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East Sussex Eurotour F3F

10-11 May 2014

Mark Abbotts landing

Ultra wind

A memorable and thoroughly testing weekend, thanks to relentless high winds. Memorable too for English flyers taking all top three places despite some strong opposition from the continent.

Saturday started blustery with a just a few spots of drizzle. The wind continued to increase throughout the day, and ballast - loads of it - was essential to make the best of the conditions. That was the story for the whole two days and it was a real challenge to survive let alone fly fast. Fortunately the rain held off and we were rewarded with an excellent contest.

After seven rounds, it was Mark Redsell who emerged the winner with Martin Newnham runner up, and Simon Thornton in third. The standard of flying was pretty awesome at times given the conditions. Fastest time went to Simon Thornton for a splendid 34.11 in round 3 when the wind was at its peak.

My thanks to John Phillips and his band of helpers for doing a sterling job in particularly testing conditions.

Photos

High res photos are available in my Smugmug gallery.

Results

For full results see ESSA site. Top ten placings:

1  Mark Redsell    GBU               5659.72
2  Martin Newnham  GBU               5619.22
3  Simon Thornton  GBU               5533.70
4  Thorsten Folker Schwaben          5461.42
5  André Austen    Germany 2         5413.41
6  Peter Gunning   Mickey's massive  5365.65
7  Joel West       Mickey's massive  5321.84
8  Søren Krogh     0                 5309.64
9  Tobias Reik     Schwaben          5307.91
10 Peter Kowalski  SAF               5282.26