F3K - Handlaunch RCGA F3K League 2013 #1
RCGA F3K League 2013 #1
Hi All,
We have kicked off the first event in the 2012/13 RCGA calendar with F3K (Hand Launch) at Royal Park and it was a great success. We had 8 pilots come along and enjoy the day. The weather forecast was not flash but the day turned out to be a warm, breezy and very flyable. When the sun came out it was even hot! It was a very difficult day from a thermalling point of view which made for some very low scores but there was enough lift around to sneak in some good times every now and again. Most people used minimal (or no) ballast because of the light lift, but it made penetrating back into the wind difficult so you had to judge the conditions well to avoid an out landing.
Some highlights for the day:
Tom Dupuche joined us for the first time (welcome Tom) with an ex Tim Lennon/Hugh Blackburn Twister 2 and improved as the day went on. A number of us ran launch and setup clinics at the lunch break for anyone still learning and this saw a big improvement in everyones launches as the day went on.
Dean Roberts starting with 1000 points in Round 1! He picked up some lift that we all missed and worked it well. Great job Dean! The first of many more good flights to come.
Gerry also had a number of winning flights and took great pleasure in making sure we all heard his times. It was a fun day!
Tim had some great flights and finished a very respectable 4th for the day. His highlight was his well calculated calling in Poker. Tim called 4 x 1 minute flights and then waited for the perfect opportunity to call 1:30 (and he got it) to score 5:30 and take the 1000 points. It was great to watch him execute his plan so well.
Jim too had some excellent flights but suffered from a few too many out landings – more ballast Jim?
Hugh started well and was in first place after the first 5 rounds, however some out landings at the wrong time cost him some big points.
Jon Day came home like a house on fire and picked up the last 4 x 1000 points for the day. On a number of occasions everyone was down early watching Jon still at 100m+ putting in a 3 minute flight. Well flown all day Jon! It was only an out landing in his 2 Last Flight round and a difficult Poker round that cost him first place. It was very close.
I decided that with the new no-dropper rule in place I was going to fly a conservative competition. I made sure I did not over commit on any flights and I was happy to take some 800-900 point flights rather than go for glory in the difficult conditions and it ended up being the right call. I had the fewest out landings of any pilot on the day. My highlight was being able to make a plan at the start of the day and then being able to stick to it – even when Jon finished so strongly!
I did run the scores with 1 and then 2 droppers and it made no difference to any pilot's position. Very interesting!
We also had a visit from the park ranger during the day and he was very impressed with the whole event. A big thanks to Tim Lennon for all the running around and organising he did to get this excellent site. It looks like we will hold another event there later in the year.
Congratulations to the place getters:
- Marcus Stent 9315.6
- Jon Day 8988.5
- Hugh Blackburn 8674.9
