Horcum Winter league 4 February

The dire warnings of severe weather would have suggested that a sensible person should have stayed at home and not get up at 3:30 am and head to Peter’s house before heading off down to the Hole of Horcum for the February winter league race. The journey down was going well until we turned off the A19 just south of Middlesbrough heading for Stockton and to the Tesco garage to let Peter use his 10p per litre discount voucher. The low fuel light had been on for the last half hour and we had discussed that it would probably be wise to stop at a services and buy a few quid’s worth of fuel to make sure we made it to Stockton. About two minutes short of Tesco garage Peter’s car expired at the side of the dual carriageway! Empty!

Within 2 minutes a Highway Agency truck pulled in behind us and the guys helped push the car further over from the carriageway. The guys asked questions, took photographs and filled in form. We were a reportable incident! Meanwhile Peter was on the phone to the AA who arrived within 10 minutes and we were soon on our way following the AA man to Tesco to refill his can of diesel and fill the car. A call to Rich Bago assured him we would be there a wee bit later than planned although as it turned out we arrived in plenty of time. After all that carry on Peter definitely qualifies as a naturalised Scotsman!

Eighteen of us dressed up in winter gear to withstand the -13deg wind chill and headed over to the south bowl for a great session of F3F racing. A good 30mph saw some close racing and great flying. Jon suggested flying 4 rounds and then assess how cold we were and if we would finish up then but as it turned out we flew 8 rounds and were back at the cars and heading home before 3 o’clock.


I managed to cut in round one and again in round six. I also lost a round completely when a re-flight I was given went wrong after a hurried launch that saw the dangling aerial on my Vikos jam one elevator in the half up position. A careful but unsteady landing circuit followed and I was fortunate to get it back down in one piece. Thanks to Paul Middleton for guiding me back to the landing area so I could focus on flying with half forward stick held in. My final placing looks rubbish but without the lost round and two cuts my times were ok. If only…..!


Full results are on the NYMRSC website but well done to Peter on his fourth place result.

Thanks again to Peter for doing all the driving.