulations to Joel West for winning the comp and huge thanks to Martin Newnham for organising it and CDing along with Andrzej Tabero.







The thunderstorm that sent us packing from the slope on Sunday was amazing and I am very glad we all made it away from the slope safely after seeing how close the lightning was when it struck about 100m from me. The power of nature is immense.



Oh Yeah, I forgot to mention, We Had Spectators!!!







Looking forward to possibly flying at the Welsh Open in September!
2011 BMFA F3F Nationals
Saturday didn’t really ‘dawn’ at all. Thirty competitors arrived at the Bwlch greeted by fog and rain. We didn’t see the sun all day and sat around in the clouds getting wet and frustrated. At 4ish, a desperate convoy of glider pilots made our way to Southerndown cliffs to try to at least fly something. It was almost promising when we arrived with the breeze a little bit off the slope but flyable. After about 15-20 minutes the clouds managed to drop low enough that our planes were disappearing at about 100 feet up, so we called it a day.

Met up with a few blokes for a curry Saturday night and had a very enjoyable meal in great company.

The forecast for Sunday was quite promising with a warm and sunny day on the cards with a decent breeze on the Back of the Wrecker. Those who got out of bed early were greeted at the Wrecker car park by thick clouds. I arrived just as the fog had dropped below the car park delivering a spectacular view. “Wow, what a view” I thought, “better get a photo”. Searched for my camera and realized that I had left both my stills and video cameras at home. Bugger!

Fortunately some other guys had remembered their cameras and have been kind enough to let me display some photos here for you.
These spectacular views were captured by Tom Foreman.




For me, Sunday’s racing was some of the best I have been to. The organization was slick and the flying was excellent. We managed to complete 8 rounds with 29 pilots in conditions that started out quite varied and became more consistent as the day progressed. The range of models on display was impressive to say the least. We had everything from Alliaj’s to Xenon’s, Fosa’s, Freestylers and Acacia II’s, Cyril’s, Ceres’ and Ascot’s.

Tom flying his Xenon (Photo by Simon Thornton)
















From my point of view, the Acacia II had a fantastic Swan-song (I have sold it now) enabling me to finish in eleventh place with 918 points. I have really enjoyed the ownership experience of the Acacia II and am fairly sure that I will eventually buy another one …………. Not before I have flown the paint off my Skorpions!!

                                        Simon Thornton also took this photo of me about to launch.


Tom Foreman captured some video on Sunday as well and has kindly let me show it to you here too.



The results for the 2011 BMFA F3F Nationals are:
1              Simon Thornton               6541.57      1000.00
2              Mark Redsell                   6502.31      993.99
3              Kev Newton                    6479.83      990.56
4              Martin Newnham             6334.70      968.37
5              Peter Gunning                  6292.70      961.95
6              Joel West                         6284.91     960.76
7              Adam Richardson             6223.19     951.32
8              Mike Evans                      6164.88     942.41
9              Greg Dakin                       6152.25    940.48
10           Keith Woods                     6111.02    934.18
11           Clayton Landells                6017.09    919.82
12           Frank Hulton                     5939.95    908.03
13           Andrzej Tabero                 5873.03    897.80
14           Rich Bago                          5809.14   888.03
15           Mick Walsh                       5802.42   887.00
16           Paul Middleton                   5770.05   882.05
17           Scott Ravenscroft               5744.77   878.19
18           Mark Abbotts                    5720.39   874.46
19           Dave Rumble                     5717.33   873.99
20           Jon Edison                         5491.28   839.44
21           Ian Mason                         5386.61   823.44
22           Paul Upton                         5383.18   822.91
23           Tom Foreman                    5319.04   813.11
24           Paul Stubley                       5264.55   804.78
25           Tony Robertson                 5198.63   794.70
26           Peter Burgess                    5176.49   791.32
27           Jason Bioletti                     4964.13   758.85
28           Mark Treble                      4800.78   733.88
29           John Treble                        4782.38   731.07




Fastest time of the day was a 37.89 by Pete Gunning with his Cyril





Simon Thornton (Fosa), Mark Redsell (Freestyler) and Kev Newton (Ceres) were separated by a miniscule 9.45 normalised points for the first three positions! Close stuff!!






Photos of the Winners taken by Tom Foreman

Round 2 SWSA Ken Philips Trophy

Nine blokes arrived at the meeting point greeted by overcast skies and a reasonable breeze. Actually there were ten arrivals, but Andrzej has had a massive time at work lately so he just popped up to deliver the course equipment and then went home to recuperate ready for another smashing week at work. So the nutty nine competitors made our way up to the West slope of Mickeys and got the course set up in double-quick time (thanks for that!) and we were off and running.
John Treble was first cab off the rank and he had an absolute blast of a day bettering his PB twice along the way with his best time of the day being a 43.46. His Extreme was screaming and he kept raving about how good it was all day.
Bob Runyeard deserves a special mention as this was his first ever F3F event and he was competing with a Typhoon 2m model. He managed to set his PB at 43.26 getting second place in that round only beaten by Martin Newnham. We were all extremely impressed and are sure that he is now well and truly hooked and will be back for more!
Phil Taylor also needs a special mention for being the only person I have ever witnessed doing a 72 second run in 35 second air! After cutting twice, he decided to display his flair and creativity with an aerobatic influenced F3F run. I also believe he was the only person on the day to fly three models with the wizard being the fastest for him, but ‘Fletcher’ definitely being the most eye-catching.
Adrian Bedford and I (Clayton Landells, just in case you didn’t know) had a really close race today. For the first round it was Skorp F3B verses Skorp DSL. In round two I had a brain fart that resulted in my Skorpion clipping the ground and cartwheeling ¾ of the length of the course bringing out the Acacia II for the remainder of the day. I was gradually extending my lead over Ade most of the day and in the last three rounds Ade made huge gains on me and was as close as damn is to swearing to beating me to fourth place overall leaving him in fifth.
Stu Brookes flew really consistently all day to finish in sixth place followed by John Treble, BobbyR and Phil Taylor.
The top three positions were filled by the usual suspects of Joel West, Martin Newnham and Simon Thornton. 
Simon was hot straight out of the blocks, first flying his Alliaj HM and then giving his Fosa a good thrashing for the rest of the day. After taking eight of the first nine rounds he was looking untouchable and did not relinquish the lead at all, eventually winning ten of the fourteen rounds flown. Outstanding display by a masterful pilot!
Martin and Joel had more of a battle for the two lower podium places and were both very keen to get the fourteenth round in to get the second discard and give themselves the best chance of second place. In the end there was only a few points in it with Martin just pipping Joel for second place.
Round winners other than Simon (WITH TEN!!!!!!!!!!!) were Martin with two rounds and Joel and myself with one each. Martin also flew the fastest time of the day with a blistering 33.08! The finishing positions are below and the spreadsheet is available under the 'files' tab on the F3F yahoo group  for your perusal and enjoyment.
Thanks to Simon for helping me with the CD duties and everyone else for helping to keep the day running smoothly and helping where required. I really enjoyed the day today and am looking forward to the next one already.

Scores and points:

1  S Thornton          12811.47   1000.00
2  M Newnham       12219.55    953.79
3  J West                12199.25    952.21
4  C Landells          11311.14    882.89
5  A Bedford          11284.06    880.77
6  S Brookes          10893.21    850.27
7  J Treble              10553.34    823.74
8  B Runyeard        10242.69    799.49
9  P Taylor             10003.29    780.80


Here are a couple of photos.







BMFA F3F round 3 2011

Up before the crack of dawn had even contemplated warming up (3am) and headed off towards the North York Moors for round 3 of the 2011 BMFA F3F league. The forecast hinted at some showers and predicted that it might be a little bit blowy! Well the 30-odd competitors that braved the conditions weren't quite expecting the wind to be that strong. During the day I noticed quite a few people asking for the wind strength to be checked (I think they were scared, hehe) but I'm not aware that the wind exceeded the limit during the comp.

The wind was slightly crossed for the first few rounds with the occasional thermic influence squaring the wind a little giving hints at teh speeds to come later in the day. Martin Newnham blew us all away in round 1 flying a staggering 32 second run, setting the standard for the rest of the day.

Landing safely was a bit of an issue! The strength of the wind made finding a smooth area behind the slope difficult to say the least and quite a few competitors were caught out (myself included). I managed to get forced into the ground fairly convincingly resulting in a snapped fuselage and broken V-tail half. Easily repairable so should have her up and running for the next event.











As I mentioned earlier, some of the times were absolutely ballistic!
Mark Redsell in particular had some amazing flights with 30.90 being his fastest for the day.
There were 40 times under 40 seconds for the day! The conditions were pretty impressive, as was the flying!

I finally managed to beat my PB (previously set with the Acacia II at 39.89) with the Skorp by flying a 38.19 just as the conditions really started to pick up. I then managed to break the fuselage so thought my day was pretty much done.

Not true though!!! The old faithful Acacia II decided that it was not to be outdone and gave me two more sub40 times, the first a 39.xx and the second took the fastest time of the final round with a 36.19!!!! So my new PB is still with the Acacia II. She lapped up the conditions in the afternoon and I am sure she would have gone faster as I made a few mistakes (only little ones though). Things happen pretty quickly at those sorts of times!
I was pretty knackered when I finally arrived back home at 11.30pm! Well worth the effort though.

The top 3 for the event were Mark Redsell, Joel West and Peter Gunning. Mark was definitely a cut above the rest with a substantial lead by the end of the day.

I managed to finish in 7th place and am really pleased with myself.
The finishing positions and scores from the day are at bottom.





















I didn't get any pics of Mark flying his Freestyler (except for the one at the top (he is CDing for Mike). Joel (left) flew his Freestyler like a clinician and Pete (right) thrashed Cyril to within an inch of its life.

I took a few clips of video and will try to put them together with some photos and music later in the week.

Thanks to Adam Richardson for keeping me awake while I was driving.
Thanks also to the NYMSRC for hosting a fantastic day.

RESULTS

1 Mark Redsell Freestyler                          4941.27   1000
2 Joel West Freestyler                               4551.82    921
3 Peter Gunning Cyril                                 4504.14    912
4 Martin Newnham Freestyler                    4487.32    908
5 Paul Middleton Vikos                             4390.11    888
6 Keith Wood Freestyler                           4300.33    870
ME Skorp / Acacia II                             4281.42    866
8 Richard Bago Alliaj                                 4268.41    864
9 Mark Abbotts Extreme                           4038.47    817
10 Mike Evans Cyril                                  4023.94    814
11 Mick Walsh Ceres                                4018.54    813
12 Simon Thornton Extreme                       4015.92    813
13 John Thornton Skorp                            3980.38    806
14 Frank Hulton Extreme                           3964.74    802
15 Mike Shellim Skorp                              3956.77    801
16 Adam Richardson Needle100/Extreme  3907.21    791
17 Jon Edison Sting                                    3885.81    786
18 Mike McCracken Extreme                    3763.13    762
19 Dave Watson Race M                           3713.36    751
20 Ronnie Lamp Sting                                3696.64    748
21 Paul Upton Acacia II                             3640.93    737
22 George Young Vikos / Skorp                3546.51    718
23 Tom Foreman Zenon / Artist                  3523.65    713
24 Egon Lewin Acacia II                            3367.89    682
25 Tony Robertson Ceres                           3246.54    657
26 Phil Smillie Acacia II                              3242.22    656
27 Mark Treble W. Compact                     3137.50    635
28 Jonathan Wells Estrella                          2745.49    556
29 Kev Knewton Fosa                               2268.74    459
30 Steve Kenyon Strega                            1494.35     302

Round 1 SWSA Ken Philips Trophy F3F
Well today was a very interesting day!
8 competitors were greeted on the Westerly slope of Mickeys by a fairly chilly breeze and overcast sky. We completed 6 rounds before lunch with some absolutely blistering times being set before the rain decided to slow our party down a bit. There were many times in the mid 30's with John Phillips taking the fastest time of the day with a 35.15.

After lunch the conditions seemed slightly less variable, with less thermal activity. The times were still pretty fast with low 40's taking each of the last six rounds.

Joel, Martin and Simon all flew extremely well to take the top three spots for the day. It was very, very close at the top!

John Treble  deserves a mention as flying his new Extreme he was off to a stonking start of the day, setting a new PB and pulverizing me in each of the first six rounds. Well Done John! 

I had an absolute shocker! I had the slowest time of 4 out of the first 6 rounds and left myself a mountain of work to catch John Treble. Don't know where my head was at, but it seems like a bit of a recurring theme for me at the moment. 

Second half of the competition went much better for me after it was pointed out that my climb-outs were pretty ineffective (I am sure I have been told this before!). I removed some ballast, adjusted the snapflap (not to help the climb-out!) and the Skorp was a different beast for the rest of the day.

Thanks to the guys for supporting the KPT by coming along, competing and helping the day to flow smoothly.


I took some video today while I was CDing and unfortunately you can only see the planes while they are below the horizon so the footage isn't worth working with. I took some photos though and a few are attached below




Here are the finishing positions and scores:
 1
 Joel West
10434.66
2
 Martin Newnham
10406.79
3
 Simon Thornton
10289.88
4
 John Phillips
10054.10
5
 Greg Dakin
9927.57
6
 Andrzej Tabero
9550.74
7
 Clayton Landells
9048.00
8
 John Treble
8398.98



Round 2 of the BMFA F3F league from Tinkers 

Massive congratulations to Joel West for finally taking his first win in the BMFA and also setting a new hill record of 36.25 seconds on Tinkers in challenging and very changeable conditions.


The results are:


1  Joel West          Freestyler          7417.08
2  Mark Redsell       Alliaj/Freestyler   7259.00
3  Richard Bago       Alliaj/Martinet     7187.46
4  Simon Thornton     Extreme             7150.49
5  Martin Newnham     Freestyler          7013.28
6  Peter Gunning      Alliaj/Cyril        6853.76
7  Adam Richardson    Vampire             6627.46
8  Mark Abbotts       Extreme             6545.65
9  Paul Upton         Acacia II/W.Compact 6524.24
10 David Elam         Strega/Sting        6466.77
11 Frank Hulton       Extreme             6361.84
12 Kieth Wood         Freestyler/Sting    6349.24
13 Jon Edison         Extreme             6263.87
14 John Thornton      Skorpion            6256.60
15 Clayton Landells   Skorpion/Acacia II  6173.05
16 Ronnie Lampe       Sting/Strega        6158.47
17 Mick Walsh         Ceres               6087.90
18 Paul Townsend      Skorpion/Strega     5957.56
19 Tim Shaw           Vikos/Acacia II     5902.39
20 Mark Treble        W.Compact           5644.56
21 Phil Smillie       Acacia II           5339.58
22 Egon Lewin         Acacia II           5256.32
23 Mike Evans         Freestyler          4581.60
24 Tom Foreman        Artist              1915.62









For me, it was a reasonably frustrating day as I struggled to keep the Skorp away 

from the edge in the very blustery conditions. 

I was also experimenting with different lines, settings and styles for the first 2/3 of the day.

The conditions eased off for the last few rounds and I found that I was able to put the Skorp where I wanted. 

I was feeling much better about my flying after crossing the line in round 8.



I was then caught out by the change in conditions on my approach to landing. 

In previous rounds, there was very little rotor as the hill was almost blown out. 

On my landing for this second-last round, I put the crows out to find that the Skorp was 
accelerating at my head. I took evasive action with the plane and managed to 
de-laminate one of the wings at the trailing edge. 
Bummer!

It could have been a whole lot worse and I am pretty lucky to still have her in one piece.

I flew the last round with my trusty AcaciaII and was happy to be finished for the day.

A quick bit of an accolade.
Paul Upton flew amazingly well and finished in the top 10 in his first ever F3F event. 
He predominantly flew his AcaciaII! 
I wish I could fly mine like he flew his!

I managed to leave the video in my car, so no vids.
I only got the camera out for a short while and below are the results of the shutter fluttering.

Below is Tom launching Paul's AcaciaII



Joel willing Simon's Extreme on (or is that willing it slower)