Thursday 30 June 2011

BMFA F3F Nationals 2011: the result

Sorry it has taken me a while to get around to writing about my experiences at the 2011 BMFA F3F Nationals, been a bit busy.

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

Thursday 23 June 2011

BMFA F3F Nationals 2011

The 2011 BMFA F3F nationals are taking place at the Bwlch this weekend (both Saturday and Sunday).

Really looking forward to a great, action-packed weekend. Unfortunately I will only be flying the Acacia II as I haven't been able to fix either Skorp. Bit bummed, but the Acacia II is a fantastic plane, especially in good conditions.

KPT vids

I have uploaded a selection of single-run videos from the KPT to my Vimeo account. Check them out via the link on the right.

I was intending to create a clip with music and effects'n'stuff but haven't and probably won't.

Here are a couple of photos.





Monday 20 June 2011

Round 2 of the KPT F3F

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.
I will add some photos and video later in the week.


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

Friday 10 June 2011


Had my first free Thursday for a while this week and booked myself a therapy session on Rhossili Down.
I had planned to get down to Rhossili early to get some 'no slope' racing practice on the 30 foot dunes at the base of Rhossili and arrived at 8.30 to find that the wind wasn't strong enough to warrant walking down to the dunes and decided to yomp it to the top instead.












I took my Acacia II, the Skorpion and the Wasabi and all three had a workout during the day. The Wasabi is a revelation for me with the type of flying it drags out being SO MUCH FUN! Hopefully soon I will have some more tricks to fill my videos with. Just got a little repair to do before I fly it again.

Had a great time flying with Roger and Andy in the sometimes quite crowded, but pleasant company of Hangliders and Paragliders.




Here is a short video from the day.

Friday 3 June 2011

Wasabi on the Wrecker

Fixed my Wasabi and made it to the Bwlch for a quick session on the wrecker.
This 60 inch plane is an absolute blast to fly! I can see that it will become my weapon of choice for larking about on the slopes. I'm quite excited about finally having a plane that I can throw around to stretch my aerobatic capabilities. Hopefully it will help me to make some more interesting videos too.
Speaking of videos, I took my tripod and video camera along for the re-maiden and cobbled together a quick clip to the sounds of Wolfmother. I should have set up the headcamera a bit for some more variety of shots, but only had an hour.
When I was making the video, I cut heaps of slack out, sorted clips into appropriate sections that fit with the music, pressed 'save' and ........... crash. Nothing. So the version I have uploaded is unfortunately a bit of a mishmash, with the clip I wanted to use for the final fying shot placed at about 2 min instead of at the end, and also a bit too much view with no plane.

I first put the clip on Youtube as it was too big for the free version of Vimeo and I wasn't inclined to splash out for Vimeo PLUS membership.
Youtube likes to restrict lots of vids from being watched in Germany, where there are an incredible amount of people who love gliding, so I have joined vimeo plus and uploaded it there.
Now I just need to make sure I get my 'monies worth'

Hope you enjoy the vid



Wednesday 1 June 2011

Uni work is done and dusted!

Time to crack on with some repairs and finish a couple of builds. Just a pity I missed a few weeks of fantastic sloping weather while I was sitting at the computer pulling all my hair out!

First up, I'll finish (to flying, not showroom standard) the Wasabi, then I'll repair the Skorp and fit out the new fuselage for the Skorp DSL wings. Should keep me busy for a while and I'll see what bits I have left to recycle into other planes when I'm done.

Hopefully get out for a squirt with the Wasabi tomorrow, weather permitting.