At 9.00 a.m. there were a few spits of rain, but they were the last dregs of what had fallen overnight. The ground underfoot had some surface water on it but was firm. The air was clear, the wind was light Westerly and the day looked as though it was improving by the minute. This was the case, exactly as we had expected from our weather forecasts.

13 entries were taken, which really meant that 7 people were there to compete, from as far afield as Perth, Cumbernauld and Troon. Plus of course the locals from Glenrothes and Edinburgh.

Slots of 3 and 4 were arranged and competition flying commenced around 11.00. Lift was plentiful but it did involve going in the right direction to find it. Some slots were luckier than others with big lift right of the launches, some required a bit of work but not that much. It was a good day for sorting out models.

Longest recorded airtime in a slot was 9m 55s by Dougal McIntyre, unfortunately his 0 bonus helped him not win the slot. Ian Stewart had 9m 53s but overflew, Ron Russell had 9m 49s and 50 bonus to win this slot.

That was slot 1, round 1 so it set the standard for the day.

Most pilots were maxing out, but as I said there were some mistakes in judgement and these hurt the pilots scores.

Only one mid air at quite a distance and height downwind, both models survived, continued to fly out the slot and appeared to be literally undamaged, save for some cross contamination of paint. Neither model had appeared to be in the same airspace as the other, is that not always the case?

After 3 rounds were completed we called it a day though some sports flying was done by a few intrepids.

Ian Simpson flying in his first proper thermal event with a glass fuz, veneered blue foam wing model proved that new technology is NOT the only answer. It helps, it's nice to have, but being in the right place at the right time and being able to use what the air provides is far more important. Congrats Ian, well done.

It was disappointing this morning waking up to an unfortunate erroneous email, however we got a comp in, albeit a bit short staffed.

If you were coming and then missed it because of that email, don't blame Fife Soarers or Dunfermline MAC, we were ready for you. As I have already expressed it came as an unpleasant surprise this morning, finding out that your plans were being scuppered by a non organising flier.

Andy has apologised but with so little competitive thermal flying being done we can not afford to let this happen again. Nuff said. Let's hope we can have a good Thermal Nats, that is the next event on the calendar.

Again thanks to the Dunfermline club for the use of their field, thanks to Fife Soarers for rallying around to get the event organised, flown and scored with a known result on the day. To all of you who came along and made this a great days flying, thanks as well.