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)