CD's Report
For days before the weather was perfect, and for days after the weather was
perfect, but on Saturday 25th June 2005, the day of the Don Henry and Air
Squadron Trophies at Compton Abbas, most of the south of England was covered
in a deep blanket of fog. Astutely Dave Cowden had arrived not one day but
two days before to avoid Friday’s forecast clag. A pair of Pitts's got as
far as Staverton that day only to be stranded initially by deteriorating vis
then a u/s starter motor. Valiant intentions were reported from Ireland to
Ipswich, but by evening only two Beginners, five Intermediate and three
Advanced pilots had registered. Patrick Caruth arrived on Saturday soon
before everyone else left: he had flown five miles from Henstridge, all 700
feet uphill.Compton Abbas is
renowned as an ideal location for BAeA contests: it has a beautiful setting,
sympathetic management and tolerant neighbours. Consequently the club is
always busy, and with the prospect of daring stunt pilots displaying their
putative skills hundreds turned up to watch.
Briefings were convened every two hours,
separated by the usual hallucinatory convictions that it was “clearing
slightly”. Several years ago in similar circumstances I introduced an
“I.L.A.F.F.T” session: each pilot was given two minutes to talk about
anything, and the best tale was rewarded by a modest prize (typically a jar
of Cavendish marmalade!). My suggestion to re-run this had several pilots
rummaging for maps with excuses for an early return home. The judges then
devised a quite excellent sequence comprising variations on a horizontal
roll, but this too raised no enthusiasm from an increasingly restless mob.
At 1600 therefore the event was declared cancelled. GPS’s were set, checked,
double checked and spare batteries sought, and formations departed into the
murk for destinations which varied according to where they found themselves.
Thanks are due to judges Ben Ellis and
Steve Green, supplemented at the last moment by Simon O’Neill, and to
Compton’s personnel, notably owner Clive Hughes and manager Rebecca Simmonds.
I took home both trophies and boasted I had won them, but that was
considered to be ~ literally ~ incredible.
ERIC MARSH |
