It's been a hectic week catching up after my weekend at the nationals. 3 days in glorious sunshine with some excellent company reminded me of many of the non flying reasons I compete.
It certainly wasn't my results or luck! We knew that the air would drop off each day to very light conditions. But the organisers had the course up and running each day on time and you can't ask more than that.
After 10 rounds the top of the field were sorting themselves out and it was no suprise to see Mark Resell taking the trophy. My own weekend was summed up by my near land out at the end of day 1. But I've only myself to blame for the cut on day 2 that cost me a couple of places.
You have to have some luck on weekends like that but you also have to know your model to recognise the good air and make use of it.
I switched from Saker to Wyvern as the air got lighter. This weekend in 35mph winds I did the same, but for ground handling. As a club mate commented 'if I only had 1 model it would be one of those'.
This weekend I was with club mates on whitesheet with the thermals swinging the wind around the lift was variable but unlike the week before I could wait for the air to come on before the full hooligan flying could commence.
It was good to see a number of pilots flying a range of models. Models such as the Baudis Pitbull don't get any slower just because they aren't in production anymore.
I have spent the last few months working on reducing the weight at the extremities of my designs. The improvement in performance and handling has been noticeable. Perhaps it was this that made me notice the different philosophy shown in models such as the 2m Tocatta and 2.5m version.
Just fun flying
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