F3FUK-Soaring: June 2013

Sun, 24 degrees, a view across the Welsh Valleys, just a few more ingredients, wind 10m\s increasing through the day to around 15m\s coming from the ENE direction placing us on Britain’s premier slope ‘THE WRECKER’ along with plenty of good air (thermals;-) ) And finally, 32 pilots to compete in the BMFA F3F Nationals 2013 Championships. It all made for a really fantastic weekend in South Wales.

Meet on day one was 8:15am to get registration and pilot numbers out of the way. Simon Thornton and Andrzej worked on getting the course out, setup and 10:15 we was able to get the first of 8 rounds on the way and the start of a total of a 123 sub forties including one sub thirty.

As the early rounds started it was clear that a mid to low sub forty was going to be required if you wanted to stay in touch with the early leaders. The round takers for the day were as follows:

Round 1

1^st Martin Newnham 35.54
2^nd Jonathan Wells 38.14
3^rd Mike Shellim 38.47

Round 2

1^st Joel West 29.75
2^nd Scott Ravenscroft 33.02
3^rd Greg Dakin 34.58

Round 3

1^st Martin Newnham 31.87
2^nd Mark Abbotts 32.60
3^rd Joel West 32.73

Round 4

1^st Martin Newnham 31.86
2^nd Joel West 32.71
3^rd Mark Redsell 34.11

Round 5

1^st Joel West 33.76
2^nd Mark Redsell 34.79
3^rd Paul Garnett 35.62

Round 6

1^st John Phillips 32.87
2^nd Greg Dakin 34.12
3^rd Paul Upton 34.24

Round 7

1^st Joel West 32.65
2^nd Mark Redsell 32.91
3^rd Mark Abbotts 32.97

Round 8

1^st Mike Evans 31.92
2^nd Paul Upton 34.98
3^rd Rich Bago 35.29

Each round requires a 300 metre walk to the landing area, by the end of the day everyone was suitable exercised and ready to get back to the various hotels to sooth the sunburn and get ready for the curry.

Mark Abbotts had taken care of the food arrangements at a different curry house for a change, those of you that stayed away missed some great food, Mark also excelled in laying on street entertainment, and you had to be there to understand.

Day 2 we meet at 8:30am again Simon and Andrzej got the course organised whilst I updated the pilot flying list. The wind again put us on the Wrecker and the normally most trusted sites for the area suggested it would stay there all day, this unfortunately wasn’t the case and by the time it swung round it was too late to change location and re-setup on the Crest.

We did manage a further 3 rounds:

Round 9

1^st Paul Upton 37.47
2^nd Jonathan Wells 37.52
3^rd Mark Abbotts 38.63

Round 10

1^st Paul Upton 33.46
2^nd Joel West 35.43
3^rd Mike Shellim 36.41

Round 11

1^st Mike Evans 38.42
2^nd Martin Newnham 38.45
3^rd Rich Bago 38.62

Even with the early finish it made for a great weekend, the standard of flying by every pilot was excellent and I am sure there are some new PB’s to be updated to the list which is growing with every contest we have in UK as is the numbers to each event.

Special thanks have to go Andrzej who CD’d the whole weekend, he kept it flowing and without him we wouldn’t have completed the rounds we did. As a pilot that takes dedication for so many others to be able to enjoy their flying, whilst he choose not to.

Simon Thornton made sure the course was up and ready to go at the start of each day and disassembled it at the end of each day. John Phillips our buzzer supreme kept the base going over both days, which isn’t easy trying to make sure a pilot is back in time ready to fly in each round. Thanks to all of you and to all the other pilots that take the time to get involved rather than letting the normal individuals take the load.

You have already seen the results from the weekend; Joel West flew stunningly, not one mistake all weekend and is without and doubt a deserved British Champion for our sport. He also took fastest time of the competition posting a 29.75 in the second round.

Left to right: Mark Redsell 3rd, Joel West 1st, martin Newnham 2nd

1	Joel West	9565.03	1000.00	Freestyler 4
2	Martin Newnham	9258.30	967.93	Freestyler 4
3	Mark Redsell	9082.52	949.55	Freestyler 4
4	Mark Abbotts	8965.73	937.34	Caldera
5	Paul Upton	8948.36	935.52	RaceMX
6	Mike Evans	8828.10	922.95	Freestyler 4
7	Greg Dakin	8814.82	921.56	Needle124
8	Rich Bago	8686.53	908.15	Avalon\Needle124
9	John Phillips	8648.37	904.16	AirOne
10	Jonathan Wells	8567.77	895.73	Needle124
11	Tom Foreman	8540.41	892.87	Stinger
12	Mike Shellim	8509.74	889.67	New Sting
13	Frank Hulton	8470.78	885.59	New Sting
14	Mark Treble	8329.90	870.87	Freestyler 3\ Needle124
15	Paul Garnet	8292.64	866.97	Needle124\Crossfire
16	Keith Wood	8287.31	866.41	Freestyler3
17	Simon Thornton	8190.99	856.34	Needle124
18	Scott Ravenscroft	8090.49	845.84	Vampire
19	Andy Burgoyne	8047.21	841.31	Radical
20	Ronnie Lampe	8025.52	839.04	Needle124\Strager
21	Graeme Mahoney	8023.17	838.80	Cyril
22	Jon Edison	7770.78	812.41	Needle124
23	Tony Livingston	7625.39	797.21	Freestyler3\Needle124
24	Mick Walsh	7574.89	791.93	Needle124
25	Martin Drewett	7557.62	790.13	Pitbull
26	Ian Web	7036.83	735.68	Vikos\Needle100
27	Tony Robertson	6984.54	730.21	Freestyler4
28	John Treble	6976.09	729.33	Extreme
29	Pete Burgess	6899.84	721.36	Extreme
30	John Bennett	6118.42	639.66	Willow
31	Ron Boughton	4613.79	482.36
32	Ian Falconer	1947.98	203.65	Willow

Thank you everyone for making it such an enjoyable weekend, I look forward to seeing you on the slope again soon. I have plenty of pictures and I know Mike Shellim also took plenty; I will post what I have soon.

Best regards

Martin