This meeting had been scheduled to take place at Oakington but a last minute notification from the authorities followed by frantic efforts by a number of flyers gave us the opportunity to share the Barkston Heath site with a Free Flight Competition. Thanks to all who helped organise this. We did talk to Phil Ball (who organises) the FF comps there and aim to try and double up again on other occasions - Thanks to Phil for offering us this facility.
After a rather mixed few days the weather was wonderful with virtually no wind and real "shorts and teashirt weather" - as a result we saw improved race times by a number of teams and a few excellent races.
Fastest on the day were Ross/Turner with a personal best of 3:16.7, backed up with a 3:18.2. A much improved Smith/Brown put in a couple of good times (3:20.6 and 3:22.7) to hold second spot with Langworth/Campbell close behind (3:23.0 and 3:27.6). These teams make up the UK F2C T/R Team for the July 1999 Eurochamps in Spain.
Fitzgerald/Thomason were in 4th slot with a 3:29.1 and, as a result of Smith/Brown wishing to protect equipment ready for Spain, were asked to take 3rd position into the final. (thus gaining final points for league purposes)
In the final Ross/Turner, who had been showing terrific airspeed all day, put in a near perfect race to set a new UK record of 6:37.1 with Langworth/Campbell and Fitzgerald/Thomason taking 2nd and 3rd places respectively (well behind). An excellent time by Malcolm and Brian - lets just hope they can repeat this in Spain !
Many thanks to Dave Rudd for, yet again, running the event and also to Peter Jephcott, Pat Leeman and Steve Crawford who helped out with the timekeeping throughout the event - thus giving the competitors more time to sort equipment out and practice in what was virtually unlimited runway space.
The surface at Barkston is good so let hope we can use the field again soon.
Heat 1 |
Heat 2 |
Heat 3 |
Heat 4 |
Final |
|||||||
1 |
Ross/Turner |
3 |
16.7 |
3 |
28.8 |
3 |
20.4 |
3 |
18.2 |
6 |
37.1 |
2 |
Langworth/Campbell |
3 |
43.2 |
3 |
27.6 |
3 |
27.9 |
3 |
23.0 |
7 |
24.3 |
3 |
Fitzgerald/Thomason |
3 |
54.8 |
3 |
41.6 |
3 |
32.0 |
3 |
29.1 |
7 |
45.6 |
4 |
Smith/Brown |
ret |
99.0 |
3 |
22.7 |
3 |
20.6 |
3 |
28.6 |
||
5 |
Fry/Whorton |
3 |
42.1 |
ret |
37.0 |
3 |
40.3 |
ret |
73.0 |
||
6 |
Radcliffe/Yeldham |
4 |
10.5 |
3 |
58.6 |
3 |
42.2 |
ret |
34.0 |
||
7 |
Tribe/Bollen |
3 |
57.3 |
ret |
01.0 |
4 |
17.9 |
dnf |
|||
8 |
Walker/Peart |
4 |
02.9 |
4 |
04.1 |
ret |
66.0 |
4 |
06.5 |
||
9 |
Hill/Metcalfe |
4 |
41.2 |
4 |
58.2 |
4 |
03.9 |
dnf |
|||
10 |
Barker/Vaughan |
4 |
13.1 |
dq |
4 |
11.8 |
dnf |
||||
League Points awarded for the day were as follows :-
Ent |
Plc |
Fin |
Imp |
Tot |
|
Ross/Turner |
1 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
11 |
Langworth/Campbell |
1 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
8 |
Fitzgerald/Thomason |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
6 |
Smith/Brown |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
Fry/Whorton |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Radcliffe/Yeldham |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Tribe/Bollen |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Walker/Peart |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Hill/Metcalfe |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Barker/Vaughan |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |