Monday 12 March 2012

Hole of Horcum Winter League 5 Saturday March 10

The last of the F3F Northern Winter League events saw me up at 03:30 to arrive at Peter’s house for 04:15 for the trip to North Yorkshire and the Hole of Horcum. Setting off I had a look over at the car dashboard and was reassured to see an almost full tank of fuel:o) We collected Mike just after the Forth Bridge and we were on our way. As we were loading Mike’s stuff into the car I saw Mike give Peter a cd to entertain us on the trip down. About halfway there Peter played the cd and my education was enhanced. Steel Panther. A metal/glam rock sounding band whose songs have an interesting use of the English language and some particularly unusual rhyming couplets!! Hilarious!! A pit stop at Purdy Lodge and stocking up of pies and cakes in the baker's shop in Sleights saw us arrive at the car park at Levisham about 9:15.

The west north west wind saw a move from the Levisham slope to an area farther north and overlooking Newtondale and Skelton Tower. Getting to the slope meant trudging through the heather for 20 minutes which was hard going. I hate walking through heather!! On the way back we took the much easier but longer footpath round the edge of the hill. The wind was slightly crossed from the left and very bumpy and very thermally. If you were lucky with the air some good times were to be had. Mid to low 40s were the good times but some unlucky people were caught by rubbish air and recorded disappointing times. I was buzzing B during one of Jon Edison's rounds and on launch his Extreme immediately dropped about 15 metres and looked like it was headed for Newtondale. After much frantic stick waggling Jon was able to get his model out of the hole in the air it was in and back up to hill height just in time to enter the course! Must be the worst sink effect I have ever seen.












The sun shone all day and the temperatures were very mild. I had to dispense with my jacket and fleece for most of the day. Phew!














Peter had his P3 dialled in really well and set the pace for the whole day. His nicely carved EM turns were definitely the way to go if you could get them right.













Mike had a nightmare of a day and had a string of rounds with rubbish air which seriously pulled his scores down. I had a pretty good day with a round 5 win and a second, third and seventh position in rounds 3, 8 and 7 respectively although my final 12th position was disappointing :o( Such is the scoring system of F3F!!

Interesting to note that several times throughout the day a number of people were questioning if we were on the correct hill and that we should be back on the Levisham slope but Jon stuck to his guns and we stayed put. On the way back to the cars when we got to the Levisham slope the wind was well crossed from the north. Paul Foster and Paul Garnett both flew there and both landed out!! Nice one Jon!

Had a great time though and a stop on the way home in Whitby and the Magpie Café for fish and chips rounded off a grand day out.

Thanks to Jon Edison for organising a great day and thanks once more to Peter for doing all the driving and congratulation on a well deserved win.

A few more of my dodgy pictures.

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