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

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.

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