Mechelinki / Gdansk Spring Cup F3F Poland

Unfortunately I wasn't able to update the site whilst I was away but finally I have had chance to put something together to share below:

We traveled out to Gdansk 2 days early hoping to get some practice in on some of the slopes that maybe used for the Spring Cup, which started on Friday 17/05/13. After getting to our hotel, The Faltom (Which I would recommend to anyone considering traveling to Poland) Wednesday evening. We were up early Thursday and headed out, after visiting a couple of the slope we stayed at Klif and managed a few hours of practice. Martin Ulrich met up with us around 5ish before we headed down to register for the competition

Martin Kopp, Markus Messiner and Martin Ulrich were also staying at the Faltom, which made for a good company and interesting discussions around all types of flying, not just F3F each evening around the table.

Wind direction day one was southeast which put us on slope 6 at Gniew over looking some beautiful scenery including the river. Air was very difficult; I ran 2 models all day at different ballast weights, in case a fast change was needed. Simon also using his fuz ballast in the Needle 124 to full affect in case a fast change was needed. 

Simon definitely had the most difficult out of the two of us on day one, but flew every leg to its maximum not wasting anything. I didn't have great air either, but it was more consistent, letting me settle the model quickly in each round, therefore enabling me to gain faster times. Martin Ziegler and David Stary certainly had the best of the slope air, and flew it exceptionally well. Sigi also got a nice 39.xx on the first day and was overall consistent throughout

Day 2 on the same slope started well for Simon and me, although Sigi again got a sub forty to make it difficult to catch him, we were still doing what we could to press on the leaders. Then Simon changed everything, with a 36.xx and fastest time of the comp. The next closest score in the round was 838 pts by Markus, this changed a lot of drops from the first 6 rounds including me. But Mr Consistent got the chance and took it full on, so well deserved Simon.

Simon took another round later on as the air became more difficult to deal with. Rain and thunder brought the day to an end after 11 rounds being completed. By the end of the 2^nd day it was impossible to work out where we stood in the order of things other than Simon had made good progress.

This is mine and Simon’s second trip to Poland and it was BRILLIANT again, Jakub Bury and his team did a fantastic job running the competition. The Barbeque was set by the Baltic Sea and all the pilots had time to relax and enjoy each other’s company.  Many of the Polish team that ran the competition were also pilots, but they gave up there flying so we could all enjoy ours as competitors. This always amazes me, but it just shows how much they want to be successful at what they do for the rest of us.

Piotr Stec did a great job updating each round scores and keeping the website up to date all the way through. From Great Britain I just want to say big THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard.

Detailed Results Below: