Fractured Axel

bryan beasley wrote:

a bunch of Talons (including some right eeeugly feckers )

I resent that remark!!

Bryan might be right after all.

That middle one is a beauty - if only it had black wing tips.

SwampDonkey wrote:

bryan beasley wrote:

a bunch of Talons (including some right eeeugly feckers )

I resent that remark!!

Not sure who Mr Grey is having a pop at there, but it might not be you.

I had a great time too - got a good deal of time on my Akuji SUL (my DS felt like it weighed a ton after flying that!)

I really enjoyed judging the trick ladder comp, and I think it does work well when driven along quickly.

Packing up at the end of the day, I found these (click for bigger pic):



If anyone recognises them and wants them back, let me know, and I'll post them on (though I'm off on hols for a week in a couple of days, so it may take a while...)

Thanks to all who made it happen, all who turned up, and thanks for the sausage rolls, Bryan - very nice.

Great day, great company, great organisation and the weather could have been a lot worse despite the dodgy wind.

I'll settle for that place in the ladder and second to last in the dual line indi is only slightly better than I deserve.

I missed out on trying an Element but as I can't afford one it's probably better that way.

The only bad thing about the day was the drive back along the A5 into the sun.

Some pics...

Mark, you got your 9 upside down

Popeye wrote:

Mark, you got your 9 upside down

It wasn't a bad yo-Fade-backspin-cascade, but I've seen better.

Mark

Me and Chris were the 'nice' ones!

P.S. You can see a small election of Bri's kite collection laid on the floor in the background.

P.P.S. You gotta admit, the wrapped comets were impressive though .

I'm not claiming ownership to them, there's blues and purples and all sorts - Nah.

You'll have noted the usage of the word 'some' in the eeugly feckers comment, but at the time the caveat emptywhatever was that they all still looked monster backlit from 80 yards away despite a clear and concise effort in ruining a thing of beauty.

'ere Keith, you got a bobble in the back of your hair?

Bryan

jaydub wrote:

SwampDonkey wrote:

I resent that remark!!

Not sure who Mr Grey is having a pop at there, but it might not be you.

Guess that was just my natural paranoia kicking in

Pete

bryan beasley wrote:

'ere Keith, you got a bobble in the back of your hair?

heh - not only that, I appear to have a foot coming out of my bottom too

misterbleepy wrote:

bryan beasley wrote:

'ere Keith, you got a bobble in the back of your hair?

heh - not only that, I appear to have a foot coming out of my bottom too

You've also been knee-capped by an Element!

Back OT. I loved the Ladder format, for once I was actually looking forward to my round. Judging is fun too, some quality banter going on.

Mark

One week on and a bit more reflection about the Trick Ladder.

I think I ran through most of me emotions during the four rounds I managed.

Firstly, the axel - a middling score on the first attempt and went into self doubt about having a second go and decided to go through to round 2, a 2 point landing. With the benefit of hindsight, I kicked myself for not having a second attempt.

A basic trick that I struggled with. First attempt, pulled it round but not quite enough. Single point landing that took its time to drop down onto both wing tips. Low scores for this one, but I knew I'd risk losing them if I went for a second attempt, so was absolutely certain moving onto the next round, the Lazy Susan, was the right move. Felling of relief just to get through.

I nailed the Lazy on my first attempt with positive murmurs from the judges. Not a consistent trick for me so a pleasant surprise and time to move on to the backspin.

The backspin is a trick I've lost from my repertoire, but Neil had given me some help earlier in the day and I'd at least got to the point where although my timing wasn't right I could limp round two and a half rotations. Low score again and nothing less than I deserved. Again a feeling of relief.

Having pushed my luck so far, round 5 and the JL was my undoing. Two very half hearted and unsuccessful attempts to get into a fade and I crashed and burnt out.

The overall results were a pleasant surprise. Looking at who flew, I would have expected to be much lower down the pecking order. I certainly won't be the only one who knows they could have done better, but this was about doing it under pressure when your brain goes to mush and I go away more than happy with the overall result.

Thanks to everybody who took part. Bring on the next one.