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.
08/02/2011
BoBs BBB after Final 2010 League Event
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.
.
23/09/2010
BELGIUM F3B EUROTOUR Report from Clive Needham
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
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
20/09/2010
Open F3b Competition + Trial Electric F3b Event
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
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
15/09/2010
BBBL6 (NATIONALS) L6
Hi guys
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
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
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
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