We managed to get a comp in today on Pole Hill with sunshine and 14-17ms it was less than 9deg C though so woolly hats and winter jackets still the order of the day!
The wind was slightly crossed from the right as anticipated and George started us off with two really good runs with his FS4, a 41 and a 42. These were pretty much the quickest of the first rounds, he was just pipped by Ewan in round 2 with a 41.97 but I was off the pace with two identical times of 43.80. Sadly George bust his fus on landing, it dropped in from 3ft with only 1kg on board but opened up a previous (bad) repair so that was it for George.
My round 3 was a bit quicker with a 41 but and I got lucky with a thermal in round 4 for a 36.18 also sussing out that the trick with the downwind turn was to be as gentle with the elevator as possible, letting the model run around the turn and ending up quite far out but returning with most of the speed despite the headwind. Ewan flew a 43 and a 45 and dave flew a 45 and a 43 so similar!
We had a break between rounds to allow local Bruce to have a fly but as the wind built up he was struggling to penetrate with his phase 6 type model so didn’t fly but stayed to watch and chat for a while. I got a pair of sub-40’s (39 & 36) in rounds 5 and 6 having cracked the downwind turn and Ewan did much better trying the same trick with a 41 and a 42 in average air with Dave on 45 and 46.
Rounds 7 and 8 saw Ewan crack the 40s barrier with a very well flown 39 in the last round and Dave also put in his fastest time with a 42. I flew 38 & 38 to end the day and the results were:
1 Peter Gunning 6958.21 1000.00
2 Ewan Maxwell 6433.61 924.60
3 David Watson 6200.15 891.05
4 George Young 1995.96 286.84
FTD: Peter Gunning 36.18
So a very worthwhile comp in the end, always nice to fly in big winds and good when its challenging to extract the best out of the energy in the wind.
Our next comp is 27th May and I’m planning on going to Wales for the BMFA comp on Sun 21st May if anyone fancies the trip.