Day Two Welsh F3F Open

No flying today due to the conditions, Clag :-(

Well it wouldn't be a Welsh open with and a bit of rain and Clag!

Day one Welsh Open 2013

First Day of the Welsh Open

After three round this how it stands, but with the discard kicking in on the next round there could be some noticeable movement!

See you in the morning

Andrzej

place	pilot	Team	total
1	Peter Gunning	Mickey's Massive	2718.40
2	Jose Luis Alvares	Paketes	2691.74
3	Martin Newnham	GBU	2672.17
4	Gerardo Plaza	TWC	2659.98
5	Simon Thornton	GBU	2658.85
6	Joel West	Mickey's Massive	2605.30
7	Inaki Elizondo	TWC	2585.88
8	Graeme Mahoney		2574.37
9	Paul Upton	RPM	2563.81
10	Scott Ravenscroft		2556.87
11	Fernando Moro	Paketes	2547.35
12	Paul Garnet		2540.18
13	John Phillips		2534.15
14	Richard Bago	RPM	2481.68
15	Mark Abbots	Team Wrecker	2475.84
16	Frank Hulton	Team Willow	2472.23
17	Tom McPherson	FARTS	2465.90
18	Mark Redsell		2464.56
19	Kevin Newton	GBU	2441.58
20	Tony Livingston		2431.44
21	John Edison	FARTS	2414.37
22	Keith Wood	FARTS	2410.04
23	Alvaro Silgado	TWC	2409.57
24	Carlos Rivero		2403.09
25	Mick Walsh		2370.47
26	Andy Burgouyne	Team Willow	2369.13
27	Jorge Medina	Team Buckaroo	2368.37
28	Markus Meinssner		2327.25
29	Ronnie Lampe	Team Wrecker	2320.70
30	Inigo Herrera	Team Buckaroo	2283.72
31	Dave Rumble	Team Wrecker	2281.01
32	Tony Robertson	Paketes	2270.99
33	Ian Web		2259.82
34	Mark Treble		2259.23
35	Lazaro Martinez	Team Buckaroo	2253.90
36	Martin Drewitt		2241.99
37	Ian Mason	Team Willow	2198.36
38	Daniel Schneider		2190.95
39	John Treble		2174.04
40	Stefan Bertschi	Mickey's Massive	2156.82
41	Mike Evan		2148.55
42	Thomas Hsnselmann		2132.16
43	Tom Foreman	RPM	2111.87
44	Paul Stubley		1950.19
45	Marcelino Punal		1589.01

place	team	sum
1	GBU	7772.60
2	TWC	7655.44
3	Paketes	7510.09
4	Mickey's Massive	7480.52
5	FARTS	7290.30
6	RPM	7157.35
7	Team Wrecker	7077.55
8	Team Willow	7039.72
9	Team Buckaroo	6905.99
10	Tea Swillers	4725.10

Welsh Open Practice update

Hi All

For those of you lucky enough to be at the Bwlch today you should be enjoying some sunshine. The forecast has changes a little and is indicating that there is now more west in the wind direction. If you are finding the air a bit bumpy on the Ice Cream Slope it might be worth having a look at the Westerly slope on Mickey’s.

The good news is that Thursday was looking like a washout but it now looks like the rain could well clear by mid afternoon (16:00 onward) so if you are travelling down there could be a good chance of getting a couple of hours flying in. Again there could be a bit more west in the wind than previously forecast so you may need to go over to the westerly slope on Mickey's for the best conditions.

Enjoy and all the best

Andrzej

Welsh Open Practice

Hi All

For those of you coming down early for a practice for the Welsh Open I will ask the Farmer to open the gate to Mickey’s from Wednesday onwards.

Current forecast are suggesting Ice Cream Slope Wednesday, on Thursday Mickey’s during the day (with some precipitation) swinging back to The Ice Cream slope in the evening. However, as we all know 24 hours is along time in for a weather forecast on the Bwlch and it could all change by this time tomorrow!

If it is your first time to the Bwlch, best bet is always go to the landing area for the Wrecker to judge wind direction (see Kev’s old web site http://www.knewt.com/bwlch/thebwlch.htm ) before making a decision where to fly.

Any questions contact Kev or myself and I am looking forward to seeing you all on the weekend.

All the best

Andrzej

VV Sting for sale

My good friend Mike Young is selling his Sting and Pylon Racing plank  if anyone is interested. This would be an ideal model for anyone wanting to dip their toe into the F3F pool for the first time. Please have a look at the trailing email below and contact Mike via email at if you are interested

 

mike@miniwing.co.uk

 

Failing that please get in touch with myself and I will let Mike know

 

All the best

 

Andrzej

 

Hi Andrzej

 

If you hear of anyone after a starter F3F / back up model can you point them in my direction? I have a 2.8m F3F Sting for sale. Its not pristine but certainly serviceable. Way back when I bought two Stings to make one good one hence the colour differences. There are 2 x Sanwa 792s in the fuse, 2 x JR 368s on the ailerons and either multiplex or Volz on the flaps, they are red anyway. I’ll remove the battery as it maybe a little suspect now sitting on the shelf for a couple of years. I've also got a 60” plank I was racing with before packing it in, ballast tubes in fuse and wing, no idea what servos, can’t remember and without cutting the wing open to find out, 2.4ghz Rx but I’d remove the battery as I wouldn’t trust it, again no idea on price. I’d ring around but unfortunately my phone crashed and deleted the address book.

 

Cheers

Mike

 

 

 

 

Forecast for the Wrecker but Flying on Mickey's

For a long time I have been meaning to have a look at EM style for F3F. A number of conversations with Simon, Martin and Mark have revealed that I would have to change my current setups before I could start to even have a look at this style.

So after a evening of playing around with my Ascot settings with some sound advice form Martin I was ready to go. Why the Ascot? Because she has a ballast tube in the fuselage it gives an easy option quickly to move the C of G to see what effect it will have on the technique.   

The forecast was for a nice 10 mph on the Wrecker which would have been ideal. However when I got there John the Taxi was flying his electric model at the Wrecker car park. Why the electric well slope lift was coming and going all the time as there only a slight breeze.

A wonder up the highest point didn't help either. The windmills over Treorchy were still indicating north easterly direction and the new windmills at the far end of Mickey's were suggesting the Crest, but what wind there was at the top was now feeling more like the back of the Wrecker!

John had now landed so I headed over for a chat hoping the conditions would build a bit more as flying of the Back of the Wrecker in very light conditions were just not holding any attraction what so ever!

After half and hour I wondered back up the top the Treorchy windmills were still indicating north easterly but the new ones at the far end of Mickey's were showing southerly and standing on the edge of the Back of the Wrecker the breeze had picked up a bit more but there was quite a bit of west in it by now.  No forecast I had looked at suggested any hint of south westerly with nearly all of them shown the wind moving from north easterly though east south east over the next twenty four hours.

With what wind there was still quite light, I much rather be on Mickey's than the back of the Wrecker even though it would mean a long walk, so over I went. By the time I got to Mickey's the wind had picked up a bit more and was smack on Mickey's proper. Wind speed was now hovering around 6 or 7 mph and occasionally picking up to around 10 mph, although I suspect this was more to do with thermal activity.

A quick fly with the Ascot dry proved that the air was quite buoyant so I landed and put about a third ballast in. Even though the condition were light I spent a very enjoyable hour and half  playing around with my settings and trying to get the EM style to work.

Like everyone I have played with EM with my standard F3F setups but have found it very easy to kill the speed. Ever though the conditions were light the new settings seemed to be working and look like a good base to start from.

So what has changed? Well basically everything is a bit softer and I find running with a little more differential helps kick the plane back into the slope, although this might get wound off a little as in big air this might kick the model in to much.          

The next step will be to have a look at the effects of rudder inputs on the turn, but that is for another day and by now the wind had dropped right down again so it was time to go home.

Brass Monkey Champion of Champions

Well with all the fast times this year there was another first and this was cancelling an event because of the cold.

With Snow thick on the ground and 10 to 15 m/s blowing up the Wrecker it was so tempting to try to run the event. But with Simon measuring -16⁰C wind chill there was a very big concern for peoples welfare with dangers of hypothermia or even possible frost bite in these conditions.

  

Added to this we would now be moving towards the sort of temperatures that NiMh start to play up. The thought of a fully ballasted model heading back towards the slope at over a 100 miles per hour and then loosing control was all to worrying to contemplate! 

Not to mention the joys of landing a fully ballasted model  in these temperature. Freezing cold temperatures, glass and carbon fibre and lots of energy to dissipate which all add to a good recipe for disaster.    

  

There was a notable sigh of relief from everyone when it was called off!

Champion of Champions 2013 flickr.link

  

Thanks to Ian for organising the event.  Also thanks also to Traplet  Publications who provided a goody bag for all the competitors.  There was some discussion on departure about a possible rescheduling of the event. This will clearly be up to Ian and how we fit it in to what looks like a busy year this year, but it would be a shame to let this annual event slip.   

See you all soon

Andrzej