From Peter's email sent out Sunday evening.
Well today turned out pretty well with 18 rounds flown on a mostly sunny East Lomond with about 9-10ms of wind and some thermal assistance here and there.
Saturday was not so good, with the BBC forecast proving to be the correct one (as opposed to XC weather) it was a NE wind that greeted us at East Lomond gradually moving round to be flyable in the South by early afternoon but we only had time to fly 6 of 7 pilots before a shower stopped play. After the shower, the wind had carried on moving round to the West so we lost those two rounds.
However, today was fine so we started again with times mostly around the 50 second mark all day, notable exceptions in the first two rounds were Dave with a 40.91 and Mark with a 41.23. Rounds 3 & 4 saw some quicker times with Ewan on 43/44 and Mike with a sweet pair of 40’s, I flew 43/41. At this early stage it was Mark leading from Ewan and Mike…
We all flew pretty consistent times in the mid to high 40’s in rounds 5 and 6, Ewan being fastest in round 5 with a 42.95 and me in round 6 with a 46.60. Ewan slipped into the lead. Rounds 7 and 8 were mainly low 50’s, it was clouded over and pretty cold before lunch but I hooked some very nice air in round 8 for an FTD of 37.29 which took me from 5th to 1st place!
After lunch the variability was a bit more pronounced for a while before improving later in the day, Mark took round 9 with a 44 and I took 10 with a 41.95. I think Ewan copped worst air of the day in 11 & 12 with a 58 and 61 but the fastest were 49’s with me and Mike flying 49’s in both rounds, George was quickest in 10 with a 48.14.
Mike and Dave were desperate to go sub-40 on the day having been tantalisingly close, Dave was very close in round 14 with a 40.40 and Mark T too on 40.22, Mike was a whisker away in 15 with a 40.14 but the elusive East Lomond sub-40 was not to be for them on the day. With nice sunshine and fluffy clouds from 2pm onwards, we decided to carry on flying as it was fun and fast.
Mike flew very well in 15 and 16 for a 40/41 combo which consolidated his 2nd position, I had a 45/39 as Mike made me laugh with his CDing and I had a nibbly cut. Most people had one fast one slow in rounds 17 and 18 showing how quickly the good air was cycling through late on, Dave again coming close to sub-40 in the last round with a 41.14. It ended up pretty close at the top and for 3rd with results below:
1 Peter Gunning 15366.51 1000.00
2 Mike McCracken 15240.09 991.77
3 Mark Treble 14787.14 962.29
4 David Watson 14477.03 942.11
5 Ewan Maxwell 14304.54 930.89
6 George Young 14193.14 923.64
FTD Peter Gunning 37.29
I had organised prizes rather than trophies so the top 3 had a choice of beer, wine or chocolates and I think everyone was happy with the day!
Thanks to everyone for coming and Mark for travelling, glad we got a good amount of flying to make it worthwhile.
Regards
Peter