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