The John McLean Trophy - 2008

CD's Report
At six o’clock in the morning, blue skies and calm conditions tried to lull us into thinking that the day was going to be perfect for a spot of competition flying. However, it was to be the turn of Breighton Airfield to show us some wind, cloud and arctic temperatures. The slow moving occluded front sent from France sometime in the early hours of the morning was now cutting its way across some closely packed isobars and making its early effects known. During the 8:00 briefing, low cloud cover appeared and by 8:30 a recess of an hour was called. The box was moved from its published position and wedged in the overhead between the villages of Breighton and Bubwith. The now 23kt wind would have been almost entirely “on judge” across the original box location. At first, the judging line seemed to like the decision as they would now be sitting just outside the clubhouse. It was decided that the Standard Known sequence could not be flown and the “flatter” Unknown sequence that was to be flown in the afternoon, replaced it. First up, Andrew Barlow launched just before 10:00 to discover that he had 2100 ft and decided to proceed with his sequence. By the time the Standards had all flown, the judging line were past ready for a chance to warm up. It was clear that the Beginners, most of whom had been standing around without flying at the Loop Day the previous day, were in for more of a wait. During the morning we even saw 2300ft cloud base at one point but we considered that it was not enough for them to fly in the box.

Steve Green and Nick B devised a second unknown flat sequence that was published at 12:00 and Standard level flying recommenced at 1:00. In an interim briefing we restated that breaks could be taken as often as necessary without penalty but there would be disqualifications if the 1000ft “box base” was bust. There followed many pilots who landed mid-sequence bemoaning only 1800ft, whilst others were lucky enough to see as much as 2700ft. It was a case of get lucky, pick a hole in the cloud and try to get all of the sequence into it!

After yet another briefing, the beginners finally flew (hurrah!) but each with a safety pilot on board. Paul Elvidge was awarded the inimitable BAeA paper weight for his efforts.

So we managed to achieve 38 flights and not one noise complaint. Those worthy received lovely medals … and Phil Burgess deservedly took the John McLean trophy home. The high scores awarded indicated a very good standard of flying, especially considering the conditions.

There were some tough calls and CJ Steve Todd and his team certainly had their work cut out, for which I’d like to thank them. My thanks to the scribes and callers, Jen B for scoring under pressure, Eric Marsh for mentoring my first attempt at CD’ing, Nick B and Steve Green for their assistance, the safety pilots, Airfield Manager Mike Sweet and also the catering crew at Breighton for providing a very fine cooked breakfast. Finally, my thanks to all the pilots who patiently, persistently and safely wore the weather down and eventually showed it who the “daddy” was this weekend.

Paul Tomlinson
Contest Director