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The weather relented, from the overnight heavy rain and very high winds to a bit blustery but certainly very flyable day. The 20+ mph westerly that blew constantly all day would have given us sparkling flying on any of our slopes but we were on the flat for a change. The start was a bit delayed by the number of trial flights and line breaks they created but eventually everything got underway. Right from the start, well before it we knew it was going to be a ballasted day for all the models, indeed th appearance of one or two models more akin the the F3f course appeared and faired well all day.
The first round started with a bit of trepidation on all the fliers, many had not really flown in this sort of wind on the flat and were feeling their way in. However the slot did prove that there was lift to be had and put a few people at ease. Line breaks slowed the whole competition down, I think it was just lack of practise in the wind that was causing the problems, that and maybe old, weak lines.
There were some slots where the lift was non existant and the fliers were on the ground in a couple of minutes or less, other slots went the full 10 mins and could have gone on much longer.
Martin Gibbs and Gordon Ballantine from Forth Valley Soarers were surprisingly clearly leading the field after 2 rounds, both sitting on 2000 points. Getting the third 1000 proved to be a little bit more difficult for them though. The 100s models were always that wee bit off the pace, scoring well sometimes but being completely trounced on others, a strange day. The 3rd round came and went without any significant changes to the first and second rounds, though it seemed like MG and GB were ther to be shot at by all. The scores and results are published below. Please contact me if any the details are incorrect.
I had intended holding a fly off but some discussion after the rounds caused me to take the decision to cancel and leave the scores as they were. I think people were getting a bit browned off with the line breaks and enforced delays. I feel that this was an error on my part and it would have been a fitting conclusion to what was a good, fun day for almost all the fliers. I won't mention who launched without switching on, then later flew his other model with a battery that had less power than an ant's sneeze.
Congratulations to Gordon for pulling off the win, well deserved!
This was our 3rd Thermal event this year and we had decided to have a League as in the other disciplines we run, the overall results are shown on the relevant League page of the site, go see how well you finished.
Some photos were taken during the event by a few of the spectators, thanks David, George and John, the pics are below, pity they can't really show off the windy conditions. | 
