CD: Peter Scoles. FAI Judges: Stuart Mellor, Dave Scoles. Judges: Bob Wasson, Garry Armstrong. Score recorder. Peter Scoles. Sponsors: Optifuel. Hosts and barbeque: Linden Model Aircraft Club, thank you gentlemen! Podium: Clubman: 1st Danny Aisthorpe, 2nd Dave Tofton. Advanced: 1st Steve Hunt, 2nd Richard Smith. Masters: Gerhard Fehringer. FAI P11: 1st Matt Hoyland, 2nd Peter Scoles, 3rd Bob Wasson. This was the first competition to be hosted by the LMFC (Grimsby). Weather was very good, probably a little too on the hot side! – wind was a steady breeze that did not cause any problems. We made good time after the completion of the first two rounds, enabling us all to stop for a lunch break together – with a barbecue being laid on by the host club (this also gave me time to catch up on score sheet entry). At the end of the lunch flyers where gathered for a group photograph, then we pressed on with the third round. Finishing with the results and prize giving at about 3.45pm. Flying: FAI – Matt was setting the pace with his usual consistent smooth style, with the rest of us in FAI trying to keep up the best we could. Masters – Gerhard getting to grips with a new plane with very few flights on it, by the third round being just 2½ points off a promotion score. Advanced – Steve & Richard going head to head, with Steve taking the win. Clubman – Dave & Danny from the host club taking part in their very first competition, with Danny prevailing. Hopefully now they have this one under their belt with the experience gained it will lead on to many more. Thanks: Ashley for help setting the box marking guides, along with photographs through out the day. FAI judges Stuart, Dave with the flyer judges Bob, Gary. LMFC for hosting the competition on their site. OptiFuel for providing prizes. And a special thanks to the flyers for supporting the competition. Best Regards, Pete

CD: Bob Rowland. FAI Judges: Peter Cappleman, Stuart Mellor. Judges: Andy Prime, Keith Jackson. Score recorder: Bob Rowland. Hosts: Thank you Officials and members of Skelbrooke Flying Club for the use of your field. Podium: FAI 1st Keith Jackson. 2nd Matt Hoyland. 3rd Peter Scoles. Masters: Gerhard Fehringer. Advanced: 1st Adam Lomax. 2nd Steve Hunt. 3rd Bob Rowland. The forecast was not so good in the days and hours up to the start of the competition, as it happened although the wind was challenging, (those who know the Skelbrooke site will have experienced the turbulence we get when the wing is blowing in over the quarry just over the horizon some 500 metres from the runway. It was good to see Steve Dunning getting 'involved' and David Drummond all the way from Ireland even if he has defected to the dark side. We started on time after a leisurely acclimatisation and a couple of hours of good banter. In FAI Matt took the first round with Keith taking the second and 3rd by narrow margins. Peter Scoles was flying well as was Bob Wasson. We all struggled with the conditions but it was the first time I had comments on my score sheet like 3 (sympathetic) and (wow) when I scored a 7. All good fun as I really do think it is taking part that matters, as I keep saying in my articles, although for a Yorkshire man the thought of wasting fuel like this is a bit concerning. Gerhard flying Masters recovered well from his incident at the F of F flying his Proline on this occasion. The battle continues in Advanced! Thank you Bob for creating the usual Skelbrooke ambiance and it really shows we should not take too much notice of some weather forecasts. See you on the 3rd September. Ashley

CD: Ashley Hoyland FAI Judges: Bob Ailles, Alan Simmonds Brandon Ransley. Judges: Bob Wasson, Stuart Mellor. Score recorder: Steve Hunt. Noise testing/timing: Charles Smitheman. Weighing: Dave Matthias. Podium: FAI Team Selection: 1st Richard Christopher, 2nd Matt Hoyland, 3rd Kevin Caton. FAI P11 schedule only: 1st Dave Matthias, 2nd Peter Scoles, 3rd Andy Prime. Advanced: 1st Steve Hunt, 2nd Mike Watts. Intermediate: Charles Smitheman. Oh! what a beautiful morning - until about 10am when the cloud layer started to thicken and we realised that the forecast was probably going to come true. We met at 7:30 to set up the line. Thank you to Matt, Steve Hunt, Andy Prime, Dave Matthias, Hubert Pritchard and Stuart Mellor of their help. Our pilots briefing was held on our flight line and this helped with processing models and the gazebo did its job to protect the scales from the breeze. Before the wind freshened all was packed safely away. Each flight was noise tested with no issues. With thanks to our judges and scribes and all who helped get a result before the weather broke. The flight order was: Intermediate, Advanced, Team selection, P only and it was all fine until the last three flights of the round were flown in worsening conditions but they avoided getting too wet. A gathering of all pilots and judges finally decided that with the weather forecast we should probably call it a day, I reluctantly agreed. With hindsight the right decision. I left Barkston around 2pm and the rain was still falling and did so for the rest of the day. Ashley

CD: Ashley Hoyland. FAI Judges: Peter Cappleman, Stuart Mellor. Judges: Adrian Mansell, Alan Simmonds, Bob Wasson. Gary Armstrong. Score recorder: Matt Hoyland and a special thanks for all the work behind the scenes. Thank you to all who made this competition run smoothly, particularly Margaret Smith, Jenny Smitheman and Steve Hunt for their help. Feelings go out to the three pilots who suffered, 1: loss of aircraft. 2: fuselage damage, and the third who a bent a prop shaft and shortened a prop on the Barkston runway. This was the first one day competition I presided over with four rounds flown. An almost unanimous decision by pilots during a vote after the first round, I think there may have been a couple of abstentions. The first aircraft took off just after 09:00 and the last to land was around 16:40. Four rounds and 53 schedules flown in challenging conditions with a brisk 16/18mph breeze blowing in from the right at about 10 degrees. The battle in the Advance League continues but it was Charles Smitheman who should feel good this morning gaining promotion points in two rounds of his first GBR/CAA competition flying the intermediate schedule. Thank you to all pilots for their support. Ashley Photographs: Marie Lomax, Jenny Smitheman, Ashley Hoyland

Contest Director: Matt Hoyland. FAI Judges: Bob Ailles, GBR. Peter Brett, GBR. Noel Barrett, Ireland. Tom Soerensen, Norway. Bob Romain, Netherlands. FAI Jury: Jo Halman, CAIM Technical Secretary, GB. Stuart Mellor, GB. Roberto Rabina, Spain. With grateful thanks to our host, Robert W Davies MBE FRAeS World Cup Podium: 1st Gerhard Mayr, Austria. 2nd Sabastiano Silvestri, San Marino. 3rd Bernd Beschorner, Germany. Judges Sebart Cup: Colin McGinn, Colin Fretwell, Mike Le'mon. Sebart Cup Podium: 1st Rob Michie. 2nd Oliver Giles, 3rd Stephen Tester. For reports see: www.gbrcaa.org/smf/index.php?topic=2346.msg14051#msg14051 - and scroll down. Photographs: Ashley Hoyland and Bob Ryan.

CD: Clive Whitwood Judges: Gary Peacock, Adrian Mansell. Score recorder: Jane Garlick. Helpers: Mel and Gavin Garlick. With many thanks to our hosts: Ramsey MAC. Podium: FAI: 1st Mike Williams, 2nd Gordon Frost, 3rd George Drever. Intermediate: 1st Nigel Smith, 2nd John Langridge, 3rd Paul Heath. The weather forecast was not good and it turned out pretty much as expected. An overnight shower gave way to a very windy morning with speeds of 18 to 22 knots recorded. The competitors (plucky bunch they were) opted to continue and flying started at about 9.30am. With George Drever leading off the flying in FAI it was soon apparent that the actual flying (downwind box notwithstanding) was not likely to be a problem, the landings were likely to be the real test of nerve. Mike Williams led at the end of the first round, with George second and Gordon Frost making a rare visit South of the border a close third. These were followed by Mark Pearce and Bill Michie. There were no incidents with the landings and wind correction largely seemed to be the deciding factor in the scoring. Second round was very similar with George and Gordon swapping places as did Bill and Mark. All showed improved scores as they got to grips with the wind continuing at the same level. The third round after lunch followed the same pattern (see what I did there) despite the wind increasing to 35 mph although with the exception of Mike, who increased his score on each successive round, the scores reduced slightly. So it was that Mike took first place by quite a wide margin, with Gordon second and George third. We had only three fliers in Intermediate on the day and Nigel Smith led at the end of the first round from John Langridge (a close second) and Paul rounding things up in third. All three flew well conspiring the windy conditions would have put off most club fliers from flying. This pattern followed in the last two rounds leaving Nigel a worthy winner, with John close on his heels and Paul not too far behind despite that blustery final round. All credit to them and I’m sure they will continue to improve dramatically. My sincere thanks to judges Gary Peacock and Adrian Mansell for bravely sitting through three rounds in the cold and windy conditions instead of watching the Grand Prix at home in comfort and to Jayne Garlick for her very accurate scoring and also to husband Mel and Son Gavin for their assistance in the general running of the event. A final thanks to our Ramsey club members for the loan of the site for today even if they probably wouldn’t have bothered to fly themselves. Hope to see you all again next time. Clive Whitwood

Contest Director: Brian Hoare. Flight timing: Brian Hoare and Ken Moss. Model processing: Brian Hoare. Judges: Bob Ailles, Peter Cappleman, Garry Armstrong. Score Recorders: Marion Ailles and Alison Harrop. With thanks to Derbyshire Radio Control Fliers for the use of their site. Photos and report to follow

CD: Adrian Mansell FAI Judges: Judges: Score recorder: Podium: FAI: 1st Richard Christopher, 2nd Steve Underwood, 3rd Adrian Mansell. Advanced: Mike Watts. Intermediate: 1st Dave East, 2nd Paul Heath.

CD: Gareth Gordon. Flight Control/ Score Recorder:- Dave Gordon, (Dad) FAI Judges: Steve Simm and Hubert Pritchard. Judges:Dave Matthias, Gary Armstrong, Keith Jackson, Brian Hoare, Bob Wasson. Scribes:Special thanks to Mr and Mrs Smith and Lisa. Event Sponsors:- Optifuel and Electricwingman.com Podium: FAI P11 1st Keith Jackson, 2nd Dave Matthias, 3rd Bob Wasson. Masters: Hubert Prichard. Advanced: 1st Gareth Gordon, 2nd Richard Smith. Its a pleasure to run this competition as I am lucky enough to have a great team at Deeside Model Aircraft Club to rely upon when preparing the site. I am especially grateful to my Dad who happily manned the gate early doors and Flight Control until the bitter end, thanks Dad! The civilised 10am start saw Dave Matthias kick off proceedings in brilliant sunshine and a gentle breeze under the watchful eyes of our trusted judges, Steve Simm and Hubert Pritchard. Keith flew second knocking in his highest score of the day followed by the rest of FAI and Mark Pearce flying his first competition in the division. Gareth Gordon flying his Elation Zephyr and Richard battled it out for honours in Advanced whilst Hubert did the the hourly sprint from the judges chair to pick up his model and fly in Masters.....is FAI beckoning?? The sky stayed clear and the sun shone brightly all day allowing all competitors to enjoy a trouble free 4 rounds of flying against a slight but challenging and rather, "choppy" wind. The results came in just after 4pm and it was Keith from Dave, Bob and a very close fight between Gary and Brian eventually settled by 1.3 points in FAI. Gareth pipped Richard for the top spot in advanced and Hubert settled for the win in Masters, (battling himself) A great day enjoyed by all and some wonderful prizes donated by Optifuel and electricwingman meant that no-one left empty handed! Finally some special thanks to Mr and Mrs Smith and Lisa McKerchar who did the lions share of scribing and all the pilots for making it such a wonderful event with many stopping behind to enjoy some extra practice! See you next year Gareth

Matt and Richard had all ready taken advantage of the Judges training day on the 9 April to receive some expert advice concerning their flying. So with perfect weather on Saturday the 23 April, warm with no or very little wind, it was an ideal day to consolidate some of that advice on a day hosted by Plane Crazy Model Flying Club at Hurley for Team training. Thank you to the officials and members of the club for the opportunity to use your super field and to Adrian and Ken who were on hand to pass on thoughts on the flying. This was to be the first time our Team for 2011 were able to practice together, so a relaxed day was planned to be run by the pilots to get the best from the time available and concentrate on areas of concern. We saw Keith’s maiden flight on his new Axiome, so now all six aircraft being prepared for the World Championships have flown and from here on in it is practice, practice, practice. We have one more day organised for official training together with thanks to Brandon (Ransley) and Bob (Ailles). All the administrative arrangements for the main event in July are progressing well after time was taken between flying at Hurley to fully discuss and review any necessary action. Ashley

CD: Andy Prime Judges: Alan Simmonds, Peter Brett. Trainee judge: Adrian Mansell. Score recorders: Sandra Plimmer(LMAC), Brian Hoare helped by Ady Keys. Time keeper: Dan Simmonds (LMAC). Catering: Sandra Plimmer (LMAC). Hosts: Leicester Model Aero Club, with thanks to members and officials, and Howard Murphy for preparing the superb site. Podium: Team section P11 F11. 1st Richard Christopher, 2nd Matt Hoyland, 3rd John Harrop. FAI P11: 1st Dave Mathias, 2nd Peter Scoles, 3rd Adrian Mansell. Advanced: Steve Hunt. Intermediate: Nigel Smith. Contest Directors report: After several weeks of preparation, the day finally arrived to throw open the welcoming doors of the LMAC to our guests from the GBR/CAA as hosts for the 1st Centralised competition of 2011. Being Chairman of our club it’s always a great honour for me to be able to provide our facilities in the interest of the furtherance of F3a, as a club we are renowned for our competitive interests which date back to 1932! Leicester had enjoyed quite a spell of unusually warm and sunny weather for the time of year leading up to the competition and with the local forecast looking slightly less than favourable for parts of the day, I was keen to get the competition under way as soon as possible in order to get enough flights completed for the competition to be a valid part of the team selection process. I had envisaged a pilots briefing (PB) of 08.45h with a first flight scheduled for 09.00h, but for a couple of minor deviations leading up to the PB we would have achieved this. Given the fact that some pilots were travelling great distances to take part in the competition coupled with a personal wish to show some understanding to those couple of pilots who needed just a few extra moments to fully prepare themselves for the day’s events, I allowed a little extra time for last minute completion of the scrutineering process. So, with the scrutineering completed and the pilots and judges ready, I conducted the PB at around 09.05h which only took a few minutes to complete and with all guests fully versed with their day’s surroundings and site specifics, we got under way at 09.20h. I decided that in fairness to all the FAI ‘P & F’ pilots, I would conduct a draw to select the flying order; after all it’s never nice to be ‘first up’. This event saw a new trainee to the judge’s chair; ‘Adrian Mansell’ had volunteered his serves earlier in the year so without any hesitation I ensured that he was seated comfortably and had been briefed by our two long term judges in attendance which were Peter Brett & Alan Simmons. It has to be said, that judging is a very demanding job and one which can sometimes to overlooked for its commitment and mental dedication, although I’m sure those of you who have undertaken to conduct a day’s judging will agree that it is personally rewarding to have provided a much needed and valued aspect of competition support. So with the competition under way and running very smoothly, I took a few moments to gather myself mentally and take a quick slurp of coffee (well I had been up and on the go since 04.45) before carrying on with ensuring that my guests were all being taken care of and that all of the pilots were getting themselves ready to occupy the ready boxes (RB’s). Again, the professionalism portrayed by all of the pilots in this regard was abundant, another very helpful aspect for any CD. Before long, we had achieved a full round for all classes and the second round for the P&F pilots, so lunch was called. This gave everyone a welcomed break (especially the judges I’m sure) and a chance to take in some of the wonderful scenery we enjoy at the LMAC along with a beverage and a bite to eat. So, lunch over and on with the show. The second round was finished for the remaining ‘P’ only FAI and of course the Intermediate and Advanced pilots. The third and final round saw the team selection pilots undertaking the ‘F’ schedule; this is a very demanding schedule on both the pilots and the judges alike. The roll sequences are quite complex which can only make for a very difficult 8 minutes of any pilots life, how on earth these guy’s manage to put the countless hours of dedication in to learning two schedules is a mystery to me and deserve to be recognised for their commitment, I for one take my hat off to them! Before long, the third and final round was complete with some very tidy flights being put in by all pilots. For me, this felt like my best round which my caller and mentor for the day ’Andy Nicholls’ (thanks again Andy for all your input) confirmed after. I had set out to just enjoy my day’s flying and hopefully improve on my previous flights; I think this was achieved even if not by a huge margin, but certainly by vast amounts comparing my flights at the practice session only a week before at the LARKS. I can only put my improvements down to Andy’ calling for me during the day with his calming manner that broke through my at times, rushed execution of the schedule. My focus points now being “V Box” & “Spin”, I’ll take this opportunity to get back to the office for more practice……………………. In closing, I would like to thank Howard Murphy for the stunning site preparation, Sandra & Brian for score recording, Peter Brett Alan Simmons & Adrian Mansell for judging, Andy Keys for helping with relaying the score sheets, all of the scribes during the day and last but by no means least my wing man for the day Dan Simmons. Dan and his ‘wife to be’ Sandra joined me on site at around 7am to help get set up for the comp; the first thing Sandra asked me was ‘Coffee?’ closely followed by the statement “the bacon’s on”, my kind gal, and Dan was straight on with helping get the scrutineering equipment set up an started processing the models as they arrived swiftly followed by a full day of timing. It has to be said that without fellow members such (oh yes, Sandra does fly!) as these by my side, my task would have had to rely heavily on the good will of the association members, so I’m sure you would all join me in my expressed words of thanks to them both. I took a lot of personal satisfaction from this competition and the hard work was certainly worth it, any more for any more?...................... 2011 season, bring it on! Andy Prime.

Our thanks go to LARCS for the use of their field to hold our Judges training day organised by Alan Simmonds. Attendees: Bob Ailles, Peter Brett, Ashley Hoyland. Pilots: Richard Christopher, Matt Hoyland, Andy Prime, Alan Simmonds, Steve Underwood. A warm day with varying wind blowing in and giving a challenging enough environment to make the day interesting. The theme set for the day was to fly closer in to the 150 metre mark. Pilots comments from the forum: What a blast, really enjoyed today. Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect day. Alan, take a bow mate, you've really made the difference to my day's flying today. For those that missed it, you lucked out! And what 150 metres looks like. ...... thank you Alan, Bob and Peter for giving up your time to make the day very worthwhile. A shame that more pilots didn't turn out to support the initiative. Everybody worked well together to find improvement points and the experience of maintaining a 150m depth was challenging and enjoyable. ....... big Thank you to Bob & Pete and Alan for there time given, most enjoyable day and a challenge as richard posted earlier , great weather and a lovely flying site, thank you all. Comments from our Chief Judge: What were we trying to achieve with this training day? First of all we tried to get the pilots to fly a constant depth of 150-160 metres,the pilots that attended were Richard Christopher. Matt Hoyland, Steve Underwood, Andy Prime and Alan Simmonds who doubled up as a judge. I have to thank Andy for his stirling work for standing at the 150 metre marker for the best part of the day, I think this affected his flying because he spent most of the time holding his left arm up in the air highlighting the fact that the pilots were flying out of the box. By mid afternoon all pilots went to the 150 marker to watch others fly and was suprised by the shape of the manoeuvres flown by each pilot. All pilots were suprised how close 150 metres was, at first they were uncomfortable with this distance but gradually got accustomed to it and reduced the size of the manoeuvres. We then moved onto looking at the shape of some of the manoeuvres to give the pilots some feed back. I think as judges Peter Brett and Alan Simmonds were also suprised how close 150 metres was. I would like to thank Alan Simmonds and the Larks Club for the use of the site, and thank the weather man for getting it right for the day. The downside of the day for the association was the fact that no new pilot judges attended, I hope we can get a few at comp,s this year, Unfortunately I will not be judging at the First Centralised at Leicester due to the fact that I will be attending the CIAM Meeting in Lausanne. At this meeting we will be voting on the P13, F13, P15 and F15. There are also two new schedules called A13 and A15, these are the same as the P13 and P15 but with less complicated parts in some manoeuvres. These are the schedules that we hope to use next year as the Master schedule. This is something I have been involved with, with Michael Ramel