Twelve of us made the start time on Saturday with two more stragglers namely Peewee & Lew rolling into the flying field several hours later making a grand total of 14 pilots for the event. Apparently Lew likes to sleep in no matter what .......and dad let him! I personally think there is more to their story but they are sticking to it.

We were blessed with some very nice Hawkes Bay weather and keeping to tradition we set the winches and course into the forecast wind only to find once again we had a cross to downwind situation. It seems no matter which direction we choose, the wind comes up from behind. Fortunately the wind wasnt too strong and we persevered and coped well in the conditions. Round 1 saw a great bolt out of the blocks by Daff Niles who nailed the opposition in the first duration slot, he convincingly took the 1000 with an 8.52/90, this shows just how flat the air was to start the day. By slot 2 the air started to develop and Dave Larsen picked up the top points by nailing a 10.00/100 with all other pilots following very close behind with only a few seconds off the 10 mins, this was the start of some nice thermal activity that would remain throughout the day. Daff once again came out on top by taking honours in his distance slot by ripping 25 laps to Aneils 24 & Peter Barrells 24, a very close battle indeed!

Round 1 speed went well for all pilots with the air staying fairly constant throughout the task. Fastest time was by Dave Larsen 17.04 however the most notable speed time was posted by Rhys James (junior) who made the most of the air and whipped out a very nice sub20 with a 19.82, well done Rhys!

Round 2 speed followed round 1 speed and now the air was starting to ebb & flow, this was reflected in the wider scope of times being posted. Fastest was Rowdy with a very crisp 16.68. Rowdy has really got himself dialled in on the speed course and has the skills for flying consistently well in speed. Just as distance slot 2 came to the winch line the strong wind on our backs made launching very difficult as Dave James found out. At this point we all decided it was just too dangerous to continue so with nearly 2 1/2 rounds in the bag we elected to pack up and get ourselves ready to devour huge cuts of steak at the 'Steakout' restaurant in Havelock North village. We finished the day with 2 full rounds, round 3 duration and one slot out of round 3 distance being flown.

Sunday dawned with low cloud over the surrounding hills with a few spots of rain threatening our f3b proceedings, fortunately this cloud soon burnt off revealing yet another hot day for us. This time we set the course from the opposite end of the field as suggested by the weather forecast. Of course we had that downwind drift once again for the first few slots resulting in average launch heights although the distance scores for round 3 were mostly around the 20 mark with some good conditions on both sides of the pylons.

Conditions for round 3 speed stabilised with flatter air and most pilots posting slightly slower times from the previous rounds however round 4 speed saw some awesome air available at times. As we were running with the same order for speed throughout the contest, Rowdy was heard to comment that he was tired of being first up so I elected to change things and swapped everyone around. This proved very unlucky for me as I was first up and wickedly lucky for Rowdy & Craig as they were just down the order where I USED to be, yep you guessed it, the worst air to fly speed was early on, just in time for me to struggle with a pitiful launch/relaunch then a 19.86 which looked like it was in slow motion......and the best air of the comp came just in time for slot numbers 3 to 6. Craig in number 3 flew a blinder with his brand new Crossfire and posted a very hot 16.74 with Rowdy once again flying a very clean and accurate speed run resulting in a 17.29.

Round 4 distance had plenty of drama. One slot had Dave Larsen and Rhys James ripping fast laps high out over the tree line while Aneil Patel suffered a pop off on tow and looking for a quick relaunch. This time the crosswind conditions had blown Aneils chute over towards base B on the wind-down which snagged the base and pulled it over with the base B crew fleeing in all directions. Of course this meant Rhys and I were no longer getting any beeps and buzzes from down the far end and resulted in a complete re-fly of the slot. This turned out to be very lucky for Aneil as he was in for a hiding on the distance score sheet! As it turned out Aneil actually got himself yet another re-flight due to a buzzing error. I guess all this extra flying is helping Aneil as he is really coming into good form, yet another flying a Crossfire! The highlight of this distance task was to go to Daff as he recognised some awesome air early on and ripped out 28 laps for 1000 points with his Caracho 3.1. Daff has certainly got his eye in and is flying extremely well, watch out for him!!

The only casualty throughout the weekend was Peter Barrell whose Cobra suffered a little tail damage after clipping a tall thistle bush on his last leg of a speed run. He managed a fix and was back in the comp after the quick lunch break.

With a few pilots wanting to head away back home at a reasonable time we decided to call the contest complete after the 4 rounds and those that wanted to could use the speed course for some practice. Several pilots took the opportunity to rip out some speed runs. By now the wind had picked up quite strong and launches were very high. The air on course was awesome and some fast times were enjoyed by all. Dave James was very enthusiastic and posted a pile of 18's, Rowdy worked on the course length and cut several times however this was good as it means he is trying hard and working on his game. Craig showed he is back on song with his Crossfire and nailed the fastest time with 15.91.