CAVOK at 05.30 on Saturday. Is this a good sign, or merely the weather gods taking the mickey? Well, by the well-attended briefing at 08.00, there is cloud rolling into the box off the North Sea on a brisk breeze producing a layer at around 1,000 feet, but it’s broken. Calls from Cranfield (that’s where the White Waltham fleet had had to land) indicate it’s still worse to the West. I provisionally set “first flight” for 10am, and John Wicks has drawn the (computer-generated) short straw and will fly first. The weather cooperates and we are ready to go soon after 10.00. Late arrivals have, again, all complied with the rules and are separately briefed. The Standard Known plus three figures proceeds despite wisps of cloud in the box, leavened by many breaks and an apparent attempt at a short cross-country; I am reminded just why it is that the McAully always takes so long. Adrenalin levels seem to vary with some pilots wanting to establish a stack at the aerial hold, but others refuelling or rehearsing their flight when they should have been at the hold. On the ground the usual routine is broken by a visit from two delightful chaps from Special Branch. It seems most of the BAeA contingent have failed to “Book In”; it’s surprising how quickly our pilots can move to comply when they want to. A short break and we wrap up the intermediate Unknown programme before lunch. The only unusual incidents of the morning are Arnd Schweisthal being reminded that YAK 55’s need air to start and Simon Janvrin discovering that a new “flop tube” requires him to fly with more fuel than previously, otherwise the fan threatens to stop!

Throughout the morning there had been rows of clouds approaching from the North East which had miraculously burned off just before the airfield. On starting the Standard Unknown, this happy equilibrium seemed in danger of becoming unstable. So, no time to be wasted. As it happened, as far as I can recall, only one competitor was unlucky enough to perform a figure in cloud and all was complete at 16.00. Nick & Jen hammered the computer keys and came up with the results, enabling Jen to present the trophies and medals at 16.30: both the new scoring programme and the new printer are vast improvements!

Many thanks to Ian Scott, Chief Judge, Jen and Nick Buckenham, our Registrars and Scorers and all the judges and scribes who are now nearly all listed with the results. The only person who seems to have escaped mention is David Thomson, who scribed on Saturday and will, I am sure, have learned a lot that will be useful next time he competes. The judges and scribes needed great fortitude; the weather contrived to put them in danger simultaneously of being sun burned and frozen (by the 15-20 knot NE wind).

And the results? At Intermediate, for the Fenland Trophy, Paul Tomlinson got off to a slow start in the Known behind Chris Burkett and Simon Johnson but pulled through to win, finishing first in both the Free and the Unknown. Simon just pipped Chris for 2nd overall, overhauling him in the Unknown. At Standard, for the McAully Trophy, the clear winner was the venerable John Wicks who did it the right way, flying the best two sequences. Adrian Willis’s consistent flying to 3rd in the Known+3 and 4th in the Unknown was good enough to finish 2nd overall, with newcomer Richard Verrall’s Unknown (2nd) pulling him up from 6th in the Known+3 to 3rd overall.

So, after a gap of one season, it was delightful to go back to Fenland and meet many old friends both from the BAeA and Fenland Aero Club; particularly, Ray Nicholson in the Tower is unflappable and a delight to work with. I had had some concern that Fenland so early in the season might prove “challenging” weather-wise, but we got away with it. Perhaps the entry was lower than might have been later in the season, but all those who came had a great couple of days. Thank you all for making my job so easy!

Martin Sandford, Contest Director