F3B UK News

2011-10-18T20:47:00.014+01:00

2011 - L8 F3B results - Retford.

1 Haley, Steve 6000

2 Challinor, Mike 5640.4

3 Whittle, John 5486.1

4 Haley, Simon 5465.8

5 Woodhouse, Ken 5213.1

Although I have left Alan and Dick off the official ranking for L8,

I think we were all very impressed with the F5B models and grateful for their help on the bases during the day. The idea of combining the two events (F3B & F5B) would certainly add more gravitas to both FAI discipline's, advance electric F3B and hopefully make for more efficient and enjoyable competitions.

Mike flew steady as always, John W flew the nuts of his vintage Ellipse 2 and placed a credible 3rd and Simon flew his best F3B contest to date placing 4th. It was good to have father back in team Haley following illness and Bob for keeping us entertained as always (that bloody tree again Bob)...!

It wasn't one of Kens best comps which was understandable given his slipped disc issues and Jonathan

continued to improve and will be a force in the league once he gains some consistency which will come soon with experience and positive attitude.

Overall 2011 F3B Results.

1 Steve Haley 4,000.00 100%

2 Mike Challinor 3,806.90 95.2%

3 Ken Woodhouse 3,720.36 93.0%

4 Simon Haley (Junior) 3,634.31 90.9%

5 John Whittle 3,542.91 88.6%

Well done to the top three (Steve, Mike, Ken) and to Simon for placing 4th which at 12 years old must be the highest junior placing we have had in the league's history.

A big thank you to Clive once again, for running the league and for maintaining and transporting all the equipment to and from the comps.

One again, this year, we have seen the number of competitors reduce and although most F3X disciplines are experiencing the same, we do not promote / maximise our sports' exposure nearly enough and we are all guilty of not doing as much publicising as necessary.

I am convinced that electric F3B is one option that we should promote vigorously and credit again must go to Clive for flying his electric Crossfire this year, to develop the rules, and promote the advantages of electric launch. Given Clive's efforts I think we are all hopeful that we may gain some new pilots next year using this format.

UK pilots have competed in two F3B Euro tour events this year and apart from being very enjoyable, we continue to learn and improve our competitiveness which inevitably filters back into our league. Mike, Simon, and especially Ken, have all improved immensely this year as a result of competing at a higher European level and I would urge everyone to make the effort, finances permitting, to have a go at least one of F3B Euro tour events.

Its a very different experience to the normal UK league event and very rewarding.

Team Haley - Holland 2011

Ken with his trusted Target - Holland 2011

Over to you Bob for BB-banter L8 and the overall results....

See you all at the first winter practice...

Steve Haley

Nats

2011-09-05T13:01:00.002+01:00

Report From Clive Needham

2011 F3B NATIONALS RAF COTTESMORE

Due to the loss of Spitalgate as a venue for the Nationals Dave Phipps the BMFA CEO was tasked with finding an alternative and due to his efforts the RAF agreed to the use of Cottesmore. Concerns were expressed about the difficulty of gaining entry due to the airfield still being classed as active although it is in the process of being shut down and handed over to the army.
Fortunately the stringent requirement for all entering to be photographed and the picture attached to the pass were not enforced on the day thus speeding up the entry.
The weather forecast leading up to the contest was not promising with strong winds and heavy showers for the whole weekend.
Although the winds were fairly strong all day the many showers could be seen passing us by with just a brief sprinkling from the edge of one was the only interruption. We have flown in much stronger winds such as at the two day contest last year at RAF Barkston Heath.
However the conditions did slow down the contest due to a number of line breaks.
It was pleasing to have Tom Satinet joining us for the second time this year and Jonathan Sage for the very first time, Jonathan Wells also flew F3B for the first time since last year’s Nats.
Unfortunately due to the need to ensure we had a valid contest with the possibility the weather might prevent this, we were not able to give as much help and attention to the newcomers as we would have wanted which made it more difficult for them, however both appear to be keen to continue flying F3B with us.
The open e-soaring contest was situated downwind of us further along the runway’s grass verge and because of the wind direction and few thermals most of their flying was upwind which resulted in some over flying; this was not a problem except in distance when some of their models entered the course causing confusion.
Because everyone arrived early expecting to be held up at the guardroom we were able to make a prompt start, as usual duration was flown first in three slots of four.
The first slot comprising Bill Haley, Simon Haley, Jonathan Wells and Jonathan Sage who had a baptism of fire for his first ever competitive F3B launch and flight!!
The slot was won by Jonathan Wells by only 2 points from Bill, however both the first two slots were won without flying out the full 10 minutes, the second slot winner was Mike Challinor and only when Steve Haley flew in slot 3 was 10 minutes almost achieved with a 9.55 and 100 landing.
The same pattern occurred in second round duration flown as the last task in a two round contest, only Steve Haley and Ken Woodhouse completing nearly 10 minutes, unfortunately for Ken he was in the same slot so he did not get the true benefit for his efforts. The other two R2 duration slots were won by John Phillips and Jonathan Wells with times of 7.22 and 9.10 respectively.
Rounds one and two distance were flown back to back as usual to make the best use of the manpower and with the help of non flyers Keith Wells and Barry Mason we were able to fly 3 up which is more satisfactory and takes less time than 2 up.

As in duration the laps scored reflected the windy conditions with only Steve Haley, Bill Haley and Ken Woodhouse posting over 20 legs with Ken receiving 1000 points in both rounds but the second one for only scoring 12 legs!!
Speed is also flown back to back and we had the help of Alan Flockhart who flies F5B and was interested in making a comparison between the two disciplines so he with his daughter manned the safety line throughout.
The conditions helped in achieving high launches except in my case as due to flying an electric powered Crossfire it was a battle to achieve the agreed launch height of 300m at a weight of 3.7kgs before the timer cut the motor, in fact the logger indicates cut-off points of about 250m. I hope to be able to increase the power from 500 watts to 700 to overcome this disadvantage in windy conditions.
Most achieved reasonable speed times with the regular speed merchants posting under 20 seconds with Ken near to his PB with 16.81 and Jonathan Wells maybe with a PB of 18.83? Jonathan Sage and Tom Satinet deserve a mention with Jonathan posting 21.34 and 20.39 in his first comp, also Tom with 22.69 in R1 and although he messed up in R2 completed his run to get a score.
As usual Steve Haley showed everyone the way with times of 15.62 and 14.23 flying his Baudis Fosa at about 3.8kgs, this is his fastest so far with the Fosa and only 0.39 seconds outside his British record.
Simon Haley cut the safety line and thus his flight was annulled as stated in the UK variations from the FAI rules where a 300 point penalty is applied. The cut cost him a couple of places on the leader board. This variation may need to be discussed but not here as the explanation is too long, however bear in mind the important word is annulled (which used to be the case in the FAI rules) as against a penalty which cannot be discarded.
Except for Brian Johnson who slightly damaged his model in a landing and Bill Haley who seriously damaged his Shooter, losing it in the sun, all others completed the contest.
Bearing in mind the conditions it was decided to end the contest at the end of round two as it then met the requirements regarding validity.
The prizes were presented by the BMFA chairman Robin Gowler, this is the first time I can recall this has happened.
Many thanks to all who entered and especially to those who helped in anyway including Simon and Steve Haley for computing the scores which you can see on Yahoo Groups.
Models flown as far as I can recall.
Shooter, Target, Fosa, Estrala,Precious, Ellipse,Tangent and E- Crossfire.

The highlight of the weekend was the several low passes by the only remaining flying Vulcan bomber during the F3J contest on Sunday.
The wind was slightly stronger on Sunday, not less as forecast, and five of those who flew F3B entered F3J which made the entry up to 18.
Three of the five made the four-man fly-off the winner was again Steve Haley with son Simon age 12 just a few points behind, Jonathan Wells came fourth

5 go to belgium

2011-07-28T21:36:00.005+01:00

Five go to Belgium.

I had not planned to do any European competition this year but as a result of a last minute decision by Steve Haley to go to Belgium, I was suddenly thrown into the exciting, if not daunting prospect, of having to fly against some Europeans. Steve wanted to make up the number for the team so along with: Clive Needham, Bill Haley, Stephen Haley, Ken Woodhouse and myself - we planned the trip.
The thought of flying a European (ex Euro tour)competition had cause an initial rush of excitement as I knew from previous experience flying on the continent was a totally different experience; from the standard of flying to the smooth organisation European competitions are fast paced and pilot focused. However, Sat waiting at Hull Ferry terminal at six o'clock, with the last check in for the ferry at seven thirty, Mr Needham was still stuck outside Oldham on the M62, things were looking a bit desperate. It was raining and Steve and I working working out how we can get: three people, camping gear and equipment into one of our smaller cars and failing. With minutes to spare, Clive, wheel smoking and breaks screeching, arrived at the terminal to save the day and we piled all kit into the one mighty Kia (including its two fully operational windows and a lump of wood just in case).
The beauty of travelling by ferry from Hull was that now we could: kick back, get some dinner and crack open a beer before hitting the bunks in the cabin.
Arriving in Rotterdam early Friday morning it was just a straight two hour run to the site of the competition in Belgium Anthisnes. I had been warned previously that the site was tight to fly from, but as the mighty (and very comfortable) Kia bumped up the dirt track to the small plateau of a field. I was already prepared for the tree line a hundred meters downwind from the launch point and the surrounding crop fields. I did not turn in disbelief to ask 'is this it?" thanks to my earlier preparation on Google earth.
Ken had already arrived, coming from south of London via the Channel Tunnel. In fact Ken was so early none of the organisers had even turned up. This led to some confusion and the Brits were already upsetting the locals by pitching their tents in the wrong place. Ken wisely gave up on setting up camp and opted to start on his Calais supermarket purchases, by opening a can of beer whilst wait for the rest of the Brits to arrive.

The wind, that had been slowly building all day, was now at the point where it was a good enough excuse to not fly since the excitement I had felt earlier was now turning to nerves. Unfortunately for Bill, he had to fly his model (Shooter), as it had been recently mended after an unfortunate incident at a previous competition. A few test flights was all that was needed to get Bill's model's elevator and hook settings dialled ready for the following day.
Woke up to a damp windy morning but following the pilot's briefing the competition was soon underway. Round 1 slot 2 Ken is the first up for team GB in duration. Due to the high cross wind and the location of our winches on the downwind side this proved to be very testing conditions with many crossed and broken lines. Unfortunately for Ken and down to no fault of his own his model (Cyril) entangled with another competitors towline during launch resulting in one half of this tail plane being broken off. He was lucky to direct his model to a soft crash landing in a sweet corn field. Due to the contact with another winch line Ken was able to claim a re-fly schedule for later in the round. Slots continued with many crossed line and other pilots experiencing similar problems; this was becoming a day of survival. As the strong cross wind continued, the Contest Director (CD) following the Brits request, decided that each pilot would launch in the order that they were lined up on the winch line downwind side first. This helped to eliminate the problem of crossed lines. Maximum duration points were achieved by someone in every slot. However the conditions were challenging and changeable and the turbulent air, coming off the high corn fields, made achieving the hundred landing points difficult. Ken made the decision not to continue flying after a poor result in his duration re-flight. He did not want to risk damaging his number two model and spoil his weekend and the rest of the competition season. Instead he did a cracking job of helping the team by: ensuring all winch batteries were fully charged, launching models for Steve and I and being the best distance lights man in the business. Thank you Ken; who also managed to find the time to drink his annual supply of cheap beer over two days and digest a large cow strapped between two bread vans for supper!!

Photo of Ken’s burger

The second round of duration was flown early Sunday morning, the wind had dropped to almost nothing and conditions were challenging for different reasons. A good launch was required followed by delicate flying with minimum control input. This would maximise efficiency and hopefully achieve a thousand points. I was impressed in the way that Steve's Fosa performed in these weak conditions by being top of the pack throughout his slot.

Next up distance. Due to the conditions there was only one practical side to fly distance. So this made chatting a little easier for team GB against the might of the bigger European teams. We produced some good lap scores, and caused some upsets when Steve took a lap from Andreas Bohlen (Switzerland) and myself a lap from Peter Hubbertz (Germany). Our strategy worked well (but that's our secret!). Clive did well against a strong field achieving nineteen laps in his first slot. Bill flew some great distance and was unlucky not to get the 1000 in his second slot by missing his last lap by less than a second. Most slots were won with scores in the low 20’s with the exception of Andreas Herrig (Germany) achieving twenty-six laps in both his slots!

Speed, as always, is the fun bit. Again, Team GB performed well with quick turn rounds on re-launches and good chatting to support the pilots. Clive and Bill as always impressed me with their dedication and determination to score points in every flight and finish the event in full.
I started with a disappointing 17.45 in average air and I knew that I would need some luck and to fly well if I was to have a chance of my goal - a top 10 position. However with the pressure building it all went wrong in my second speed run when I crossed the safety line and gained 300 penalty points. The run had only been 18.73. So for the third and final run I had nothing to lose. Stood on the base, Steve asks “I guess you want to go for it?" I did not reply and just waved Ken to Launch. Ken gave me a cracking, full ballasted launch with plenty of tension into reasonable air. However the climb out was a bit awkward due to a recent wind shift which resulted in an abnormal entry onto the course. Diving onto the course I rolled and pulled like I had nothing to lose; clipping the turns perfectly and before I knew it I was on my last leg with the model maintaining good speed. A quick twitch on the elevator to prevent disaster, followed by some over correction and it was done - a 15.14 run which was a new PB. Boom!!!!

Steve, partnered by his dad Bill were, as always, a force to be reckoned with. Steve did very well with average air recording times of 15.72 and 16.87 for his first two runs which put him in 9th place. With everything to play for going into the last round, a good run could put him on the podium. Problems with the chute opening on the first launch saw him with the breaks out and quickly coming in for a re-launch. On the second attempt the launch crew double checked the chute and Steve was away. The launch was average and so was the air. He dropped onto the course and clipped the first turn perfectly and was on his way back to base A. Another good turn and all the competition were watching. He positioned the model low but perfectly between the corn field and base B, rolled and pulled hard...nothing...he’d cut. Quickly recovering, almost ploughing into the corn field (with an 'oooh' from the onlookers), he returned to base B to get the turn but it was never going to be fast enough. A 21.94 sec run with a cut.

Fastest speed of the weekend Jens Buchert 13.55

Final Standings
From 62 competitors

Steve Haley 15th Fosa
Mike Challinor 27th Target
Bill Hayley 49th Shooter/Ascot
Clive Needham 54th Dingo

Full results at http://www.f3b.be/anthisnes-2011/final-scores

Conclusions
The final results were disappointing but promising and I will let you do the maths on what could have been for Steve and I if we had not made mistakes in speed. We all had a really enjoyable weekend, Belgium may not be the biggest flying field but the organisation is excellent. The competition is 'hosted' by the local club, which means that there is no manning of course or button pushing and the pilot can just concentrate on, well flying; this result in a fast and more exciting pace of competition. Add to this the social aspect and the large entry numbers compared to domestic competitions and it makes the journey well worth the while.

The cost for the whole weekend including: ferry, entry fees, car parking at Hull, camping, food and spends came to just under £300 - I was pleasantly surprised. And although the journey was long, it was enjoyable because the travelling time in the car was less than in many domestic competitions.

Will I be going again? Yes and I would recommend it to anyone. The flying standard is high but this comp has a different feel to others I have attended, it is more about enjoyment. The winners are the people smiling, so we all won this one. Well done Team GB.

Most of the team but clive is behind the camera.

The winch line was compact so teams had to pack winches the space available.

Retford Practice

2011-07-05T16:39:00.001+01:00

Great days flying at Retford on Saturday, several F3B and electric pilots enjoyed near perfect summer flying conditions which were calm, variable winds, warm and good thermal activity all day. Throughout the day we tested models, fine tuned ballast set-ups for next week’s Belgium international where six pilots from the UK F3B league will be competing.

Mike and I flew hand launch models throughout the day and I must admit Mike had the edge on me most of the time with his more recently designed Russian hand launch model. Although I did get the better of him in the last flight when I put my Long-shot up the winch line which I have to say, was much easier than throwing bloody things all day!!

After lunch, all pilots flew two rounds of speed on course which consisted of each pilot flying three consecutive speed flights on random winches with everybody acting as the pilots team. This system worked really well in terms of achieving flying consistency on course, trying different chat men and maximising the flying time available for each pilot.

John Phillips was show casing his new Tanga and having briefly had a go with it, I though the Tanga showed good promise, especially on turn exit when flying speed. JP subsequently had a go with my Cyril as it was easier to demonstrate to John how I like my models set up. Again this proved to be a useful exercise as John instantly realised that although the Cyril was set up much more active on throws, it was balanced and easy to fly....which is why I am always harping on about trying to find the right balance when setting up new models for competition flying....

Thanks again to Clive for organising the day’s events and it was also good to see Phil Brandreth again who was flying an array of electric models which was both interesting and topical as UK F3B has started developing new rules with a view to integrating electric powered models into F3B in the near future.

Role on Belgium....

Cheers Steve.

ARNHEM F3B EURO COMP MAY 2011

2011-06-06T21:21:00.000+01:00

A Report from Clive Needham

A group of six of us set to attend the European F3Bcomp at Arnhemin The Netherlandson 7^th and 8^th May.

The Northern group comprising myself and the Haleyclan, Bill, Steve and young Simon who at 12 must be the youngest competitorfrom the UKto have taken part in a Comp with such illustrious company.

We travelled as we did last September, for the Belgium Comp,by meeting up at Kingstonupon Hull toboard the overnight ferry to Rotterdam.This being the most convenient but not he cheapest way to travel but enables usto sleep both ways and arrive fresh and ready for action. If meals are pre-bookedin the excellent all you can eat buffet the cost per person each way for dinnerand breakfast is only £20.

The time for me to get to Hull is about 90 minutes and took roughly thesame from Rotterdamto the hotel outside Arnhem.The four star hotel gave us an excellent room rate, a twin room for 2 nightswas only £26 per person per night. Pity about the food and drink costs whichwere expensive, not helped by the exchange rate. The hotel was only about tenminutes away from the flying site, Deelen airfield but as it was outside townthere were no alternative dining options.

Thus the actual driving time by car was no more thanmight be expected for a UK Comp, thedownside being the extra time taken by the ferry and its cost. I am sure someof the European competitors had longer driving times than we did.

The ferry means leaving home mid afternoon Thursdayand not arriving back until mid morning Monday.

The Southern group of Mark Passingham and KenWoodhouse left Ken’s Home at 6-30am Friday for an early trip via the channel tunnel with the hope of arrivingat the airfield early Friday pm, it being about 260 miles from Calais, unfortunatelydue to heavy traffic and obligatory short stop for booze and fags they did notarrive until teatime.

The rest of us, after first checking it to the hotel,had been on site since about

12-30pm although it was stated it would not be openuntil 2-00pm.

The organisers were just beginning to set up thecourse so we had a leisurely lunch we had brought with us, so for once theBrits were first to arrive. A pattern to be followed on both competition daysby us arriving by 7-00am, even before the organisers so we could eat ourbreakfasts in good time before the first slot started at 8-00am.

We had a good practice session in the afternoon but Imade the mistake of concentrating on the Crossfire to obtain some of my bestlaunches so far, I should also have flown the Dingo, not doing so cost me inR3. Steve and Simon both checked out the Radical but neither opted to use it inthe contest.

The joint CD Erik Heijne.

Simon flew his much repaired hand me down Preciousthroughout the contest, which aroused much interest as the scruffiest aircraftamongst the mostly new pristine models seen. It is rumoured that he has a brandnew Precious in the pipeline. Bill test flew his Shooter but Ken opted not totest fly his Target to give Mark as many launches as possible with his Cyrilwhich was much damaged due to a mid-air in Belgium last year, by a pilotpracticing speed prior to the Comp.

Simon climbing out from launch to fly speed

Timing Equipment

At times during the contest the Cyril was stalling theOber winch as it was pulling so much tension. There might be a case forre-testing the winch to check if the performance is not up to scratch.

All weekend the wind was mainly from the East butvarying to SE at times: it was brisk but not overly strong although it appearedto be less gusty than in the UK, The strength caught us out at times and itappeared we were sometimes under ballasted, especially in my case.

Duration was flown 8 to a slot and I was first up at8-00am on Saturday, I flew without ballast which is normal but found I couldnot penetrate without losing height, although I did manage 959.3 pointsincluding a landing bonus of 85, my bests core of the contest.

The Crossfire only takes 900grams of ballast so I mayneed to explore getting some in the wing joiner, especially for speed in suchconditions.

Steve took his usual 1000 points, Ken 930, Mark 981.4,Simon 971.4 and Bill 984.3 hitting the spot; this was probably the best set ofscores for the team over the whole weekend.

Distance was next flown in groups of four I was in thesecond group. I should have put all the ballast in but only used 6 out of the10 slugs, big mistake, although that is no excuse for a poor score. I canusually fly distance reasonably well without expecting to match the top classpilots in such Comps, as a result I only obtained 461.5 points a pattern to berepeated in the other two rounds. I could not get to grips with the techniquerequired under the conditions.

The signalling system used by the organisers has aseries of lights and buzzers with a mechanical count down timer display board. Howeversome of the sounds are very similar so it is necessary for one of the team to confirmthe pilot has passed the base by watching the relevant light and nothing elsethroughout the task, otherwise mistakes can be made, none were made by ourteam. Thus a minimum of five including the pilot are required.

Steve was next to fly and had opted to fly the Cyril,unfortunately for once he did not perform to his usual high standard, as evenin such company he is generally there or thereabouts, but being beaten by fivelegs cost him 270 points. If he got near to his usual 1000 points as he did inR2 and R3 he would have finished at least 7^th overall.

Steve opted to fly the Fosa for the remainder of thecontest so he was able to compare like for like with the other models to see ifhe could improve its performance.

Ken scored 782.6, Mark 750, Simon 583.3 and Bill 777.6so none of did as well as we would have hoped.

Speed of course was next but did not follow what isnow the usual pattern in such comps of running in reverse order based on the scoresthus far, i.e. starting with competitor having the lowest score. This was notdone until, as is normal, the final task in R3, I assume to save time compilingthe scores; also to save time only 3 minutes instead of 4 minutes working timewas allowed which caught some out if they re-launched, including Simon in R3.

Therefore because I had been towards the top of the list in first2 tasks I was soon called. I got what for me is a good launch and flew thecourse accurately without any mistakes but was disappointed to only get a22.54; no better than I would have expected in a league comp from a lowerheight. Maybe more ballast?

Steve was soon to fly and did a 16.1 which wasreasonable. However Thomas Dylla threw in a 13.71 which stuffed everyone, itcost Steve 143 points and even took 194 points off the eventual winner DenisDuchesne who flew a Cyril throughout the contest.

Thus I scored 608.3, Steve 856.3, Mark 639.5 for21.66, Simon 659.1 for 20.80, Bill 692.1 for 19.81 and Ken 575.6 for only 23.82for some reason? his lowest score of thecontest.

Round 2 speed followed immediately, if you were notready, tough you would lose your score. Denis Duchesne won this with a 13.46which turned out to be the quickest of the contest, which again stuffed a lotof people except Jens Buchert who waseventually 2^nd he only lost7.4 points to Denis. Denis is a former World Champion from 1992 in Israel whichgoes to show you don’t have be a young gun to win. Steve was now flying theFosa instead of the Cyril which turned out to be slightly slower, maybe due thenot so good air, so he got 797.2 for a 16.99 costing him 203 points.

From what information we could gather it appeared thatJiri Baudis the Fosa/Cyril designer wasflying his new Fosa development model at a much higher wing loading, thetechnique was to get as much speed as possible on the line then ping off at alower height than we would have expected. Compared with the original Fosa, thespan is increased to 3.25m with a wider wing chord, longer moment arm and a newwing profile. If you want to be competitive, new models come out so thick andfast these days it is impossible to keep up.

For myself I got a slightly better time of 21.63 fromwhat I thought was not such a good run as in R1 giving me 632.2 points, Ken19.6 for 687.8, Mark 22.27 for 605.3 andSimon 19.95 but only got 375.7 because of a 300 point penalty for crossing thesafety line. Unfortunately Bill made a mistake at Base B and did not completehis run. As this was the first task of R2 it meant the damage prevented himfrom taking any further part in R2, potentially depriving him of a further 2000points.

Bill was not the only one as former World ChampionAndreas Bohlen flying a Shooter made a basic error at Base A, touching awingtip and totalling his model; thus also losing all points in R2. It’s atough old game in F3B if you make a mistake, especially if you do it in thefirst task of a round. When Bill asked him if he would repair his Shooter thereply was “I don’t repair I get a new model” Bill was interested in buying thebits but the French beat him to it.

To finish the day off it was R2 distance; I felt sorryfor the guys pressing the buttons as they had been doing nothing else without abreak since just after 10-00am when R1 duration finished.

Mark flying distance with Ken and Steve assisting Bill is checking the lights to confirm the turn.

Things improved for both Steve and Ken bothregistering 1000 points with Ken getting 3 extra legs on former World ChampionReinhard Liese. Mark also did better with 800 points but unfortunately doingsomething which he admitted he shouldn’t by trying to make a low downwind turnat Base B damaging his model. Simon andI scored 650 and 666.7 points respectively.

Unfortunately for me in trying for an extra leg lowdown towards Base B the wind got underthe wing and tipped it over, partly damaging the fuz neat the canopy. HoweverSteve managed to zap and splint it together with fibreglass tape so I couldfinish R2 with it on Sunday morning.

Thus day one finished at about 6-45pm having completed2 rounds except for R2 duration with 64 competitors taking part. Therefore 9duration slots, 36 distance slots and 128 speed runs had been completed during the day so by thetime we had packed up to go to the hotel we had been on the field for over 12hours.

Unfortunately I am unable to give the times andlanding bonuses because the website has not provided a full set of results,only the actual points gained, the same applies to the number of legs indistance.

Day 2 Sunday followed the same pattern with the windstrength increasing slightly but still with sunshine most of the time.

The first task was to complete R2 with duration; Kenwas up in the first slot gaining 921.1 points. Simon was in the very next slotso we had to be ready and on the ball, he scored 921.4. Steve was able to getan almost perfect score with 998.6 points. Again without a break it was my turnbut the air was poor, however I thought I had done OK and got a 95 landingbonus with most of the others landing at about the same time, however I missedseeing Andreas Kunz landing well after me so I only gathered 740.7 points. Markfinished with 711.4. Due to Bill damaging his model he did not score anythingin R2.

There had been a suggestion that due to the number ofhelpers available R3 distance might no be flown, duration taking its placeinstead, however, enough were found so duration dropped to allow an earlierfinish.

Because of this I opted to fly the Dingo to avoid thechance of further damage to the Crossfire which in the event of another heavylanding, might turn a minor repair into a major one.

Simon was first to fly in R3 distance and did prettywell for a 866.7, Mark getting 650 withhis now repaired Cyril, Bill was now able to take part again and chose to flyhis Ascot the model he did so well with in our league a couple of years agogaining 600 points: I was even worse with a 478.3 flying the Dingo for thefirst time in the Comp. The decision not to have a test flight cost me dear asthe model did not rotate but by the time I re-acted it was well up the line. Ishould have re-launched but did not want to put the team to the trouble as Iwas not in with the chance of improving my position by very much. If I hadre-launched it would have been difficult to quickly assess how much extra up wasneeded without the model pinging off the line, requiring a further re-launch.

Both Ken and Steve scored 1000 points.

There was then a break to enable the scores to bringthe running total up to date so that what would be the final task R3 speed tobe flown in the now traditional reverse order. I and over 50% of thecompetitors were using 2.4ghz which is a big advantage as the Tx aerials do nothave to be handed into Tx control. Thus there is ample time between flights tomake minor adjustments to the model settings; it was to my advantage as I wasable to do this with partial success on the Dingo to give me a better launchfor the final flight.

Both Bill and Mark opted not to fly R3 speed as theycould not improve their positions.

So to the final shootout; needless to say I was calledto fly fairly soon but not the first as I finished 55 out of 64. The Dingolaunched better than in distance but I made a mistake at Base A by overrotating, the correction cost me and I finished with 26.66 for 525.3 points.

The real drama then began for Simon, we had very fewproblems with launching all weekend with no broken lines. Simon had three linebreaks so because of the reduced to 3 minutes working time, he ran out of timehalf way down the course. A really disappointing and upsetting end to anexcellent effort on his first, hopefully of many, international competitions,Simon finished 56^th the zero costing him 7 places.

Simon will still qualify as a junior at the nowconfirmed 2013 World Championships to be held in Germany plus also in 2015 whereverthey may be held, and possibly in 2017?

Ken was next with a time of 18.23 his best of thethree giving him 774 points, he had been working all weekend to improve theTarget’s launch height, all his hard work enabled him to finish a creditable 32^nd exactly half way, his best result out of thefour Eurotour contests he has flown so far.

There was then a period of good air and several pilotsgot improved times but it soon disappeared. Andreas Bohlen had the best time ofthe round with a blistering 14.11, he was flying a new model called Energise,which is only two weeks into development. However, because had missed all of R2it equally harmed those who were on contention for the top places.

Jens Buchert was in first place a few points in frontof Denis Duchesne but Denis had a slightly faster time so took 1st place.

Steve also had a drama of his own; he found he had afaulty primary speed/launch 3 position switch on his Tx just as his workingtime started. He flew using a launch and speed forcing switch to achievetheoretical settings. However he still put in his best time of the Comp with a15.6 giving him 904.5 points. He had been flying the Fosa at 3.8kgs in speedand 3.3kgs in distance which is rather heavy compared to standard model setups, he still has to get the best out of it but no doubt has a lot of work onafter the weekend. The poor distance in R1 with the Cyril immediately put himout of contention so he was playing catch up all weekend finishing in 14^th.

Mark by opting not fly in R3 speed finished 54^thbut had he flown and obtained a reasonable score he could have gained about 8places. For me and Bill the least said the better, Bill missed 4 out of the 8scores available, 3 by missing all of R2 and the other by opting not fly R3speed. I at least got in a full set of scores but much good it did me, mylaunches are still not high enough, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

As in the other two recent forays into Europe to Belgium it was a mostenjoyable weekend with an excellent team spirit, everyone helping each otherthroughout, the majority of the dogging was done by myself Ken and Simon, Bill and Mark being in chargeof the winches and launching with Steve most importantly doing most of thechatting.

There was basic on site catering with vouchers forfree coffee, in addition it was interesting to watch the full size gliding atthe end of the runway all weekend.

The winner Denis Duchesne (middle) 2nd Jens Buchert (right) and 3rd Juri Baudis left)

1^st Denis Duchesne-----Cyril

2^nd Jens Buchert--------Radical

3^rd Jiri Baudis-----------Fosa derivative.

Fastest Speed----------- Cyril 13.46 Denis Duchesne

Best average Speed ----14.44 Thomas Dylla. Model ?

Models mainly Cyril, Fosa, Radical, Freestyler, Shooter,Evolution and Hurricane cross tail which looked to have promise.

In the past GB teams have been successful at WorldChampionship level with one 1^st, two 2^nd and three 3^rdindividual places plus one 1^st and five 2^nd team places.Alas this standard has not been kept up and the recent experiences have shownwe no longer have the strength in depth of pilots required to repeat theearlier successes.

Of the 64 taking part in Arnhem 32 were from Germanyin several professional looking well organised teams, any one of which would belikely to achieve a better score than the best team we could have put out.These teams are formed from larger local groups who practice together and pusheach other all the time.

Unless we can entice back some of the best pilots fromthe past or encourage new blood to join us we will continue to fall further andfurther behind.

Over recent years we have had several new excellentpilots join us such as Tony Vale, Neil Jones, Mark Southall plus otherspreviously, who have shown their ability by going right through the B League,when we were still running one, unfortunately they did not continue for anylength of time.

Any good competent pilot can make a mark in F3B asshown by Joel West in L1 at Upton,The problem is that to attain the next level up to compete at European let alone World level requires, of courseability, but a long term commitment and practice , practice, practice not forjust a couple of seasons or so as has been the case with many for a number ofyears.

I hope the information in this report not only hasshown what happened at the Arnhemcontest but has indicated what is required to compete against the best in F3B.

F3B was the first soaring contest to be recognised bythe FAI and in my opinion is still the ultimate test of pilots and modelswithin the soaring disciplines, the thing is, are you up to it?

Compiled by Clive Needhamwith additional information from Steve Haley.

2011-04-19T13:41:00.000+01:00

Nice video of the first comp of the year.

Thanks to Joel West

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-_DY0a6Ogk

Bobs Beery Banter at the Speed Comp

2011-03-18T21:20:00.000Z

F3B SPEED COMP MARCH 13TH

The speed comp was held at the Wetlands, near Retford this year. It has formed the traditional season pre opener, and a chance to try and sort models and equipment for the upcoming season. Nine pilots attended. This could possibly have been higher, but it's not a bad turn out for a non-league event.

The morning started with rain, in fact, when I turned up at around 8.20am, I was the first there. After about 20 minutes on my own I got worried, had I done it again? Rung Marlene to check F3B UK messages and yes, it turned out I was actually at the right place – it is not entirely unknown for me to get it wrong.

However, Mike then turned up and I was reassured. Mikey's Internet – enabled mobile phone told us things would brighten up by lunchtime. Therefore, when most people had turned up we set out the course. The rain eased up enough for us to have test flights.

Steve was hard at work, test flying his new Fosa. This, in the air, is my opinion is an absolutely stunning looking model, the high aspect ratio makes it look in my eyes perfectly proportioned. I was impressed, especially later, when he was thermaling the model in fairly light air while carrying 2/3 ballast.

I was flying my new Crossfire Evo "V" tail, purchased unflown from Alan Jones. It had had maybe 10 launches before today and not yet tried for speed or even launched with ballast.

I spent the day tweaking launch and speed settings, steadily getting confidence and pleasure out of the model. Although my best time through the day was only 21 something, I was pleased with the results and feel that there is much more to follow.

So on to the comp. Mike kicked off with a 16.9 run which included a cut. Very quick, but disallowed. John Whittle had a run with 2 cuts at Base 8. I think his distance judgement was perfect but his course alignment was diagonal – hence the cuts.

Chris Jubb's second run was a PB of 23 something. I was proud of him and his chat man.

Clive I think had an average sort of day with some decent and some poor runs – but nothing got broken - I'm sure he enjoyed his day.

Phil Goddard had some highly interesting launches. Fortunately he is not a total newcomer and I hope can take a little constructive criticism. Heh – Heh! However, he got through the day without damage and was gaining confidence all day long – we await developments.

Simon Haley kicked off with a couple of very entertaining runs when it was obvious that the model was out of elevator trim. This quite pleased me because I figured that at least I wouldn't be beaten by juvenile midget.

Then Dad trimmed it right. The result was a 17.7 Yep – 17 point bloody 7. I'm speechless. I wish I was 11 again. Superb run! I might have to ask Dad to trim mine.

Incidentally – at some point in the afternoon I was earwigging Steve on the phone to Fiona (keeper of the Haley halo) explaining that rudder controlled yaw, elevator controlled pitch, and flaps controlled the amount of lift generated by the wing. I thought it would be beneficial to listen because I might learn something. It was something to do with a school project for Simon. I also found out that Fiona (keeper of the Haley Halo) thought that she should be due for a mention in the next BBB league report.

Apparently this would result in Steve being on a promise (probably meant a nice home cooked tea) or did she mean me?
I have to be careful because Marlene types this up. Perhaps we can arrange a model swapping evening where everyone throws their transmitter in a ring and picks one out blindfolded?

Food for thought!

However, I feel that I may have digressed too far already – the competition day finished up being flown in superb conditions, in great company, and I am certain was enjoyed by all.

BoB

Comments on Sundays Speed Test from Steve Haley

2011-03-14T21:18:00.000Z

Sunday’s speed practise event once again presented great conditions to get back into the competitive grove and test new models, pilots and techniques. On team Haley’s agenda, test new winch configurations, one much repaired model from last season and a complete new model for the 2011 campaign.

Over the winter we decided to ditch the standard Haley winch configuration (draw bar and wheels) for the more European framed layout to improve transport logistics and both winch's performed very well.

Our trusted F3B Precious is now been flown by its third team Haley pilot Simon and although this model was very nearly scrapped at the end of last season following more abuse, it was repaired over the winter and once again proved how well this model always launch’s in neutral conditions. Following a couple of interesting setup runs Simon flew two 17 second runs with a PB of 17.7 seconds followed by a rather low reversal much to his father’s surprise!

I, on the other hand had a rather frustrating but enjoyable day. Having taken delivery of the latest Baudis development only 10 days prior, I was keen to test the new Fosa F3b model. This model bucks the current trend in F3B design with its high aspect ratio and latest construction techniques. Testing every possible setup parameter I tried for most of the day to find a performance window that I was happy with and consequently, I struggled to break out of the 17 second band throughout the six rounds flown. Eventually though, I did find some performance and ended the day with a 14 second run albeit in reasonable air...which certainly gave some much needed encouragement....

This is purely feedback from team Haley’s day and I will leave the detailed competition report to Bob as always...
Steve

2011 Season Primary Speed Test Sunday 13th March

2011-03-14T17:16:00.000Z

Well a glorious day

Steve Haly took the days win and also the fastest time.
Steve's best time of 14.85 flying his new "yet to be fully trimmed " Fosa.

Junior Simon Haley suprised us all (and his dad Steve) with a 17.7 second run, a PB for Simon.

Haley, Steve 100

Challinor, Mike 90.07

Whittle, John 86.9

Haley, Simon 80.4

Dickinson, Bob 74.95

Haley, Bill 72.57

Needham, Clive 66.69

Goddard, Phil 56.67

Jubb, Chris 48.54

2011 BMFA F3B League Dates

2011-03-02T15:16:00.001Z

Speed Comp Sunday 13th March The Wetlands North Notts.
League 1 Saturday 16th April Upton upon Severn
Dutch Euro Tour Sat/Sun 7th/8th May. Arnhem.
League 2 Sunday 22nd May The Wetlands.
League 3 Sat/Sun 11th/12th June The Wetlands. Format to be decided.
Belgium Euro Tour Sat/Sun 2nd/3rd July Anthisnes.
League 4 Sunday 17th July Barkston Heath (applied for) Otherwise The Wetlands.
League 5 Sunday 31st July The Wetlands.
League 6 Nationals. August Bank Holiday Weekend. Which day will depend on the new SFTC as to the format. Hopefully it will be on Saturday 27th with F3J taking one day Sunday. 28th
League 7 Saturday 24th Sept Upton.

Reserve Day Sunday 16th Oct The Wetlands.

Winter Practice Session 27th February

2011-03-02T10:00:00.003Z

A brief report from Bill Haley

I would like to thank everyone who turned out for the F3B practice on Sunday 28th.

This was the third time of asking as the weather would not play ball on previous weekends.Indeed it tried its best to foul things up on Sunday with unforecast rain until lunchtime. After that although it threatened rain we managed uninterrupted flying for about four hours.

I would like to thank especially the new boys Simon Thornton, John West, Paul Middleton, Martin Newnham and Phil Goddart. They were flying models which included Ceres, Ceres Lift, Scorpion, Cyril and Freestyler 3.

They all looked extremely capable flyers and with practice I am sure they would be a threat to the established crowd. I hope that we will see you all again through out the coming season.

Total turnout was fourteen flyers.

Bill Haley

Sunday Febuary 13th Winter Practice

2011-02-08T21:39:00.000Z

Clive has arranged a practice session this Sunday at the Welands... All welcome.

Hi Everyone,

Weather permitting it is intended to hold a practice/training session at The Wetlands on Sunday 13th Feb.

Usual arrangements apply; I will assess the forecast on Saturday it is then up to YOU to contact ME Saturday evening to see whether the practice will take place. This is in your own interest to avoid fruitless journeys.

What form the day will take depends on who attends and what they want.

If complete newcomers wish to come along they will be most welcome and I am prepared to set up the course to enable practice of the distance and speed tasks.

However if it is only attended by the usual pilots who only want to trim out models ready for the season starting with the Speed Comp on 13th March then it may not be necessary to set up the course.

IMPORTANT.

Further reminder you MUST bring along your BMFA Card to ensure you are covered for insurance, I do not intend to be held liable and taken to court if anything untoward occurs.

NO CARD NO FLY, NO EXCUSES.
Looking forward to seeing you on the 13th.

Clive.

2010 Season League Positions

2011-02-08T21:34:00.001Z

BoBs BBB after Final 2010 League Event

2011-02-08T21:23:00.002Z

League 7 was held at Upton on Severn. I slept in a bit and was a trifle late arriving. Rung Steve Haley for the lock number “hello, are you at Wetlands?” was his ‘phone answering reply. My reply was not printable; however, I received the lock code and gained entry.

Being late, the course was already set up and all I had to do was assemble models and lay out my winch.

We had a prize presentation of the Nigel Mead Trophy before the competition which went to the most improved pilot of this year. This was of course young Simon Haley, with proud Dad and Grandad in attendance. Well done and well deserved Simon – Nigel would have been well pleased.

Clive was flying his newly acquired Crossfire – it shows promise and may well suit his flying style. Mikey won his first duration slot with a perfect score, Steve coming third in a slot of 3, with 9.57 and 95 landing

I won my first duration and my first distance – wowee!

The wind direction then turned – we went from crosswind and then to downwind launching. Some coped better than others – me worse then most, I feel. Top score in distance round one was Mikey with 22 laps. Top score in distance round 2 was again Mikey with 20 laps. Laps scored were extremely variable, with the lowest number of legs to win a slot being 8.

Speed – in very difficult conditions Steve flew round 1 in 18.69, very closely followed by Mikey with 18.81. Round 2 saw Steve record 17.86 – a superb time given the launch conditions.

Interesting and most entertaining launch for L7, the prize must go to Ken Woodhouse for a perfectly executed Triple flick roll while still on the line. Superb entertainment and excellent value for money for spectators – probably a laundry bill for Ken.

The results were announced – Steve had once again won the day, and once again claimed his prize from Clive’s collection of interesting prizes. I understand that he is holding a car boot sale of his winnings in about mid October.

But what is this? 2 days later, a mistake in the scores is spotted (by Steve, bless ‘Im) whch demotes Steve to 2nd place and Mikey to first.

What happens now? Does Steve now have to swap prizes with Mikey? Does the car boot sale have to go on hold? Time will tell.

The question is, of course – can Mike cope with this sudden success? It could be compared to Jedward winning XFactor. It could be that he becomes even more of a smart arse than he already is (in reality this is probably not possible)

In actual fact, I chose to use a chat man for my second speed run, because my first run was so bad. My second speed run was worse. I blame my chat man. I think he was trying to eliminate the opposition. Wild horses couldn’t drag the name of that chat man from me, but it was Mikey.

Next Season will now be interesting. I hope that more people will be along to watch Mike, Steve and myself battle for Top Spot. Indeed – I would be interested to observe that myself.

To sum up:- a great season’s flying. We have flown in a typical UK season of weather, covering all 4 seasons in 3 months.

Those amongst us who have flown in international comps have had a great time, in particular, Steve has shown that he is still a top contender (despite what we do to try and hamper him) The other top 4 or 5 league finishers also have the ability to score superbly . I feel that we have a very strong league in quality, if not quantity.

Get yourselves along to fly – I’m sure that you will enjoy yourselves, also I need fresh victims

Cheers

Uncle Bob

PS: There are several of us who fly and “make up the numbers” Our highlights come from the odd slot success, or beating our own personal best. We don’t always have the talent, ability, or dedication to be world beaters. This doesn’t detract from the pleasure, enjoyment and cameraderie that we obtain from this sport one iota. New or old friends will be very welcome next year, I am certain that this sentiment is echoed by the whole of the F3B and aero-modelling community.

.

BELGIUM F3B EUROTOUR Report from Clive Needham

2010-09-23T19:23:00.001+01:00

BELGIUM F3B EUROTOUR EVENT ANTHISNES 2010.

Two teams of three set out to attend the F3B Eurotour event in Belgium near Liege held over the first weekend in September.

One group (Northern Group) comprising Steve & Bill Haley plus myself Clive Needham travelled by the Hull Rotterdam overnight ferry; which is more expensive than travelling from the South however you get a night’s sleep both ways and arrive reasonably fresh. The food in the dinner and breakfast buffets was excellent and although the cabin was sparse, it was OK for one night.

The Southern group, Mark Passingham, Ken Woodhouse and John Philips travelled via Eurotunnel.

John Philips came along to see what is involved in attending an International F3B event and to dog the lines for the 5 competitors; from the outset it must be said John did an excellent job throughout and got a line burn for his efforts.

Both groups arrived early Friday afternoon and were able to get in plenty of practice flights, unfortunately whilst Mark was practicing distance on the course another pilot decided to practice speed and without warning slammed into his model and virtually destroyed it.

Not a good start, Mark therefore had to compete using his Freestyler for the rest of the weekend.

Knowing the site from last year and the forecast wind direction I was concerned that we might be launching downwind all weekend, however I was relieved to find the organisers had moved the control tent to the other end of the field, thus launching was more or less into wind throughout.

The field is very narrow and there was a small area about 6M by 20M behind Base A used for landing after Speed and for 1 spot in Duration, there were 2 further spots between Base A and Base B also for landing in Duration ( this area could not be used for landing in Distance) The remaining 5 landing spots were in slightly lower ground about 10m wide on the far side of the winch lines next to a field of corn about 2.5m high, this meant at times having to approach landing over the heads of other pilots. Several landed in the corn, as I did last year but managed to avoid it this time.

The safety area behind the winch line extended to a line of trees and a stubble field. On the other side of Base A where speed had to be flown there was another stubble field full of quite large stones. The safety line for speed was in that field. Needless to say I flew Speed from the winch side of Base A about 20m from the safety line therefore accurate flying in speed and all landings in the small area behind Base A needed care, resulting in many 300 point penalties.

All of us except Steve had penalty points some even had two. Fortunately I only incurred one when I landed on the winch lines at the end of a distance task, I should have landed in the corn for which there was no penalty.

The Northern group stayed in the same hotel as last year about 10 minutes from the field, the hotel is excellent, although a little expensive, the owner even got up early to serve continental break for us at 6-30am.

The Southern group stayed in an area set aside for free camping on the flying field.

Friday night we had a barbeque on site which helped to kept costs down and on Saturday evening there was a meal included in the entry fee, this was held in the large permanent club marquee, and lunches could also be bought there on both days for 5 Euros.

We arrived from the hotel bright and early on Saturday morning just after 7-00am ready for the 8-00am start, we had left our winches covered up the night before to be ready to go.

However due to the fine autumn weather the field was surrounded by mist, the start was delayed until 9-00am and flying then took place until 7-00pm with a short break for lunch.

The whole of round 1 was completed plus the speed and distance tasks in round 2,

All of us except Steve had minor mishaps including the dreaded 300 point penalties, Steve won or was very close to winning all his slots in the 5 tasks completed and was in 2nd place at the end of R1 and 3rd at the end of day 1.

The fastest speed run in R1 was 14.48 seconds by Daniele Amici ITA.

Most of the better pilots and many others flew out or were near to the 10 minutes in Duration; unfortunately I could only manage 7.30 and 85 landing.

Most of the distance slots in Round 1 were in the teens the best by Andreas Bohlem with 24 legs.

Mark Passingham did well in Distance (900 points) and Speed clocking 17.51 but was let down in Duration with 7.03 and 100 point landing.

Round 2 Distance followed the pattern of Round 1with only a few in the twenties Daniele Amici was the best with 26 laps and again won the Speed task with a 14.35.

Steve Haley was close behind with 14.85.

So ended day one with beautiful autumn weather up to about 20 C with fairly light winds and very little cloud.

The round 1 scores can be viewed at f3be but so far the other round by round scores have not been posted however the final scores are on f3b.de

We were up bright and early again on Sunday morning, this time without the mist so the day started at 8-00am with Rounds 2 & 3 Duration back to back.

Both were flown in virtually no wind requiring minimum sink settings, most pilots did well in both rounds with high scores I even managed 9.32 with 100 points and 9.14 with 85 landing points.

My problem is not getting the launches high enough as with just a few more meters I would have easily done the 10 minutes and although I would not have won my Distance slots would have managed a few more laps and consequently gained some more points.

Round 3 distance was flown in much better air with many more scores in the twenties with highest being 29 by that man Amici again.

Steve Haley was still in third place only a few points behind, the final result, as in so many cases, would depend on Speed which was to be flown in reverse order starting with the pilots at the bottom, needless to say although I was not first to fly it was soon my turn.

The consistently good air found in round 3 Distance disappeared, the unlucky ones got poor air, (that is my excuse and I’m sticking to it)

The fastest time of the round and the whole competition was 14.27 by Jiri Baudis; and in fact in Round 3 he scored the only perfect round with 3000 points. He was flying his new design FOSA model having a more elliptical plan form and a higher aspect ratio, the model seemed better suited to the light winds, especially in Speed.

Although Steve Haley was still in 3rd place he was 4th last to fly due to a re-fly, we knew to win he would have do one of his special runs but should to be able hold onto 3rd place.

His first launch was not into good air but he registered 16.49 only to be told that although he had got a signal at Base A he was given a cut, that time would have kept him in 3rd place.

In the BMFA League if you get a signal you get the score because it is not the pilots fault if those signalling think they have made a mistake.

However it gave Steve another shot at winning if he got the good air which some of the other pilots had.

Unfortunately it was not to be as each of his three launches were nothing like as high as usual and to add insult to injury his last and final attempt resulted in a cut at Base B and a time 22.21, I cannot remember Steve having such a slow time even with a cut.

The result was that it dropped Steve down to 7th place.

The other places were Mark Passingham 39, (very creditable after the mid air,)

Bill Haley 41, Ken Woodhouse 43 (would have been slightly higher but for 2x300 point penalties,) I brought up the rear in 50th out of 55 entries, the order of the places were more or less to be expected based on those in the BMFA League.

There were also team places up for grabs based on three per team, in all there were 15 teams and our team of Haley S, Haley B and Woodhouse K finished in 9th place, an improvement on last year.

The Northern group were concerned about the finishing time of the competition as we were on a tight schedule to reach Rotterdam for the one and only ferry leaving for Hull each day, we estimated that to meet the 7-30pm last check-in time we would have to leave the field by 5-00pm at the latest, that was assuming no hold ups on the roads.

Fortunately the Comp finished at about 4-00pm and after very quickly loading my car we left about 4-30, meaning we were not able to stay for the presentations,

With Steve driving and putting his foot down we were at the ferry port by 7-00

The organisation by Denis Duchene and all the others was superb; there was also a lot of help provided by families and friends.

It is a pity that we do not have the numbers or back up to host another F3B International contest.

The UK soaring community is very fragmented with all the various disciplines doing their own thing.

We should be trying to help each other to improve on the scores we obtain at International competitions and World Championships.

The whole weekend was most enjoyable and I recommend that more of the F3B League pilots make the effort to attend in 2011

Open F3b Competition + Trial Electric F3b Event

2010-09-20T15:39:00.000+01:00

Open F3b Competition

Sunday 17th October 2010

Venue:- Wetlands Wildfowl Trust at Retford, Lound Low Road Ash Lagoons

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=53.358927,-0.951025&spn=0.007312,0.016458&t=h&z=16

Due to completing all seven league events on schedule this year, we have a spare date on 17th October 2010.

An open F3B event has been organised and all are truly welcome.

Winches will be freely available to all that need them as will any help and or advise you may need.

We will be also trying a low key e-soaring height limited Electric F3b event. So dig out that electric model

( 4M span max)and try your hand at a full F3B course.

Frequencies 56 to 70 only or 2.4

For any further information please email Clive:- l.needham7 at ntlworld.com.

For entry email:- cjubb at ntlworld.com

BBBL6 (NATIONALS) L6

2010-09-15T22:37:00.001+01:00

Hi guys

I really need some help and advice here.

I've suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me, usual signs, phone rings, if I answer they hang up, going out with the girls a lot etc.

I try to stay awake to look out for her when she comes home but I usually fall asleep.

Anyway last night about 12 midnight, I hid in the shed behind the model racks when she came home, she got out of someone's car fastening her blouse and adjusting her underwear.

It was only when I was crouched behind the model Racks that I noticed I had a hairline crack in the Estrella Tail plane.

Now is there something I can repair or does it need to be replaced?

Ok – back to the Nationals. Held on the Saturday of the August bank Holiday weekend at Spitalgate barracks, some 4 or so miles from the main Nats at Barkston Heath. A fair few old and new friends turned up to watch, Simon and Phil Jackson turned up to fly F3B for the first time this year – Simon showed his considerable talent by finishing 4th - not bad considering such a long lay off with no practice.

Brian Johnson put in his 2nd appearance in the F3B league this year, putting in a very creditable league score of 82.37, despite my assistance in several flights. Jonathan Wells flew in his 1st comp for 2 years with an Estrella and also showed well.

Mark Passingham had a mishap in distance and heavily damaged his Cyril – I understand that he repaired it in time to go to the Belgium Eurotour event the following week – only to have it wiped out by someone else while practising before the comp. I think I can understand how your French speaking skills may have become confused with ancient Anglo – Saxon phrases Mark! You have my sympathies.

Neil Harrison had a great day – finishing 2nd overall and winning round 2. Steve was caught out in the last duration, not being able to make the time and attempting a downwind landing in a fair breeze, which resulted in a broken model.

In fact the constant, chewing strong wind was a factor which wore my own personal enjoyment of the day's flying by a lot – to the point where my results were just getting worse as I lost the will to live. However, we probably had a better day's weather than Sunday, when almost all flying throughout the whole Nats was cancelled; Monday was better, allowing us to fly F3J.

Tuesday's weather was superb – we were all back at work!

The Nationals at Barkston Heath ( Basically the power Nats) was once again Hugely attended, the evenings allowed us to socialise, meet up with old friends and admire the skills of the indoor flyers. It would seem that, although silent flight is losing competition entries, the sport as a whole is thriving.

This can only be good news. If, in the future, we have to move to electric motors for launching, then so be it. Whatever developments come forward to increase the number of participants in our sport – we should embrace these developments rather than stay as purists and watch things decline further. These are my own views of course, but it could be worth thinking about for the future.

Bye for now

Bob

PS Marlene- the first paragraph was a joke-OK. I really do trust you-I should, shouldn't I ?

Bobs beery banter from L5

2010-09-15T22:33:00.001+01:00

Hello all you other sad sacks out there

League 5 was held at the Wetlands. I did not turn up and find myself on my own – an added bonus is that everyone else decided to join me there. Following on from League 4:- Neil's hangover apparently lasted 3 days. He blamed it on something he ate, but we all know far better than that!

The results for the first 4 were pretty close, with only a couple of hundred points separating them. This would obviously mean that either the other guys are getting better, or Steve had a relaxed day at the office. When you are at the cutting edge of competitiveness like myself, you can sense these matters.

Steve must certainly be aware of the improving flying of Young Simon. In fact, when Simon had a radio problem, there followed 10 minutes of circuit checking, battery checking, crystal checking etc. The problem was eventually resolved when Steve discovered that his own radio had been left turned on. That's got to be the way to settle these young upstarts down:- kick the handicap system in early!

Certainly, Simon's last duration slot was a classis. He worked steadily and precisely in low level lift for a long time before finally achieving enough height to take a well deserved slot win, with 10.01 and 90 landing.

As an aside – We recently had the room under the stairs decorated. Years and years of trophies from model flying and kart racing were in there. The boss bin lined them all and consigned them to the garage. I decided that this was not a fitting resting place for them, so erected a couple of large shelves in the office at work and stood them there. This was around early June.

Now some of my workmates have a warped sense of humour. They decided to start removing trophies 2 or 3 at a time and taking them to the pub next door and seeing when I would notice them moved.

Well, when I go to work in the morning, I am usually thinking about work, walk in the office to the kettle and start preparing the daily diary. I didn't notice them missing.

When I call in the pub for a quick one, my eyes rarely stray higher than the barmaid's cleavage, Therefore I didn't notice the influx of trophies into the pub until around 20 July. The whole pub except me knew about this, and all had a laugh at my expense. It then occurred to me that they looked good where they were, in fact Terry (the landlord) had had his bar staff cleaning them because they were too tarnished to be on display.

AaHaa! Since that time, I have been sneaking in 3 or 4 dirty trophies per week and taking back 3 or 4 freshly polished ones. Let's see when they notice!

So – if you want to see a collection of old trophies (from the days when I could fly and win) and have a decent pint, call in at the Black Bull, Hightown, Castleford. Let me know and I will join you.

Cheers for now

Bob

UK Team attend 18th Summer soaring Criterium, Anthisnes,Belgium

2010-09-05T18:53:00.001+01:00

The UK deputation consisting of :-
Steve Haley,Bill Haley,Mark Passingham
Clive Needham and Ken Woodhouse
have set off to compete at Anthisnes,Belgium
4th and 5th September.

See results here:- http://www.f3b.be/

Steve is in 2nd position after round1
Looking forward to final results and also if they manage to catch
the return ferry on time.

BMFA F3B Nationals L6

2010-09-05T15:26:00.000+01:00

Well done again to Steve Haley,

2010-09-02T09:03:00.003+01:00

Bob's Beery Banter after L4 2 day? event at Barkston Heath

Oh, where do we begin? A two day league event held on Barkston Heath, which is a huge airfield, held so much promise.

Saturday was rough – wind speed was high (around 20mph) and the air low down was turbulent. Ok – this should not deter us experts, but it certainly slowed the competition down. Base B blew over once and had to be reset.

Rd 1 duration, My time of 4.30 something and a landing bonus won my first slot. Mikey decided to make a name for himself by demonstrating interesting launches. These were definitely the best demonstrations we have seen all year so far. Unfortunately he ran out of flyable models to carry on this demonstration. Early on, he was out of the comp, but gamely carried on helping, manning the course, etc for the weekend.

Neil Harrison had purchased a factory produced model – A Dingo. His investment appeared to be a success, he had not realised that a model could be so easy to fly and still be competitive, which indeed it was.

Steve Haley lost a slot! John Whittle took over a minute and a half out of him in Rd 1 duration. Savour that, Jon

I came 2nd in my first distance with 24 laps: - what a change in the air! I won my 2nd distance with 7 laps – things were proving to be a trifle variable.

Suffice it to say that the day’s competition ran through with its fair share of ups and downs, Paul Carrington landing a model on the runway, young Simon knocking the nose off his first model, me dumping the Estrella a bit hard on one landing and creasing the nose, generally we were struggling through the comp. We managed 2 full rounds on Saturday then adjourned for the evening.

The evening was without doubt the best F3B league social that we have had for many a year. We were able to get round a table, have a decent meal, a few beers and a lot of laughs. Mike Holtby joined us in the style that only he can – he arrived on a classic, beat up 1979 Trump 750 Bonneville, pitched a tent for the night and joined us for a meal. He also bought a round!

I also had a classic with me – In round 2, I flew an 11 year old Cobra which was Nick Wright’s 1999 WC model, so far, it is almost as new. Flying it, for me was like greeting an old friend. I flew a 19.36 speed, which is the best time I have recorded for around 2 years. I suppose the moral of this story is that cutting edge models are superb in the hands of cutting edge pilots.

Old gits like me are probably better off flying something we are comfortable with. The lift also doesn’t seem to realise the model is out-dated!

Day 2 – Sunday – First casualty was Neil Harrison. Having realised that I had forgotten to mention his tree landing in BBBL3, he decided to celebrate on Saturday Night. A surfeit of Stella, intermingled with white wine produced a banging hangover. Shouldn’t try to drink with the Mister’s Neil. Sunday morning he dare not trust himself to drive to the field, and when he was driven there dare not attempt to fly. Big hangover. Welcome to Bob’s World!.

Once again on Sunday, the wind was high. 1 round of duration was flown, after which the competition was called to a halt with only 5 of us left being willing or able to fly. This was something of an anti climax to the weekend, but it was still worth doing & a good weekend.

Take care out there!

Bob

League 5 Wetlands Sunday 8th August 2010

2010-08-11T19:18:00.001+01:00

Well done again to Steve Haley after a close run competition.

Steve Haley 5981.4

Mike Challinor 5922.2

Ken Woodhouse 5763.4

Mark Passingham 5746.3

Neil Harrison 5324.3

Bill Haley 5239.0

Simon Haley 5065.7

Clive Needham 4925.1

John Phillips 4909.4

Bob Dickinson 4684.8

Chris Jubb 4452.7

Alan Jones 4208.1

Current British National F3B champion Mike Challinor
advising Neil Harrison on trim change requirements.

Ken Woodhouse

Mark Passingham

Steve Haley

2010 Leader Board 4 from 5 competitions

1 Steve Hayley 400

2 Mike Challinor 384.293

3 Ken Woodhouse 379.865

4 Bill Haley 357.795

5 Mark Passingham 353.405

6 Clive Needham 327.357

7 Bob Dickinson 318.581

8 Neil Harrison 309.12

9 Chris Jubb 277.48

10 Simon Haley (Jnr) 274.23

11 Alan Jones 266.327

12 John Whittle 239.998

13 Paul Carrington 203.174

14 John Phillips 145.26

15 Brian Johnson 87.49

16 Dave Worrall 80.6

17 Norman Quirk 74.02

2010-07-20T12:10:00.000+01:00

A very well done, after a difficult weekend to Steve Haley again heading the L4 scores

with John Whittle and Ken Woodhouse following closely behind.

Steve Haley 100

John Whittle 90.147

Ken Woodhouse 89.377

Bob Dickinson 85.361

Paul Carrington 83.004

Clive Needham 78.21

Bill Haley 76.423

Neil Harrison 75.039

Chris Jubb 59.89

Alan Jones 58.059

Simon Haley 32.55

Mike Challinor 0

Mark Passingham 0

2010-07-15T08:24:00.003+01:00

Please see below the lighter side of F3B in the UK as put be the world famous BOB (to many stories so little time) This one of a series of report from the UK F3b League. Bob reports have become know as the Three B's of F 3 B or The Fabulous Bob Beery Banter.

BBBL3

Ok – Sunday morning dawned bright and early. Very early. I set off down to Upton on Severn at the crack of dawn, in order to be on site early enough o help set up the course and do my bit. I arrived at approx 8am and was first there. Couldn’t remember the lock combination number, so telephoned Clive, who didn’t answer. Thinks – he’ll be here soon, no worries – 8.30 came along – no Clive. The old gitl’s obviously slept in. Ring Steve Haley. No answer. What’s going on? Fumbling around my phone, I find Alan Jones’ number, ring him. He answers “where are you”! asks I. We’re on the middle field, he replies. At this point I start to wonder.

Which middle field – I ask? At Retford of course. Oh shit! Everyone else has got the venue wrong and I am in the only one in the right place – the choices then become simple.

Option 1 - I fly at Upton and claim the league win
Option 2 - I fly at Upton and post my results as per postal comps.
Option 3 - I drive 170 miles back to Retford to join the other guys who obviously don’t know where they should really be flying.

I decided to take Option 3 and join the Boys. Carefully observing all speed limits, I arrive there at 12 Noon. The course is already set up. The boys – bless ‘em, had re-arranged the early slots so that my first duration hadn’t been flown.

I was therefore able to fly a whole competition – albeit in the wrong place.

I flew alright in the first duration, got screwed in distance, and flew speed crap. I put it down to jet lag.

Clive flew and launched well – finished 4th overall.
Mikey once again was only really beaten by speed.
Alan Jones flew the whole comp showing his improvements all the way – well done Alan.

Ken and Mark both flew well, finishing 3rd and 6th respectively. They both travel a long way to come to the Wetlands, and it is great to see the enthusiasm and skill they bring from their F3F experiences.

What does surprise me, however, is that the F3J flyers is the UK do not take any interest in F3B. This is of course with the exception of 4 or 5 competitive flyers. Mostly they seem to regard F3B as a black out. Perhaps this is my hobby horse but F3J models nowadays are all lighter and larger versions of F3B models. F3B is where the development of the first moulded models, and the first multi function models came from.

Why on earth do not more F3J flyers take part in F3B in order to have their skills and benefit earlier from F3B development so that they can improve their own chances in F3J?

Our continental friends enjoy a far greater crossover between the 2 disciplines. Our continental friends normally beat us.

Does this not trigger any thoughts? Are we all dim?

Love Bob

PS:- one quote from league 3. Mikey was getting ready to fly distance and asked me to time a chat for him. I felt honoured, and said “you really want me to chat distance? The reply was – “there’s no one else available Bob”. Cruel but fair I thought.

Tanga F3B Part 2

2010-03-15T11:52:00.020Z

The wings have conventional control horns and are fairly straightforward to fit out. In line with current trends the horns are tiny to try and keep them inside the wing skins. This means the smallest horns that the 3150s come with have to be used and the clevises modified to fit other wise there is too much movement and too much slop.

An RDS option is now available

The wing root. 8% thick section and chunky wing joiner.

An aileron horn glued in place.

The hardware used to connect up the servos and control surfaces.

So what does it go like? Greg flew it for the first time at the last round of the Northern F3F Winter League series. The test flights and the first round of competition were very promising. Unfortunately another flier landed his model in the pits and damaged the rear of the fuselage and a V-Tail on the Tanga so that was it for the time being. This also meant that Greg was unable to compete in the Speed competition and show us what the Tanga can do.

Some pictures here: http://www.nymrsc.org.uk/WL5-2010.htm

On Speed Practice from Clive Needham

2010-03-14T20:37:00.001Z

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.

Speed Practice Sat.13th March

2010-03-14T14:23:00.004Z

1 Steve Haley 100 Shooter/Radical

2 John Whittle 89.39 O/D

3 Paul Carrington 88.23 Needle 124/Crossfire

4 John Phillips 76.27 Masterpiece

5 Bill Haley 76.07 Precious

6 Mark Passingham 74.24 Cyril

7 Ken Woodhouse 70.89 Cyril/Radical

8 Mike Challinor 70.77 Precious

9 Bob Dickinson 68.03 Estrella

10 Clive Needham 61.88 Estrella

11 Chris Jubb 43.82 Cobra

12 Alan Jones 38.05 Crossfire Evo

13 Simon Haley(jnr) 32.53 Obsession

For the full results, please see :-

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/F3BUK/files/2010%20Season/Speed%20Practice/

Tanga F3B

2010-03-03T11:10:00.009Z

The Tanga is the latest offering from Breta models. It was designed by Norbert Habe and the Bohlens and is aimed primarily at the F3B market. We saw it fly at the Belgium Eurotour event last year in the hands of Stefan Bohlen who finished 8th overall so the model would appear to have plenty of potential.

Greg Dakin has bought himself the 'Titanium' version as one of his models for the Viking Race in France. He will be flying it at the F3B Speed event on 13 March 2010 to see how it goes. As I am building it for him I thought I'd publish a few pictures of the build and get Greg to add a few words on the flight performance in due course.

I started with the fuselage as this appeared to be the trickiest part of the build. The fuselage is
quite skinny with a small canopy and you have to squeeze in a large carbon ballast tube which has at only about 1mm clearance between the wing joiner and the towhook. The tube has to be cut to size and shape at the front and there is no supplied ballast retention system.

The tube and retention bolt ready to be installed in the fuselage.

The fuselage dry fitted before gluing. The wiring loom is installed before the servo tray is glued in.

The finished fuselage. The pushrods are solid 2mm carbon rods running in snake outers.

As there is plenty of carbon in the fuselage the aerial has to be extended. Stinger installation shown.

The wing installation to follow soon . . . .

Speed Practice/ General Pre Season Practice

2010-02-19T17:00:00.000Z

Clive has arranged a practice session this Sunday 21st at the Wetlands, Retford
All welcome. Come and give it a try.

2010 Season League Schedule

2010-01-21T20:37:00.001Z

Here is the F3B contest calendar for 2010.

Non League Event 14 March Speed comp. Barkston Heath
L1. 17 April (Saturday) League 1 Upton on Severn`
L2. 23 May League 2 Wetlands
L3. 12 June (Saturday) League 3 Wetlands
L4. 17 & 18 July League 4 Barkston Heath
L5. 8 August League 5 Wetlands
L6. 28 August League 6 Spitalgate? Nationals.
L7. 18 Sept . (Saturday) League 7 Upton on Severn
17 October Reserve day Wetlands.

All entries to Chris Jubb by 6pm Wednesday prior to the competition on
TEL. 01933 229682. All enquiries to Clive Needham on TEL.0161 2843143.

2009-11-30T21:48:00.004Z

Lots of progress at the Zenith Factory follow the link on the left for more details. Its is starting look like we know what we are doing the results are certainly look like we do.

Have fun fly fast!

F3B Eurotour - Dates Announced

2009-11-18T15:14:00.003Z

The dates for next year's F3B Eurotour have been confirmed.

Details here: http://www.contest-modellsport.de/

The Arnhem competition is 8/9 May 2010 and the Anthisnes, Belgium competition is 4/5 September 2010.

Next year the Eurotour league results are based on best 4 results rather than 3.

1st Winter Practice report from Clive Needham

2009-11-16T13:31:00.000Z

Brief report from Clive

Those who did not attend yesterday missed a golden opportunity to set up and trim models.
The weather was better than the forecast, which wasn’t too bad anyway.
There was a steady medium breeze without any strong gusts.
The biggest problem was the low sun which we were launching into all day due to the SSW wind direction.
Young Simon Haley was using an old model, the Obsession, launching himself under Dad’s supervision to a good height and getting in some excellent Distance practice.
His landings were also pretty close to the centre, so some of us had better watch out.
Bob Dickenson was getting to grips with his recently purchased second hand Estralla and was very pleased with it at the end of the day.
Chris Jubb has put together a Cobra from various parts of different ones and had some problems with the receiver end of the chain but was able to sort it out by the time we packed up.
I will be away for almost three weeks from the 1st Dec so Chris Jubb will be in charge of checking the weather forecast for a further practice day.
The most suitable dates would appear to be Sunday 6th Dec and the following Sunday the 13th as a reserve if the weather is poor, any later and it would be getting too near Christmas.

Baudis Cyril

2009-11-06T11:51:00.019Z

The Cyril is the latest model from Jiri Baudis and is a brand new model. The Ceres Lift was a development of the Ceres F3B, same model with a different wing section. The Cyril is a completely new model and shares no parts at all.

So what are the differences? It is a smaller model than the Ceres with smaller wing chords and a slightly different planform. This gives the model a higher aspect ratio and the slight sweep forward of the trailing edge at the tip means that 'Gigaflaps' are not required to take the ailerons all the way out to the wing tip. The wing section is also different to both the Ceres F3B and Ceres Lift. The original Ceres was particularly fast but it was felt that the launch characteristics could be improved. Along came the Ceres Lift which launched much better as the name implies. The section on the Cyril is again from DP and is apparently in between the F3B and the Lift to give the best of both.

Structurally is where the major differences lie. The model is all RDS. The Ceres F3B has very small control horns hidden inside the wing. This looks good but slop is a problem which results in increased wear which results in increased slop, etc, etc. The Ceres Lift has RDS on the ailerons and horns on the flaps and works very well. For the Cyril Baudis has gone for RDS on all of the control surfaces and it really is excellent. Slop is virtually non-existent and centring and resolution are outstanding. An added bonus of the RDS system is that programming the control movements is very straightforward. The ailerons and flaps match up to each other very well as there are no differences in horn size and geometry to give varying movements from surface to surface.

The other immediately noticeable difference to the Ceres is the fuselage. Nosecone instead of canopy. The fuselage is also slightly chunkier at the front with an unusual cross section to allow room to carry fuselage ballast in addition to wing ballast. The wing carries 8x130g brass slugs and the fuselage carries 8x65g brass slugs. In practice the system is excellent; for Distance and Speed you put the minimum ballast you think you are going to need and if the conditions change you can fine tune with fuselage ballast. The F3F boys in particular are going to love this! The plane comes complete with a very neat CNCed ply servo mount which doubles up as a support for the front of the fuselage ballast tube. The servo mount is sized to take Graupner DS3728 or DS3781 or the JR equivilents DS3401 and DS3405. Carbon pushrods are included which I personally prefer to snakes.

The other differences are less obvious. The fuselage has formers inside to improve rigidity and the wings have ribs inside, again to improve rigidity. It all seems to work as my Cyril is definitely very light at only 2053g but is impressively strong and stiff. Unfortunately all this does come at a price as the Cyril is more expensive than the Ceres at 1470 Euros plus shipping.This increase is to cover the extra work involved in building the plane. 1470 Euros is not cheap but compared to Radicals, Shooters, Targets etc it represents excellent value for the level of performance you are getting. In addition, you receive a very comprehensive package as all of the hardware is included in the price; clevises, wiring loom, Multiplex plugs, ballast, RDS bits, servo mounts.

Assembly is pretty straight forward. The RDS is a bit of a head scratcher to start with as it is so unfamiliar but it is not difficult. I found 30 min epoxy to work very well as it gives you enough time to make final adjustments as it cures. I received my Cyril on Tuesday and flew it that weekend so it doesn't take long. I do build quickly but a couple of weeks of evenings should see a Cyril finished and ready to fly. Alternatively, Baudis offer a ready built option if you don't mind flashing a bit more cash. Kevin Newton did this and was very happy with the results: http://kevin-newton.blogspot.com/

I have flown mine a few times and I am extremely pleased with the results. After a couple of trimming flights on the slope and one afternoon of winch practice I took it to the last F3B league at Wetlands and got my best result of the season: 2nd. The flying characteristics are, for me, much improved on the Ceres. The Cyril feels nice and bouyant and very positive to fly. I found the Ceres very neutral and needed flying all of the time as it had a tendency to settle into a dive or a zoom if given half a chance. The Cyril is much better behaved and the biggest compliment I can pay it is that it is very like a Freestyler 3 to fly.

If you are in the market for a new F3B plane, the Cyril should be at the top of your list. If you are interested you can contact Jiri Baudis at info@baudismodel.com. Be patient, Jiri is not always the quickest at replying to e-mails. Delivery is approximately 3 months at the moment. In case you are wondering, I paid for mine!

F3B - the optimization of different flying states

2009-11-05T19:13:00.001Z

Good read from the RSA blog

2009 Season Leader Board

2009-11-03T17:18:00.000Z

1 Steve Hayley 500

2 Mike Challinor 462.97

3 Bill Haley 458.48

4 Ken Woodhouse 449.19

5 Dave Worrall 444.13

6 Mark Passingham 438.10

7 Norman Quirk 435.59

8 Bob Dickinson 399.64

9 Clive Needham 369.85

10 Alan Jones 351.87

11 Neil Harrison 351.59

12 Paul Carrington 259.14

13 Chris Jubb 258.59

14 John Whittle 179.66

15 John Phillips 170.29

16 Colin Lucas 162.21

17 Simon Jackson 91.14

18 John Stewart 83.40

19 Ian Duff 79.92

20 Brian Johnson 69.22