Ken Phillips Trophy Rnd 2

After topping up my tan at the BMFA league last week, the prospect of sunshine and wind at the same time had me up early and heading for the famous slopes of South Wales and the Ken Philips Trophy competition. If you want to cut your teeth around the bases, this is a great place to start as the atmosphere at these comps is informal and very helpful. My choice of weapon for the trip was my trusty Strega F3F but I just couldn’t help packing the MiniVec as a few lads wanted a go on it – turned out to be a pretty good decision for reasons unexpected!

We ended up on the Ice Cream slope with the wind slightly crossed off to the North. I really like this slope and got lucky with some great air in round 1, more suprisingly I held my nerve and the Strega took the round win and also gave my first sub-40 second time - 39.38s. Very happy! Unfortunately I asked a little too much of the model during a desperate attempt at a cut recovery in the next round which saw me plant her HARD into the ground with nearly 1kg of ballast on board – see The DOH! Page for details... Actually I’m pretty happy with the way the model handled the impact, with the wing surviving in perfect condition.

With the Strega out of action that little Mini Vec was looking at me! So I set about getting some ballast in there, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting too much from the little bird. I mean it’s hardly designed for racing is it?! Well the first round with the MiniVec put paid to that – a 47.xx. I kind of laughed it off as good air, but the next round was a 45.xx and I realised that if I gave her some respect, I might be able to get a decent result and prove that size isn’t everything after all!

And so the comp went on for me and I couldn’t stop smiling. I got to see Knewt flying his Ceres at what seemed to me to be a completely outrageous weight but somehow still making it look light as a feather. Simon Thornton showing everyone the secret of F3F - somehow making all the air look pretty decent even when he got dealt some real lousy stuff. Martin Newnham and his Extreme continues to give inspiration to all F3F newbies - in his first full season Martin’s already had many sub 40’s, qualified for the Viking Race and only just missed the top 20 fly off.

The Extreme looked to be the model most at home in many people’s hands – it was being flown by a number of pilots - Simon Thornton, Martin Newnham and Adam Richardson – the results speak for themselves I think. Mike Evans didn’t get the best luck of the air with his RaceMx, but was given a lovely bit of air right at the death by which time he was flying his Kyril. Think that’s the fastest time for you on that model at 35.xx Mike? Well done mate… Also the fastest time of the day I believe.

One of the great things about the Ken Phillips Trophy is that it’s really there to help new guys get started out in F3F. Simon Kronfeld’s skill around the course with his Skorpion and Acacia II is just building and building – good showing from him, and Martin Newnham’s son Jacob showed us all that it runs in the family with his first F3F comp being handled with some impeccable flying and great anticipation of the bases – something rarely achieved in one’s first competition. John Treble seemed to be very at home with his new Vikos.

However, all was not perfect, and there was a bit of carnage here and there, most notably from Andy Freeman – he experienced possibly the worst way to crash a model, which is to loose sight of it whilst walking back to landing. Sorry mate! But I’m pretty sure that you’re going to be VERY happy with the Breta Furio that you’re picking up to replace it. Adam Richardson also had an unfortunate bit of damage to his RaceMx nosecone which was a complete mystery to all given the perfect landing that preceded it - sulky face in the photos! By the way, thanks to Adam for snapping the photos of the MiniVec whilst I was flying...

So as it turns out I just missed beating our great leader, Tom Satinet, with a MiniVec. So close! But never mind – what a great day, and to cap it all off we had a ball with the MiniVec passing the tx around after the racing finished.

Come and have a go – email us for details and we'll put you in touch with the right people if you’re fancying a go at F3F but you’re not sure how to start – you don’t even need a 3m racing ship to have a go, as I unintentionally demonstrated this weekend!




1 Kevin Newton 12132.74 (1000)
2 Martin Newnham 11979.77 (987)
3 Simon Thornton 11368.74 (937)
4 Adam Richardson 11274.75 (929)
5 Dave Rumble 11065.33 (912)
6 Mike Evans 11034.76 (906)
7 Tom Satinet 10614.62 (875)
8 Warrick Smith 10587.08 (873)
9 Mick Walsh 10553.54 (870)
10 Simon Kronfeld 10182.56 (839)
11 Jacob Newnham 10113.94 (834)
12 Clayton Landells 10083.07 (831)
13 John Treble 9800.16 (808)
14 Andy Freeman 2339.11 (193)