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2022 Welsh Open F3F

9 - 11 September 2022

Joel West sets off for a landing

Welsh Open

The Welsh Open is the comp everyone wants to attend - it's a magic combination of fabulous hills, multiple days, and pilots from abroad. This year saw an entry of thirty-two pilots including from Spain, Holland and Switzerland.

Day 1

The venu for the first day was the far end of Mickey's slope. Unfortunately the first couple of hours were spent trying not to get wet. Eventually the rain stopped, the course was set up, and we flew two rounds before the wind swung round to the NW.

Graeme Mahoney made a great start winning both rounds with sub-45 times, extracting the maximum from the somewhat variable conditions. Taking position behind Graeme were Pete Gunning and Greg Dakin.

Day 2

Day Two started with pilots assembled on the Wrecker car park. Unfortunately the wind remained stubbornly below 3 m/s putting paid to an early start. Instead, out came the DLG's, Ahi's and electrics!

Anticipating better winds for the afternoon, we moved to the VR slope, only to be thwarted by the wind gods yet again.

Day 3

Day Three finally saw some proper action at last, with seven rounds flown at the Back of Wrecker.

Graeme maintained the lead up till round 5, then it was a jostle between Pete Gunning and Joel West, with Pete winning out in the end. Graeme hung on to a well-deserved third place. Conditions were actually quite consistent, and just 1/2 a second wastead on each base was enough to cause a slip of several places.

All in all then, while not a classic Welsh Open, the competition was redeemed by the action on the last day.

My thanks to Kevin for his usual excellent CD'ing, plus Mark, Andrzej, and other helpers. Thanks also to our visitors from abroad namely Fernando, Fritz, Stefan, Rick, Eric, and Arjen - you help make it special!

Finally to T9 Hobbysport for their generous sponsorship.

Off course

There was some lively debate about the value of live scoring. I think it would add an element of excitement, giving pilots a defined target to aim for. It would be nice too to see the introduction of low-latency wireless buzzers to replace the heavy cables.

Results

After 9 rounds:

 1  Peter Gunning       7601.33 1000.00
 2  Joel West           7595.82  999.27
 3  Graeme Mahoney      7345.47  966.34
 4  Stefan Bertschi     7320.43  963.04
 5  Greg Dakin          7308.70  961.50
 6  Rich Bago           7280.98  957.85
 7  Arjen van Vark      7206.96  948.11
 8  Mike Evans          7133.90  938.50
 9  Kev Newton          7105.98  934.83
10  John Philips        7087.32  932.37
11  Stefan Bernardy     7029.49  924.77
12  Fernando Moro       7024.97  924.17
13  Mike McCracken      7016.77  923.09
14  Fritz donker Duyvis 6979.97  918.25
15  Mark Passingham     6973.44  917.39
16  Aleix Ingles        6953.89  914.82
17  Mark Treble         6918.73  910.19
18  William Fourie      6895.25  907.11
19  Paul Stubley        6888.29  906.19
20  Dave Rumble         6867.83  903.50
21  Andy Burgoyne       6858.50  902.27
22  Eric Heine          6791.48  893.45
23  Les Wood            6778.50  891.75
24  Dave Woods          6749.92  887.99
25  Mike Shellim        6743.76  887.18
26  Ian Mason           6715.25  883.43
27  Mike Bleathman      6604.80  868.90
28  Jon Edison          6593.84  867.45
29  Rick Ruijsink       6584.57  866.23
30  Jason Bioletti      6524.68  858.36
31  Ewan Maxwell        6522.58  858.08
32  Bruce Hudson        6451.69  848.75

Fastest time 36.67 seconds by Joel West in round 7

Round winners:
Graeme Mahoney (2), Rich Bago (2), Peter Gunning (2), Fernando Moro (1), Joel West (1), Mike McCracken (1)

Images