The new AWAC Champion is Glen Dell from South Africa who flew a Norwegian Extra 230 with considerable skill. Individually second and third were Gerard Bichet of France and Petr Biskup of Czech. Russians were 4th and 5th. The winning Team was France, from Russia and Czech. Americans were 4th, UK 5th ahead of Poland and Lithuania. Thirteen other countries were here but could not muster 3 pilots to score for a team place. The best result for a biplane was 10th, in the Ultimate 300hp monster. It is interesting to see pilots from seven countries in the top 10, proving what an open contest this is compared with Unlimited nowadays.

Final Brit placings were rather disappointing, but this is what happens when nobody quite manages to get through all the programmes without making at least one serious mistake. The planes have all now set off back for UK, as the airfield here is to be closed all day Saturday and no departures allowed. Nobody wanted to stay til Sunday, so representation at the closing will be limited to Angela and Diane, with me wearing my Jury badge. A bit of an anticlimax, as ever, but I expect it all to be low-key in typical Scandinavian style anyway.

Hope to see you all soon in the UK.
Alan

Hi people,
We flew the second unknown down to pilot 46 yesterday in, yet again, severe CAVOK once a little early morning fog cleared. The plan is to fly up to the top 30 in a 3rd unknown today but, at present, the weather is set at low cloud so this may not happen. At least the top 10 pilots must fly the 3rd unknown for the sequence to count.

The second unknown produced its fair share of disasters with plenty of zeros around. Unfortunately more than one of them went to the Brits (Tim quarter rolled the wrong way, Mark over-flicked) so their positions haven't improved...

We have now spent 70 hours on the judging line actually judging live in a week - everybody there thinks this must be some sort of record. We are a little knackered, and Graham managed to reduce Julie to a wobbly jelly by calling a vertical roll that was barrelled "He's rabbled the bowl" - we had to give an "A" as all concentration was lost.

Currently Glen Dell USA leads from Gerard Bichet of France. Our lads are:

Must go to briefing.
All the best
Ian Scott

August 9th

And from the judging line....
16:30 Monday - the Free is now complete. As the weather man described it "Severe CAVOK" all day - sunburn and consumption of gallons of water. The judging line remains the most comfortable place to stay as any breeze blows across it. The teams, who have to try to live in the hangar out of the sun, get very hot indeed.

Yesterday was a rather slow start as they decided to alter the order of flying (two pilots in the same aircraft following each other) - delay to reorganise paperwork in excess of one and a half hours, time lost for delay while pilots changed maybe 20 minutes at most... Still we flew through half the frees by just after 18:00 and then retired to drink, eat and relax.

Today things got going much more quickly and we flew the first competitive flight just after 09:30. We were even hotter today as the breeze is less - thank god for umbrellas. Valentina had a nice footrest to help with her judging technique (or, possibly, to help her sleep(?)) until Graham sat on it - he promptly performed a backwards somersault with flip (perhaps a 9.7.33.2) destroying said foot rest.

Free results will come out in the next couple of hours and, I really do hope, they use the available time to get everything sorted for tomorrow and we get started in good time of the first unknown. There has been some good flying but also, to be honest, a lot of indifferent flying as well. Certainly there was no outstanding flight so we think it will be quite close at the top. At present I have no idea how the Brits may have got on.

We are off to the Italian spaghetti night shortly - Uncle has advised us NOT to change but stick with the mucky clothing we are in.....
Ian Scott
_____________________________________________________

August 8th
Not much coming in from the Brits in Sweden I'm afraid, but our man Ian Scott - he and Julie Woods are assisting UK judge Graham Hill - has posted us a few words:

Just thought we'd let you know that we are sitting all day in bright sunshine eating too much drinking too much and playing silly games. Occasionally an aircraft flies to interrupt our activities but we are enjoying ourselves none the less and I am liable to run out of sun cream. So far we have completed the Q with, from a judging point of view, no really good flights. I would have expected the odd one or two flights to provide a certain "wow" feeling and that just hasn't happened.

Anyway we now move on to the serious stuff with the Free starting shortly in, yet again, bright sunshine. So we are about to leave for our judging positions which, all the judges agree, is the best they have ever experienced. We are on a golfing range (3 acres of mown grass) with trees at the back to provide shade during intermissions. A caravan, video equipment etc. all set up (though the videoing is pretty second rate). We can see the box markers, the aircraft at all times both in the air and on the ground and are looking North - it just couldn't be better. The accommodation is comfortable, with Julie providing Ginger Wine (?!) at 82 percent proof - this may have something to do with the odd headache around.....

The "Q" results (via the link above) have been published, the UK having Mark Walden well up at 13th with 75.49%, Tim Jenkinson 26th on 72.79%, Gary Ferriman 43rd on 69.28%, whilst Cas Smith and Aidan Grimley at 59th and 60th are both struggling below 60%.

We are about to stop the Q at number 30, so Tim will be 8 in the morning, the others thereafter in due course
More later,
Alan

Hi All,
Have at last managed to get an Internet connection...:-)

The Q programme at the AWAC has started and we should get through the first half of the 63 pilots present by close of play this evening. We are blessed with high pressure and blue skies after some wet days in training, so for the moment at least the weather is not an issue. It may last for a few more days yet, if the organisers keep making the appropriate  biblical sacrifices. All our boys drew fairly high numbers: from 38 (Tim) to 60 (Gary) so don't expect any meaningful results until tomorrow afternoon.

There are 20 countries represented, including Israel for, I believe, the first time. Eight of these nations have at least the three pilots required for a team result.

The speech at the opening ceremony lasted only 42 seconds, so my messages from earlier contests have clearly been intercepted and decoded. The smorgasbord, with only 68 different types of herring, was another matter entirely, especially as another glass of schnapps appeared at my place each time I returned from the buffet.... but this was on the segregated 'Jury' table. For the pilots below the salt there appeared only cheap beer in Australian quantities.

Bye for now
Alan

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