Gold for Britain in Spain

Five of the British team went to the opening World Cup of the year at the 2008 World Championship site in Lleida, Spain.  Nigel Bathe was the star performer, winning the S9A helicopter event, by just one second.  Two other members of the team put in great performances. John Ellins had a max in the first round of S3A parachute before the event was abandoned because of very strong winds.  John Jacomb brought home the Odd Roc trophy with his model of Sponge Bob.

All of the British team put in decent performances in S6A, with Trevor Seabrook being top of the scores.  However we were a way behind the winner from Slovenia.  We took the opportunity in the bar to compare notes with Joze Cuden from Slovenia and he gave us some valuable tips on how to improve performance.

In S9A Mike Francies, John Jacomb and Trevor Seabrook also all had encouraging flights, with Mike loosing one model when it flew far, far away.  But Nigel’s performances were simply outstanding, including the trek of well over 1km to recover his second round flight.

In S4A everyone flew the Jacomb specials, and there is still a design flaw.  It either flies really well or not at all.  Careful observation of the flights have lead to some new theories on the cause.  Remedial work will be done and tested at our trimming days throughout the summer.

Finally, S8E/P was cancelled on Sunday as the winds were simply too strong.  This was a shame as we had a strong chance of a winner in this class.  If we had won S8, then Britain would have taken three out of six gold medals available, with John Ellins in joint lead in parachute, perhaps it could have been four out of six.  Not a bad start to a world championship year.