It's quite hard to write this - I have to find something new to say about
the weather! What a weekend.... Following the best entry for quite a
few years, with eventually 7 Beginners, 33 (yes!) Standard and 14
Intermediate pilots - we were fair set for a great weekend.
The gloom of Friday morning eventually
dissipated, but with a mere 3 newcomers actually present it was a short
affair. Ian Worthington flew the T67 better than his mate Adrian, while
Nick Richards filled the sandwich. Good scores, good flying. The
improving evening saw the bulk of the Standard and Intermediate boys
there, with further hope for some early arrivals on Saturday
morning. Not a chance - murk, gloom, crap, IMC, dreadful viz, all
was there at one stage or another, but for sure not any flying let alone
competing. The Fenland clubhouse positively hummed all day, only the
(interrupted for weather...!) Wimbledon tennis raising the collective
eyebrow. Roll on Sunday, but the weathermen only gave bad vibes.
0800 Sunday, and there we were
again. Such dedication. A few unexpected arrivals during the
(very similarly crap) day raised the tone an inch, but that was all -
until at about 3.30, after all hope of running the Standard known had
vanished, suddenly it lifted and there was just a chance. A rapid
re-brief for the 9 Intermediate's left holding the fort, and off we went -
with a swiftly re-arranged box axis to resolve the 90° crosswind on
18/36. After some milling about for a few minutes by first man Tony
Maxwell the cloud-in-the-box hiatus was solved by making all breaks free,
and in quick order the deeds were done. The van der Luit's new Extra
got its first proper airing in the UK, whilst Eagles, CAP-10's and Pitts's
various came and went. Eagle driver David Cooke led the numbers from
similarly shod Tony M, various people got a bit lost, but we got it done -
and that was Fenland 2001. Better luck at Conington for the Standard
chaps, in fact - I sincerely hope we get a proper days' flying. We
deserve it!
Martin Sandford had his baptism as CD, Nick B looked
after judges Steve Green, Julie Woods, Toddy and Alan Cassidy, Jen spent
ages entering 33 never-to-be-used Standard free's (the Known +3....) and
of course provided the results. And the band played "Would you
believe it!". We did, we were there.
Nick Buckenham |
