Feedback
from the judging line....
Pilots, judges and the odd aircraft started gathering at Fenland
from 11:00 on Friday. But as the 13:00 briefing time approached there was
still no sign of a CD. He eventually arrived with a few minutes to spare
having struggled round a blockage on the A1. Was this to be a bad omen on a
weekend when poor weather was forecast? Not a bit of it - briefing got going
just a bit late, 9 Intermediates and 5 Beginners were present and flying got
under way with the Intermediate Known shortly afterwards under cloud which
was just high enough to allow an uninterrupted sequence. The judging line
was a bit thin at only 3 but as it included Graham Hill, Alan Cassidy and
myself the quality was considered exceptional (by the judges that is).
With the first Intermediate sequence over the
Beginners had their go. There were one or two 'interesting' manoeuvres but
everyone performed competently with Ed Harding taking the top slot from
David Slater.
With the weather continuing to improve and
time on our side the Intermediate Unknown was launched. This did produce
rather more of the unusual manoeuvres than the known but also included some
very tidy flying as well. With both formal sequences flown the Fenland
Trophy contest was safely completed regardless of what the weather might
produce the next day. Corinne Dennis flew very neatly to win the Trophy
being nearly 4% clear of Colwyn Darlow in second place.
That evening Fenland did us proud with a
full meal available and a quiz to follow. For some reason the wrong team won
(i.e. not the one I was on) but despite this everyone enjoyed themselves.
The forecast for Saturday had been
generally pretty miserable so it was something of a surprise to wake up to
bright sunshine. There was poor weather to the North but this never got as
far as Fenland and the Standard Competition got under way at 09:00. The
judging line had now increased to a more respectable 5 with Corinne Dennis
showing great dedication to come out on the line after her flying
performance the previous day, Roger Graham (present to help Elise Mason at
beginners) joined us plus Chris Burkett - along with Alan and myself this
made up the line for the day. Despite quite a bit of cloud around (and the
occasional glider) all the known sequences were completed with the pilots
working really well and just making the odd break to dodge cloud.
After a break for lunch and with the
weather still much better than expected the Unknown started. The program did
show the problem of orientation at Fenland with few landmarks to help, and a
couple of pilots managed to fly several manoeuvres on the B instead of the A
axis. Such is life - we have all been there. The program was completed by
mid afternoon. The early finish gave a rather more relaxed finish to the
competition than usual with no great urgency for the pilots to rush off
home. The results were duly calculated and very close it was too, with Peter Rounce just pipping David Jenkins to the post by around 0.6%, who in turn was
1.5% ahead of Paul Tomlinson in third place.
In all this was a very successful
competition smoothly run by Martin Sandford with Anne acting as registrar,
scorer and exceptional paper organiser. Fenland made us very welcome indeed
and the whole atmosphere of the event was a tribute to them.
See you all at Conington,
Ian Scott, Judge #1 |
