BMFA F3F Nationals - Scotland - 3rd & 4th June

[Greg Dakin]

Real shame Pete, and I feel as guilty as the next man for not supporting you. But with work pressures, lack of 'me time', an elderly parent to look after, and an excursion to Norway next week to cram in, I just couldn't take on another epic round trip.

Both JP and I were really keen to join you, but the time / cost commitments of a weeks flying at Lofoten have exceeded our brownie points.

I've absolutely loved my times at Lomond, both at the VR and 2 x BMFA rounds, so all three trips to Scotland have been superb.

From a personal perspective, and I know that this sounds controversial, but I think that we have too many F3F contests in the calendar, especially with Eurotour rounds becoming en vogue. Now that our numbers are diminishing, a reduced number of events and a few more weeks of downtime may engender greater enthusiasm and 'sense of occasion'. 

One for discussion over a couple of £10 a pint rounds in Legnes 😊

See you next week.

Cheers,

Greg

[Peter G]

Thanks Greg, you make a good point and its certainly worth discussing. I look forward to a few beers in Norway soon

[Peter G]

Well today turned out pretty well with 18 rounds flown on a mostly sunny East Lomond with about 9-10ms of wind and some thermal assistance here and there.

 

Saturday was not so good, with the BBC forecast proving to be the correct one (as opposed to XC weather) it was a NE wind that greeted us at East Lomond gradually moving round to be flyable in the South by early afternoon but we only had time to fly 6 of 7 pilots before a shower stopped play. After the shower, the wind had carried on moving round to the West so we lost those two rounds.

 

However, today was fine so we started again with times mostly around the 50 second mark all day, notable exceptions in the first two rounds were Dave with a 40.91 and Mark with a 41.23. Rounds 3 & 4 saw some wuicker times with Ewan on 43/44 and Mike with a sweet pair of 40’s, I flew 43/41. At this early stage it was Mark leading from Ewan and Mike…

 

We all flew pretty consistent times in the mid to high 40’s in rounds 5 and 6, Ewan being fastest in round 5 with a 42.95 and me in round 6 with a 46.60. Ewan slipped into the lead. Rounds 7 and 8 were mainly low 50’s, it was clouded over and pretty cold before lunch but I hooked some very nice air in round 8 for an FTD of 37.29 which took me from 5th to 1st place!

 

After lunch the variability was a bit more pronounced for a while before improving later in the day, Mark took round 9 with a 44 and I took 10 with a 41.95. I think Ewan copped worst air of the day in 11 & 12 with a 58 and 61 but the fastest were 49’s with me and Mike flying 49’s in both rounds, George was quickest in 10 with a 48.14.

Mike and Dave were desperate to go sub-40 on the day having been tantalisingly close, Dave was very close in round 14 with a 40.40 and Mark T too on 40.22, Mike was a whisker away in 15 with a 40.14 but the elusive East Lomond sub-40 was not to be for them on the day. With nice sunshine and fluffy clouds from 2pm onwards, we decided to carry on flying as it was fun and fast.

Mike flew very well in 15 and 16 for a 40/41 combo which consolidated his 2nd position, I had a 45/39 as Mike made me laugh with his CDing and I had a nibbly cut. Most people had one fast one slow in rounds 17 and 18 showing how quickly the good air was cycling through late on, Dave again coming close to sub-40 in the last round with a 41.14. It ended up pretty close at the top and for 3rd with results below:

1              Peter Gunning                   15366.51              1000.00

2              Mike McCracken              15240.09              991.77

3              Mark Treble                       14787.14              962.29

4              David Watson                    14477.03              942.11

5              Ewan Maxwell                   14304.54              930.89

6              George Young                   14193.14              923.64

FTD Peter Gunning 37.29

I had organised prizes rather than trophies so the top 3 had a choice of beer, wine or chocolates and I think everyone was happy with the day!

Thanks to everyone for coming and Mark for travelling, glad we got a good amount of flying to make it worthwhile.

[George Young]

Brilliant day and fantastic to get so many rounds in.

 

[mtreble]

Some more photos of the day.

 

[Gromit]

A great report Pete, thank you very much for putting this together & posting.

So nice to see some pics, thank you guys for posting these . Spectacular views

   Stu.