Northern F3F Winter League

Round 2

6th Dec 2008

Fastest time of the day 47.46 flown by Mark Redsell

Pictures, thanks to Tony Fu, George Young, Dave Watson.

Full Scores Breakdown Click here Save only!

Report by Jon Edison

 

  Well it is the Winter League after all, so to find a bit a snow on the ground was not totally unexpected. 

 Problem was this was very, and I mean very wet snow, aided and abetted by a good old downpour as we walked across to the NW ridge.
Underfoot the moorland was drowning in the wet stuff, and by the time the 20 or so pilots had reached the flying site, waterproof footwear had been tested to destruction.

I was feeling like a small boy who had just stood in water too deep for his wellies, and with the prospect of standing for 5hours or more with wet feet, was not very appealing. Visions of a nice warm fire and a cup of rosylee nearly won the day.

Flying was not the first thing on my mind, but hopefully  the other pilots were not going to be so easily distracted.

First man up was Ronnie Lampe, setting an early the pace with 60.35, but eventually Ronnie succumbed to the cold and wet and called it a day at R4.

 

    

Paul Townsend had a steady day, just off the times with mid to late sixties, while Paul Middleton started well, but had to abort after the first round with servo problems. Yet another Paul, Paul Foster, started slowly, improved every round, and eventually finish tenth

Frank Hulton looked to have a good day with times around the late 50’s and looked set to be in the top four, until that is, Richard Bago sneaked ahead with a 51.86 in the last round, to claim fourth spot.

Keith Wood entertained the crowd with a cracking cartwheel along the slope edge in R3, but still placed sixth despite a zero in that round.

 
     

Peter Gunning began to improve as the rounds progressed, but didn’t do it soon enough to make an impression on the top flyers.  Jon Edison had his mind on other things ( like survival! ) and did well to finish eighth.

Robert Carson was the next best placed Scot, just ahead of fellow travellers Dave Watson and Ian Stewart, whilst George Young didn’t get his PIKE Plus on step and finished well down the points
     

Dave Wright and Tony Fu struggled along in the testing conditions and ended up in unfamiliar territory, well down the field.

Late comer Allan Scupham did well despite only completing two rounds

Mike Challoner and Paul Carrington had mixed fortunes. Mike’s model spluttered to a halt after R1 and was subsequently grounded with an intermittent fault. Paul managed a top ten finish despite his frustration with his Skorp which was refusing to go any faster.

 

  

Meanwhile, whilst all this was going on, three flyers were battling it out for top honours.

Greg Dakin kept up a relentless pace with low to mid fifties in what were fairly light 8-10mph winds, and looked odds on favourite at the start. 

Paul Garnett however, fresh from his assignment abroad, flew with great precision and matched Greg all the way, eventually managing to stay ahead.

 

Mark Redsell who was getting faster by the round, just failed to reel in Paul, but pushed Greg down a further spot.

 

 
   

With 21 Pilots and 5 Rounds completed, the final results were :-

1 PAUL GARNETT                Skorpion                3874.67
2 MARK REDSELL                Ceres                      3872.57
3 GREG DAKIN                     Freestyler              3784.77
4 RICH BAGO                       Vikos                      3533.96
5 FRANK HULTON               New Sting              3518.08
6 KEITH WOOD                   Skorpion                3476.70
7 PETER GUNNING              Skorpion                3475.78
8 JON EDISON                    Sting                       3335.84
9 ROBERT CARSON             Calypso                  3321.37
10 PAUL CARRINGTN          Skorpion                3252.91
11 DAVE WATSON               Viking                     3235.10
12 PAUL FOSTER                  Skorpion                3218.69
13 PAUL TOWNSEND           New Sting              3182.18
14 IAN STEWART                Tragi                       3157.77
15 DAVE WRIGHT                Skorpion                3075.89
16 TONY FU                          Skorpion                2916.56
17 GEORGE YOUNG              Pike Plus                2889.54
18 RONNIE LAMPE              Sting                       2503.87
19 ALAN SCUPHAM             Blade                      1380.09
20 MIKE CHALLONER         Skorpion                903.04
21 PAUL MIDDLETON          Big Bird                 890.01

Thanks to all for staying the course, on what was possibly the most challenging environment we have endured for a long time

Next event is the 10th Jan 2009. Note this is the 2nd Saturday in Jan.