60" F3F and 60" EPP pylon racing

60" F3F

The day started off with the now usual competition weather, this time welsh hill fog. The fog lifted about 1pm and the F3F coarse was setup on Back of the Wrecker. Conditions weren't easy with patches of good air, followed by patches of reasonable air, followed by patches of totally cruddy air. Even with the variable conditions times were all pretty close. Mark Abbotts took fastest time of the day with a 52.19 in round 1, he also took first place overall, well done Mark. Shane Biddlecombe took a close second and relatively new F3Fer Steve Alford taking a well deserved third.

Well done everyone else, you all did very well.

Final results

1 4836.33 Mark Abbotts (Mini Dragon)
2 4735.34 Shane Biddlecombe (Banana/Ocelot)
3 4575.66 Steve Alford (Banana)
4 4364.84 Mike Young (Ocelot)
5 4304.64 Dave Rumble (Banana)
6 4246.53 Steve Clutterbuck (Banana)
7 4177.57 Ron Broughton (Ballistic)
8 4137.44 Steve Clarke (Banana)
9 4108.23 Andy West (Banana)
10 4035.05 Steve Lesson (Wannabe)
11 3924.36 Mark Falla (48" Skua)
12 3880.01 Graham Tolhurst (Rampage)
13 3755.33 Rob Wentworth (Banana)
14 3347.81 Grant Cooper (foamie wing)
15 3252.24 Rob Holgate (Mini Corrado/S-15)
16 2990.75 John Davies (Rampage)

full spreadsheet

60" EPP pylon

After the F3F we had to move to Mickey's slope as the wind shifted, here we set up the 60" EPP pylon coarse. The pylon was run on a knockout basis where the fastest 2 of each group went onto the next round. The final placings are below, theres some controversy over the 1st and 2nd places but Dave did cross the line first but only down to underhand tactics by a third party, you know who you are :-)

1st Dave Rumble (S-15)
2nd Mike Young (Rampage)
3rd Steve Clarke (M60)
4th Shane Biddlecombe (Rampage/M60)
5th to 14th must try harder next time

Combat

We arrived sunday morning to find a reasonable south westerly breeze square on mickeys. The course was promptly setup and all pilots briefed, of course you've guessed it just as we were ready to start the wind shifted north west, so off we headed to the ice cream slope. The wind was very light but on the hill, never the less we managed one round in the dying lift before the wind swang north east.
We then packed up and all moved to the wrecker where we were greeted by reasonably good lift, we flew the remaining rounds to establish who would be in the final. The wind was much stronger and the lift was good during the final where Mark Abbots dominated, all in all a reasonable day considering the conditions .Well done Mark.

Combat scores after 2 rounds

Andy West 0
Rob Wentworth 7
Mark Falla 31
Jon Hollington 0
Colin Wavell 7
Steve Hill 33
Dave Rumble 9
Ted Williams 7
Andrew Maker 13
Alan Shears 0
Steve Clutterbuck 13
Mark S 2
Frazer Biggin 6
Grant Cooper 10
Patrick Shivers 10
Matt Stubbs 10
Daniel Fine 0
Tim Prevett 7
John Prevett 0
Mitchell Palmer 15
Shane Biddlecombe 8
Ron Broughton 17
Mark Abbotts 33

Scores for the best 10 pilots during the final

Mark Falla 7
Steve Hill 11
Andrew Maker 2
Steve Clutterbuck 4
Grant Cooper 5
Patrick Shivers 10
Matt Stubbs 11
Mitchell Palmer 0
Ron Broughton 0
Mark Abbotts 18

Top 3 positions

1st Mark Abbotts
2nd Matts Stubbs and Steve Hill
3rd Patrick Shivers