The 2024 European F3CN championships are over and we are well on our way home.

Yesterday was finals day for F3C and we were fortunate to have both Mark and Steve into the finals which only the top 14 get into.

Two rounds were flown to decide the eventual winner. The exciting thing is that even the pilot who qualified in 14 could go onto win overall so everything was to play for.

The team’s championship was also still ongoing. This uses the final placings of the 3 pilots in the team, adds them together and the team with the lowest score wins.

Both Mark and Steve were flying at the end of the first round so had a chance for a warm up flight at the practice field on the way to the contest site. All went well and both were happy with models. The round went well with neither pilot making any serious mistakes. The weather was kind and was looking consistent for the day which was great with the mixed bag of weather that we had been experiencing all week.

Round two was flown shortly afterwards and this time we flew mid pack. Again no major errors but we now had to wait to see what everyone else could do to see if we would hold positions or move ahead. Again the teams position was moving about rapidly as it was looking extremely close between Italy, France and the UK for 3rd place.

Unfortunately we held position in but the individual and teams standings so the final results for the UK were

  • Steve Roberts 5th
  • Mark Christy 10th
  • Ian Emery 20th

The team finished in 5th overall. We spent some time working out just how close it was for the team to make the podium and it think it’s 1.34 points out of 3000, yes that’s just 0.044%! As it’s so close we are a little despondent but we have been chatting all the way home about training aids for the future.

The awards ceremony was very well done and it was great to see British representation in the F3N class with Gold in the female class, gold in the individual class and gold in the teams event, well done guys, some we hope to replicate in the future.

The banquet was a great evening and it was time for everyone to relax and catch up with friends. A raffle was held with tickets scanned at the social evenings and some great prizes were handed out.

All in all it’s been a great event and a pleasure to represent the UK. The team has been great, worked well together and I could not be prouder of what they have achieved against such strong competition and some very tough flying conditions.

Steve Roberts