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