With just 4 pilots registered for the race at Eastbourne, the competition was cancelled!
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BMFA League 6 F3F
The weather for the Eastbourne F3F league event had been looking promising all week, until on Thursday evening somebody decided to comment on how good Sunday was looking (Don’t worry Pete I won’t tell them your name). It did look like we may be on for some mist, however on this occasion the weather gods were on our side. Other than some expected rain at the beginning of the day and a few drops later on it was clear. We set up the on the westerly facing slope with the wind expected to settle in a westerly direction. It never quite got straight on which made Base ‘A’ an interesting challenge all day.
Tom Noble got the competition on the way in light conditions (3 – 4 m/s) which made it a challenging round with times ranging from 90 seconds down to 56 seconds. Martin Newnham was 1st followed by Gary Harrison and Joel West. Unfortunately John Treble had a mishap with his Extreme and had to retire from the competition, but kept busy launching and buzzing on the bases.
Round 2, everyone started to show they had learnt from the first round timing base ‘A’ turn with better accuracy, the time difference between first and last was much closer. Mike Shellim took 1st followed closely by Simon Thornton in second and Stefan Siemens in 3rd.
Although the wind had not moved round to be directly on the slope, it had increased in speed and it was time to start adding more ballast. Occasionally you could see a few legs where it was almost straight on, which improved the times and a few got into the mid forties. Martin Newnham 1st followed very closely by Daniel Schneider in 2nd and Simon Thornton in 3rd.
Conditions remaining similar in round 4, Simon Thornton took 1st followed by Martin Newnham 2nd and Joel West in 3rd.
The wind was starting to increase again and few pilots were removing wings to get the extra ballast in the models. With conditions still not straight on the extra weight helped with head wind on the return leg to base ‘B’. Martin Newnham was 1st and followed by Joel West 2nd and Mike Shellim in 3rd.
The wind had increased and was showing around 14m/s + but only the top 3 pilots in round 6 had times just into the top forties. Joel West took the round followed by John Phillips and Daniel Schneider.
Rounds 7 and the number of people posting a mid forty increased and by round 8 and 9 over half the field had times in the 40’s. Martin Newnham won round 7 followed by John Phillips and Mike Shellim. John Phillips won round 8, with Martin Newnham 2nd and Daniel Schneider 3rd.
The final round of the day and fastest time was taken by John Phillips with a 42.66, Greg Dakin 2nd and John Bennett 3rd.
Although the day set its challenges with the crossed wind, it was a good competition and a great days flying. Everyone contributed to the competition and I would like to personally thank everyone for their efforts, making sure we completed as many rounds as possible. You all deserve a pat on the back.
It was nice to welcome Daniel Schneider, Stefan Siemens, Heniz Linnemann and Andreas Hovemann from Germany. I will take this opportunity to pass on your thanks to everyone how much you enjoyed the event and the hospitality. I hope you enjoy the rest of the week and get plenty of flying in. I will also have to make a special mention to Daniel who flew his Fosa very consistently all day to keep the pressure on for a good finish in the competition.
In addition to Daniel it was nice to see some new faces on the slope, Bob Ryan competing in his first F3F event (I hope we see you at more competitions in the future Bob) and Alex Hamilton who sadly was unable to fly at Eastbourne, but will hopefully be attending the Whitesheet event on the 23rd October.
To the final results, Martin Newnham claimed 4 rounds followed by John Phillips with 2 rounds, Joel West, Simon Thornton and Mike Shellim sharing the remaining rounds.
Top 3 places are:
1st Martin Newnham
2nd Simon Thornton
3rd Joel West
Big thanks to John Phillips our CD for the day with Simon Thornton sharing the duties in the centre and Gary Harrison for buzzer supreme. As I mentioned in other reports I cannot thank the Eastbourne flying community enough for sharing such a great location with others to enjoy our sport.
Below are the results.( No Club Members took part )
| 1 | Martin Newnham | 7750.67 | 1000.00 |
| 2 | Simon Thornton | 7479.90 | 965.06 |
| 3 | Joel West | 7458.36 | 962.28 |
| 4 | John Phillips | 7446.74 | 960.78 |
| 5 | Daniel Schneider | 7428.30 | 958.40 |
| 6 | Greg Dakin | 7244.46 | 934.68 |
| 7 | Gary Harrison | 7086.03 | 914.24 |
| 8 | Mike Shellim | 7058.15 | 910.65 |
| 9 | Stefan Siemens | 6877.35 | 887.32 |
| 10 | John Bennett | 6806.90 | 878.23 |
| 11 | Mick Walsh | 6756.43 | 871.72 |
| 12 | Nigel Potter | 6752.41 | 871.20 |
| 13 | Tom Foreman | 6732.54 | 868.63 |
| 14 | Paul Upton | 6658.70 | 859.11 |
| 15 | Phil Taylor | 6594.48 | 850.82 |
| 16 | Pete Burgess | 6367.74 | 821.57 |
| 17 | Bob Ryan | 6333.87 | 817.20 |
| 18 | Mark Treble | 6262.47 | 807.99 |
| 19 | Tom Noble | 6245.88 | 805.85 |
| 20 | Tony Robertson | 6145.90 | 792.95 |
| 21 | Andreas Hovemann | 5552.95 | 716.44 |
| 22 | Heniz Linnemann | 5474.68 | 706.34 |
Many thanks
Martin
Pictures by Mike Hamilton here