CD's Report
The Buckminster Gliding Club at Saltby aerodrome once again hosted the
Aerobatic Glider Nationals. With the National team
 choosing not to go to the
World Championships this year (being held in Moscow), this would be the only
opportunity for our Unlimited pilots to pit themselves against each other.
Their ranks were swelled by a visitor from Germany, Olaf Schmidt. It felt
like numbers were down but, with two Beginners and five each at Sports,
Intermediate and Unlimited we actually had one more than last year.
Thursday was literally a washout with an
occluded front moving eastwards bringing low cloud and rain for the day.
Friday morning was similarly hampered by low cloud, but lifted sufficiently
to allow the dreaded 'split' programmes to be flown. The five Sports pilots
managed to fly their two knowns, meaning that each pilot had to fly four
times in the space of about four hours, less than ideal and a testimony to
their stamina. Next up was an interleaved programme of intermediate and
Unlimited, to allow maximum time for changeover of those sharing equipment.
Actually, this was further modified by a clever wheeze, whereby pilot 'A'
would fly the first half of the sequence, land and be immediately
re-launched to fly the second half. Meanwhile, another
pilot from a
different
level would launch in between these two flights and carry out a similar
procedure. This required excellent communication between Flight Line
director Jim Duthie and Chief Judge Dick Happs and cascading down to the
rest of the judging line. By late evening the cloud had lifted sufficiently
to allow the First Unknown to be flown at Intermediate and Unlimited. This
changed Order of Programme is in accordance with new CIVA regs which place
priority on the Unknown, with the Free being placed as the third programme
to be flown.
Thus we all repaired to the Cross Swords
for some of their excellent cuisine.
Saturday initially saw a cloud-base
hovering around the 2,300ft mark, too low even for a split programme.
However, it later lifted to allow Beginners to do their thing and
Intermediate and Unlimited to fly their Free programmes. The closeness to
the Summer Solstice allowed flying to continue well after 2000 local,
creating problems with inflexible catering arrangements. One pilot was
reputed to be having problems with the low sun, but elected to continue 'so
that the competition could carry on'. An excellent example of true selfless
sportsmanship so rarely seen these days.
An early start at about 0600 on Sunday
would have seen the whole thing flown off by 0900, under a clear blue sky.
As it was, a
 late briefing time of 0930 coincided with the arrival of the
low stuff. However, it seemed to be high enough to allow a start, so Sports
flew off their Unknown. The usual deal of interleaved Intermediate &
Unlimited was going well until more low cloud came along, the portent of the
promised Cold Front. The CD led a discussion at a hastily convened briefing
and the majority view was that we continue to a conclusion using splits.
Thus it was that all flights were complete be 1530, for a final briefing and
prize-giving at 1615.
Special thanks were given to the host
airfield, with hanging baskets of flowers given to those who had helped in
the background. The prizes were given out by Mike Jordy, who is on the
British Gliding Association committee and thus well-known to the
competitors.
I count this competition as a major
success. Sports managed to fly three rounds, Intermediate and Unlimited four
rounds each, more I believe than we've ever managed. Congratulations to all
those who made this possible, a good team effort, both from the pilots and
ground staff. The down side was the shortage on the judging line, a problem
we also face in Power.
Ben Ellis
Contest Director |
British Glider Nationals : Saltby : 16-19 June 2005
===================================================
Beginners Finals
----------------
Order Pilot Aircraft type Reg'n Known #1 O/all %
====================================================================
1 Ron Jubb DG-303 KKC 500.4 74.682
2 Howard Whybrow Pilatus B4 HVH 492.6 73.525
Sports Finals
-------------
Order Pilot A/c Reg'n Known #1 Known #2 Unkwn #1 All Grps O/all %
======================================================================================
1 Patrick Greer Pilatus B-4 HVH 1340.9 1205.7 1350.1 3896.7 70.211
2 Mark Erlund Lunak OM-0973 1266.6 1343.4 1235.6 3845.7 69.291
3 Brian Griffin Lunak OM-0973 1192.1 1304.7 963.5 3460.3 62.347
4 Charles Baker Puchacz GCU 1170.4 1120.6 1092.3 3383.3 60.961
5 Caroline Bois Pilatus B-4 HDA 1173.5 1127.5 759.0 3060.0 55.135
Intermediate Finals
-------------------
Order Pilot A/c Reg'n Known #1 Prog-1 Unkwn #1 Unkwn #2 All Grps O/all %
===========================================================================================
1 Steve Jarvis Pilatus B-4 DSV 1500.9 1555.3 1629.3 1359.1 6044.7 72.479
2 Graham Saw Czech Mate OK0927 1326.5 1625.9 1591.4 1433.0 5976.9 71.666
3 Malcolm Hodgson Pilatus B-4 DND 1177.2 1455.7 1512.4 1326.1 5471.4 65.605
4 Mike Newbound Swift JKC 1309.4 628.4 1577.0 1279.2 4794.0 57.482
5 Paul Watson Pilatus B4 DSV 432.8 1204.7 1447.0 1131.1 4215.6 50.547
Unlimited Finals
----------------
Order Pilot A/c Reg'n Known #1 Prog-1 Unkwn #1 Unkwn #2 All Grps O/all %
===========================================================================================
1 Olaf Schmidt Swift JZP 1771.7 2204.9 1217.5 1620.4 6814.5 73.274
*2 Guy Westgate Fox JKC 1678.0 1915.3 1423.4 1612.4 6629.1 71.281
3 Paul Conran Swift JZP 1668.2 2194.6 1203.8 1553.5 6620.0 71.183
4 Andy Cunningham Fox JKC 1019.8 1451.5 1060.7 1176.2 4708.1 50.624
5 Chris Cain Swift JZP 1232.4 707.8 1164.2 733.5 3837.9 41.268
* British National Champion for 2005
British Aerobatic Association
Results after TBLP at 90% confidence with 1.20 threshold
Sequence & Group two-pass processing at 10:02:17 on 20-06-2005
BAeA Scoring System - software Ver 6:3 Apr-05
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