2015 Welsh Open F3F

11 - 13 September 2015

Mark Treble in launch mode

Simon Thornton conquers the Crest

This was without doubt one of the most successful - and physically challenging - Welsh Opens that I can remember.

The Crest

The competition took place over three days and attracted 48 pilots including teams from Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain.

The weather was much better than forecast. We did, however, have to endure Easterly winds on two days, which meant two arduous trips to the Crest. and not every competitor was able to complete the journey. Those that did were rewarded with the most geologically imposing slope on the calendar.

Our legs enjoyed a little respite on the middle day, at Mickey's slope.

Weather call

A good weather call on the first day ensured that we got off to a good start (you know it's the right call when the muttering stops, and the pilots end up flying loads of rounds!). That set the tone, and the rounds flew onto the scoresheet pretty quickly. I won't go into the detail as Clayt Landells has a great report on his blog, see link at end. Suffice to say that conditions were average to very good with few lulls in the lift and times where mostly in the 40s.

By close of play on Sunday, Simon Thornton, who flew superbly all weekend, had done enough to win the trophy. Joel West was runner up, and Peter Gunning third. Fastest time went to Iñaki Elizondo with 32.51. Well done to all.

Collaboration

The event was also an organisational tour de force. In total, 624 competition flights were flown over three days. Sincere thanks to Kev Newton for organising, with preliminary work done many miles from the Bwlch (Scotland to be precise!), also to Clayt, Jon Edison and Rich Bago, and all other helpers.

A special mention too for Mark Treble and his Android scoring system. It saved several sets of vocal chords from premature wear (pity it couldn't do the same for my boots!). And last but not least thanks to T9Hobbysport/MKS for their continued sponsorship of this event.

One of the things I love about F3F is the way it brings people together. Did I mention Stefan Bertschi? He organised the curry night in Bridgend - all the way from Switzerland!

Image Gallery

Results

 1 Simon Thornton           10949.04
 2 Joel West                10873.91
 3 Peter Gunning            10780.76
 4 Martin Newnham           10606.39
 5 Greg Dakin               10602.92
 6 Inaki Elizondo           10417.80
 7 Mark Treble              10335.98
 8 Mike Evans               10250.86
 9 Richard Bago             10249.23
10 Stefan Bertschi          10210.18
11 Graeme Mahoney           10194.47
12 Kurt Planitzer           10186.40
13 Ronnie Lampe             10074.38
14 Kevin Newton             10051.00
15 Jose luis Alvarez        10012.71
16 Daniel Schneider          9959.05
17 John Phillips             9953.30
18 Stefan Fraundorfer        9941.96
19 Stefan Bernardy           9857.97
20 Lazaro Martinez           9793.96
21 Fernando Moro             9776.22
22 Frits Donker Duyvis       9759.22
23 Keith Wood                9715.88
24 Clayton Landells          9678.49
25 Jorge Medina              9673.09
26 Tony Livingstone          9627.25
27 Martin Drewett            9583.61
28 Reto Blumer               9569.39
29 Inigo Herrera             9548.21
30 Dave Rumble               9528.69
31 John Treble               9516.02
32 Alejandro Gil Garcia      9486.13
33 Mike Shellim              9447.50
34 Paul Stubley              9392.71
35 Andy Burgoyne             9373.67
36 Ewan Maxwell              9370.90
37 Erik Heijne               9348.00
38 Christian Schnepfleitner  9261.29
39 Scott Ravenscroft         9220.91
40 Rick Ruijsink             9047.12
41 Marcelino Punal           8956.90
42 Jon Edison                8837.83
43 Jason Bioletti            8735.97
44 Ian Mason                 8634.13
45 Mark Abbotts              7254.93
46 Tony Robertson            6185.69
47 Frank Hulton              5776.88
48 Vic Eldridge              3983.62