F3F BMFA League. Round 1. The Wrecker

Despite poor weather forecasts on both XC and the beeb I decided it was worth the trek to the BWLCH for Round 1 of the BMFA league.  Rob decided to give it a miss based on a decision made following studying weather forecasts, its a good job there are no meteorology skills required in his business of master minding commercial balloon flights, as it was a huge mistake to miss this one.

We were flying from '' The Wrecker''.
Take a look at the 2 flags in this picture both blowing in completely opposite directions. If you do not take the 300 yard stroll to the safe landing area unfortunately you will likely wrecker your model

Launching was not for the feint hearted, To the left and below is Joel West launching Simon Thorntons Needle 124. There was some serious pumping action going on. The climb outs reached were phenomenal.

LEFT...Martin Newnhams Freestyler being launched. Martin achieved a new British F3F record with a time of 26.84 seconds.

As for me, once I got the hang of the conditions, I managed my first ever sub 40 second run with a 37.98sec soon to be followed by a 34.20 second run . The Fosa was screaming around, only limited by my ability / inability. I am chuffed to bits with this time and for those of you that know the competitiveness between myself , Robert (45.xx) and Dumpster (36.84) you can imagine how the phone calls on the journey home went. One was full of congratulation / praise, the other a little less impressed. I will leave you to work it out which was which!

Paul Garnett's Needle 124. Stunning colour scheme and a stunning PB achieved with a 29.24 seconds. Pauls first sub 30!

This was Mark Trebles Needle 100. Early thoughts are it could be a battery failure with a cell giving in, or maybe the Zepsus magnetic switch packing up. We also had a complete failure of a wing joiner / joiner box that resulted in a model disappearing down the side never to be seen again. There were also multiple other flap servos, tailplane feathers etc etc . The conditions were fantastic, but also very extreme. The models really do take a hammering.

Anyway , now for the video. There is some top notch flying in this so enjoy!

Martin
PB 34.20