What an interesting three days! It was rather weird for me driving 400+ miles to my old home competition. I arrived around four on Thursday and had a lovely hour or so drifting back and forth with the Precision in light air. She continued to impress, more than enough for me to fly her in the event as my number one plane.
Friday dawned with low cloud on the back of the Wrecker. There was almost too much lift for sport flying as it catapulted those that tried swiftly into the low cloud. There were several hurried landings but only one fatality.
Using various different websites, most accessed from Simon's hardy iPad, we gambled that when the rain came in it would bring a shift of direction to SW and put us on Mickey's slope. Right on cue the rain arrived and we boldly took the waiting course down and got all the pilots back in their cars for the three minute drive to Mickey's Slope. It turned out to be a great decision and within minutes the rain had cleared and the wind was bang on SW.
Bjorn certainly thought is was an inspired decision as he posted a 31.59 to win the round. Mike Evans took second with 33.05 and Gerardo was third with 33.72. In fact the top 19 pilots all posted times below 40 seconds, which I don't think I've ever seen before.
We got two thirds through round two and then the rain came back. As previously agreed we took the decision to group score and as the natural split was virtually two thirds to one third and the forecast was dire we decided to go with that rather than go 50/50 and force pilots to re-fly. Dag won the first group with 34.92 and Martin Newnham won group two back on Mickey's the following morning with 37.56.
Alvaro took round three with 33.90. Jose took second with 34.64 and Carles took third with 34.73.
Joel took round 4 with 36.19, Dag was second with 36.24 and Adam was third with 36.79.
We'd braved a lot of showers to get that far but part way through round 5 the shower turned into something far more significant and we had to abandon the hill. Again the natural split was two thirds to one third so we went with that again to ensure consistency. The winner of group one was Stefan with 39.45.
The next morning we respected the weather forecasts and sat out the rain in the car park by the T junction until getting on for 2 o'clock. Simon's trusty iPad predicted we might get a brief window that could allow us to finish round 5 and possibly get another round in. So we marched everyone across to the Ice Cream slope despite the huge showers on the horizon and most people thinking we were bananas. Sure sure though we only had one small shower and we managed to finish round five and get in a sixth round as well!
The winner of the second group in round 5 was Mike Evans with 41.41.
Round 6 went to Richard Bago with 39.61, second was Bjorn with 40.16 and third was Joel with 40.57.
That final round was to prove crucial for Joel who slipped ahead of Alvaro to win. I think all agree that Joel was a worthy winner as he used every ounce of air and didn't give away an inch yet made no mistakes. In fact if you look at the top 10 you can see that the spread of points was minuscule and certainly the closest race I can remember. Seventh to fourth covered by only six point is just bizarre!
Huge thanks to T9 who arranged great sponsorship with MKS that gave the the winners hats, T shirts and 6 top spec servos.
More on models and stuff tonight.
See photos on iPad/iPhone
| place | pilot | Team | Country | total |
| 1 | Joel West | Mickey's Massive | England | 4682.89 |
| 2 | Alvaro Silgado | Watering Cans | Spain | 4669.25 |
| 3 | Dag Skoglund | Bubble | Norway | 4655.71 |
| 4 | Bjorn Tore Hagen | Bubble | Norway | 4606.49 |
| 5 | Simon Thornton | Team GBU | England | 4602.19 |
| 6 | Gerardo Plaza | Watering Cans | Spain | 4602.18 |
| 7 | Kevin Newton | Team GBU | England | 4600.01 |
| 8 | Mark Redsell | Dragon Slayer | England | 4561.87 |
| 9 | Greg Dakin | Tea Swillers | England | 4543.82 |
| 10 | Mike Evans | Dragon Slayer | England | 4525.66 |
| 11 | Espen Torp | Bubble | Norway | 4521.02 |
| 12 | Richard Bago | Team Web | England | 4520.33 |
| 13 | John Phillips | Tea Swillers | England | 4519.49 |
| 14 | Adam Richardson | Dragon Slayer | England | 4477.78 |
| 15 | Stephan Bertschi | Mickey's Massive | Switzerland | 4470.60 |
| 16 | Martin Newnham | Team GBU | England | 4437.91 |
| 17 | Angel Lopez | Forever Aldayso | Spain | 4427.26 |
| 18 | Jose Luis Alvarez | Birds | Spain | 4405.61 |
| 19 | Iñigo Herrera Millan | Mic | Spain | 4382.71 |
| 20 | William Jul Ringkjob | Norway 2 | Norway | 4368.21 |
| 21 | Jorgen Wake Stensen | Norway 2 | Norway | 4343.79 |
| 22 | Carles Aymat | Mic | Spain | 4342.82 |
| 23 | Peter Gunning | Mickey's Massive | Scotland | 4339.06 |
| 24 | Kjell Sture Johansen | Norway 2 | Norway | 4321.17 |
| 25 | Iñaki Elizondo | Watering Cans | Spain | 4298.46 |
| 26 | Fernando Moro | Forever Aldayso | Spain | 4264.05 |
| 27 | Keith Wood | Team Web | England | 4258.32 |
| 28 | Mark Abbotts | Exiles | England | 4220.01 |
| 29 | C M Cheng | Hong Kong | 4215.28 | |
| 30 | John Bennett | Foggy Bottoms | England | 4208.04 |
| 31 | Frank Hulton | Exiles | England | 4171.48 |
| 32 | Jesus Herrera | Forever Aldayso | Spain | 4150.47 |
| 33 | Jon Edison | Team Web | England | 4146.14 |
| 34 | Mike McCracken | Team Sofa Can Fast | Scotland | 4101.63 |
| 35 | Scott Ravenscroft | Barbarians | England | 4033.59 |
| 36 | Miguel Gutierrez Lecue | Birds | Spain | 4017.45 |
| 37 | Marcelino Punal | Mic | Spain | 4008.80 |
| 38 | Iain Medley-Rose | Foggy Bottoms | England | 3999.12 |
| 39 | George Young | Team Sofa Can Fast | Scotland | 3985.60 |
| 40 | Ian Mason | Exiles | England | 3949.18 |
| 41 | Dave Rumble | Team Wreckers | England | 3931.96 |
| 42 | Alfredo Arjona Garcia | Birds | Spain | 3893.60 |
| 43 | Mike Shellim | Foggy Bottoms | England | 3852.82 |
| 44 | Jason Bioletti | Team Wreckers | England | 3843.91 |
| 45 | Mick Walsh | Team Sofa Can Fast | Wales | 3822.16 |
| 46 | Andrzej Tabero | Tea Swillers | Wales | 3722.81 |
| 47 | Wing Wong | Hong Kong | 3711.57 | |
| 48 | John Trebble | Dream Team | England | 3696.54 |
| 49 | Vic Eldridge | Dream Team | England | 3431.30 |
| 50 | Tony Robertson | Dream Team | England | 2830.72 |
| place | team | sum |
| 1 | Bubble | 13783.22 |
| 2 | Team GBU | 13640.11 |
| 3 | Watering Cans | 13569.89 |
| 4 | Dragon Slayer | 13565.31 |
| 5 | Mickey's Massive | 13492.55 |
| 6 | Norway 2 | 13033.18 |
| 7 | Team Web | 12924.79 |
| 8 | Forever Aldayso | 12841.78 |
| 9 | Tea Swillers | 12786.11 |
| 10 | Mic | 12734.32 |
| 11 | Exiles | 12340.67 |
| 12 | Birds | 12316.66 |
| 13 | Foggy Bottoms | 12059.98 |
| 14 | Team Sofa Can Fast | 11909.39 |
| 15 | Dream Team | 9958.56 |
| 16 | Team Wreckers | 7775.87 |
| 17 | Barbarians | 4033.59 |
