West Lomond F3F Winter League Round 4

Only the second winter league event for us (we lost 2 to the weather in December and January) but conditions looked promising for a 20ish mph wind on West Lomond which is what we got after a bit of a wait for the wing to swing to the forecast direction at lunchtime.

Being stir crazy I was first in the air with my Precision to have a sport fly in the still crossed conditions before lunch. My model was going well and I enjoyed my first proper F3F sport fly since November however landing in the usual spot in the crossed conditions was a bit hairy and touchdown was sudden! A number of us had an exciting time flying through the bumpy rotor to make less than elegant landings. Mike had several “arrivals” with his new FS 4.3 and Ewan collected some vegetation with the wingtip of his Jedi! Ouch!  Once the wind swung straight on the hill Peter showed us all that the usual spot was now perfect for landing and anywhere else proved fraught!

View through the gate! Peter's winning Jedi streaks back onto the course

It was close between Mike and Peter all day and if it hadn't been for a delay during the last two rounds (Mikes fault) when conditions were deteriorating Mike could well have taken first place. Mike had to fly after his stoppage and the air was not so good.

Dave's Pitbull

Ewan had his new Jedi tuned in well and it was looking very fast as was Dave with his new Pitbull. Ian’s Ceres was very fast too and the final scores were extremely close. Less than 2 points between Dave and me from a total of 11700!

Mike digging his FS4.3 out of the hill. Again!

West Lomond is a great slope and considering the wind was only blowing about 20-25mph all day you still had to be pulling sub 40s to take the rounds. The lift there is awesome and on a big day….?

I flew ok but with much room for improvement. My feeble launch technique needs some work though. A lot of work. Sorry Ewan!

A good day out on the hill and plenty of the usual banter! Especially as Ewan had managed to keep his new Jedi a secret from Mike until he took it out of the bag on the hill! Much muttering of how Mike was letting Ewan walk home!!

By the time we all got back the cars we were knackered. It is about 2.3 miles to the West Lomond slope and I walk that distance at lunchtime most days in 35 minutes and think nothing of it. Carrying all our kit over the ups and downs of the track makes such a difference. I try to walk regularly to keep fit? Working well? Not!