What a pleasure to be at Shropshire Aero Club again, particularly as this
delightful airfield is clearly growing in stature and since last year has
benefited from clubhouse improvements in all areas. With occasional rain
showers that really only served to dampen the judging line-up and just one
cloud-aborted sequence, the Saturday affair not only saw the easy
completion of the programmed known and unknown sequences for the nineteen
standard pilots present (ie. including Graham Smith who had Dad in the
front and thus ran hors de concours...) but there was time for an
additional unknown sequence that most stayed to enjoy. I say enjoy, but in
fact it was pretty clear that three sequences in one day requires one or
two more brain cells than most pilots could summon, the continuous range
of brain-farts keeping the judges and spectators amused no end!
Friday's Beginners class gave Stephen Wallace the chance to show
everyone how much better he could manage the five figures, drawing a clear
5-and-a-bit-percent clear of his S2B group-mate Robert Woollard. The
steady numbers of Beginners pilots at our competitions over the last year
or two is very encouraging, and when the winning score is over 80% we have
a lot to look forward to.
Only two standard pilots failed to reach the start-line on the Saturday
morning, and in general the standard of flying was extremely high. At long
last John Wicks and his CAP-10 kept all their ducks in a row, and after
just 25 years of trying not only bagged his first medal (he
says...) but walked off delightedly clutching the handsome Golding Barrett
Trophy as well. He didn't have it all his own way, as although the lovely
CAP certainly blew everyone away in the Known it was Tim Jenkinson's in
his brightly coloured RV-4 that stole the Unknown with John Dixon chasing
close behind. Now that Oliver Johnstone is more tuned in to his new
Yak-55M and the Biggin Hill based BRVT Pitts-S2B group are getting to
grips with their growling biplane the Standard class is great fun to
watch.
Ben Ellis directed the meeting, Gary Ferriman was novice Chief Judge
with Steve Todd, wee Ron Allan, Nick Buckenham, Eric Marsh, Brian
(McCartney presumably) and even Ben himself on the judiciary bench during
the Friday and Saturday flying, whilst Steve Green and Ian Scott ably ran
the confuser and provided instant results. Aside from being bitterly cold
(flaming June, huh!) it was an excellent meeting. A thousand thanks to
Sleap - see you all at Fenland?
Nick Buckenham
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