It’s been a long flying season with 9 events planned for 2009; unfortunately due to the good old British weather 2 have been cancelled so far leaving 4^th of October 09 the date for the final and 7^th event of the year. With 2009 being the team selection year for the UK F5D team to compete in the World Champs during 2010 it has been quite a year for UK F5D with records being broken as well as models in an effort to make the team.

The first 2 team places are already secured however 3^rd is still up for grabs as Olli Witt failed to close the door at the last event on Ben Jones who is very much on Olli’s heals and improving at each event making this more than just another League event.

We had planned a practice day Saturday however as I stepped outside the van and got blown halfway down the runway I kinda decided it was not a good idea and left the model in the back. Fortunately Paul had bought a RC motor bike with him for just such an occasion and we all had a go racing it up and down the runway but it turned out it was even a bit too windy for that so eventually we just gave up and headed to a bar J. Unfortunately this was a disaster for Olli for 2 reasons, the first was he had come to the Practice day to trim his new Demon that Mark at Vanderbuilt Models had put together for him and delivered that morning. The second was he is only 17 so cannot drink!!!!!!!!

Sunday morning dawned with a drop in the wind to just very windy which at Barkstone Heath seems to be the normal during the day. I think possibly due to the high winds the previous day a few people had been put off but all the old dye hard racers turned up for a final race and after getting the course out it was me as usual to take to the sky first and kick the day off with a 64 second run.

The real race as mentioned earlier was between Olli and Ben but as both had virtually identical Demons we could not put them together so Olli was first to race. Olli had realised he only needed low 70 times to make the team so had decided that he would play it safe however he then learnt that under the new Limiter rules you cannot fly too safe as you just run out of power and have to glide home resulting in a first round 81 and with Ben putting in a 69 meant that the pressure was building even more.

Unfortunately 1 of the Foamy F5D pilots did not show however John Heffer did as he is racing F5D next year and wanted to get the idea of where the course it. The Fun Jet coped with the blustery conditions very well and after a nervous start John really got into a groove and showed us all that he will be a real threat as he clearly has an eye for the course. We hope that the Foamy racing could catch on and be a great introduction to Pylon for any newcomers in 2010 and I am planning on getting one as well because it looked like a lot of fun.

By the end of the mornings 3 rounds I was building a nice lead over the field with Ben chasing. Ollie was just about doing enough to keep his team place but it was uncomfortably close for him. Joe was still flying a good course but in need of a new motor as his airspeed was notably down against Ben’s model that he was drawn with and Tony was flying a better course now but was experiencing a few technical problems with his equipment.

The Second session of 3 rounds was flown in slightly better conditions as the wind was starting to reduce so we had hoped to see marked improvements in times. I continued to chase a sub 60, Ben chased me, Olli Chased Ben and Joe Olli. Unfortunately none of us achieved any of our goals but we all had a great afternoons racing and with Tony getting a time back in the sub 100 area and John getting smoother and faster with his Foamy I know we all were glad we braved the bitter cold.

The final result was I took the win with an average race time of 63.98 which is a PB for me. Ben took 2^nd and Olli 3^rd. The real news was that Olli got his times back to the mid to low 70’s thus assuring his team place which made his day. Ben will be 1^st reserve should any of the top 3 decided not to go and now all we need to do is find a Team manager who is capable of keeping us all out of trouble at the world champs next year.

Hope to race you soon

* Fun Jet League

Rob AR