F3B Team Trials #2 at BERG

After a lovely sunny and warm Saturday, Sunday dawned cold, overcast and with an unusual wind coming in from the east for the 2nd Team Trials event held at B.E.R.G.

The sighting devices had been set up north/south the day before so a quick vote and everyone piled in and moved the course into wind. Then breakfast was served and we were ready to fly.

Wolfgang filled in on the B.E.R.G. team and Piet was forced to drop out at the last moment due to a bad bout of flu. But it was really great to see some of our members out helping with signalling and timing. Thanks guys. As we've said so many times before, we just wouldn't be able to fly the F3B contests effectively without your valuable help. This was our first opportunity to fly F3B since the Nationals and all contestants were extremely enthusiastic - in fact a little over enthusiastic and together with the good headwind we had continual line breaks throughout the day.

Flying conditions were actually very good. Large waves of weak lift and sink cycled through all day and only later in the afternoon when the sun broke through for a short while did we get some real thermal activity.

Surprise entries were the F3K team. Stephane Duponsel, Alan Smith and Peter Eagle with Lionel Smith as team manager and helper put in a superb performance considering Stephane and Lionel flew the same Trinity model.

Peter opted out early in the contest. Brothers Alan and Lionel really a great team to have around - lots of fun and laughter whether the flights are good or bad.










There was no MGA box present for the day so Evan, Craig and Michelle got down to make some makeshift spot landing measuring tapes.

Almost no lunch as well as Martie ran out of gas halfway through cooking the hamburger patties. To save the day she managed to get the neatest little disposable braai complete with cardboard stand at the local shops. We fired it up a she managed to finish off the cooking for a short late lunch break.

There were no serious casualties but Rodney had a rough outlanding in round 2 and cracked the tailboom on his model.

My Estrella developed wiring problems with the connecting plugs in the right wing during round 4 so I decided to quit as well.

Dion has now taken over from Rodney as the tree man - he managed to perch his model really high up in the biggest tree around. Justice did a great job of recovering Dion's model. He is such a great asset to the B.E.R.G. club and so well worth the killing he makes off of us financially. He fetched chutes tirelessly for everyone all day long.

All in all a really great flying day. Started a little late, had a late lunch and ended up packing almost in the dark. Check the F3B blog for more pictures, full results and information on the next contest.