Contest 4 of the
2002 JR
/ Airsail F3B Series,
hosted
by MPMAC at Matamata,
on August 31 -
September 1, 2002.
CD: David James
Summary,
Round
1,
Round
2,
Round
3,
Round
4
24 competitors, beautiful weather, a huge
flat field... what more could you ask for a F3B contest! It almost felt like
summer with sunny skies, light winds, and no need for warm jackets, hats or
gloves...
Despite the glorious weather, conditions
were actually very testing with lift quite hard to find. The lack of wind meant
launch heights weren't that great, and as duration was flown at the start and
end of both days obtaining 10 minutes proved very challenging. Persistence was
often the name of the game, as what lift there was seemed to start low down and
build very slowly.
Distance generally had the best air, with
quite a few slots posting 20+ legs. Speed proved to be a real lottery, as
conditions varied between lift / sink / no-wind / head-wind / tail-wind
throughout the task in all four rounds. Quite often it was just a case of damage
limitation, where good height management and minimising time spend outside the
course became even more critical than usual.
Thanks to Warwick Gatland for finding
such a great field, to David James for once again running the contest, and to
however managed to arrange the awesome weather :-)
Fastest speed time was 19.76 by Dave
Larsen, best distance was 22 legs also by Dave Larsen.
