Closed | Mmmm, looks as F3B WorldCup starts within few days at Florida, USA. Just leaving home to Prague airport and heading West. I’m convinced this year F3B Gator will be again very interesting contest. Just look at starting list.
If there is connectivity, time and enough energy I will try to report briefly from this year 1-st F3B WC race.
Feb 26, Good Morning America
About 25°C, cloudy. See forecast for weekend. Looks to me no 380m launches like year before… Position of flying site (Google Maps)
Feb 27, it’s raining…, but Friday and weekend should be OK. At the end rain stopped and we could prepare complete flying field. All european guys are here and in good mood. Later on we had some speed and tree climbing training.
Feb 28, evening. We were flying nearly full 3 rounds. Amazing, simply amazing typical Gator conditions. It means massive thermals on distance, ideal wind and air in speed (5-6m/s, clear blue sky). Last speed about half speed runs were 14,xx. We stopped at sunset. Tomorrow I expect same conditions.
March 2, morning. Yesterday was “Distance fiesta”. Again nice whole day sunshine and 4-6m/s weather. I’d like to finish G2014 by 7 full rounds, let’s see. We finshed Saturday at SeaFood restaurant at Cocoa Beach.
March 3, morning. Gator2014 is over. Yesterday (Sunday) we had last Gator flying day. Unfortunatelly wind direction changed and we had to open southern winch line-a lot of work for all guys, I know, but there was no other option. My few points to say…
- Thanks to Gordon Buckland you have top FAI World Cup event (the only one in US?). I’m surprised that so few US pilots came to match with Europen top pilots.
- Friday and Saturday were really “paradaise” F3B conditions. My fingers were permanently itching to fly.
- Sunday was a kind of thriller. Conditions changed to typical European style; no wind, sudden wind changes, thermal gusts only for somebody etc.
- Chilean F3B guys made huge improvement. I’m sure that next time if I will meet them they will be again far better.
- At Gator there is always lack of good/experienced/reliable base referees. In this light I have to express my thanks to Phil Rieger, Randy Decos (both Sarasota) and Bob Whitney (IRKS).
- Had nice talk to Tim Traver about his www.f3xvault.com. Wish you Tim success with this project.
- Had interesting talk to Armin Hortzitz about Duration task in F3B. Speed and Distance are unlimited, but Duration is limited only to 10:00/100 points. Especially here at Florida were some Duration so easy (and therefore boring?) to fly. We should change it.
- Results from G2014 at www.f3b.de or here Gator2014OverallResults Gator2014RoundScores.
- Maybe you can read my reports from last two F3B Gators i.e. Gator2012 and Gator2013. Any similarity in reports is just random.
Leaving to Europe. Seeya at Colmar.