2010 Eurotour Dates Announced

The 2010 Eurotour dates have been published.

http://www.contest-modellsport.de/

The F3F list is obviously not complete yet as the Welsh and Norwegian Opens are not listed.

Can Greg Dakin go one better in 2010 and win it?

Northern Winter League 1 - Hole of Horcum

November sees the start of the Winter Leagues and the season opener at the Hole of Horcum took place on Saturday 7 November.

Following a misty start flying started at 10.30am in the SW bowl. 18 pilots turned out and enjoyed 9 rounds of flying in fairly light conditions.

Mark Redsell was undoubtedly the star of the day and won by a considerable margin flying his smart new Freestyler 3. Paul Garnett finished second flying his Vikos and could have pushed Mark harder if could only resist the temptation to perform his crowd pleasing cut routine. Paul Middleton rounded out the top three with his Vikos.

Full results can be found here: http://www.nymrsc.org.uk/index.html

Mark Redsell's shiny new Freestyler 3

Mike Challinor not looking too happy with his last run.

Greg Dakin sporting the skiing holiday look.

Paul Garnett not cutting!

German Open 2009: Rugen

The finale to the 2009 Eurotour took place in Rugen, Germany from 2nd-4th October and provided a befitting climax to what has been an excellent season of European F3F competition.

A quick review of the Top 10 pilots shows that the field was very strong with many internationally recognized pilots from the world of both F3F and F3B – in fact few Viking Races have featured such a star-studded roster. To achieve a Top 10 position in such company would be a great achievement….

Going in to the final round of the competition, eight pilots were in contention for the top spot, currently occupied by the UK’s Greg Dakin. What a thriller!

Unlike other Eurotour events, a place at the German Open is not available to all international pilots, as its used as a qualifying round for national team selection. As such, there is a strong bias towards German pilots and that means a high prevalence of quality fliers.

Conditions were very challenging across the three days. Despite the coastal location, pilots were subjected to a mix of good and bad air, plus the additional hazard of a low setting sun.

Flying style also played a major part in the proceedings, with the new dynamic turn technique pioneered by the Herrig’s and French pilots in full display.

In practice, Martin Herrig and Kyle Paulson looked to be the in-form pilots, but unfortunately Andreas Herrig destroyed his Freestyler before the competition started, resorting to a newer and slightly larger variant for the main event. However, this ultimately worked in Andreas's favour as he took top spot overall and reinforced his position as one of Europe’s finest F3F as well as F3B pilots.

Alexis Marechal, a main contender for the overall Eurotour title, flew his new Alliaj hollow model very well. This looks to be a large airframe with good aspect-ratio, and clearly worked well at the higher wing loading (auw 4kg+).

Austrian wonder boy Stefan Holbfer secured third place, reinforcing his earlier win in Cannes and impressing many with his quality flying. Stefan also holds the fastest recorded time in F3F – 27.xx seconds and F3X-Insider hotly tips Stefan at the forthcoming 2010 Viking Race in France!

Martin Herrig’s form was a little sporadic in this competition, which may have been down to fatigue, having travelled from the closing F3B event in Munich – which needless to say he won! Regardless, a fourth place position is very credible in such a hotly contested competition, particularly when conditions were so variable.

Kyle Paulson looked very sharp in practice and flew well in the competition to secure fifth place. Winning the first round (in his group), Kyle looked set for a really good result. Ironically, fifth place was perhaps something of a disappointment, as he was positioned amongst the top three pilots for the most part of the competition.

Klaus Kowalski took sixth place using his rather shabby but still impressive Caldera, ahead of Espen Torp’s Cyril in seventh position. Tim Bigley flew well and managed eighth place flying his Freestyler.

Mike Muller and Stefan Eder filled the last of the two Top 10 spots. Both Mike and Stefan won rounds. Mike pocketed his 1000 points in Round 3, whilst Stefan flew his Crossfire Evo to 38.94 seconds in challenging conditions, and took Round 7.

At the close of proceedings, Alexis Marechal from France had done enough to claim the overall Eurotour League win, pipping The UK’s Greg Dakin by two points out of a possible three hundred. Germany’s Siggi Schedal completed his F3F season with an excellent third place.

F3X Insider

Welsh Open 2009 - Reflections..

Before we begin to analyse the proceedings, let F3X Insider be the first to congratulate young Graham 'glitch' Reed on his first Eurotour triumph and FTD! Graham made the most of the (albeit excellent) air that he was given, but more importantly managed the psychological overhead of winning Round One to successfully defend his position against some of Europe's best pilots.

In terms of conditions, there remained a significant level of variance during the five Rounds flown. The top three pilots all enjoyed 40 second air (or faster) on at least one occasion and rightly capitalised on their 'natural' advantage, forcing some pilots to use their fastest time of the five rounds as a discard!

Disappointingly, the key Eurotour Competitors of Torp and Rondel flew very well but were rarely blessed with the conditions required to win an international event, placing 20th and 16th respectively. That said, Espen's 37.xx was a joy to behold, showing the potential of the Cyril once on step in quality air.

Bjorn Tore Hagen, on the other hand supplemented his podium position at the Norway Open, by flying his repaired Ceres Lift to a well deserved second place. In fact Bjorn may well have won the Eurotour league out right had he entered the mandatory three scoring competitions.

Cedric Grandseigne enjoyed five excellent rounds, and really showed the quality of the Martinet in the variable UK conditions. Cedric advises F3X Insider that the model can handle a considerable amount of ballast in all but the lightest of conditions, and may benefit from a new (and slimmer) fuselage moulding in the not too distant future.

The top UK pilots faired reasonably well in the conditions, with Simon Thornton sealing a well earned third place with a Ceres F3B, Kevin Newton in at sixth position also with a Ceres F3B, and John Phillips showing great consistency with his Predator at seventh place. Messrs Dakin and Garnett completed the picture with ninth and tenth position.

The Spanish contingent of Elizondo, Plaza and Silgado as always looked to be having a great time, and showed the virtues of their German technology (Radical/Freesyler) both in the competition and during the epic sport flying on Saturday. By close of play, the 'Watering Cans' had comprehensively beaten the rest of the field and deservedly took the team prize!

For those looking to procure new hardware, there seemed little to choose between the established designs - particularly the Freestyler, Ceres F3B, Lift and Cyril, all of which seemed to offer similar performance in the conditions.

The Skorpion again showed its pedigree in 'Big Air' conditions, whilst the RCRCM Predator served to prove that a cost effective F3F model can be flown competitively at European level.

Thanks to the SWSA club and in particular Andrzej Tabero and Kevin Newton for organising an excellent event.

Welsh Open 2009 - Top 10 (of 50) Pilots

1. Graham Reed

2. Bjorn Tore Hagen

3. Simon Thornton

4. Cedric Grandseigne

5. Inaki Elizondo

6. Kevin Newton

7. John Phillips

8. Gerardo Plaza

9. Greg Dakin

10. Paul Garnett

F3X Insider

Anthisnes F3B Eurotour

F3X Insider has just returned from the F3B Eurotour event in Belgium hosted by the CRPAL club.

This was an exceptionally enjoyable event which was attended by some of the biggest names in Europe. The welcome offered by the CRPAL club was absolutely outstanding with excellent facilities including a bar and a hot meal on site on Saturday as well as lunches on Saturday and Sunday.

The flying was challenging as the flying field is quite narrow with a 2m high maize field on one side, a ploughed field on the other and a very tall forest behind. The forest produced good lift for Duration although one UK pilot lost his model in the forest after losing sight of it momentarily and after much searching in the extensive forest it was found up an extremely tall tree. Most of the model was eventually retrieved but it was unfortunately a write-off.

Models flown at the event included the Herrigs with their Freestylers, Ceres variants, Radicals and Shooters. All looked good and there really is not much to choose between the current crop of top line F3B machinery. Top Three were:

1. Martin Herrig
2. Roland Hofman
3. Christian Müller

Best Speed time was a 13.15 from Roland Hofmann.

Also in the top 5 was Steve Haley from the the UK flying a Ceres Lift. This was Steve's first international competition in several years and a very impressive return it was too.

F3X Insider understands that Steve may be expecting a Shooter very shortly and is also considering a Target. He will definitely be seen at a few Eurotours next year.

If you have never been to Eurotour event you really should get to one, even if only as a helper. The opportunity to some of the top pilots do their stuff and talk to them in the pits really should not be ignored. The social side of the event is excellent and it makes for an excellent weekend.

Best comment of the weekend was: 'Eurotours are harder to win than the World Championships. More Germans!'.

Ceres Lift

It seems like the Ceres Lift has to be added to the list of contenders for the Welsh Open. Bjorn Tore Hagen really crunched another top contender, Espen Torp during the Norwegian Championship last weekend. Very impressive indeed. F3X Insider does not have any idea about the conditions but anyway a win like that must be taken seriously.

Welsh Open 2009: Preview

So, let's kick-off with a preview to this year's Eurotour F3F event in South Wales.

First off, as 2009 is a non-Viking Race year, the Welsh Open will be hosted over a three day period, scheduled for 18th, 19th & 20th September at the Bwlch.

With 55 pilot entries and three days of racing, there is every possibility that a fair and meaningful result will be output from this event - welsh weather gods permitting.

The Welsh Hills:

1. They are the best hills for slope racing in Britain, and offer remarkable to breath taking lift if the wind blows and is square on to the hill.

2. The Bwlch is an inland site and subject to varying degrees of thermal activity.

3. The 'Back of the Wrecker' and 'Ice-Cream Slope' tend to be the worse affected by thermal influence.

4. The 'Wrecker' and 'Crest' reward the pilot who dares to fly on the lip of the ridge - levels of compression increase closer to the edge.

5. The 'Ice Cream Slope' and westerly face of 'Mickey's Slope' offer the softer side of welsh flying and have a sightly less defined edge, often meaning that competitive times can be posted by flying further out.

6. Wind strength can be deceptive on the 'Wrecker' sites, because the air tends to be deflected vertically up the ridge, often making ballast selection a challenge.

Ones to Watch:

There's no doubt that the vast majority of entrants have the ability and skills to win the event, but on the basis of current form, F3X Insider suggests that the following pilots should be monitored closely:

• Pierre Rondel - Freestyler / Martinet
• Espen Torp - RaceMx / Cyril
• Kevin Newton - Ceres F3B
• Greg Dakin - RaceMx
• Bjorn Tore Hagen - Freestyler
• Simon Thornton - Ceres F3B
• Mark Redsell - Freestyler

Models:

There's sure to be plenty of hardware on display, but of particular interest are the CCM Martinet and Baudis Cyril.

From conversations with the UK guys, F3X Insider understands that these new-gen airframes have yet to be flown in South Wales, and only the Cyril has been seen on UK soil in the hands of Espen Torp (who incidentally has just set a new slope record of 34.xx with the model in Norway).

We await news from the event with trepidation....

Further information is available at: http://kevin-newton.blogspot.com/

F3X Insider