PHIL BALL – ONE OF A UNIQUE TRIO OF FLYERS
For Grantham club member Phil Ball the last of three trials to select the British team at the 2009 World Free Flight Championships in Croatia was very special. Flying at Sculthorpe on October 12th, Phil gained a place on the F1A glider team and as a result is one of only three Britons ever to represent this country in all three outdoor free-flight classes, F1A glider, F1B Wakefield rubber and F1C engine-assisted glider. The other two are the late Jack North of Croydon & DMAC and Ray Monks of Birmingham MAC, with Ray even adding F1D indoor to his list of team places.
Phil recently retired from Rolls Royce at Derby, where he was a development engineer working on advanced turbine blades and has been national free-flight champion several times. He trains at Barkston Heath and competes at contests all over the country. His previous team places have taken him to Germany, Italy, USA, Hungary, Romania and Portugal; he was part of the gold medal-winning F1C team at the last two. Phil also managed the British team at the World Junior Championships in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and has served on the free-flight technical committee for several years.