 Contest Director's Report
Maybe it's a bit rash to expect an
 aerobatic contest to enjoy fair
weather
in an English October, but in '09
we've had to fit them all in as best we could ... and
of course, a lovely Friday practice session that the
glider peeps enjoyed until well after 7pm while all the power pilots stayed
at home was followed by a
stonking 40kts+ wind  throughout
the first competition day on Saturday that
certainly exercised the Wickenby
canteen,
but not much else.
Like visitors from another planet, out of
 this gale dropped
the majority of the power aeroplanes - most of which
were quickly hangared to
escape the elements. We rather optimistically briefed almost on the dot at 12:00, then
inevitably scrubbed it all at 2:30 to
await the promised
much improved Sunday version. The gloom of this non-productive day was
marginally improved by an excellent nearly-all-together Indian meal at Lincoln's MaCh restaurant.
We were quickly up and running for the final
fun-packed day,
Dick Happs' team
of moderately frozen judges and assistants wisely hugging
the canteen
wall in bright but cool sunlight to view
 the fray.
This was another of those northerly judging positions, great for sunny faces
but not so good for through-the-sun aerobatic judging processes ... Last year at
Lasham the  glider team
made the best of the Knowns and then seemed to loose their
way in the
Unknowns ... this time they managed
to elegantly reverse the process, allowing a stream of excellent flights from the power
team to give the quieter lot quite an uphill struggle by the half-way point.
When
the going gets tough the tough get
going, so they say, and a rather sterner
application
of glider person's "Can-Do" in the afternoon n-e-a-r-l-y levelled the balance
- well,
not quite. All the
while the power team continued to work hard to
substantiate
their first-round advantage, despite Ben Thompson's Extra- 230 battery
deciding that it was time for a day off so the hapless Mr.T couldn't make the allotted slot, but
even with this
unexpected bonus it was yet again the power brigade
who
took the day with
a final healthy 9-5 margin. Ah well ....
It is good fun, this curious end-of-term play-day, but deadly
serious underneath
all the same. One
day the power team is
 going to look glum and wish they'd
tried harder, but not this
time. Emily
Todd, trying hard to hide her gliding roots from the Swift/Fox/B4/Astir
brigade, thus
not only bagged an
excellent gold for her known performance
but - it being the best power percentage of the day - received the Baldwin Trophy to keep on
 her
mantle-shelf until this time
next year.
Well
done to the winners, nearly as well done to the losers. At least this year we
got it all done - that certainly makes a change!
So that's it for 2009. A big round of thanks to all those BAeA people and
the many others who have made
'09
the splendid year it's been, all the
way from Dunstable to Wickenby via the huge effort that WAC absorbed.
Congratulations to the year's winners, commiserations to all the rest.
See you
next year!
Nick Buckenham
BAeA
Contest Director |
