little vid from BMFA round 3 Hole of Horcum

Vid from Joel West

Here is a quick video taken and edited by Joel West.
It shows a run at the Hole of Horcum from John Thornton, Mike Shellim and Mark Redsell. Screen fills up with my ugly mug at the end

Round 3 BMFA F3F 22 May 2011

Mike Evans finally had some good air when he was delayed and flew in someone else's slot










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
7 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

managed to put together a small clip from Yesterday's racing

It's on youtube as well if you prefer that, just follow the link to my youtube vids page

KPT results from Round 1

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

Ken Philips Trophy 2011, round 1

Tomorrow is the first round of the 2011 SWSA F3F Summer League. Forecast looks to be putting us on the Westerly slope of Mickeys. Hopefully the weather plays nice and the possibility of low cloud spoiling our day doesn't materialise. We've definitely got enough wind coming our way, the forecasts can't make up their mind about direction though, so we will just have to 'suck it and see'.
Should be a blast though. I'll let you know how I get on and hopefully get some photos or video (harder to achieve at the local events as I generally help out with the running of the day).

Round 2 at Tinkers

Round 2 of the BMFA F3F league has been run and won.

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)

Huddersfield, here I come!

Managed to get the assignment submitted today, so I will be "up and at 'em" bright and early tomorrow to be out the door by 4am.

Really looking forward to tomorrow's comp (not the driving 9 hours so much), should be a blast!

Must remember the camera and video too.

Round 2 of the BMFA F3F league this Sunday

Can I make it along to Huddersfield?

I hope so, Fingers crossed.

I found out yesterday that I had the wrong date for submission of an assignment at Uni and instead of a relaxing 16 days to get it done, I ended up with 5!! HAHAHAHAHA.........Drongo.

Here's a big F... off exasperated sigh and shake of the head.


I had my head down and bum up yesterday and have the day off today to devote all my time and energy to getting this assignment ready by Saturday night so that I can go to Huddersfield on Sunday and have the assignment in on Monday morning.

Here is some info about the HDMAC. We will hopefully be flying at Tinkers.

The club is a short stroll from here (not) at about 4.5 hours drive away.

Anyway, taraah for now, got some study to do

Vid from Joel

There is swearing throughout but it captures the atmosphere of the day really well!

Greg Daiken, John Phillips and Joel West Video from the Crest

I put together a little clip from the flying on Sunday

I am still struggling to get the actual footage on the camera to be decent, it always ends up really glarey and 'white's out' easily. Next time out, I might make sure I give the lense a good clean and see if that makes a difference

Windy day on the Crest with some good English company

Arrived at the Crest today to be greeted by winds ranging from 35 mph to 60 mph, Wow it was going to be fun!

Some mates from down south had made the pilgrimage to Wales for the day too and it was fantastic to watch Joel West, Greg Daiken, Jon Sage and John Phillips rip up the epic welsh lift. Rog Brown had also made the trip to the Bwlch for the day from Swansea to play.

I set up the Skorp and wandered towards the cliff edge and the rotor promptly smacked one of the flaps down onto my head and popped a servo out! I had a pretty good giggle at that and went back to the pits to glue the servo back in place.

Next up was my Flying Fish. This slippery little 60inch moulded fiberglass model was loaded up with all it's ballast and ready for some high speed action which it delivered very nicely with huuuuge pumps and loops until I got a little bit too eager on the elevator at the bottom of a pump and asked too much of the wing. The little beasty disintegrated in the air with one half of the wing fluttering its way merrily towards Port Talbot and the fuselage and other half of the wing burying themselves in the side of the cliff. At least she went out in a blaze of glory! I am going to save my pennnies for a D60 as a replacement.

The outstanding plane of the day for me was Greg's Alliaj! That thing is sooooo freaking fast!!!!! It just kept eating up the sky.

Rog took some video today of my Fish and Greg's Alliaj and the clip finishes with his Suraci doing what it does best, inverted flat spins to landing. It landed so far away that we had a search party go and find it.
Here is Rogers clip on Vimeo



The epoxy I used for the wing servo refused to go off in the cool breeze and I didn't get the opportunity to fly the Skorp until right at the end of the day. It was worth the wait though! My hands were shaking after a few minutes as the incredible speed combined with some pretty turbulent air got my adrenaline flowing. Managed to find a Rotor-free area to land after screaming around and got her home in one piece.

While I was waiting for the epoxy to set, John Phillips let me set up his Half Pipe 48 on my transmitter so that I could have a play with it instead of just sitting and watching (thanks John). I had heaps of fun with it and managed to return it to John in one piece too.

I took some video today but the footage is quite poor so I'm not sure if I can use any of it to make a decent clip but I'll see what I can conjure up in the next few days.

Next weekend I am off to Huddersfield for the second round of the BMFA F3F League and will let you know how I go.

Turrah