BMFA League 4 60inch
Report By Clayton Landells
What a contrast from one event to the next!!! Round 4 at the Bwlch in South Wales was an astounding event!!! We were greeted at the slope by a nice breeze from the WSW and after testing the air on a couple of different slopes, we decided to trust the forecast westerly swing and set up the course on the west slope of Mickey's. After a few test flights, ballast was applied and we were ready and raring to go.
The heat races got better as the day wore on as we all adapted to flying in fantastically lifty conditions. The climb-outs were epic and the speed we were hitting the course with was incredible. Steve Clarke was the stand-out in the heat races, his SLE Sniper was only beaten in his last heat race. Frank Hulton had his polecat screaming along and took second in the heats with Paul Townsend flying his hastily repaired plank (it got clobbered early on) to an excellent third place in the heats. Chris Saksa competed valiantly with his Wildthing60 and flew very well for his first attempt at 60inch pylon racing, winning his second heat. Andy Evans had his Polecat rocketing along and made huge improvements throughout the day. He also captured some great footage of some excellent racing which he has uploaded to YouTube, search for andrewmawr on the tube. Another highlight was Tim Ward's 250 2-stroke Halfpipe, it sounded like it was in the turns thanks to a slight film de-lam!
After the 6 rounds of heats were completed, we sorted out the Knock-out stage (no mean feat with 12 pilots) and cracked on. By now everyone was getting used to the conditions and the racing in the KO stage was intense. The first round of the KO saw Steve, Mike Evans with his lovely pink Reaper (that beast is super-fast), Rocket Ronnie with McFast and Paul all make it straight through to the next round. It was the end of proceedings for Chris, Alan John with his polecat, Adrian Nelmes with a mega fast TNG (seemed a little hard to control on the day) and Andy Evans. That left two spots and Four pilots. So we had two man on man races to decide the two remaining positions. Frank beat Tim to the first vacancy and I had the pleasure of a head to head battle with Mark Abbotts. In my last heat race I toned the rates on my M60's ailerons down by 75% and found that I was much smoother and faster than I thought I was able to be previously. I was trailing Marks Polecat the entire race, but only just! It was the most exciting race I have ever had and fortunately for me, Mark 'cut' base B on leg 8 and I was able to progress to the next phase of the Knock Outs. The next phase of the KO's saw Steve and Ronnie make it directly to the final with Frank and Myself exiting and Paul racing Mike for the remaining place in the final. They had a great race with a bizarre finish. Paul was in front and as he rounded base A, found a hole in the air and parked his plane just in front of the base. Mike came around the same turn, on the very same lap, found the same hole in the air, and parked his plane about 3 feet in front of Paul's!! Race win to Mike and progression to the Final race.
The final race was 20 laps and was the most exciting race I have ever seen at EPP60. All three pilots were jostling for the lead at lightning pace with the lead changing several times. Mike hit the deck around mid race and Steve and Ronnie were chopping and changing all the way to lap 18 where the two planes embraced in a mid-air cuddle, flopped to the ground exhausted, Ronnie's plane getting a lucky bounce and coming to rest further around the course than Steve's. Leaving Ronnie Lampe Victorious in the KO stage. The overall top three were Steve, Ronnie and Paul.
What a fantastic day!!!!!!!!
60inch Results ( NYMRSC Members in BOLD)
| Pos |
Name |
Pts |
| 1 |
Steve Clarke |
99 |
| 2 |
Ronnie Lampe |
96 |
| 3 |
Paul Townsend |
95 |
| 4 |
Mike Evans |
94 |
| 4 |
Frank Hulton |
94 |
| 6 |
Mark Abotts |
91 |
| 7 |
Tim Ward |
89 |
| 8 |
Clayton Landells |
85 |
| 9 |
C Saksa |
82 |
| 9 |
Alan John |
82 |
| 11 |
Andrew Evans |
80 |
| 12 |
Adrian Nelmes |
79 |
| |
|
|
BMFA League4 F3F
Report by Andrzej Tabero
The BMFA weather curse strikes again! For those who didn't attend, we abandoned after half a round as the rain came in a little early.
We started with the wind speed averaging 21 m/s, with gusts over the max a few times, but always with the threat of rain. Adam Richardson was leading the round with a well flown 37.67 when the rain arrived and, all baring a 10 minute rest bite, it never looked like clearing up long enough for a competition so we called it a day around 1 o'clock.
Thanks to every one who helped get the course up and down plus Jonathan Sage who volunteered to be buzzer supremeo.
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