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