English Open 2016

[Ribs]

All,

With no small regret, their will not be an English Open F3f competition held this year at Whitesheet Radio Flying club.

Unfortunately (or perhaps just the opposite!) there are so many f3f events planned for 2016 that jiggling the calendar along with other club comps, Scale events and general national events (such as the BMFA Power Nats etc) provided no solution. The committee felt that tying to shoe-horn the event in would either pull flyers away from other great competitions, or would be poorly attended and therefore not fitting for such a great event that has run so well in the past.

We very much hope to set our date for 2017 super-early (sometime this year) and perhaps in future the comp will be a biennial event.

best wishes,

Chris

WSRFC

 

[Gromit]

   Hello All,                            

It was with great sadness & disappointment that I read Chris’s above post regarding the loss of this years English Open. I do however understand the reasons why the committee have reluctantly made this very difficult decision. From my 3 yrs as Whitesheet comp sec I know only too well how difficult it is to organise & set comp dates.

Speaking as being the person responsible, (with much valued encouragement & assistance from former WRFC chairman Lynda Blythe), for successfully re-introducing, re-establishing, organising and running this event over these past two years, I wish to say a few words to everyone. In particular to the very many person’s that have so excellently supported both the event & myself these past 2 yrs. I know that many are as disappointed as I am that the event is very sadly not going to be held this year.

Following the very traumatic illness & very sad loss in November of our outstandingly brave & courageous son Tom, following his 10 month fight against Lymphoma & HLH, it was with much sadness that I decided that for the benefit of the Club, & my own personal situation, I needed to step down as WRFC Comp Sec for 2016. I knew I would not be able to perform in this busy role this yr. Given my continued significant on-going poor health since Tom died, this decision has proven to be correct.

 Over the last 2 of the 3 yrs that I was Whitesheet Comp Sec, I put in a very significant amount of both time & effort negotiation with both the adjoining land owner / farmer of our club slopes, & the local Paragliding Club, to successfully secure the use of additional slopes. When combining these with those of the WRFC all wind directions are now covered, the comp is therefore non reliant on wind direction. This being something that frustratingly many Whitesheet comps have historically fallen down upon many times over many yrs.

I have successfully secured two most excellent sponsors for the event, these being Peter Payne owner of South Coast Sailplanes, & Tony Fu of Sloperacer. As well as together sponsoring the three stunning English Open ‘Free Flying Eagles’ Trophies, both Peter & Tony have each donated excellent first prizes for the winner of the competition, Tony an RCRCM Schwing, & Peter an X models carbon 1.9 blade. Both Peter & Tony’s sponsorship & support of the event has been truly excellent.

In addition to this sponsorship, I have secured excellent on-going yr on yr support of the events raffle, this being generously donated by Steve Webb of Steve Webb models & Servo Shop, Graham Buckingham of Bucks Composites, & Neil Bradbury of Spire Models. The support given to the event by all three of these retailers over the past 2 yrs has been truly excellent.

Most importantly of all, the enthusiasm & support given by pilots across the UK has been most excellent. Last yr I received & registered 40 entries before the deadline, & 6 late entries, a further 6 pilots sent me emails of apology of absence due to family holidays. In addition I received many emails from pilots across the country wishing me every success with the event.  WOW, such support makes spending all the time & effort involved in organising & running the event very worthwhile, my thanks to you all.

 As can be clearly seen from all that I have written above, the support for the event has been excellent. It is my own personal goal & commitment, whether I am Whitesheet Comp Sec, or comp sec assistant, to ensure that the English Open (with the sad exception of this yr) is an annual event & is a highlight of the UK F3f calender.

 

With the event very sadly not being staged this year, I wish to give a very deserved public thank you to the highly valued events Sponsors & supporters. Additionally I wish to publicly apologies to them for the loss of this years event.

Sponsors;-   Peter Payne at South Coast Sailplanes http://www.south-coast-sailplanes.com & Tony Fu at Sloperacer, http://www.sloperacer.co.uk/ 

Supporters & Raffle prize donators ;-  Steve Webb of Steve Webb models & Servo Shop, http://www.stevewebb.co.uk   http://www.sevoshop.co.uk/   

Graham Buckingham of Bucks Composites http://www.bucks-composites.com  

Neil Bradbury of Spire Models, Laverstock, nr Salisbury. Tel 01722 415541.

 Finally, I wish to give a personal thank you to all the pilots who have supported the event, & to the persons who have encouraged, advised & supported me over the past 2 yrs in re-establishing the English Open into the UK F3f calender

I very much look forward to everyone’s continued excellent support of the English Open 2017.

Details of the event will be announced on BARCS in due course.

      Thanks & kindest Regards to all,

                Stu.