Woollybacks 2008

The Woollybacks is a traditional Welsh F3F held just after Christmas.  It's always cold but the flying is normally good.

This year we were on the Wrecker in around 15 mph wind that was building throughout the day.  The outcome was blisteringly fast times in remarkably stable conditions.  The flat winter sun made for virtually no thermals and the continuously awesome slope lift largely flattened out any small influences that were there. 

For me what added to the interest was that the top four pilots were within six spots of each other in the flying order, which made for a really competitive feel; when one person laid down a fast time the others knew they had to produce the goods. 

The Ceres was absolutely faultless, so much so that over 10 rounds her average time was 35.0 seconds, which was enough to pip Greg who could only manage an average time of 35.1 seconds!!   Downloading results spreadsheet and having a look at the times will blow your mind.  Note that the logistics of walking back to land on the Wrecker and the lack of available light meant that we flew two up.

Sorry not much time for photos, just a couple below including Mark Abbot's T38.

1 Kevin Newton     8832.29     Ceres

2 Greg Dakin         8791.71       Freestyler, RaceM

3 Simon Thornton  8673.85     Ceres

4 Mark Southall     8575.71     Ascot

5 Graham Reed      8127.34     Skorpion

6 Mike Evans        8083.82     Freestyler

7 Mike Young       7942.76     Pike Brio

8 Mark Abbots     7940.99     Caldera

9 Jonathan Sage  7440.96     Ascot

10 Joel West      7386.03     Skorpion

11 Andy West      7219.50     Sting, Vector

12 Andy Burgoyne  6874.75 Ascot, Sting

13 Andrzej Tabero  6800.52 Skorpion

14 Paul Stubley     5664.47        Infinity

15 John Treble     5471.78        RaceM

16 Martin Lucas     1946.41        Tragi 702

17 Clive Jones     1436.79         Cito

18 Tony Robertson     1369.39 Acacia