East Sussex Eurotour F3F
10-11 May 2014
Ultra wind
A memorable and thoroughly testing weekend, thanks to relentless high winds. Memorable too for English flyers taking all top three places despite some strong opposition from the continent.
Saturday started blustery with a just a few spots of drizzle. The wind continued to increase throughout the day, and ballast - loads of it - was essential to make the best of the conditions. That was the story for the whole two days and it was a real challenge to survive let alone fly fast. Fortunately the rain held off and we were rewarded with an excellent contest.
After seven rounds, it was Mark Redsell who emerged the winner with Martin Newnham runner up, and Simon Thornton in third. The standard of flying was pretty awesome at times given the conditions. Fastest time went to Simon Thornton for a splendid 34.11 in round 3 when the wind was at its peak.
My thanks to John Phillips and his band of helpers for doing a sterling job in particularly testing conditions.
Photos
High res photos are available in my Smugmug gallery.
Results
For full results see ESSA site. Top ten placings:
1 Mark Redsell GBU 5659.72 2 Martin Newnham GBU 5619.22 3 Simon Thornton GBU 5533.70 4 Thorsten Folker Schwaben 5461.42 5 André Austen Germany 2 5413.41 6 Peter Gunning Mickey's massive 5365.65 7 Joel West Mickey's massive 5321.84 8 Søren Krogh 0 5309.64 9 Tobias Reik Schwaben 5307.91 10 Peter Kowalski SAF 5282.26