The walk to West Lomond doesn’t get any shorter and it was bloody cold today but the weather was good so we trekked over to the NW slope. Robert & Dave had sewn a seed of doubt as to whether it would be flyable but a quick check of the Portmoak weather centre showed it North west so I was hopeful.
It was a bit crossed initially from the left but perfectly flyable so we made a start. Things were a little variable in the first few rounds with a sub 50 being a decent time and a low 40 being a good time. Dave started well in good air with a 43 but followed up with a 53, Ewan also started well with a 47 and a 48 and Mike had a solid pair of 49’s. I had a 49 and a 55 with a cut so Ewan took an early lead.
Rounds 3 & 4 were similar and Ewan hooked some decent air to win both with a 49 and a 45 which was 5 seconds faster than the next man! Mike had a 50 and a 55 and I got 51 and 50. Robert paced 3rd in round 4 with a 51 but then had a rotor incident on landing which flipped the model and put him out for the day. We missed George today but wished him a collective happy birthday at lunch time. Come back soon, it’s a fair run around with 5!
We stopped for lunch and Mike did some hot doggin, during this short break the wind had swung and was pretty much square on at 25mph. Ewan was first up now Robert was out and flew 39 to great acclaim then followed up with a 41. Mike was really keen to get in the good air (at that point we didn’t realise that the conditions had improved markedly for everyone) and while self launching into what he thought was a cross wind to model rolled left and hit the deck. With tip damage, he couldn’t continue and was out too. West Lomond is not a happy hunting ground for Mike. We pressed on and Dave flew a pair of 46’s and I enjoyed the better air with a 38 and a 39.
The lift in the last 4 rounds we superb and really good fun to fly in after the challenging first four, West Lomond really is a good hill with the wind square on and it nade the walk worthwhile. Ewan flew a 40 and a 43 in the last two rounds against a 40 / 41 pair from Dave and a 40 / 37 pair from me so the final result was going to be close. We de-camped and took the long walk back to the cars, all keen to get to Pillars of Hercules for coffee and cake!
So the results were:
1 Ewan Maxwell 6888.35
2 Peter Gunning 6763.08
3 David Watson 6451.69
4 Mike McCracken 3698.80
5 Robert Carson 3298.42
FTD Peter Gunning - 37.64
So big congratulations to Ewan for his first win (I think?). His pitbull was turning well all day and he did enough damage in the early rounds to secure the win, well done that man!
Fingers crossed we get similar weather for the December comp!