| Don't you just love it when a
good plan comes together? The build-up of entries to this competition laid
the foundation for a great prospect. In the event this was a
truly significant competition, with potentially 42 Standard and 16
Intermediate pilots looking for a chance at two of the season's crowns. Despite
some initial doubts you can squeeze 51 pilots and a few others into the
briefing room at Conington, the frontal weather to the south and west of the
UK unfortunately keeping some hopefuls away. However, at 1400hrs prompt on
Friday the
Standard class opened the proceedings, with a cloud-base around 2,500' and
rising and thus during the opening afternoon an allowed break for the next-up intermediates.
Then there was the wind. Oh boy - often gusting 25-28kts and
a good 60° south of runway 28 and consequently no good either for the rougher and
shorter 34, this was not a smiley day for Pitts drivers.... Reviewing the
prospect of many flights being driven behind the usual judging spot next to
the wind-sock, Chief Judge Alan Cassidy wisely moved his team to the south
of the aerodrome and Form-C prevailed for the weekend. With such a lot to do
in the available time a high flight-rate of course was essential, but with the 'hold'
extended to a sort of patrol-line and peer-pressure spread thickly around
there were in the event very few stragglers. Just the one comfort
break sufficed for Uncle's judiciary to make it through the afternoon, and
with the weather (not the wind!) generally improving as the day wore on the 51 flights were indeed despatched by
7:00pm. Excellent performances by Steve Todd in Cadbury's Laser and Jane van
der Luit in the family runabout (well, Extra-300L then) led the two fields,
the intermediates in particular being very evenly matched with only 30 or so
points separating 2nd to 9th places.
And so to Saturday and the (traditional?) 0700 briefing from
Nick B, a brilliant CAVOK sky to hand but still that damn wind - this
time however a tad north of 28. The first flight was up a couple of minutes
before 0800, and again a fantastic ten-and-a-bit flights per hour kept up a
cracking pace. By (a rather late) lunch-time the standard 1st unknown and
intermediate free's were in the pot, at this stage Toddy's standard
lead looking pretty fragile from Alex Caramella and Ian Trask, whilst at
intermediate Jane still led the rest but Alex Smee and Tim Jenkinson were
snapping at the lovely heels.
Having initially thought that a full
three-sequence affair just might be possible, CD Nick B re-set the
afternoon's strategy by invoking a cut to the top 20 standard pilots - the
better to allow those in with a chance to concentrate their efforts without
fear of non-completion of the third rounds. When the going gets tough the
tough get going, so they say, and some sterling performances by a few
non-leading front runners finally left us just after 1700hrs with not only a couple
of hugely pleased new champions but some pretty excitable
"if-only..." runners-up. Ian Trask drove his Yak-55 to score a a
superb win ahead of Alex Caramella and Steve Todd in probably the biggest
standard field we have ever seen in the UK, whilst a delighted Alex Smee
pipped Tim Jenkinson and Jane van der Luit for the intermediate glory. Conington
airfield were once again excellent hosts for this well established affair,
Uncle's judges were variously Bob Oliver, Diana Britten, Simon O'Neill,
Julie Woods and Patrick Margetson-Rushmore, Jen B did the sums and yours
truly enjoyed being CD rather more than you might imagine. The 2002
"junior" championships were a memorable affair at a great venue in
fine weather, with real doubt right up to the end about who would put in the best
performances to take the brass. Well done
everybody - move up please the victors, the rest of you just sharpen your
skills a mite and next time you could be there too! Nick
Buckenham
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