First ever Park Hall 3D Cup a great success!
I was very pleased to be able to attend the first Park Hall 3D Cup, advertised as a good practice run for the upcoming 3D Championship later this month. A number of notable pilots were there, flying in some tricky conditions and an unhelpful sun position as the day progressed - this was not the Club's normal field, their real one being more suitable for floats than skids at the time. This one was right next door to a small airfield with regular Microlite traffic, so some care was needed on occasions.
Although the competition was held over two days I was only able to attend on the Sunday, but I did manage to record all the flights while there, there's about 45 in all. A number of pilots - and one Judge - had recently returned from 3D Masters in Spain, so it was a chance to catch up on that event too. Judges for the event were Jon Fox, Paul Lison and Nigel Fraser Ker, the latter just back from Spain. Picture at right shows Duncan Osbourn being presented with First Prize by Matthew Russell from Simply T-Rex, main sponsors of the event. The superb glass Trophies were provided by James Beresford Ltd
Set Manoeuvres
If you've downloaded any videos from the 3DX site, you'll notice that this year's flying has become much more technical, and pilots are keen to demonstrate equal ability on their right and left sides, as well as performing pirouetting manoevres in either direction. In that respect, the sets are an important part of any pilot's skills, as many of the manoeuvres require a change of pirouette direction. I like the sets, it's interesting to see pilot interpretations of the same manoeuvre. But then, I used to fly F3A so I like precision. Duncan (Osbourn) had zeroed on Saturday in the Sets for crossing the safety line, but won the round on Sunday - although Stefan Simmons was only 4 points behind!
Freestyle
After a short break the second round of the Freestyle was flown, Duncan took a clear lead here and Rob Turnbull had both a broken piston on one model and a failed tail belt on another so his score was rather low; but results wise Rob had a great weekend finishing in overall 4th place after Jack Kessock-Philip in 3rd, Stefan in 2nd and Duncan in 1st. Matt Gill placed 5th.
The flying was of a high standard, with competitors showing noticeably more respect for their models than I've most recently seen - if you're not sponsored it adds that little extra factor of care!
We have over 60 pictures here, all linked to larger versions, plus the video links are listed lower down the page. It was great to see you all, do please use this forum to let us know what you think.
//tony wright
Stills - all linked to large versions
 Early in the day |
 A beautiful day |
 The pits looking busy |
 Jack Kessock-Philip's T-Rex 700 models |
 Stefan Simmons (R) finished 2nd |
Stefan with his T-Rex 700 in the background |
 Nigel Fraser Ker (L) talking to Craig Simmons |
 Jason Platts from Fast Lad |
 I won't argue about anything, honest |
 Stefan Simmons' T-Rex 700 |
 Front Row seats... |
 Pits and spectators |
 The food wagon did a good trade |
 Not sure who, tell me someone... |
 Matt Gill's T-Rex 700 |
 Brian Nicholas's T-Rex 700 |
 My guess is Align are selling more than everyone else put together... |
 Stefan Simmons' T-Rex 700 |
 The only electric entry from Trevor Burley |
 Power plant in TB's T-Rex - please tell me more |
 Spectators |
 Spectators and pits |
 Spectators and pits |
 Spectators and pits |
 Spectators |
 Spectator line |
 The ebullient Mike Freeman posing... |
 Nigel explaining why bribery works for him ;-) |
 Spectators |
 Spectator line and Judges tent |
 Help again please |
 Matt Gill's T-Rex 700s |
 Roy Bamford and Paul Lison from Park Hall Club, superb prizes in the foreground |
 All waiting with bated breath, prizes donated by James Beresford Ltd |
 Wide view of prizegiving |
 Wide view of prizegiving |
 Roy Bamford from Park Hall Club |
 Dave Smith from the Club (R), who is it receiving please |
 Brian Nicholas I believe |
 Mike Freeman |
 Duncan Osbourn with Jon Fox in the background |
 No comment... |
 Prizegiving |
 Prizegiving |
 Shane Marshall left, Craig and Stefan - results time! |
 Trevor Burley won the Electric class easily... :-) |
 Rob Turnbull receiving the veterans prize |
 Jack Kessock-Philip receiving his award for 3rd Place |
 Stefan in 2nd place and a class winner too |
 Stefan in 2nd place and a class winner too |
 Duncan Osbourn took First place |
 Duncan Osbourn took First place |
Duncan with Matthew Russell from Simply T-Rex, the Sponsors |
 Pilot's Parade after the Event, well done everyone |
 Ditto |
 Ditto |
 And now, the other way |
 Ditto |
 Ditto |
 Ditto |
And now for the video...
You'll have noticed there are no flight shots in the stills, this is because there was only one of me there and I was also shooting the video. This is all the flights from Sunday.
Please note: Videos are in a password protected directory to stop the more obvious linking, the username and password are both "parkhall".
| Set Manoeuvres | Freestyle | Finals Sets | Finals Freestyle | Victory | |
| Andy Johnstone | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Brian Nicholas | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Colin Nadin | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Craig Tosh | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Duncan Osbourn | Download | Download | Download | Download | Download |
| Jack Kessock-Philip | Download | Download | Download | Download | - |
| Jason Platts | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Mat Watkin | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Matt Gill | Download | Download | Download | Download | - |
| Matt Lodge | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Mike Eddington | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Mike Freeman | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Richard Middleton | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Rob Turnbull | Download | Download | Download | Download | - |
| Shane Marshall | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Stefan Simmons | Download | Download | Download | Download | - |
| Trevor Burley | Download | Download | - | - | - |
| Microlite pass | Download | - | - | - | - |
Do please comment in this forum.