14/03/2010

On Speed Practice from Clive Needham

The wind turned out to be a little stronger than forecast but was by no means near to the limit, however, it was constant all day with little variation in direction, which no doubt resulted in the many high launches.

As the direction was from the N or NNW, at this time of the year it meant there was very little of what you could call good air, due to the high launches it might have been expected that even faster times would have been registered, particularly looking at the way the models were travelling, especially the Cyrils
Therefore in the main, the results were not affected by luck, so reflect the level of each pilot’s abilities and the capabilities of their models.

There are at least three Targets and Dingos on order so it will be interesting to see how they perform when they finally arrive.

As expected Steve Haley was the man to beat and 10 year old son Simon is the be congratulated on his performance in his first speed comp, his results would have been even better but for two bad calls from Dad resulting in cuts at base B,

A big thank you is due to Neil Harrison for sitting at base A all day, calling the pilots forward and booking down their times, especially since had hoped to fly his second Zenith model which is lighter than the first build.

Everyone was happy to help each other and ready to allow use of their winches after many towlines were broken due to the huge loads put on them by the wind and the model set up.
The fact that no models were broken due to the high loading reflects well on the strength on the latest designs, the feeling by some of those who do not fly F3B,that the contest is a model breaker is now just not sustainable; it is the pilots who break models!!
Several pilots flew personal bests: - Bill Haley, Mark Passingham, Mike Challinor, Ken Woodhouse, John Phillips and Simon Haley, if I have missed anyone out I apologise.

If enough of you want another Speed Comp I am quite happy to arrange one, it’s just question of fitting one in, or use the reserve date if not required.
It might be a way to encourage the people who keep saying they will have a go at F3B to come along as it is disappointing that the numbers are not increasing.
Thanks again to all of you for making it a good day.

Regards,
Clive.

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