Day 1
Apologies for the lack of updates but its been very full on for the GBR F3C team. Not only has the flying order meant that the 3 pilots are spread out across the day, but we have also had trouble with one of our vehicles- more on that later!
As I am writing this we have just finished round 4 of the preliminary rounds and had the second team managers meeting of the event. Let have a quick wrap up of the previous 2 days.
Monday- Round 2 of the event was beckoning and we woke up to the complete opposite weather to the day before- calm winds and clear blue skies. Mark was the first of our pilots to fly so we were at the contest site for the start of the round. The first half a dozen pilots flew in zero wind and the scores were enormous! Score cards were full of 9’s and higher for the top ranked pilots so we knew it was going to be a tough day with very small mistakes having big impacts on scores. By the time it was Mark’s turn a gentle breeze was starting to appear but Mark did a great job and made very few errors and scored an impressive 247.
Steve was next to fly after the lunch break and put in a 260 which is his highest ever score.
Ian flew last in the round and did a great job until we were informed that he had run out of time so his last manoeuvrer was going to be zeroed. A discussion took place between the team as to why it had taken so long, and it was deemed that due to the low winds Ian had taken longer than normal in his hovering manoeuvrers plus his free pass in-between the hovering and aerobatics elements had pushed his time over- the frustrating thing was it was only 10 seconds over the allotted time! But still a great score of 217.25 which when we add approximately 20 points on for his missing manoeuvre would have been a pretty good score for the day.p
The organisers of the championships have been keen to get people together for some social events. One of these events took place on Monday evening in the local town of Sonderberg which is a sea side town with a lovely harbour and a beach. We all met at 7pm at the beach and the organisers had supplied drinks consisting of wine, local beers and soft drinks. A great evening topped of by dinner in town with our F3N team mates.
Results for the round; Steve 4th, Mark 13th, Ian 26th.
Tuesday- Round 3. The weather has changed yet again and the wind was back. Steve was the first of us to fly at 11am and had had some good flights at the practice site and was happy with his model setup. Steve’s round was a stormer of a flight considering the conditions and Steve really seems to have started to find his groove. Steve scored a 247.25 gaining him 4th for the round.
Ian flew just after lunch and did a great job in the wind. His autorotation, which has been Ian’s achilles heel was good and he had plenty of time to spare after we had encouraged him to miss out the free pass which Ian was using to help line him up onto the course. Ian scored 228.5 in the tough conditions.
Mark was the last of us to fly but by now the wind had really picked up and he was running out of pitch range to hold the model in the wind in the vertical manoeuvrers- amazing when you are running 1900rpm with +/- 12 degrees of pitch and this just goes to show how windy it was. Mark put in a 215.75 which was disappointing but when you look at the pilots who flew around the same time they were also having a very hard time of it.
The Van! Since we have been here we have been hearing a strange noise which had started to get worse on Saturday. A call to the breakdown service had a recovery vehicle come to the site for an inspection. It just so happens that one of the Danish team knew the recovery driver and had also been a Ford mechanic. A discussion between the had determined what they thought it was and that it wasn't critical, but they both said that we should get it checked out by the local garage before returning home. We asked the Danish pilot if he could call them to explain the problem which he duly did. He arranged an appointment for us on Tuesday and they confirmed the problem. They said that they could replace the part that afternoon so I was left waiting at the garage for them to carry out the work. I was getting concerned that the van had not been moved so upon asking if it was going to happen I was informed that it would probably be the next day! Logistics were going to to be a nightmare so I immediately started to look into hire cars but due to it being the holiday season not many were about. Just as I was about to book a car, and a taxi to take me to the nearest airport to pick it up I was told that the van was being brought back around and the work had been carried out…… clearly it was a quick job to fit the part but boy, do they know how to charge! Stress levels were high at this point, but as soon as I had got back to the house after the CIAM meeting the boys had dinner on the table- thanks chaps.
Wednesday- Round 4. We have had heavy rain, thunder and lightning all night long and as we set out for the practice field it was still raining. When we arrived it had mainly stopped so Ian, who was the first of us to fly, along with Mark who was not far behind could get a warm up flight in. The wind was low, but there were still lots of dark clouds in the distance.
Back at the main site they were running early after a DNS but we were told that we could waiting until our official start time if we were not ready. Ian flew and did another cracking job. Light winds make things difficult as tiny mistakes have quite big consequences but he scored 228 putting him 17th for the day.
Mark flew shortly afterwards and again had light winds. Mark is very experienced and knew exactly how to handle things. Mark felt that he had flown as well of better than he had all week at the practice field and was rewarded with a 245.5 putting him 11th in the round.
Steve flew second to last for the round and the sun was out by now and the temperate had started to pick up. Another great flight from Steve gave him another 260. This put Steve 4th for the day.
So the positions after the preliminary rounds are:
Steve Roberts 4th
Mark Christy 10th
Ian Emery 15th.
This means that all of us have made the semi finals.
The team results at this time are;
Germany 1st
Switzerland 2nd
Italy 3rd
UK 4th.
Its all very close and with the change of schedule for the semi finals we expect the order to move about. I’ll stop rabbiting on for now and will try to report back over the next few days.
Steve Roberts
