The competition is the first of this kind of international F3F event organized by the Taiwanese flyers. The event attracted nearly 30 r/c pilots from around the region; Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. Friday started with hot sunny weather but disappointingly weak wind at only 3 to 5 m/s. The reason of unexpected weak wind is possibly due to two typhoons which had tracked alongside the north and south coasts of Taiwan just a day before the contest! The Taiwanese organizers themselves even had difficulty to get to Penghu because ships and flights were hastily cancelled as typhoons approached. Fortunately, things were finally set in and the contest was successfully started on Friday afternoon.  

Four rounds were held the first day. Wind was northerly at 4m/s initially and gradually went up to 5m/s just before sunset. Chan Kwok Wai from Hong Kong took the first round with a convincing win of a 63 while others were mostly at the eighties. The second and third rounds were taken by Stanley Chan and fourth round by C.M. Cheng. It is interesting to see how pilots flew in light lift conditions with a narrow lift band. Forced diving and abortion were common. Recovery of crashed planes on the cliff occasionally generated heart beating excitement. One Korean fellow who climbed down to recover his plane has even commented that it is worth climbing down because he was able to see the spectacular scenery from the bottom of the cliff! 

Next day the wind was still northerly and averaged at 4 to 6 m/s. As pilots started getting familiar with the slope, they were more aggressive, although record was improved, the number of crashes also increased. So Kwok Ying flew his RaceM into the flesh water pond during landing, pick up was by swimming, amazingly fast swimmer by any standard! Round five was the prize for Chan Kwok Wai who flew consistently well the whole contest. Chang Gi Seong of Korea flew a 60 to take round 6. C.M. Cheng took round 7 with a 56.08 which ultimately grant him an award of the best time for the whole contest. Y.C. Lui flew exceptionally well with his stunning Elita and took round 8 with a 56. He again flew very well in round 9 but luck drove away from him. For some reasons, he fell down while he walked back up for landing after the run, his Elita thus lost control and crashed near the cliff edge. This costs him a full 1000 points penalty and a broken wing joiner! 

Wind was steered to northwest on the third day so we changed flying site. The wind speed, however, was at an average of 2m/s only after the equipment was setup early in the morning. A long wait was eminent. By mid day the wind was barely increased to 3.1m/s and the race was kicked started at 1 pm. The first pilot who flew this round is Kim Jin Kab of Korea, everybody was watching his run cautiously as the wind was barely sufficient. For some reasons his homemade hybrid spider X lost control and crashed after launch. Everybody was getting nervous then. Stanley was the next to fly. He managed to fly his Aris steadily with a 77 and grabbed round 10. Condition didn’t improve in round 11, which was taken by Chan Kwok Wai with a 70. The wind finally dropped back to 2 m/s in the middle of round 12. After a 20 minutes wait, the CD called off the race and the contest was completed with 11 rounds of scores. What an interesting contest! If the wind God gave us a bit more mercy, this would be wonderful!

Congratulation to the winners

1^st place: Stanley Chan (HK)
2^nd place: Chan Kwok Wai (HK)
3^rd place: C.M. Cheng (HK)
4^th place: Chang Gi Seoung (Korea)
5^th place: Huang San Yi (Taiwan)
6^th place: Lee Seung Kuk (Korea)
7^th place: Zhang Fuk Wah (Taiwan)
8^th place: Lee Ping Sang (Taiwan)

See a full score sheet here: http://home.anet.net.tw/nomarks/pic/2006TaiwanOpen.xls

Click on any photo to see a larger version.