F3F in the UK is by far and away the most popular/well attended and I would suggest accessible soaring class in the UK today. The Welsh Open has a long tradition of being one of the center pieces of the British and a highlight of the European soaring calendar. This is a very weather dependent sport and weekends like the one we have just had will continue to happen. I’m sure that if the wind had played a little more on Friday then 6 rounds or more could have been achieved on this day alone.
A look around the pitts of the Welsh Open is as close to an F3F expo that we have in the UK. Other than the lovely Merlin and Willows on show some of the new crop really caught the eye. The Crossover has to be one of the nicest looking models available today- 2.7m and a swept back LE just seems to work for UK slopes in particular (does for the willow and Merlin anywayJ)
It may just have been because of sitting next to Martin’s rash of Freestylers but they are clearly still a dominant model.
The other dominant model looks to be the knitting circle (?) of needles that were racing. From the 100 to the new 115 (2.7m again you see) but predominantly the 124 needle was in the in hands of a number of the British pilots.
3 very variable rounds simply isn’t enough to give anything more than an aesthetic. Stingers certainly look to have that end sewn up
But for some old fashioned style:
We're still working on happy faces in the fog:
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