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!!
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