Following a warm up World Cup event 5-6th July and the opening ceremony on Sunday 7th, the F3K ECH kicked off the first rounds of the championship on Monday 8th.
The pre-comp had featured high winds but we found almost calm conditions at the start of the day. Light lift first thing built to large thermals later with some trickier periods thrown in too.
Chaos ensued at one point as a massive thermal blew threw the team camps at the edge of the flight line and lifted the Austrian gazebo (full metal frame) from its pegged and strapped down position, tumbling towards the flight box and potentially more destructively, the model ready box with all spare models a laid out.
This was adjacent to our tent so we were seen scurrying as Gavin gathered his models from the ground and literally ducked as the gazebo came over him.
Luckily there was minimal damage in the end, a couple of models and no injuries.
Discussion of re-flights scoring of the resulting split group then meant a small delay.
Outside of that drama it was a good day for team GBR in general.
Cornelius van Onselen, flying in his second international championships battled with what often seemed to be the worst conditions of each round and also suffered a crazy mid-air in his best round without which he would have had a well deserved 1000 (this was the one with the flying gazebo too!).
Gavin Stern had a good day with a couple of maximums. He was only really short on a couple of flights and finished in 27th for the day on 98.71%
Michael Stern had a great day with a few tenths dropped here and there resulting in a fifth place at the end of day 1. A long way to go, but a great start.
Opening ceremony photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/soCWbZNggEDqsrsbA
More detailed info:
https://www.barcs.co.uk/forums/topic/12873-f3k-european-championships-2024/
