Leaderboard

Fantastic week away in sunny Norway!!!! I'm pretty much bankrupt now, but it was worth it for the 'cabin experience', JP's win, Simon's podium and Pete's stonking final day performance, which was superb. The only downsides were the variable air, cost of beer and burgers, aniseed ice-cream, and Joel's fish flakes Espen and his team organised the event superbly, the US guys loved Joel's "insultathon" at the banquet, and JP and I almost drank the local supermarket dry of Pilsener and Magners - all marvellous stuff!!! Lofoten is a pain to get to, but the internal flight regime in Norway is superb, so all we needed to do was find our way to the various gates. The final flight in a Dash 8 was excellent - suitably bumpy and entertaining, with fantastic scenery and a real sense of entering a very remote location - the Ice Station Zebra of F3F Unlikely that I'll be heading out there again, unless I get an invitation to the Lofoten Race Weekend, but it was a superb experience, enjoyed with the best of british and many new and existing friends. ....and, at last we have a British Norwegian Open Champion! Cheers, Greg

So just a few words from me ,will try and link some videos at some point. The standard of flying out here is so high and also pretty technical ,wrong line was rewarded with slow times. first day was 5 rounds with 55 pilots ,the organisation is very slick. Mark is doing well Pete has now got the line and I’m well off it ,hopefully today will bring a change of fortune with a change to a more UK style slope at Hanstholm . Andy

Big thanks to Graeme, Mike B and all, for a fun day of relaxed competition. Okay so the conditions weren't the most consistent, but it was a great opportunity to try different turn styles and experiment with ballast, in order to deal with the slightly crossed wind. And we managed to complete 10 rounds in bright sunshine, fueled by Mike's excellent nourishment!! I've posted a few photos here: https://rc-soar.smugmug.com/F3F/2021/English-Open/ (corrected)

This discussion is becoming belligerent, personalised and unproductive. And the subject matter is too important for this. Please: Read the forum guidelines: https://www.barcs.co.uk/guidelines/ Let's just knock the discussion on the head for this evening. Late-evening posts are rarely a good idea. In future, all posts should be respectful. We don't have to like each other and we may disagree about strategy and tactics but please accept that we all want the best for model flying. If you have information, share it rather than claim lack of engagement from others. A complaint has already been received from a forum member about one of the posts in this discussion and understandably so. With my forum admin hat on, I really don't want to start warning people or pulling posts. Help me not to.

Final Results & Spreadsheet 1 Peter Gunning 12337.84 1000.00 2 Mark Redsell 12240.59 992.11 3 Joel West 12132.90 983.38 4 John Philips 12063.71 977.78 5 Stefan Fraundorfer 12021.10 974.32 6 Mark Treble 11927.60 966.74 7 Kev Newton 11823.88 958.34 8 Graeme Mahoney 11740.46 951.58 9 Manuel Rath 11708.49 948.99 10 Daniel Schneider 11704.48 948.66 11 Andy Burgoyne 11633.00 942.87 12 Stefan Bertschi 11572.96 938.00 13 Rich Baygo 11458.56 928.73 14 Greg Dakin 11444.13 927.56 15 Thorsten Folkers 11443.82 927.53 16 Aleix Ingles 11419.99 925.60 17 Mike Shellim 11400.22 924.00 18 Paul Stubley 11245.66 911.47 19 Wiliam Fourie 11243.95 911.33 20 Tobias Reik 11194.91 907.36 21 Mike Evans 11118.23 901.14 22 Dave Rumble 10959.27 888.26 23 Jon Edison 10790.25 874.56 24 Ian Mason 10675.65 865.27 25 Keith Wood 10439.70 846.15 26 Mark Passingham 10314.84 836.03 27 Bruce Hudson 10220.99 828.42 28 Allen Elliott 10018.88 812.04 29 Jason Bioletti 9974.91 808.48 30 Mark Abotts 7591.64 615.31 31 John Treble 7448.79 603.73 Welsh Open 2021.xls

Car mishaps aside, the 15 pilots had a pretty good day battling through the Levisham variability. Hopefully everyone had a least some good air. The forecasters had the weather spot on. Westerly winds with a sprinklering of showers. Even though we only had three stops for rain, the speed and severity of the showers gave little time for the pilots to dive for cover. Hoping to manage a 10 round comp the target was abandoned when the mother of all showers was seen developing on the horizon. So the comp was called after 9 rounds, and we all headed for the safety of the cars. The final results gave a win to Peter , Mark R in second, and Richard in third. FTD went to Ewan with a 41.31 in R3. Well done guys. Leader board here :- Full results to follow Jon

Well that was an absolute blast!!! Marker pens, stickers, sea mist, sun burn, cross-winds, beer and fish & chips......what more could an F3F enthusiast wish for!!! Great organisation from Jon E, Mark and Rich, plenty of humour and good spirits, and a suitably relaxed holiday atmosphere. Dieter and Rich were undoubtably head and shoulders above the rest of us, and flew tremendously well under pressure. There were plenty of us trying to strip Bagoo of his FTD of the weekend, but this guy just kept coming back with his super-charged FS4 to retake the prize Rough Levisham justice abound too for JP, Peter K, Simon T and Euan M - it's always astonishing to watch the same pilots receive the same stodge, round after round - and in this case, it reall skewed the final standings. Model-wise, there's probably not too much to comment on - Freestylers of all flavours, Calderas and Baudis models all performed well at various weights, using various flying styles. The lower cambered models did seem to be better positioned to manage the cross-wind conditions though. Major highlights included Paul Stubley's warp speed run in strong thermal lift, the turning performance of Team SAFs Calderas and the wing-bend / sound effects of Nigel W's Crossfire in big air! So, all in all a fantastic weekend - surely Jon E can't be serious when he says this event was the last North of England Open - he may be SFTC Chairman, all round hero and the stalwart of Northern F3F, but a man of his talents has no right to retire. I may open a petition for GBSRA members to enforce the permanence of his position Great job as always Jon - and if it was your last 'big event' as organiser, it was a stunner!!!! Cheers, Greg

Well I traveled to Wales quite often over the past 15 years and still I consider this years CoC as one of the best 5 comps I had on those slopes (and not just because I won). Beside flying 13 rounds in good and fair conditions (another 2 were more on the lottery side - I won it) it was great how all of us were dedicated to make this a rememberable event. Everybody was buzzing, launching and sorting out the course and even the weathergods played ball (if those 2 days would have been 1 day comps, they might both have been called off!). We saw some great consistent flying from Mark (he was just unlucky in round 13 or 14), Rumbey was really at it, but the wow moments were - at least for me - to watch William. He nailed the bases each and every time while flying wide open EM-Style (not an easy thing to do) and I think he also had a new PB. Some more comp routine and he is one to watch! I aggree with Dave it's a shame that no trophies were handed out to the runner up and 3rd. It can't be that expensive and just because the numbers are low doesn't indicate that the ones who made the trip don't ev.deserve a trophy. I'm really happy I made the trip. See you all at the Welsh Open the latest

Leader board after 9 rounds. Mark Redsell 7667. Dave Rumble 7468. Stefan Bertschi 7441. Graeme Mahoney 7086. William Fourie 6831. Paul Stubley 6804. Dave DeMott 6760. Andy Burgoyne 6636. Ian Mason 6576. Bruce Hudson 6515. Graham Hill 6364. G

Fantastic weekend up at the Hole of Horcum. No flying today (Sunday) but after an amazing 20 rounds yesterday, I think most of us enjoyed the time to have a chat. Many thanks to Jon and Mark for their hard work in running the event this year.

Video impression of the day.

Hi All, I was both delighted & moved on seeing & reading Nigels opening post. I am very pleased that this yrs English open will be being staged. I am both frustrated & dissapointed that despite my very best efforts that due to continued health reasons I am unable to organise, run or enter this yrs event. My family & I were very moved on reading that the WRFC Committee have decided that all proceeds from this year's event (full entry fee and raffle) will be going to the two charities that I have been fundraising for in memory of our son Tom (aged 26) - Histio UK and Bloodwise. Bloodwise have very recently changed their name to Blood Cancer UK. When you have a spare moment, please follow this link to their new website so as to discover the important life changing & saving work that they do https://bloodcancer.org.uk/ Likewise to discover the excellent work by Histio uk, please spare a few minutes to follow this link to their website ;- https://www.histiouk.org/ My sincerest heartfelt thanks to all involved in the WRFC in organising this years competition, & to all pilots supporting the event. Stu

Another great day at Horcum. With the winds now changed to WNW, meant we were back to Levisham, but a little further along the ridge to try and offset the northerly content of the wind. Unfortunately any North in the wind makes the slope even more variable. If you catch some bad air its like flying through treacle, but if you get some good air, then hang on, as things are about to get interesting!! But despite the variablity, another 6 rounds were achieved today, making a magnificant 16 in total. The final results gave first place to Dieter Perlick through his very consistant flying , and that was despite some ballistic flying from both Rich Bago in second and Greg Dakin in third, with Rich taking FTD ( weekend actually ) of 35.37 in R10. Also as this was a Team event, the top three teams were :- 1 Mickeys Massive GB ( Simon Thornton Peter Gunning Stefan Bertschi ) 2 SAF ( Dieter Perlick Peter Kowalski Torsten Herman ) 3 GIGGOF ( Graeme Mahoney Tony Livingstone Martin Drewett ) Well done done guys, a great achievemet. Full final individual positions were :- 1 Dieter Perlick 12632.780 2 Rich Bago 12469.390 3 Greg Dakin 12310.220 4 Simon Thornton 12214.960 5 Peter Gunning 12137.640 6 Peter Kowalski 12130.630 7 Stefan Bertschi 12054.780 8 Frank Holtz 11843.110 9 Graeme Mahoney 11735.510 10 Tony Livingstone 11633.230 11 Mike Evans 11552.550 12 Stefan Bernardy 11458.440 13 Martin Drewett 11457.830 14 John Philips 11442.480 15 Torsten Herman 11392.030 16 Mike Shellim 11344.690 17 Keith Wood 11263.010 18 Mark Treble 11211.380 19 Rick Ruijsink 11105.520 20 Paul Stubley 11088.590 21 Dave Watson 10953.170 22 Arjen Van vark 10875.240 23 George Young 10853.780 24 Ewan Maxwell 10703.580 25 Jon Edison 10594.700 26 Les Wood 10321.690 27 John Treble 10270.270 28 Mick Walsh 10244.730 29 Nigel Whitchalls 9678.940 Full spread sheet to follow. Many thanks to everyone for helping out with all the tasks of carrying the course etc. Special thanks to John Treble and Ewan Maxwell for taking on the dreaded 'buzzer supremo' and thanks to CD's of Mark Treble and Rich Bago for running the center, or in Rich's case, just keeping us in order! Jon

I had a nice day, and it made a welcome change from fencing, pruning, bricking, mowing and all those things that seem to too often get in the way of friendships.

A bit of rain this morning, but it eventually (almost) stopped and we set up camp on the wrecker. We managed to complete 5 rounds with wind speeds around 8-9m/s. Results so far: 1 John Phillips 3960.04 2 Mark Redsell 3938.44 3 Joel West 3875.65 4 Peter Gunning 3710.88 5 Alvaro Silgado 3700.22 6 Stefan Bertschi 3687.57 7 Fernando Moro 3684.95 8 Arjen Van Vark 3643.33 9 Graeme Mahoney 3640.49 10 Mark Passingham 3632.46 11 Mark Treble 3593.76 12 Aleix Ingles Elias 3568.17 13 Espen Torp 3564.28 14 Andy Burgoyne 3563.02 15 Kevin Newton 3558.53 16 William Fourie 3548.02 17 David Rumble 3530.07 18 Paul Stubley 3480.96 19 Les Wood 3473.2 20 Mike Shellim 3414.36 21 Jason Bioletti 3381.32 22 Ian Mason 3362.54 23 Dave Demott 3331.31 24 Graham Hill 3238.24 25 Bruce Hudson 3231.44 26 ALLEN ELLIOTT 3167.05 Fastest time: 36.73 by Joel West in round 2

Now that the dust has settled on my experience in Denmark... There are number of reasons the Austrian team were so good on the Danish slopes, although it has to be said that Philipp and Thorsten (Ger) were clearly a cut above even their team mates. They fly their models heavy and rely on really good pumps to generate the initial speed and height. The most challenging days were 4 & 5 on Kallerup (google map imapge below) in strong winds of 16-20ms. To be honest the slope wasn't too difficult to fly in these conditions and the landings on all the slopes were fine (surprisingly!). However, getting close to these guys was a real challenge. This slope is nowhere near straight and the centre is on a promintary. If you pumped in front of the promintary, there was little lift, so pumps needed to be acurate, either side of the centre. The top guys will have been flying at 4.5kg in this wind speed, which takes some time to get going. The particular evolution of the EM style that worked best here was very much an elevator led turn, with a chosen angle of bank and then a fairly open half loop back on the same trajectory and letting the model come right back at you and getting into the compression near the edge again before setting up for the next turn. It was notable that the lines the top 5 were using were more vertical than those seen in the past, although a more outward EM could also be effective. What was really interesting about the top guys was that the first 3 or 4 legs are 'written off' to a certain extent, building speed gradually by flying an open line on a good trajectory - absolutely NOT pulling hard when you hear the buzz - but letting the model run and gain speed as it goes. As well as the jeopardy of letting the model come back at yourself, which i am used to and trained for, the really difficult thing is to anticipate the bases without pulling hard, which kills the speed. My 'lines' were consistently not vertical enough and I found it really difficult not to pull when you hear the buzz. You need to have faith that by letting the model run in the first few legs, the speed gained will offset any distance saved by pulling. So this is what I need to practice and get used to, finding a length with a more open style and flap/snap settings that allow me to carry more weight effectively. There was some variability on every day and every slope, particularly in the first round of each day, when the wind was inevitably building and the air 'drying out', however, there was maybe 10% in terms of time so not as bad as the inland slopes we fly. Phillip's run below in good air is not exactly typical of how they flew as he is pulling harder than he would be if it wasn't good air. You can see from the scores how hard it was with only one pilot (Thorsten) getting a 900+ score against the time above and many in the top 20 being in the mid 700's.

Well that’s it ….all over and done with .The last day was back to Mores and it didn’t seem at all as daunting as it did in the pre comp a week ago (even quite welcoming) after the previous two days at Kallrrup.I had my best flight of the week in the last round with a 46 for 8th in round so at least finished on a high. key take always for me we didn’t practice enough we didn’t research what slopes we could dont under estimate the mental side of a weeks flying at this level and F3F is full of really great people ive had a great week …got to know a whole load of people ,and can’t wait to get back home .

New pit bull arrived today F3b layup ultralight. Be interesting to see how much lighter it is to my standard F3F one is and a week off now to build it ...

What is it they say; " the more you put into life, the more you get out". Well this trip certainly proved that. Yes it's not the easiest place to get to, and at times can be eye wateringly expensive, however I have to say it was one of, if not the, most beautiful, un-spoilt and interesting places I have ever been to. The pictures really don't do it justice and I can't explain what effect the sun not setting has on you other than the fact that you don't sleep a lot but oddly don't feel tried (it's catching up with me now though!) As for the comp, well we got 17 rounds in a Euro tour, with 34 pilots competing from 9 different countries, 100 miles above the arctic circle - what's not to like about that? Well it's fair to say that although the weather was glorious, the wind didn't always play ball putting us on, probably, not one of their better slopes It was also typically crossed and sometimes very light. This meant that the times in the rounds often varied by 20+ seconds which meant that some of us (me) may have been heard to mutter those oh so famous words "thermal lottery". That being said, if you ignore the results and were to ask me who the 3 stand out pilots were, the names would be John, Carlos & Simon. All quickly worked out how to exact the most form slope with the air that they were given and didn't make any mistakes (on reflection it's another page for my big book of excuses). As for the crack, well the massive accepted another member into it's clan this year (Simon) and although some say that 3 is a crowd (so God knows what 4 is!), we all got along swimmingly and we all took it in turns being either the cook, pot washer, or DJ - and had a really good laugh in the process. As for the wider group, well I'm always a bit weary about banquets wondering how everyone will get along and whether little cliques will form so that some people feel excluded. However, I have to say, it felt like 30+ mates got together for some food and a couple of drinks and just had a laugh (normally at my expense) whilst waiting for the sun to set . Anyway the Massive is already scouting for it's 2018 road trip and if you are after a fantastic break I suggest you start at the euro tour dates. Joel

Entry for Sunday is now closed. There will be a weather call sometime after 20:00 on Friday evening, together with meeting point details etc. CD for the day will be John Phillips. At the moment Back of Wrecker is indicated, but as we all know it is far too early to confirm slopes. As has already been observed we will be sharing the Bwlch with a PSS fly-in, attended by SWSA members and others. Provisional slope allocations have already been agreed with the PSS organiser. There is no reason why there should be any issues between the two groups (their organiser is aware of the one 35MHz flyer on 72 in our group). Please ensure all other flyers are treated courteously and with respect, and if you notice a potential issue please report it via the CD, JP. Simon

Footage I took over the weekend. Some great flying

Well, the 'Gromit appeal' has now been wound up. Your donations reached the totally amazing total of £1725.50, so well done you! The money has been transferred to Gromit, and will enable the family to visit Tom in hospital. He is embarking on new treatments which could well keep him in London for quite a few weeks, so this help has turned out to be particularly timely. I must say that when I launched this appeal I expected to raise £500 or £600, but I seem to have underestimated the generosity of the slope soaring community, who have turned out their pockets handsomely. Thanks to you all, and especially to Peter Gunning, Chris Lamming, Martin Newnham, and Mark Treble who have helped with the practical side of things. Safe landings. John

Well, there is certainly always more that can be done, and flying a wider range of slopes would be massively beneficial in raising the standard of f3f. I had mapped every published slope and flew the best equivalent UK slopes when weather permitted (which wasn't very often this year). There was one slope not on the map until the comp started, and that's the one that we didn't get to grips with. There are many like it on the UK coast where the soft cliffs are being washed away - I just never planned on flying anything like that especially at 4.5kg! However, it was really good to see that it could be flown, and flown very fast too! Thankfully the last day was pretty good, with some recovery from the previous 2 days. The standard of flying at the top was truly awesome and quite inspirational, so lots the think about and work on. The organisation and running of the whole event was superbly done, a real credit to the Danish team. I really hope they run another one before too long. Of course France will be completely different again, but the same considerations apply.

Not a bad day on the Crest. Rd1 29.8. Rd2 28.67 ……my first sub 30’s ……that was the easy bit ,launching and landing were interesting

Well wow. What a day. First time flying on the Crest. Talk about baptism of fire! You had to go back to Neath to avoid the rotor on landing. R1. Nice and conservative. Flew a long way out. About half a mistake away from the hill out over Treorchy. Nice and wide on the turns, halfway to Hirwaun on base A and halfway to Nant-y-Moel on B. New PB of 42.41. Chuffed to bits. Down in one piece too. Tried a little harder to be a bit closer and tighter in R2 and was rewarded with another PB of 41.69. Dodged a bullet on landing coming in too short and too high and finding the back of the rotor. Looking forward to going sub 40 in R3 but the racing was stopped due to the number of planes that had been damaged on landing. Pity but the right call I think. Thanks to Joel and to everyone who pitched in to get any flying in at all. We are all quite mad. Commiserations to all those taking repair work home. Good luck to all those going to HoH next weekend. See you all at Whitesheet for L1.

I can now confirm the scaled down entry list for the Welsh Open. We hope to run the competition for the full 3 days 11th-13th September - subject to no new lock down restrictions. The competition will be run with social distancing measures in place and copious amounts of hand sanitiser will be provided. There will be no organised social event. 1. Dave Rumble 2. William Fourie 3. Mike Bleathman 4. Andy Burgoyne 5. Jason Bioletti 6. Leslie Wood 7. Nigel Witchalls 8. Mike Evans 9. Mark Treble 10. Paul Stubley 11. David Woods 12. Graeme Mahoney 13. Mike Shellim 14. John Treble 15. Kevin Newton 16. Tony Livingstone 17. Mark Abbotts 18. Stefan Bertschi 19. Peter Gunning 20. Joel West 21. Bruce Hudson 22. Rich Bago 23. Keith Wood 24. Jon Edison 25. Pete Burgess 26. Iñaki Elizondo 27. Fernando Moro 28. Tony Robertson 29. John Phillips 30. Aleix Ingles Reserve List Andrzej Tabero

Just to echo what has already been said - what better way to stick two fingers up at Covid than spending three days doing what we love in such great company. And somebody must have been smiling down on us given the uncertainties leading up to the event. Thanks to Kev and Mark T, and all helpers, and congrats to Peter, Joel and Rich for a great display of F3F at its best! Finally, some memories to enjoy: https://rc-soar.smugmug.com/F3F/2020/Welsh-Open/

Hi all, Some pics posted here: https://rc-soar.smugmug.com/organize/F3F/2019/Champion-of-Champions Mike

There always were rules - about endangering aircraft, property and people etc, etc - but there was general ignorance of them. Thanks to work that has been going on since 2003 at some level, since 2015 at a high level, and is continuing now, we have the exemption we have for our model flying. The BMFA has been involved throughout and David Phipps the CEO, continues to be involved at the highest level in the Europe-wide negotiations that continue. Potential future changes are monitored constantly. The new more-detailed rules (where BMFA members have the exemption) are a result of the uncontrolled and wide distribution of potent gadgets to the general public in the absence of any effective general knowledge of , or enforcement of, the original rules. BMFA tried to counter this - remember the 'drone-aware' leaflets. The inclusion of all SUAs under one heading was imposed on the BMFA, and every other European model flying organisation, from the outside. BMFA have achieved the exemption which makes the distinction you wanted. In spite of the relentless, often uninformed and insulting, incoming sniper fire, the BMFA are continuing to work to protect our flying. I'd be amazed if insurance wasn't available elsewhere - but at what cost? - and without the vast BMFA experience to back it up. You could theoretically go direct to the CAA for your own exemption as well, but 'snowflakes in hell' spring to mind. BUT, as a BMFA member you get - 'insurance and much more' - and you can benefit from the exemption. Now that the pressure has relented slightly, I hope Davd Phipps can find the time to write-up the story so far for BMFA News. This model flyer is very grateful for what has been achieved.

Hi Guys Just got home after a great weekends flying. Weather gods were kinder to us than expected. Well done to Joel, Mike, Andy, and to Greg for FTD of 37.44 Results after 12 rounds here :- Full spread sheet to follow Jon

well? Turned out nice again After a difficult decision at the start, with the wind due to turn from S to W during the day, which slope should we start on? Levisham for W or Horcum main bowl for the S. Well, we talked about it for that long, that in the end the decision was made for us - LEVISHAM! And that proved to be a good choice. Slightly off at the start, but by the time the rain hit, it was a full Westerly An hour stoppage for the weather, meant only 2 rounds completed by 2pm ( one round lost ). But the rain cleared, the wind picked up and another 7 rounds completed. Some really nice conditions as well as the usual Levisham variability, saw Rich Bago storm into the lead, Steve Haley in second, and Peter Gunning in third. Well done Guys. FTD went to Rich with a 35.51 in R8. Many thanks to John Treble for Buzzer supremo, Mark T for Cd'ing, and to everyone for helping with the kit etc. Full spreadsheet results to follow Jon ps. well done to Brett for a round winning PB of 38.63 in R7

Greg's summary says it all - it was a splendid three days, all the more so for the inauspiciously damp start. Many thanks to Jon, Rich and helpers for keeping things moving smoothly. From a personal PoV, I'm enjoying the Needle 115, it handles well and looks lovely. Unfortunately for me, the massive thermal I'd hoped for didn't materialise the one time I loaded it up to 4.2 kg... but I did learn that it handled the loading (68 g/dmsq) and rough air pretty well. Some photos: http://rcsoar.zenfolio.com/nee2017

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.

Quick summary report. 15 pilots flew 9 rounds on the Horcum southern bowl on day 1, and only 2 rounds on the NE Horcum slope on day 2, due to the wind, which started the day at about 7 m/s dropping below minimum and not returning. Final top three places: 1st Greg Dakin, flying Avatar (one round with Jedi) 2nd Simon Thornton (Shinto) 3rd Rich Bago, Mostly FS3 with a couple of flights with the FS 4 Greg also won the Fastest time with a 39.xx on day 1 (Avatar) Was good to see new face and Whitesheet local Nigel Witchalls, who seemed to be enjoying himself, and the return of Mick Walsh, down from his new base in Aberdeen. Big thanks to Jon Edison and Mark Treble who manned the centre, and John Treble for doing a great job as buzzer supremo. But everyone helped out with carrying stuff etc., so thanks to all. As the weather on the whole was pretty warm and pleasant (apart from the heavy and soaking shower at the end of day 1, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and Greg was a worthy winner. Once I get the spreadsheet I'll post a bit more detail. Simon

Well that was an insane weekend of entertainment. Great to catch up with old friends and make some new ones too. Delighted to take receipt of my newly built Avatar (thanks Daniel!) and repatriate a long lost Jedi to boot.... Regarding the flying, there was a feast of entertainment - Abbo's pumping , Simon's rocket propelled 32.xx which had the slope diving for cover, Joel's uber reversals and Rumby's new patriot missile bouncing along the compression - it was all there to behold!!! Really exciting to watch Arne and Daniel wring out their sports models, I wouldn't fancy going up against those guys in an aerobatic comp.... Thrilled to bits to pick up a couple of pots on behalf of the Tea Swillers and F3F Puppeteers - Richie and Ronnie Many congrats to Al and Inaki for richly deserved placings - a great weekend for Team Spain!!! Thanks as always to Kev, AJ, Mark T, Martin, Joel, Graeme and fellow Midlander and all round top man, Andy B for running a splendid show... Here's to a slightly calmer and more genteel gathering with the ESSA at the weekend!! Buff on Greg

Great comp, never thought we'd fly so many rounds let alone experience such a variety of conditions. Thanks to all from over the water who made the journey, to Kev, to helpers and to our sponsors. Some photos here, including some with a somewhat different perspective: https://rc-soar.smugmug.com/F3F/2016/Welsh-Open-F3F/

Phil, why post this? Just a simple not coming or direct pm/email to me is fine. Not always but so many times I have seen these kind of comments to be proved wrong for 2 day comps, but put some pilots off because they think we have weather guru in the mix. It is a tricky forecast to call for certain but always good to remain positive.

Not sure if I should do this, but as there are various reports about my flight, I like to share some of my memories. At first, I honestly do not remember a lot of the flight. It started that I let Pete wait with the launch a good 15 Seconds into working time. I made 3 pumps before leaving the course on base A on the right. The pumps were very powerful and the climb out way above my usual. By dropping in I could feel that it was fast. The first turn was a kind of reversal and afterwards (according to my feeling and also Pete's report) there were all kind of turns. I honestly can't remember them in any way. I just have the memory that the plane got faster and faster in every turn. On base 9 the one thought I had was 'do not cut' - which I gladly didn't (although Philipp Lanes told me after the flight that I was even tight on the bases). Flying wise it was a good bit away from the slope which might have been the reason why the air felt really smooth. I also didn't have the feeling that I had to steer very much beside flying the turns by adding a bit of aillerons and pulling real hard (and probably put back the elevator to neutral at at the right time). After leaving the course I knew that it was quick and I hoped for a sub30 to get a new PB. That it was so fast really surprised me, and I had to ask the CD two or three times how fast it was... In regards of memories. It's funny, I can remember various crap flights in many details but I have more or less none of my two fastest flights I ever had (beside the fact that they both felt smooth and fast). The glider: I flew a Jedi 'Prototype' which I bought from Andreas Böhlen a good year ago. Prototype in the sense that the aillerons are hinged on top, and also the Ailleron/Flap ratio (length) might be different to some production ones. Linkages in the wing are Baudis built in RDS. It's a rather light (~ 2100g) F3B layout and even has a hook for whinching. Ballast wise I put in ~ 1700g of Tungsten/Brass. No such things as reflex or combi switch programmed (no rudder at all in 'Corsa' mode). On the Servo side - no MKS but all JR :-) Cheers Stefan

Medina | F5 RES | 3rd September 2023 | 2hr 13 minutes 1 second (new personal record). Good flying weather on a weekend! First time in too long. Very light wind and HOT! Quite a few kites out today. Lift was tricky low down, first hour was very straight forward as stayed up high. Flew in and out of lift and used the spoiler to keep around 300 meters. Hazy patches but not the best visibility. The second hour was much tougher, had to work really hard from 60 mins to 90 mins to get back to 400 meters. Big patches of sink and slow climbs. At 2 hours my transmitter congratulated me and the 2:30 looked doable, but the lift was taking me into the sun and my arms were getting heavy holding the TX high - switching away from the sun I hit sink. Had a strong read and headed in that direction but never found the lift - just more sink. Needed a lie down after that one.

Hi All - please find my report below, apologies it's take a while. The 27th and 28th May 2023 saw a F5J RADIOGLIDE event of three halves: a beautifully sunny, thermally and calm Saturday, a slightly blustery and less lifty Sunday, and more challenging conditions for the fly-off. Throughout the event a less than desirable Easterly wind blew over the trees, a regular direction during recent years at Buckminster. We had an excellent entry of 39 pilots on Saturday, slightly fewer on Sunday. The best 9 pilots from the combined two-day event flew against each other during the later afternoon of Sunday. Again, my thanks to Nick Jackson for his competition set up and results collation and Steve Knowles for his overall organisation skills. These two gentlemen and their entourage (Eddy Small, Richard Harris and Pete Mitchell to name but a few) deserve the thanks of everyone who entered. There were a few new faces joining us for RADIOGLIDE this year, it was great to see Mike Fantham, David Poole and Simon Conran on the flight line. David Poole did exceptionally well with a 2M RES model – we hope to see them all back next year. Equally it was good to see so many old faces again with Bill Haley having a good Saturday event and Dave Fogg keeping us guessing on his launches. At the end of Saturday, the top 3 were Steve Haley, Cengiz Philcox, and Peter Allen. Scores were very tight: 200 points from 5000 separating the top 11 pilots. Sunday’s competition top 3 were: Alex Jeffery in first place, followed by Alan Lipscombe and Peter Allen. The top 9 pilots from the combined two-day event flew against each other in two 15 minutes fly-off slots in very challenging conditions late on Sunday afternoon. I remember breaking the news to the top 9 about their fly-off selection and seeing more than one of them express complete surprise such was the roller coaster set of combined results. If I was to select one word to describe the fly-off it would be “brutal”. The air was unforgiving, punishing those who went left instead of right, and those who stayed up wind instead of following lift downwind. The range of scores at the end of the two fly-off slots was huge with many good pilots scraping only a few hundred points from the 2000 on offer. Full credit to the top 3 who were head and shoulders above the rest: Peter Allen (flying a Liberty) delivered a masterclass of good air navigation to take top spot with a perfect 2000 score, with Steve Haley (flying a Prestige) a close second and Alex Jeffery (flying an Explorer) a well-fought third spot. The RADIOGLIDE trophy only has 2 names on it since the class was first introduced 6 years ago - With Peter Allen and Steve Haley reminding us again why that is. With thanks to everyone who traveled and joined us in another enjoyable event with good, spirited competition and very few broken aeroplanes. if anyone has more photos to share, please reply and add them to this post - thanks.

Chuffed with my first podium finish. Pity no Trophy for 2nd, 3rd or FTD. Are things that tight at GBSRA!!!

That was quite a weekend, demanding in so many ways. Shame about the conditions, but we did get in nine rounds which IMO was pretty good all things considered. There was some great flying on display, well done to Mark R, Andy and John. And to Mark T for his late charge. Big thanks to Mark and Jon for organising in difficult conditions. And to Rich and T9 for supporting the event. Here are the photos with captions. Warning: a higher proportion than usual are monochrome... https://rc-soar.smugmug.com/F3F/2022/North-of-England-Open/ - Mike

Yeehaa! finally we have a comp! Forecasts improved to give a windy (13-16m/s) day with variable amounts of cloud, and some rarely seen blue sky ! Wind slightly crossed from the North and very blustery, making for an interesting day, with some terrific flying from the top guys. With 12 rounds and approx 70 competition flights, over 30% of which were sub 40s, Rich Bago came out on top, Mark Redsell a very close second, and a fantastic third from Steve Haley. FTD went to Mark R with a 31.43 in R7. Final positions were :- Full results to follow Thanks to everyone for their support during the day, and hope you've all recovered from such a exhausting day See you all for the last event on the 19th March Jon

Today’s Economist carries a letter from me. It’s not quite the letter I wrote, but space is limited, I suppose!

Completed a successful maiden today on Whitesheet First of course the obligatory “just in case” picture Started empty with CG at 104, wind was light but ok, so I chucked it off. As you’d expect It went away straight as a die, flew around for a couple of minutes and landed for some tweaking, CG was also pulled back to 107. Wind had increased so 500g ballast was added for the second flight. This time it felt much better in pitch, roll rate is superb and crisp, may even reduce it a bit! Turns feel nicely coordinated with just a touch of rudder. Bit more tweaking tomorrow. Happy days G

THE ENGLISH OPEN F3F 2017 . aug 19-20th Whitesheet RFC . Sponsored by South Coast Sailplanes. It gives me great pleasure to announce the date of the English Open F3f for 2017. The event will be staged by the Whitesheet RFC over the weekend of Aug 19th 20th. Sponsorship;- I am both delighted & very proud of the continued excellent Sponsorship & support of the event by Peter Payne owner of South Coast Sailplanes http://www.south-coast-sailplanes.com/ Entry date opening ;- Entry will open at 9.00am on Thursday 1st June 2017 ( Entries will not be accepted prior to the opening date.) Entries are to be sent to myself at swallacegromit@aol.com . please include the following;- Name, Frequency, Models. BMFA / insurance details. Entry fee;- The entry fee to the event is £15.00. payable on day 1. I am again securing permission for the use of additional slopes to cater for wind directions not catered for by our club slopes. I shall be regularly posting English Open news, info, updates & comp details on this thread. For now though, be sure to put the date in your 2017 diaries. We at the Whitesheet RFC look forward to welcoming you to this event. Stu, Whitesheet Comp Sec.

Ok , I take it all back - Levisham is FUN!!! Entertaining , exciting, frustrating, demanding, There are those in our number who seem to be able to master it, so variable it may be, but quite possibly the best pilots are more than lucky. Dieter as usual just did the business, nailing every turn and keeping the course length down to a minimum. Rich was Ballistic - most of the time, and Greg got his act together (or played his Joker) as the conditions became their trickiest on the Sunday. Very well done guys. For my part, I enjoyed turn 9, 10, 11 and 12 on a run Saturday afternoon. Couldn't resist taking a few more as the Shinto was playing such sweet music. Big grin despite the run actually only being a 51. Also enjoyed the cut on turn 3 on Sunday morning. The resultant slope turn seemed to induce an element of Ds and the rest of the run just got faster and faster. Pauls 37 I was on Base B and it was great to see just how accurate Paul was flying his Pitbull. Great stuff. Levisham of course needs lots of rounds to make it a good comp, and massive thanks to Jon and the team for ensuring that happened, and making this a great comp. F3f - mojo rekindled.

Baggage checked in, security control passed (they were a tad curious about the ballast :-) ), and now waiting for the plane to leave. Was a good comp (probably not a classic), and I enjoyed the company very much. Thank you all for having me (again) and thanks everybody for the smooth processing which made my job a lot easier (although it was still tough thanks to the weather). Congrats to the top three. Well deserved. Cheers and see you all at the Welsh Open the latest. Stefan

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Tom Wallace who sadly lost his fight from HLH, a rare disorder of the immune system. Words may not suffice to express the heartfelt sorrow that we all feel and our hearts go out to his family Stuart, Gill, Ben and Samuel at this very sad time. May the peace which comes from the memories of love shared, comfort you now and in the days ahead. Our thoughts are with you all.