Thursday 26 December 2013

Welsh Open 2014

We will be taking entries for the 2014 Welsh Open F3F on 2 March at 10:00. More information is here.

Sunday 10 November 2013

Magnet repair

Talking with Andrzej about guitar building gave me an idea to help keep wetted glass cloth up close and personal to what it should be adhering to. It's a bit fiddly but worked really well and is better for your breath than blowing up condoms!

There are probably numerous variations on this theme that people are already using but I thought I'd share as it's a useful tool to have up your sleeve in certain situations.

Saturday 9 November 2013

Viper update

The first fuz is out of the mould and the pink is shocking - fantastic!
The tail is done.
The wing moulds are almost finished.
The pink colour scheme is sketched out :-)
Have a look at the photos below and visit the TecnoEpoxy website for more info.



Slope Soaring Sussex

One of the most active and fun blogs I've seen in a while.

Sunday 27 October 2013

Vendetta

Here's a interesting thing... Inigo Herrera has produced the Vendetta as a personal project but is prepared to produce a couple to recoupe some of the cost.

The Vendetta can in many ways be considered a prototype for the Viper. Inigo has done a very good job of building them and the quality is excellent. In the air it is equally impressive, with good straight line speed, excellent cornering and great energy retention. It has fuselage and wing ballast and is capable of carrying over 2kg of ballast.

Some really good information and photos from Inigo are here.

If you're interested in acquiring one at a very reasonable price contact Inigo.

Saturday 26 October 2013

Holy crap...

Sunday 13 October 2013

La Muela fun

More from La Muela soon, in the meantime here's some video fun...

La Muela 2013 from Kevin Newton on Vimeo.

Saturday 5 October 2013

Rotmilan

It's time for a quick update on the Rotmilan now that I've flown it a lot more.

My initial impressions were of excellent quality, great looks and very impressive flying characteristics. After spending several months flying it as my number one model I have if anything become even more impressed.

The quality is as good as planes twice its price. In fact, with fuselage ballast, crisp fit and finish, pull for up really neatly done and excellent wing linkages there is a real joy of ownership about the Rotmilan that makes it one of the best packages I've ever seen.

The flying is excellent whether you're flying old school or energy management. The Rotmilan also gobbles ballast and carries the energy beautifully. The fuselage ballast is handy and I regularly fill up the joiner too. As a bonus, it is without doubt one of the easier models to set up.

You can pick one up from Milan Demčišák Jr for €1,090, which probably makes it the most readily available, best value top class F3F machine out there. Why one earth wouldn't you drop Milan an email or visit the RTG website?




Viper - TecnoEpoxy

I recently spent a really interesting few hours with team Medina who run TecnoEpoxy.

I've had one of their Vector DS's for years. Not only is it a great DS model it os also a fun alrounder that's fun to fly and massively strong and versatile for those untested slopes. In fact mine has done thousands of miles as it permanently lives in my camper van.

It was really interesting to see the CAD design and moulds for their new F3F model the Viper. The Vendetta, which Jorge helped design, has many similarities and its performance is excellent. Jorge intents to use the excellent LDS system rather than RDS. The prototype fuselage was very light yet incredibly strong.

Production should be underway by Christmas. Contact team Medina if you want to know more or get on the waiting list. Also check out their website for some interesting UAV stuff and their excellent Latigo F3K model.   


Friday 4 October 2013

Welsh Open 2013

Welsh Open 2013

Day one was tricky, with a light wind that dipped intermittently below 3 ms, causing several reflies. By flying until it was virtually dark we managed to squeeze three rounds in.

Unfortunately those three rounds were all that we would manage as the dreaded Welsh clag (low cloud) set in making flying F3F impossible for the next two days. So with three rounds we had enough for a result but it did not qualify as a Eurotour result.

The conditions were pretty variable as evidenced by some pilots of the highest quality finishing well down the order (poor Stefan took some stick!) but Pete Gunning has been knocking at the door for a while now and thoroughly deserved his win and was very happy to get his name on the legendary Welsh Open Trophy and to win the excellent prizes provided by MKS servos. Team GBU of Thornton, Newnham and Newton again took the team prize.

Model-wise there were the usual Freestylers and Needles. I was flying a Rotmilan and I can't understand why there aren't more of these around, it really is an excellent package that is remarkable value. It's fantastic quality, a stunningly good all-round plane and costs less that £1,000.

The Vendetta from Inigo Herrera looked really good - and I'll add a few words and photos about that soon. It is in some ways the prototype for the new Viper from TecnoEpoxy in Spain - which looks very interesting indeed. There was also the new Merlin being sold by T9, which looks like incredible value.



1
Peter Gunning Mickey's Massive
2718.40
2
Jose Luis Alvares Paketes
2691.74
3
Martin Newnham GBU
2672.17
4
Gerardo Plaza TWC
2659.98
5
Simon Thornton GBU
2658.85
6
Joel West Mickey's Massive
2605.30
7
Inaki Elizondo TWC
2585.88
8
Graeme Mahoney
2574.37
9
Paul Upton RPM
2563.81
10
Scott Ravenscroft
2556.87
11
Fernando Moro Paketes
2547.35
12
Paul Garnet
2540.18
13
John Phillips
2534.15
14
Richard Bago RPM
2481.68
15
Mark Abbots Team Wrecker
2475.84
16
Frank Hulton Team Willow
2472.23
17
Tom McPherson FARTS
2465.90
18
Mark Redsell
2464.56
19
Kevin Newton GBU
2441.58
20
Tony Livingston
2431.44
21
John Edison FARTS
2414.37
22
Keith Wood FARTS
2410.04
23
Alvaro Silgado TWC
2409.57
24
Carlos Rivero
2403.09
25
Mick Walsh
2370.47
26
Andy Burgouyne Team Willow
2369.13
27
Jorge Medina Team Buckaroo
2368.37
28
Markus Meinssner
2327.25
29
Ronnie Lampe Team Wrecker
2320.70
30
Inigo Herrera Team Buckaroo
2283.72
31
Dave Rumble Team Wrecker
2281.01
32
Tony Robertson Paketes
2270.99
33
Ian Web
2259.82
34
Mark Treble
2259.23
35
Lazaro Martinez Team Buckaroo
2253.90
36
Martin Drewitt
2241.99
37
Ian Mason Team Willow
2198.36
38
Daniel Schneider
2190.95
39
John Treble
2174.04
40
Stefan Bertschi Mickey's Massive
2156.82
41
Mike Evans
2148.55
42
Thomas Henselmann
2132.16
43
Tom Foreman RPM
2111.87
44
Paul Stubley
1950.19
45
Marcelino Punal
1589.01


1
GBU
7772.60
2
TWC
7655.44
3
Paketes
7510.09
4
Mickey's Massive
7480.52
5
FARTS
7290.30
6
RPM
7157.35
7
Team Wrecker
7077.55
8
Team Willow
7039.72
9
Team Buckaroo
6905.99
10
Tea Swillers
4725.10

Sunday 8 September 2013

RAF Leuchars airshow

A splendid day out. The Red Arrows were simply perfect, the noise of the Eurofighter taking off with full afterburner and climbing vertically was breathtaking but the star of the show for me was the Saab Viggen - 40 years ahead of its time and positively mental!

Monday 15 July 2013

BMFA F3F League event - 14 July 2013

What a fantastic day. 8 metres per second on Bishop's Hill with a bit of southerly in it. Plenty of sunshine and even a view of T in the park.

We flew 12 rounds, with plenty of sub 40s. It was great to get out on Bishop's again, only the second time for me. It surprised me how subtle it is for a big hill, there are some definite lines and styles to use. I was pretty rusty - this is only my second comp since September last year - but by round 4 I was really starting to enjoy it and feel in the groove. In fact I'd go as far as to say by the last few rounds I was flying better than I've done in a few years and certainly with a more competitive edge.

I hope I can keep work at bay for a while and get out more as it completely reminded me what I first saw in F3F.

The Rotmilan was a dream to fly. By lunchtime the fuz tube and joiner were full up and she loved it! She was so well mannered it allowed me to be really aggressive without fear of getting caught out. This is definitely a keeper and I've already sold a few other planes. More on the Rotmilan in a few days.

The results are below and I've taken the liberty of copying Peter Gunning's most excellent match report, I hope he doesn't mind, he's designing bits of my house so his revenge could be long lasting!

Finally, huge thanks to everyone who helped run a fantastically smooth and professional event.




1          Mark Redsell                 10490.94          1000.00
2          Kevin Newton                10420.47          993.28
3          Paul Upton                    10395.50          990.90
4          Peter Gunning               10188.56          971.17
5          Mike McCracken           9955.96            949.00
6          Mark Treble                   9937.30            947.22
7          Tom Foreman                9919.80            945.55
8          David Reid                    9779.07            932.14
9          Ronnie Lampe               9641.70            919.05
10        Frank Hulton                  9575.62            912.75
11        Ewan Maxwell                9325.86            888.94
12        Mick Walsh                   9235.10            880.29
13        George Young               8965.44            854.58
14        John Treble                   8650.03            824.52
15        Dave Watson                8536.20            813.67
16        Gonzalo Garcia-Atance  7863.26            749.52



We had 12 rounds on Bishop today in fantastic sunny conditions starting about 10ms and building through the day to around 15ms.

There was a surprising amount of wind when we met at East Lomond and it was clearly more west than forecast so we headed for Bishop and were up and running by about 11.20am. The benefit of only 16 pilots is that you can crack through the rounds and that we did.

Dave Watson (who had a very eventful) won round 1 in some decent air with a 40.53 and got the round of applause that he didn’t get at Horcum last time out. Round 2 was taken by Paul Upton with a 39.77 who along with Kevin was using the compression on the edge to good effect.

Round 3 saw Dave Watson have to scratch as he had knocked the pushrod connection off the tail of his Needle and Mick Walsh spectacularly hit the slope, did a flat spin and carried on flying but did not finish as he thought it was a zero. In the end we concluded that it wouldn’t have been if he had carried on as nothing fell off the model. I think Tom may have this on vid so am looking forward to seeing it! The round was won by Mark Redsell with a 40.98.

Ewan Maxwell took round 4 with a 38.31 (maybe a PB?) and Mark Redsell took round 5 with a 38.71 and round 6 with a 40.16, after this the thermal influence started to really assert itself and the times got quicker. Round 7 was won by Paul Upton with a blistering 35.77 flown with his RaceMx in very effective full reversal style. Round 8 was won by Kevin Newton with a 37.49 who had now fully re-gained his mojo and was ripping it up with his Rotmilan. This marked the start of Kevin’s string of sub-40’s which took him ever so close to the win.

Round 9 saw Dave Watson flick his Cyril twice and hit the hill about 50m down, amazingly his model was totally intact, he is a very lucky boy despite falling on his face walking to land after the next round! The round was won by Tom Foreman with a 37.74 who was getting some better air and flying it well with a very heavy stinger flying reversals. Mark Redsell took round 10 with a 37.10 closely followed by Mark Treble with a 37.21.

Round 11 saw Kevin Newton take fastest time so far with a blistering 35.29 followed by Peter Gunning with a 37.68. Having announced a (firm) last round in progress at 4.30pm, we just squeaked into round 12 which saw Tom Foreman and his heavy stinger take FTD with a 35.20 and David Reid come in second with a 36.07 with his Crossover.

So all in all a great weekend of flying in Scotland. We were very lucky to get up Bishop again with T in the park in full view below us and full size gliders galore sharing the slope.

Sunday 14 July 2013

BMFA F3F Bishop's Hill

Mark Redsell gets ready for another 38.xx. Reckon it'll be his day.

BMFA F3F on Bishop's Hill

Just about to start. Perfect conditions.

Thursday 4 July 2013

North of England Eurotour - 2013

Words soon

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Rotmilan first flights




What a breathtakingly splendid plane the Rotmilan is.

First flights were on a temperamental hill. And the last time I'd flown was about eight month ago. The last thing I was expecting was to feel perfectly at home straight from first launch and to immediately start blatting about with really effective EM turns.

I've got some video that I'll post soon. I'm also planning a road trip soon to the really big hills in the north end of the north, so that should yield some good footage.

I'll post more soon but don't really know what more to say other than the first outing with the Rotmilan was the best I've ever had with any plane, which taken in the context of it being on East Lomond Hill has really shocked me! More soon.


Tuesday 21 May 2013

Welsh Open

Only a few places left so get in soon...

Saturday 27 April 2013

Rotmilan

Is the Rotmilan one of the best kept secrets in F3F...?
The quality is absolutely second to none, the fit and finish is as close to perfect as I've ever seen.
More soon from me...
In the meantime you can see more here or get your hands on one here.



See photos on iPhone/iPad

Sunday 14 April 2013

MKS to sponsor 2013 Welsh Open F3F

Once again MKS (probably the best servos in the world) are going to sponsor the Welsh Open (definitely the best race in the world!).

Monday 1 April 2013

Welsh Open 2013

We will be taking entries for the 2013 Welsh Open F3F on 27 April at 10:00. More information is here.

Sunday 17 February 2013

Welsh Open F3F 1997?

I found this old photo of one of the first Welsh Opens the other day. This was a great crowd and lots of fun was had. Rather bizarrely at least four of the people are now dead.
Who do you recognise...?