2018-19 Welsh Winter League 1
17 November 2018
Graeme Mahoney launches
The Crest delivers
For once, the forecasts were in agreement: the wind would be from the East, and moderate in strength - in other words, perfect for the Crest. Ignoring warnings of fog, I quickly put on some warm kit, hit the road and headed for Wales. I arrived to see cars parked up, and the Bwlch shrouded in... fog!
Fortunately luck was on our side, and even as we waited, the sun was was starting to peek through. In the expectation that conditions would further improve, we trudged over to the Crest with our models and backpacks.
Our reward: a landscape bathed in a golden glow - with the wind straight on the Crest. We were in for a good day after all!
The slope
The Crest has an unusually sharp edge with a well defined compression zone, and is perfect for pumping (to my mind, there's nothing nicer than seeing a well executed series of pumps). The only downside was the fearsome rotor which extended from the pits area to a good 100 meters back.
The comp
The comp got underway quickly and continued to mid afternoon with just a short sandwich break. Seven rounds were flown in total - Joel West won four, with Graeme Mahoney, Greg Dakin and Clayton Landells taking one each. The standard of flying was very high.
Joel took away top honours. His flying was tight, smooth and accurate and he achieved the only sub-30 with a magnificent 29.75. As usual, Joel was flying with his "reversal and pull" style which seemed particularly suited to the slope and conditions.
Clayt flew exceptionally well to take second spot with his Pike Precision and new radio. He missed going sub-30 by just 0.05 sec. Third placer Stefan Bertschi achieved a best time of 31.81. Greg Dakin just missed the podium flying a Redshift. Several PB's were broken during the course of the comp.
All in all, an exceptional day's racing, proving once again that the winter league can - with a bit of luck - be a great arena for honing your F3F skills. Many thanks to Joel for organising and CD'ing and to Stefan also for coming all the way from Zurich to fly - and help.
Results
1 J West 5942.53 1000.00 2 C Landells 5660.75 952.58 3 S Bertschi 5613.55 944.63 4 G Dakin 5594.39 941.41 5 G Mahoney 5392.71 907.47 6 M Evans 5339.90 898.59 7 M Abbotts 5327.99 896.58 8 M Passingham 5158.60 868.08 9 D Rumble 5102.44 858.63 10 N Witchells 5044.32 848.85 11 K Wood 5023.45 845.33 12 T Livingston 4993.44 840.28 13 A Burgoyne 4911.29 826.46 14 J Bioletti 4871.89 819.83 15 P Studley 4787.14 805.57 16 M Shellim 4676.04 786.87 17 C Studley 4463.83 751.16 18 B Hudson 4422.97 744.29 19 L Wood 3687.96 620.60 20 J Treble 826.93 139.15
Fastest time Joel West (29.75 seconds)