CD's Report
Since the very first collaboration between the BAeA and Peterborough
Conington airfield for the Standard and Intermediate National Aerobatic
Championships in 1998 this event has been a corker, bruised occasionally by
the weather but always a quality event. Once again then - a truly memorable
competition loaded with best-effort flying, seriously competitive jousting, great comradeship all
round and ... first class weather. It didn't look
quite that way on Friday morning mind you, the accurately forecast rain and frontal
low cloud fuelling some jittery nerves and frequent calls to Ian Smith's RAF
met-colleagues who really didn't have a lot to make us smile. We did brief
at 14:30 for a possible 16:00 start but it was a false hope, the rain set in
and a stand-down was inevitable. The weather guru's did have kind(ish) words
for the next day however, for which this event's 07:00 Saturday brief is
expressly designed.We held our breath for the early
CAVOK to degenerate into developing scud, but some high overcast helped to
minimise the energy change as the sun got going - and all that Friday water
failed to make any impact as it slowly left the ground. Last year's Standard
champ 'Little' Brian McCartney kicked the show into life at bang-on 08:00
with the first Intermediate sequence, and it all seemed to run itself from
there on. Chief Judge uncle Alan Cassidy had invoked a rather better circuit
pattern / hold / box entry system than we have previously operated here, and
the rate of sequences ran at an easy nine per hour through the dozen chasing
the 2005 Intermediate gongs. Colwyn Darlow is a hard man to beat right now,
easily heading a hard-chasing Mark Davies with Stephen Madle close behind. A
short comfort break later the rather larger Standard show was sparked into
life by Simon Janvrin, and this time steady Pete Rounce headed the charge by
not-a-lot from Luke Goddard and Al Coutts, with David Jenkins lurking close
behind.
Following an inspirational demonstration of just what the
unlimited 'real stuff' looks like from current UK national champ Tom
Cassells during the lunch break, Brian again led the charge to unsettle Colwyn from the head of the table. However after a brief and entirely
unwarranted attack on an innocent runway marker board Corinne Dennis made it clear
that she had other ideas, Neil Bigrigg and Simon Abbot also raising their
game to keep Mr Darlow out of the limelight. When the Standard crowd sprang
into life Ian Smith and Pete R got the runners-up slots whilst - after one
of those hoary old aviating "There's those who have and those who will..."
moments with his oil filler cap - it was David Jenkins who snared pole
position in the queue. At lunch-time
a
swift parlay with the Conington management had cleared the way for a Sunday
conclusion with the final two sequences, so at just after 5pm we all stood
down for the day and some further pub-planning had the evening arrangements
quickly sorted.
 Sunday, brilliant weather (still
for a while with the same calming high
overcast), and all to play for.... It didn't take Colwyn long to re-assert
himself at the top of the Intermediate list, this time from Simon and Brian,
then Ian Smith bagged the 2nd Standard unknown from Luke whilst oil baron David J did
just well enough (by less than two points!) to carry off the Standard Crown
from Ian and Peter.
Two thoroughly popular wins, more than a few gritted teeth by those who had
imagined themselves there instead, and no unwelcome ripostes from the judging line - in
fact the only complaints seemed to be from a few non-aviators who had
telephoned the Conington office and found that they couldn't get there in time to
see the fun. Can't be bad!
Alan's stalwart judges were Ben Ellis, Pete Macintosh, Ian
Scott, Gary Ferriman, Steve Green and John Paulson, lots of good people
provided the crucial assistance on the judging line, Jen B collated, keyed-in and calculated all the scores,
the Conington staff were magnificent as usual, and I just couldn't think of
a more enjoyable way to spend a few days in England. Well done everybody -
see you at Sywell?
Nick Buckenham |
