F3K Trans Tasman

Hi all,
I thought I’d give a bit of a blow by blow account of my Southern Fling’s ups and downs to give everyone a feel for what it was like. Here goes:

Saturday dawned windy and rainy and very turbulent. I was flying my trusty Concept CX-2

Round 1 was the Ladder Task and it is the task I hate the most (more than Poker) because one false move (missing the 2 min) and you are down on 771 points. It was really gusty and turbulent but I managed to surf the trees OK and made my 2 minute comfortably. Phew, always a good way to start!

Round 2 and it was 5 x 2 min. On my second flight my caller saw some birds circling at the end of the trees and I raced sideways to try and pick up their lift, but missed it totally and I landed at 1.20. ? I was then a bit gun shy of the trees and dropped more points trying to work a bubble upwind. It was time to re-think my strategy and get with the masses over the trees! Ahhh, that’s better, 2 minutes, but the damage was done.

Round 3 was AULD and getting 3 minutes was going to be tough. Rowdy and I worked lift off the trees, but given the trees were only 30m wide there was a huge risk of getting caught in the rotor and not getting back. Each circle was completed with great trepidation and I was concentrating hard on making sure I bugged out as soon as my lift deteriorated. No ‘Marcus turns’ (Hugh’s favourite term for me taking one too many circles and ending up in the sink!!) for me and I made it back in over the trees OK, but I did see Joe miss the trees by millimetres and land short to take a zero for the first flight. Wow! The remaining two flights were much the same and I was relieved to work hard and get the max score with Rowdy.

Round 4 was 3 x 3 minute in 10 minutes. Talk about brain fade! There is one minute spare and no need to take any risks, right? Wrong! My lift did not get going and I was caught working too little too late and I had to land at 1:30, bugger! The next few flights were OK but I took another hit overall.

The wind really picked up and the turbulence got extreme, so that was it for Saturday and I wasn’t sitting too pretty. 2 droppers in 4 rounds, not a good way to start a Trans-Tasman offensive!

Sunday dawned nice and sunny and the weather was magnificent. I had flown my concept CX2 all day Saturday and it performed flawlessly (it was the idiot on the sticks) and I was looking forward to flying it Sunday but I had a battery failures in the morning so I had to resort to my trusty (how do the Americans call it ‘Beater’) Salpeter. I also had a bit of a re-think of Saturday’s events and promised myself a few improvements.

Round 5 started with last flight, 5 min max and it was evident that the beautiful conditions were a roost for very cyclic, inversion controlled thermals that struggled to get going. It took me three attempts to get my 5 minutes and I think I worked 4 different thermals to make my time. Scott Chisholm was the only other one in my group to also make the 5 minutes. That was tough, but it felt good to start Sunday with 1000 points!

Round 6 was 1,2,3,4, but this time there was good air everywhere on the field and it was going to come down to the turnarounds. I have two different turnaround styles, a one step and a three step throw because my normal throwing technique revolves around running into the throw. I use the one (foot) step for 80% high throws and a three (foot) step throw for 100% height throws. I launched right on the buzzer, nailed all my tip catches, nailed all my times and was away in just one step for each launch. The result was losing only 6 seconds, a personal best for me (previously 7 seconds) and I was pumped! Woo Hoo! In the same heat Joe dropped 9 seconds and PeeWee 11 seconds. I had a big smile on my face.

Round 7 was scratched.

Round 8 was last 2 flights and by this time the air was getting really nice and I found it easy along with the rest of the field.

Round 9 was another Ladder and again I was nervous, with good reason , I nearly dropped my 1:30 in some brutal sink, but made a good call to chase a feeder for my 1:45 and went back to it again for my 2 min. That was too close for comfort!

Round 10 was 5 x 2min and as I walked out with my caller we discussed trying to miss the sink that was liable to come through the field at some stage during the 10 minutes. We needed to be ready to get out of town if things went pear shaped. I didn’t hae a read so I took a slightly late launch to get max height and found some nice air. After 1 minute I went searching up wind for some better air but I didn’t find any so I decided to go back to my first thermal. This probably wasn’t the best call as it had moved a long way’s away and I only just made it back into the box and to cap it all off I dropping the tip trying to make the last few seconds. Bugger! A three step launch to get max height and I was away. I think I followed some good signs and made the rest of my times OK. I ended up dropping 11 second but I was glad to get out of it without losing more points.

Round 11 was AULD and I had to make some clever calls, but made my times OK.

Round 12 was 3 x 3 min in 10 min and this was brutal. On the second flight the sink over the field had everyone going in different directions. I had a light read out to the left and circled really, really gently in a thermal that did not actually take me up, but I was not going to move for anyone. I eeked out my 3 minutes and turned around to see Joe running back from an out landing. Ouch! By the third flight the lift had improved and I made my time easily.

Round 13 was last flight and the conditions were so good we joked about putting the score in before we flew. We were right and every pilot in the entire round (all 3 heats) made their 5 minute time.

Round 14 was to be the last flight of the competition and it was 1234. I wanted to nail my turnarounds and finish strongly. The lift started strongly and I made my 4 min easily and I had some signs for some downwind lift but unfortunately all I found was sink and I aborted at the last minute to just make my 1 minute. The only advantage with this was that there were now people circling for their 3 minute flights and I was able to finish my 3 and 2 minute flights without too much trouble. I had taken safe launches after my near disaster 1 minute flight and so I dropped 10 seconds. Rowdy dropped 8 seconds and took the 1000 points. Well done!

Overall I was really pleased with Sunday that I was able to handle the pressure of Saturday’s 2 dropped flights hanging over my head all day. I had an awesome day.

I have to make mention of 2 other pilots who flew great this weekend and that was Rowdy (Kevin Botherway) and Alex Hewson, they were both on fire. In particular Alex Hewson who was the outstanding pilot of the weekend and he only missed the top prize due to an accidental penalty. Great flying Alex, you have a very bright future.

A huge thanks to my team of Hugh Blackburn and Jon Day who are fantastic guy’s and helped make it an awesome trip all around. Also, to all the NZ friends I have made, thanks for all the laughs and the hospitality. Thanks again to the organisers of John shaw, Scott Chisholm and David Griffin for running a great event. I loved every minute of it.

On a personal note (with apologies to Joe for this moment of self indulgence), I flew over to NZ to obviously represent Australia as a team, but also to see if I could mix it with the best F3K team in the world and I held my own against all of them. I actually flew against Joe on 3 occasions and managed to beat him on all 3 occasions, and that is something I will never forget. I still have some improvements to make but I am really happy with how far I have come.

It feels goooooood !

Cheers,
Marcus