2011 Hong Kong F3F League - Match 1
High Junk Peak, January 9, 2011


The first match for the 2011 Hong Kong F3F league was held successfully on Sunday, 9 January 2011 in High Junk Peak northeast-facing slope. The weather forecast for the day was moderate to strong north to northeasterly wind. The official start time was 8:00am and the contest management team was able to reach the slope half an hour before the official start time, however, most other pilots were a bit sluggish, partly because there were not enough parking spaces in the Clearwater Bay junction, many pilots needed to drive down to the car park near Clearwater Bay Beach and car-pooled back up. By the time most pilots arrived after a demanding hike up, it was already 9:15am. Finally the contest was kicked started at 9:45am with a total of 29 contesting pilots. Although the wind was quite strong averaging at about 9 m/s, its direction unfortunately was biased to north, almost 30 degree off normal most of the time! This really slowed down the gliders on the up wind legs. The turbulence near the slope face was strong and there were a few accidents when the contesting pilots flew their gliders close to the slope in order to maximize slope lift. Not only flying was difficult, landing was even more difficult. High Junk Peak is already a difficult slope for landing even in claim wind condition, so the off-normal strong northerly wind condition claimed many casualties! Overshoots to the back side, near misses in plunging to the spectator area were common, lucky enough, apart from the damaged planes, there were no human casualty! Ah Wah was the first pilot to fly in the first round, everybody was watching carefully. In subsequent flights, many pilots had to battle with strong cross wind. Uncle Chan performed a perfect maneuver with favorable wind to grab a 1000 points with a 46.40s well ahead of the others. It is well known that there is a curse for the fastest pilot in High Junk Peak, so everybody was warning him to be careful next round. But a curse is a curse and no one can spare from it! He somehow crashed his FR3 in the second round during a highspeed turn, the punishment was serve, and sure the model will be in the intensive care unit for the next few months! Ah Mak did speedy run to take the lead in second round. Stanley grabbed the opportunity of more stable wind in third round to get the fastest round time of 44.89s. Most pilots battled with the strong cross wind in the first half of round 4, finally, Kenneth took the opportunity of more stable wind and broke the stagnant in the last part of round 4 to achieve a speedy 44.22s run. Round 5 saw the tremendous come back of Angus while he achieved a flashing 43.32s, and took the lead in this round with a big margin. Wind died down a bit in round 6 as the sun starting to to set. Sai Man finally took this round with a 52.74s. The contest was drawn to an end at about 4:45pm. The contest is indeed a closed contest which Angus managed grab the champion title, followed by Ah Mak. Kenneth got a 2nd runner-uo and lose to Ah Mak by only 3 points. The speedy man title went to Angus.  Congratulation to all winners! The summary of the score table is shown below, for details, please check the score sheet.
 



 

 


It's late, so hurry up to prepare the gliders for the contest

Wind speed average at 9m/s, but....it's 30 degree north off to normal !

Everybody is watching and enjoying the contest

It's a bit cold today, but nobody stop us from enjoy the race

It's a long wait for their turn because the progress of the contest is slow due to wait for the difficult landing

Beautiful gilders on display

It's rare to see so many fellow pilots up in this part of mountain

Why everybody was watching at the back side? Ken28 you better watch out! It is not DSing but backside crashing towards you!.

Philip is busy doing the CD job

Kenneth is prepare his FR3 for the next flight

One, two, three, go!

Ken28 is helping to launch Alan's FR3

It seems everybody is busy with his business somehow

One, two, three, launch! Ah Mak is on the run

Ah Kin is helping to launch Pong's Ceres, how come he can be trusted?

Johnson is busy in preparing his model for flight

Alan is picking his damaged (see wing tip) FR3 after an overshoot in landing

Twenty-two, who's pilot number is?

Kolowai seems to have something in mind

Oh! it's a climb up to High Junk Peak for recovering a plane, poor Johnson

Kenneth won the 2nd runner-up prize

Ah Mak won the 1st runner-up prize

Angus is the champion of the day

Angus also won the speedy man title with a fastest time of 43.32s

Group photo for the winners

A group photo for all  pilots, see you next month, cheers!