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