CD's Report
Patience is a virtue, so they say. Last week glider pilots at Saltby
needed it by the sack-full from Thursday to Sunday late morning.... and then,
against all hope, the seemingly glued-in-place grey stuff reluctantly
gave way at first to about 2400ft in haze, and finally to the full monty
4000ft at just about the time we reached the wrap-up point. The METAR's,
TAF's and even WeatherJack throughout had invited us to believe it would be
far better than it was, and true to form on Sunday they predicted eventual storm
conditions and rain - which of course stayed away. Weather men, what do they
know ?!So - apart from the
ever-present objectionable state of the aerial environs - the first
two-and-a-half days passed in a blur and not a lot of flying was achieved.
It seemed pressing to ensure that we were ready for the promised Met each
day, so morning briefings were
revised forward an hour to 0800 in order to make the best of .... sitting
around chewing the fat, as they say. Then some nearly 2500ft stuff came our way,
and the unlimited known
 was (relatively)
quickly despatched in split-halves. Guy claimed a clear pole position from
Paul, the rest vying rather more evenly for 3rd slot.
And so to Sunday, on which by then quite a
lot was riding. This time the early weather looked more promising and one or
two dodgy sequences were bagged, but then rapidly forming Cu at less than a
couple of thou' put paid to that. Through dogged perseverance redemption
eventually came our way however, and with a mixture of unlimited splits and
slightly shortened sports and intermediate sequences we had a (curtailed but
adequate) competition. David Gethin Puch'd Tim Brook behind him in the
Beginners class, Paul Watson's fine unknown pulled him ahead of the field in
Sports, Mike Woollard and Steve Jarvis flew the same B4 to an incredibly
close Intermediate finish, and Paul Conran's excellent free sequence earned
the Unlimited crown. It would have been nice to have done some more, but the
line of sun-reddened faces on the judging benches told a different story.
Dick Happs drove a small but select
judiciary, Cindy Copsey played registrar, collated judging sheets and smote
the keyboard impeccably, Jim Duthy marshalled the flight line, and yours
truly thoroughly enjoyed "management-by-walking-about". My apologies for
running away so smartly at the finish, but Mr EasyJet just wouldn't wait.
Nick Buckenham
Contest Director
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The Last Word.....
The competition started on Thursday, with a lousy forecast for low cloud and
rain but a fine weekend ahead. This year we ran four classes - Beginners,
Sport, Intermediate and Unlimited. By Friday (!) the front had passed; some
low cumulus formed but the cloud-base lifted to 2500ft at around 5pm
allowing the Unlimited field to fly their Known-1 in split format. Guy
Westgate led with Paul Conran lying second. Saturday saw low cloud all day
and was scrubbed at 4 o'clock. The morning saw the Unlimited Bendy Balloon
Modelling contest, the Telegraph cryptic crossword was solved by lunchtime,
and an impromptu display by Simon Walker in his RF4 broke the tedium
briefly.An early briefing was set
for Sunday - at last a flyable day. The following programs were flown:
Unlimited Free (split), Intermediate Known, Sport Known, Beginners Known,
Intermediate and Sports Unknown (truncated from 3000ft). The day wasn't
ideal, with low cumulus in the box causing problems especially for
Intermediate competitor Steven Jarvis who's first figure was obscured from
the judging line, so didn't score. Although Steven flew the rest of his
program superbly he couldn't close the gap on reigning Intermediate champion
Mike Woollard, who retained his title by a gnat's whisker. Sports class was
won by Paul Watson. Nikki Mills won her first medal with 3rd place in a K13,
while Paul Conran demonstrated that it's consistency that counts with his
first Unlimited win.
Debbie Bilham
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