Monday, May 21, 2007

Schweizermeisterschaft F3B 2007

Last weekend was hold Swiss F3B Nats. Podium was formed by Bohlen Family. Andreas flew a new plane... This time a Precious... Are we going to see in WC two pair of brothers flying planes from same builder?. I think I'm going to see an amazing fight between Herrig and Bohlen brothers :-)

Photos
Results
Report (google translation)

Sunday, May 20, 2007

XXXIII Torneo Villa de Madrid

Lot of time with no updates, I have been a litlle bit bussy this week because my job. Last weekend I was in Madrid in XXXIII Torneo Villa de Madrid. My father and me travel on Friday to make some flights in the field, we made more changes of lines than flights because the strong wind, I was afraid the weekend would be a nightmare but finally wind wasn't a matter :-)

The contest was going to start at 3 o'clock so we went to the field in the morning to set the tent, boxes and winches. We were 32 pilots and we just made two rounds (one per day). Very strong wind all weekend long so you had to take care in launches. The key of this contest (every year) is to be very careful, we never made more than three rounds, so If you make a fail you lost all your oportunities to get a good classification. I had this idea in my mind and after a horrible result in f3b nats I wanted to make a good performance and... I got it!!!!

Yes, I made my best result in a national contest 4th classified, that would be third because a wrong decision of the organzization (not unique). More people was affected by this decision. In round 1 of duration two pilots of the same team had to fly in the same group, they made an unofficial claim and after the answer of the organization they refused to fly this task. Second sad event was that organization join two pilots with the same frecuency in a duration group, the pilots lost their planes, one of them was a Portuguese pilot. Portuguese pilots decided to retire from the contest because they were very upset with organization.

Personally and fortunately I didn't have any problem but I understand pilots. Is very dificult to organize a f3b contest in Spain, there's no aeromodelling clubs with enough infrastructure. Grupo Halcon Club made this year the 33th edition of this contest. Congratulations guys! But I think in this kind of event you have to controll 100% some things like radio frecuencies. We practice a very expensive hobby/sport (at least for me) and when I pay a inscription for a contest I think that I transfer control frecuencies and a lot of more things to an Organization. By the way I'm sure there will be a 34th edition, taking care of what happened this year.

In positive side... Spanish pilots have improved very hard in speed task. Daniel Portella got a new Spanish Speed Record: 16,16 seconds. And a lot of pilots flew under 18 seconds (not me) I made two 19 seconds speed flights. In one year I have improved about 5 seconds, so I'm very happy with it. Next events in Kassel and Emmen. Two contests with an amazing high level. Then will be time to enjoy and learn as much as possible.

Results

Photos

Sunday, May 06, 2007

2nd BMFA F3B UK League. 29th April 2007

New report about F3B UK League by Chris Jubb:

"Another good turn out for the second league event. Only a couple of the regular B leaguers not flying due to lack of models.

It was good to see the new B league pilots here again. Mark Passingham and Ken Woodhouse taking advantage of Ken’s motor home to make a weekend out of it. By all accounts a little extra practice on Saturday and a lot of wine Saturday night .

Weather was quite kind to us, not quite as poor as the forecast predicted.

After the pilots briefing from Clive Needham the competion started at 10:00.

Our normal program was flown to this schedule. A then B Duration Round 1. A and B Distance Round 1 and 2

A and B Speed Round 1 and 2 . Ending with the A and B R2 duration.

This schedule allows Clive to populate all of the manning and timing requirements at Bases A and B with little shuffling of helpers.

Round 1 A league Duration.

Slot1. Steve Haley (Estrella) took top honours just out landing Jonathon Wells( PlusTask), in Round 2 a couple of crossed lines forced a re-fly for the group. Dave Worrall ( Crossfire x) took 1000 points from his attempt and elected not to re-fly. John Whittle took best advantage from the refly to score 1000.

Round 1 B league Duration.

John Stewart (Europhia) took best advantage and outflew the rest in slot 1 by 1min.10s.

Mark Southall battled against Clive Needham also flying a Tragi and Ken Woodhouse with his x tail Crossfire to emerge the victor for slot 2.

Rounds 1 & 2 A League Distance.

Round 1. Bill Haley took advantage of some great air to take top spot in S1 flying his new Furio.

Steve Haley and John Whittle tied with 24 laps in slot 2 with Dave Worrall taking the lead in S3 with 24 laps.

Round 2.

Slots 1,2&3 showed some excellent close flying in more consistent air. Simon Jackson, Dave Worall and Paul Carrington headed their slots to take top points. Paul was flying his modified Skorpion F3B with single strand wire turbulator just in front of the aileron surface.

Rounds 1 & 2 B League Distance.

Clive Needham flying his new Tragi and Mark Passingham won both round slots with newcomer Keith Whitton winning slot 3. Keith has come back to soaring after a long absence. He is currently flying a veteran Calypso Contest . Its great to see him doing well.

Round 1&2 A league Speed.

Steve Haley again recorded the fastest speed time of 16.63s with Paul Carrington pushing his Skorpion to record 16.76

Round 2 Speed. Again Steve reigned supreme with 15.56 with Simon Jackson the closest to him with 17.16.

Round 1&2 B league Speed.

Round 1 Mark Southall flew superbly to record 19.16 using his Tragi a clear 2 seconds faster than the rest of the field.

Unfortunately Ken Woodhouse launched his Crossfire into the ground after a mix up resulting in his model not being switched on. He did however change to his backup model (Arris) for round 2. Mark Passingham won the second round with a great run of 19.91.

Round 2 A League Duration. Slot 1 saw poor conditions and Bill Haley managed to overcome the rest but only recording a 4min47s flight.

Slot 2 Simon Jackson managed take advantage of the better conditions to squeeze home with 10.01 and maximum landing bonus.

Round 2 B League Duration.

By the time the B league final duration was held the quality of the air had improved and Ken Woodhouse showed that his Arris could take advantage of the available good air to record a win in slot 1. Slot 2 was just taken by John Stewart with Mark Passingham only just 1 second away.

These two flyers have only 4.3 points separating them from 1st and 2nd in the league. It promises to be a closely fought season.

Next League event is:- League 3 on SATURDAY 19th May. Venue Retford Wetlands. Start 10:00 prompt."


Photos
Results

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

T-Shirt Design

I'm working in F3B at Home t-shirt with the help of my sister (a futer designer), these are the first ideas. What do you think?

Front Option 1

Front Option 2

Back Option 1

UK F3B League 2 Venue, Wetlands. 29th April 2007

Results of second contest of UK League have been published in Barcs sie. The winner of A League was Steve Halley with a Estrella JD... JD? Results here. Leader Board here.

Contest 2 of the 2007 North Island F3B Series

AucklandSoar hosted the second contest of 2007 North Island F3B Series at Matamata. You can see full results in Chris Kaiser site. The winner was Chris Kaiser with a Ellipse 2V.

1 Chris Kaiser Ellipse 2V 11782.7
2 David James Big Sting 11619.9
3 Les Stockley Crossfire 11594.0
4 Rhys James Ellipse 3C 11421.7
5 Rod Hale Crossfire 10413.8
6 John Dolphin Eraser 9789.5
7 Merv Malcomson Frazer 9175.9
8 Sharn Davies Eraser 7861.6
9 Richard Thompson Europhia 5502.6

A League and B League.after two contests, here.