Monday 24 October 2011

Scottish National F3F Championship. Day Three

Saturday 22 October saw us back up on East Lomond for the last day of the three day Scottish National Championships. The original two day event lost a day to the weather and, because not everyone could make the replacement day, three events would be flown with the best two days counting towards the championships. From the forecast I was expecting similar conditions to last week’s windy day but with some sunshine. What we got was winds right up near the maximum 55 mph and heavy overcast. The direction pretty well due south which meant the course was well to the left on the slope with the A base being down the hill about 50 metres from the fence and right next to the path.



Ian Stewart had a test fly and allowed his Skorpion to drift a bit too far back behind the A base and the poor Skorpion was caught in the accelerated air in the compression area above the path and was blown back down the hill behind the slope. Kevin and Ian set out on a rescue mission and the poor Skorp was retrieved after a search. The model wasn’t as badly damaged as it could have been and repairs should be straightforward. Some wing delamination and broken nose and sheath.
Some thought about landing was going to be required and the best “approach” seemed to be to fly in from the right in front of the slope with the brakes out and aim to drift back a little to end up setting down in the area normally used as the pits! Best to be committed though and keep the speed up/ No drifting back allowed!!

We flew two rounds per launch with a fly-through in between and managed to fly 14 rounds before we had had enough!

Peter flew his new Predator 3 which looked good in the heavy conditions but had a “moment” when a flap stuck down during a fly-through and he had to land down the front of the slope edge! No damage though but Peter switched back to his old faithful Cyril for the rest of the day.

Craig flew several rounds with his EMP Banshee foamy model before switching to his Spark; the Spark seemed much more at home in the heavy winds.
Mike stuck to flying his Extreme all day and was rewarded with a third position. Well done that chap!

Kevin flew his Pike Precision and it went well all day until an unexplained crash at speed on the slope edge. The Precision looked badly damaged with one wing root particularly badly smashed. With most models carrying as much ballast as possible any sudden stop was going to cause trouble.

Ian Simpson managed to join us to give his Big Bird an airing and it went very well.
I stuck with my fully ballasted Vikos but never felt it was on the pace all day. I had a full load of 750g of brass and tungsten and I’m thinking it just can’t carry enough weight.

Although the downhill course seems a little odd the lift seemed better than the usual East Lomond slope we use so maybe the wind coming from the south is better not having come from Bishop Hill first!

Peter sent out an email which I have copied onto the results page. Well done to Peter, Kevin and Mike on their placings today and congratulations to Peter on winning the Scottish National Championship.












It is interesting to note that 14 events were scheduled for the Summer season and 6 were flown but 3 of these were extra days added to replace days lost to the weather.

Winter league next so better look out the thermals. Oh look here they are! I have been wearing them all “Summer”!

No comments:

Post a Comment