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CD's Report
Friday afternoon saw five entrants compete at Beginners level. The wind
blew steadily from the south-west, carrying with it occasional showers and a
discouraging cloud-base. However briefing and flying commenced on time.
Sensing that optimism
 was the order of the day, the weather took the hint
and cleared marvellously. In bright blue skies, the winner by a very narrow
margin was David Kean in his Pitts. Further down the field, the Decathlon
whispered through its sequence (or am I just going deaf?)
With two of the Beginners proceeding to
Standard, the field increased to nineteen for the main event on Saturday,
the G-B Trophy. Here I have to note that, to someone’s eternal
embarrassment, the Trophy itself has the great man’s name mis-spelt, an
error we ourselves frequently reinforce. For the record it’s “Barrett” (with
an “e”).
Saturday’s
weather made an effort to re-establish its' nastier side, with even more
wind and rain. A slightly delayed briefing (to cater for late arrivals) led
to the commencement of flying shortly after 9am. The first aircraft flew
round in circles, in and out of cloud, then landed. Its successor managed
one manoeuvre before succumbing to the same problem. Round 1 to the
weather….
A far greater crisis developed as it was realised that the café was not open
and there would be no tea or bacon butties for some time. However at least
now the contest had begun and the Unknown could be revealed. Briefings
followed throughout the morning until the weather dropped its guard, raised
the cloud-base, and at lunchtime we restarted. Stalwart efforts by judges,
assistants and pilots enabled the Known to proceed without a break, but
heavy showers persisted all around and a cunning plan was hatched, and
proposed at the 3pm briefing.
 The top ten pilots at that stage would fly
the unknown first, in reverse order. (There was distinct drop in the scores
below this point to the next pilot.) Then the lower placed pilots would fly,
in score order. Lastly would come the two H/C entrants. If the weather
prevented any top ten pilot completing his second flight, the result would
be declared on the Known scores. If all pilots completed two flights, the
result would be determined in the usual way. To everyone’s credit, agreement
was reached that in the event that the top ten pilots flew twice but not all
the others, then the result would depend upon the “two-flights” total…
(Simple really…)
Of course, the weather then gave up,
knowing it was beaten, and by 5.30pm all the pilots had flown twice.
Congratulations to Stephen Madle, flying G-STUA, which made a bid for
open-cockpit freedom at one stage…We were delighted to enjoy the company of
two of Arthur G-B’s relatives – his daughter, Bryher, and his wife Veryan,
who awarded the medals and entertained with colourful anecdotes from the
past. Thank you also to Shropshire Aero Club, who could not have been more
generous hosts (and may even welcome us back as there were NO noise
complaints!). Well done everyone.
Ron Allan
Contest Director |
