SlopeGlide 2012

Wales was given the honour to host the first BARCS SlopeGlide Championship. The inception of this event was by Martin Newnham who has been working tirelessly over the past 18 months to promote F3F as well as further his own F3F ambitions.

With our currently wonderful British weather the question was going to be if we could get enough rounds in for a competition even with it being a two day event. On the eve of the event there was a real worry that we would get any rounds in on Saturday with only a slightly better forecast for Sunday.

On the drive up to the slope on Saturday morning it wasn’t looking to good, because as I past one of my local slopes which is much lower than the Bwlch and this was covered in clag. The good news was as I rounded the corner to approach the Bwlch the sky was brightening up.

A quick check on the top of the Wrecker was suggesting we would be either on the back of the Wrecker or on most southerly facing slope on Mickey’s. Martin and I had a quick checked on Mickey’s which confirmed that we would set up on the Back of the Wrecker.

Mick Walsh had the pleasure of get this new event underway. Phil Taylor was next up and posted a 43.20 to win the round being closely followed by Martin Newnham with a 43.32 and Adam Richardson took third with a 45.70.

Round two would took a bit of a northern turn with Mark Redsell taking first place with a 41.85. Mark Abbotts was hot on his heals with a 43.39 for second and Dave Wright taking a well deserved third with 44.13.

Joel West has been taking his parental duties seriously of late, which has meant we haven’t seen as much of him, but this hadn’t blunted any of his speed and he posted 44.63 to take round three. Another northener in from also came to fore and Frank Hulton clocked a 45.88 for second with Mark Redsell just behind him with a 47.16.

Joel had found a bit of momentum now and posted the first sub 40 run of the competition with a 38.20. Adam was in the mix again and took second place with 42.29 and Paul Garnett taking third with 43.38.

The fifth and final round of the day was taken by Paul with the fastest time of the competition with a blistering 35.73, Adam also clocked a sub 40 with a 39.82 and Phil Taylor was back in the mix again with a well flown 41.50.

The plan was to hold an Aerobatic competition for the rest of the afternoon but the wind shifting to the west and was dropping so it was called a day.

So after five rounds it was Joel in the lead but closely followed Mark, Paul, Adam and Martin and the stage was set for great climax.

On arriving on the slope on the Sunday morning the first problem was little or no wind. After hanging about for an hour the wind was starting to building but was all over the place with one minute on the Crest, the next on Mickey’s and then on the back of the Wrecker. At this point it was still not a legal wind speed but was starting to settle on the Back of the Wrecker again so we set the course up here.

Once the wind speed became leagal Adam Richardson got round six underway and was rewarded with 47.05 and took the round. Mark Redsell was closely behind with 47.42 with Phil Taylor in third with a 50.59.

Mark took round seven with a 45.27 with Mike Evens was just behind him with a 45.37 and Paul Garnett taking third 46.59.

We started round eight but the rain we had dodged so much all weekend finally caught up with us and boy and did it catch up with us. In the next hour we had thunder, lightening and hail as well as rain. By the time it eased the only concern was to get off the slope safely. 

Had Mark, Adam and Paul done enough to pull Joel back?

Before the final result thanks to everyone who helped over the two days Ian Mason for collecting the money Adam and John Treble for organising the buzzer men so well and not to forget Clayton who pulled most of the course down in a torrent of rain. Finally a big thanks to Martin, not only for organising this great event but also helping myself out in the centre.
 
So who was to be the first BARCS SlopeGlide Champion? Overnight leader Joel West held onto his lead to be crowned BARCS SlopeGlide Champion 2012, despite challenges from Mark who finished runner up and Adam taking Third place.

The full results are below and I look forward to see you all soon, all the best

Andrzej

1	Joel West	5703.69
2	Mark Redsell	5693.73
3	Adarm Richardson	5558.25
4	Paul Garnett	5514.90
5	Mark Abbotts	5326.29
6	Mike Evans	5312.92
7	Martin Newnham	5287.48
8	Fank Holton	5260.59
9	Mike Shellim	5240.00
10	Phil Taylor	5116.55
11	Clayton Landells	5071.96
12	Mick Walsh	5057.40
13	John Bennett	5039.83
14	Dave Wright	5028.82
15	Andrzej Tabero	4946.87
16	Ian Mason	4927.46
17	Mark Treble	4856.02
18	Dave Rumble	4853.40
19	Tom MacPherson	4806.91
20	Tony Robertson	4733.71
21	Pete Burgess	4510.93
22	Steve Streetly	4412.72
23	Jack Cubitt	4071.77
24	John Treble	3477.11
25	Andrew Evans	1424.67

New Ceres

Hi All

I know I have been quiet for a few weeks but this has been down to a number of things but mainly work, a very bad back, family commitments, the weather and my birthday, as I have now reached the grand old age of 50 L.

Still a little something turned up in the post yesterday to bring back a smile to my face from Mr Baudis, a nice new Ceres

Now I can all hear you say he has just got a wonderful Willow and fantastic Stinger what on earth is he going to do with another Ceres.

Well for those of you who weren’t there my old Ceres bit the dust at one of the winter leagues. My own silly fault, I parked way back over the quarry as I walked off to land on the Ice Cream slope and then couldn’t get her to come forward even though I had loads of height and all the ballast in, the rest I would say was very painful! I wouldn’t say she is terminal but she is going to need an awful lot of TLC before she can fly again.

That said I was smitten with her. She was originally Greg’s but then found her way in to John Phillips hanger, where she suffered some minor abuse with his impeccable flying style, before she came to me!

Joel kindly gave me his setups, which I plugged in and as a result fell in love her the very first time I chucked her off the slope. In fact the setups were so spot on every time I make a change I seem to end up going back to the original settings, nice one Joel.

Now as I said, young Mr Phillips had tested the air frame to its full and one of the resultant effects was so much slop on the flaps that she would wave to me every time she flew past. That all said even in this state her energy retention was fantastic in the turns, hence one reason why I liked her so much. So after that depressing day when I modified my old Ceres it was a bit of a no brainner to order a new one.

As you can see the packaging was a marvel in itself and well done to Jiri for going to this effort to get the Ceres safely to me. I have gone for RDS this time as it appears to have eliminated the slop problems earlier seen. I know some manufactures don’t agree with RDS on flaps as it doesn’t seem to have the holding power of conventional linkages when on a winch, but living in Wales I can’t find a field flat enough to setup a winch, so I don’t think this will be a problem for me!

It goes without saying the finish is top draw as you can see form Jiri and I am really looking forward to getting her into the air.

Hopefully things will slow down a bit for me soon so that I can get some building done. So with a bit of luck I will post some pictures of the Willow, Stinger and Ceres progress in readiness to the fledged from their respective nests in the near future.

All the best

Andrzej

New Ceres flickr.link

HoH Champion of Champions Photo’s

Hi all

After a rather nice holiday in Florida I am try to catch up on a few things and as promised here are a couple of Photo’s from the Champion of Champions at the Hole or Horcum at the end of March.

All the best

Andrzej
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HoH Champion of Champions Flickr link

Willow Champion of Champions

Hi All

Just a quick note to say thank you to Ian and Tony for sponsoring a Great Event over the weekend.

Nail biting down to the end with Simon seeing his lead built up on the first day being whittled away by Paul and Martin. Especial by Martin who was on a charge all day Sunday and two more round could have see a different result.

And of course the highlight of the whole event and the only reason we were all there, the Raffle. After fly like a complete pratt for two days yours truly came away with a smile like the Cheshire Cat and is now the proud owner of wonderful Willow.

So an extra special thank you to Ian and Tony for putting this super prise up.

When I get a few minutes I will put some photos up on the Blog of the Willow and some from the competition over the weekend.

All the best from an over the moon

Andrzej

VV Model Stingers Every Where!

I haven't got my hands on my Stinger yet as it's having a little holiday in Scotland at present. But hopefully we will be welcoming her to the Tabero household this coming weekend.

The feedback from Peter and Kev are that they look and feel just fantastic with Vaclav's quality as always second to none.  I just can't wait, if I didn't have so much work on I would drive up to Scotland tomorrow and collect her! But we will just have to wait a little longer....:-(

More to come soon

Andrzej

A cracker on the VR slope for the final winter League

Hi All

Sorry no big write up tonight on account it's Mothers day and I needed to spend some time with my Mum after the competition today.

When I looked at condition on Friday night it was indicating that it we could have a wait for some clag to clear, initially it could be marginal wind speeds and we would probably have a few breaks for rain.

When I got the slope, late I might add due to the previous days celebrations  (Wales and Rugby to give you all a clue) which lead to a set of keys going astray, there wasn't a sign of clag and a nice northerly breeze on VR slope.

Low numbers meant we elected to fly two up otherwise there would big delays organising buzzer men and covering the centre.

The conditions for the VR slope were quite variable, which is unusual for this slope which probably would end up having a big bearing on the final league positions especially with us electing to fly two rounds at a time.

There were a few highlights. Mark Abbotts new Caldera R, in its very first round of F3F Mark flew a 38:45, no better way to christen a new plane. Apart from looking very nice it was noticeably quiet at high speed, always a good indicator of clean design and functionality.        

Joel flew a new PB with a 32:90 and then crowed through and flew a 32.71, with the 32.71 not only taking the fastest time for the day but also the League.

Finally the battle royal between Simon, Martin and Joel for the fifth round was quite spectacular at times with countless sub 40s being flown.

In the end we managed to get 16 rounds in with no delays for rain or low wind speed and it proved to be an apt way to wrap up the 2011/12 SWSA F3F Winter League.

A big thanks to everyone today, especially Simon who helped in the centre and Martin and Joel for getting the course up and down.

So as for the results for the day Martin ended up coming out on top followed by Joel in second and Simon in third.

The question was had Martin done enough to overtake Simon to win the league? The answer was yes and Martin was crowned the SWSA F3F Winter League Champion for 2011/11. Simon was relegated to Second and with the discard kicking in it meant Joel came in third.

So a great finish to the league with a cracking days flying which over the last five months has seen quite a few new faces, loads of fast times and plenty of PBs, just what the SWSA F3F winter league is all about!

Thanks to everyone for supporting the events and I look forward to seeing you all soon and all the best

 Andrzej

Round 5 Results

1	Martin Newnham	13594.53
2	Joel West	13043.31
3	Simon Thornton	12944.18
4	Mark Abbotts	11760.94
5	Andrzej Tabero	10935.27
6	Tom MacPherson	10518.37
7	Mike Evans	8086.85

 Final League Result

1	Martin Newnham	2975.41
2	Simon Thornton	2952.16
3	Joel West	2913.63
4	Mike Evan	2823.60
5	Andrzej Tabero	2598.24
6	Ian Mason	2500.45
7	Marin Drewett	1593.08
8	Rob Runyeard	1354.76
9	Stefan Bertschi	966.36
10	Dave Rumble	943.23
11	Mark Southall	943.21
12	Mick Walsh	913.71
13	Mark Abbotts	865.12
14	Tom MacPherson	773.72
15	Paul Stubley	771.65
16	Mike Place	731.76
17	Stuart Brookes	699.24
18	Tony Robertson	507.80
19	Roger Hillman	183.71
20	John Treble	150.86