Thursday began cold, wet and dreary, the usual Saltby Nationals weather. It left us all wondering why we bothered to change the event from September to the end of May. Finally, about 5pm, the cloud base lifted enough for the Unlimited Class to split the 1^st Known Program, with the 2^nd half to be flown the first thing on Friday morning.

Friday’s bright skies and warmer weather was the real beginning of this event. A record-breaking 30 flights were completed on Friday, over all categories, except Beginners. Another 28 flights were completed on Saturday, with the final 14 flights completed before 1:00 pm on Sunday.

It was interesting to note that the actual flying standards and expectations have changed over the years. The overall averages for the Beginners alone ranged from 79.357 to 91.409 percent, and the top 4 Beginners overall percentages were higher than those of the other classes. CJ, Judi Jones’ Pilot Briefings were designed to help the pilots understand not only the full aspects of the safety issues, but also what it was the judges would be looking for from the contestants.

Notes from Cindy Copsey
 

                    GLIDER NATIONALS 2002 : Saltby : 30.5-2.6
                    -----------------------------------------
                              Beginners Event

Order   Pilot            Aircraft type   Reg'n     Known #1  O/all %
====================================================================
  1  Carl Sorace         K-21            G-FYF        630.7   91.409
  2  Mark Erlund         K-21            G-FYF        626.9   90.851
  3  Adrian Hobbs        K-21            G-FYF        616.3   89.317
  4  Mike Collett        K-13            G-FWN        601.8   87.213
  5  Caroline Bois       K-21                         573.2   83.069
  6  Roger Grimes        K-21            G-FYF        547.6   79.357


                              Sports Finals

Order   Pilot            Aircraft type   Reg'n     Known #1  Known #2  Unkwn #1  All Grps  O/all %
==================================================================================================
  1  Simon Walker        Pilatus B4      G-DRP       1403.1    1207.5    1019.0    3629.7   72.161
  2  Mazen Makari        Pilatus B4      G-DRP       1221.2    1063.2    1027.0    3311.4   65.832
  3  Donald Gosden       Fox             G-JKC       1095.5     911.2     847.2    2853.9   56.737
  4  Nikki Mills         ?               G-DUNNO     1071.8     871.2     747.9    2690.8   53.496
  5  Otterburn S HC      Pilatus B       G-DRP        952.0     804.1     921.9    2678.0   53.240
  6  Peter Miles         K-21            G-FYF        846.6    1052.8     753.8    2653.1   52.745
  7  Richard Chapman     K-21                        1046.5     743.9     575.0    2365.4   47.025
 
 
                             Intermediate Finals
 
Order   Pilot            Aircraft type   Reg'n     Known #1  Program1  Unkwn #1  Unkwn #2  All Grps  O/all %
============================================================================================================
  1  Graham Saw          Lunak           OK-0927     1404.6    1450.6    1420.0    1276.5    5551.6   79.765
  2  Alex Yeates         Fox             G-JKC       1183.6    1324.4    1259.5    1480.7    5248.2   75.406
  3  John Gilbert        Pilatus B4      G-HDA       1401.9    1379.3    1312.5    1086.2    5180.0   74.425
  4  Andy Cunningham     Fox             G-JKC       1083.2    1371.4     945.3    1278.8    4678.6   67.221
  5  Brendan O'Brien     Fox             G-JKC       1377.1    1382.4     862.3     716.0    4337.8   62.325
 
 
                              Unlimited Finals

Order   Pilot            Aircraft type   Reg'n     Known #1  Program1  Unkwn #1  Unkwn #2  All Grps  O/all %
============================================================================================================
  1  Guy Westgate        Fox             G-JKC       1593.0    2157.3    1693.4    1636.6    7080.3   81.289
  2  Jamie Allen         Swift S-1       G-JZP       1667.9    2165.5    1620.6    1581.9    7035.9   80.780
  3  Paul Conran         Swift           G-JZP       1696.7    2050.2    1504.3    1147.3    6398.6   73.462
  4  Chris Cain                                      1178.7    1472.3    1357.6     779.3    4787.9   54.970
  5  Andy Cunningham H/C Fox             G-JKC       1267.2        -     1534.0     473.8    3275.1   37.601

  British Aerobatic Association
  Results after TBLP at 90% confidence with 1.20 threshold
  Sequence & Group two-pass processing at 17:59:40 on 09-06-2002
  BAeA Scoring System - software Ver 5.1 Jun 01