This was our first joint competition, with F3K and F5J being flown on the same day. In the past these classes were flown on different weekends.
Our motivation behind the format change was to:-
- reduce the number of flying events,
- to create some excitement and cross pollination across classes,
- to increase pilot numbers.
To a large degree we were successful on all counts, with us receiving positive feedback from many of the participants.
We flew the league at GEMS in Bapsfontein. F3K flew in the morning and F5J in the afternoon.
We had 20 entries in all, including 3 juniors. 13 pilots entered F3K and 12 F5J. Five pilots entered both classes.
On the day Stephane broke a peg on a prototype DLG he was competing with for the first time - that took him out of the F3K running. In F5J, Wolf had damaged his model the day before in practice, Gys had car troubles and Aldo opted not to fly after competing in the morning in F3K.
Here are the results...
Congratulations to Craig Goodrum, who won both classes.
Well done to Alan Smith and Tiaan Van Rooyen, who kept the pressure on Craig in F3K. It was great to see Tiaan - the current F3K world champ - on the flying field again after a short absence.
In F5J, Mike Vos and Eloff Mare stayed on Craig's tail. Ivan competed bravely too, with a very painful back.
A special thanks to Heidi, Bruce, Sally-Ann and everyone who manned the hamburger stand - we were well fed and we raised some money for the international teams too.
All in all it was a fun day's flying. Until next time...
