It’s all Hannah’s fault. We had enjoyed an extraordinarily fine Easter, until the forecasters warned us that UK would be reverting to more typical summer weather the following week, with a storm so severe that it warranted being identified with a name: Hannah. To her credit, she followed the forecast route precisely on schedule, and crossed our countries left to right on Friday and Saturday before disintegrating  somewhere to the east. However, in so doing, not only did she prevent flying at Breighton but she stranded pilots and planes at their home airfields with winds “so strong that if the hangar doors were opened the roof would blow off”! Contestants and officials therefore spent the whole of Saturday waiting for Hannah to arrive…and then leave. 

Eventually she did, facilitating the transit of several aeroplanes, and even more pilots,  from around the country to The renowned Real Aeroplane Company at Breighton.  Alas, while most of the country basked in wall-to-wall blue, the Humber estuary shivered under a 1500 foot cloudbase, which only lifted to 3000 ft around 2pm. By then there were 23 competing pilots, many in shared aircraft so, even with only one flight each, expeditious movement was required to achieve the 1800 deadline. And it was at precisely that time that the last pilot landed. 

Half an hour later a pretty local girl (am I allowed to say that?) called Rachel agreed to award the three trophies and nine medals to the winners listed above. As Contest Director, Eric Marsh expressed the appreciation of all for their contribution to the success of the event: the team of three judges plus assistants under Chief John Royce, Scorer/Registrar Jen Buckenham, Airfield Representative Alan Marsland,  caterers Gail and Andrea, and most of all the competing pilots who had worked so hard to achieve what we had witnessed today. 

Eric Marsh, Contest Director.

Finally, may I remind pilots who text the CD for weather updates etc to include sender’s name in the message; not all CD’s phones contain all pilots’ ID’s! Thanks, Eric 