Anyone bored – or sad – enough to analyse CD’s reports would probably conclude that much of their content relates to  weather. This one is no exception. Talk of an "Indian Summer" (an excusing synonym  for “late” summer no matter how early it occurs)  in the previous week ended with a very English wet  Saturday. The effect of that on aero contests  is that it deters pilots from positioning to the site beforehand lest the comp becomes unflyable, and it prevents pilots positioning on the same day until it clears.

The combined outcome of this was that when CD Eric Marsh convened the Tiger Trophy briefing at Sherburn Aero Club’s Meeting Room at 1000hrs on Saturday there were but ten competitors present, plus a couple of Beginners. Met had forecast a 1200 clearance, but when none had appeared by 1400 another briefing was held to establish a contingency plan. By then more pilots had arrived, but still more had withdrawn, and the cloud had thinned but nor risen enough to facilitate aerobatics. That didn’t happen until 1545, but with a combination of expeditious flying by all and the cooperation of SAC by remaining operationl, we completed Beginners and The Tiger Trophy by 1830. 

Marisha Pennington of Sherburn Aero Club presented the Tiger Trophy and medals to the several winners, and she used the opportunity to renew SAC’s welcome and appreciation of BAeA. Next day, Sunday, arrived with its excellent weather as forecast. Briefing was for the newly introduced – and usefully alliterated – Tiger Tankard Team Trophy, but as no teams had been formed it was suggested – by Ron Allen – that just two teams be formed, biplanes and monoplanes: brilliant! Nick Wakefield had produced an all levels sequence, which was the recent Standard Unknown. Unexpectedly this presented a challenge to some of the upper level pilots, so a comprehensive brief was given by CJ Ian Scott on exactly what the judges were looking for in the sequence.

Flying started promptly at 1000 with the second Beginners sequence and continued with 11 flights (including one hors de concours) for the TTTT, finishing soon after 1200. The winning team was determined by taking averages of the percentage scores of both teams, and showed that the MONOPLANES had won, albeit only by a small margin of three percentage points. Inevitably there were some anomalies: for instance the highest scoring pilot of the winning team (Phil Burgess) scored less than his counterpart in the losing team (Alan Cassidy). But that’s teamwork guys! And computers… 

All present were thanked for their contribution to the success of the weekend’s events, notably Chief Judge Ian Scott and his team (which temporarily included husband and wife Neal and Vida Spooner when staff became short), Scorer Jen B, all at Sherburn Aero Club, and – especially –the pilots who invest so much into providing their spectators’ entertainment. That being the final event of the season, the next important dates are the judges’ seminar and the 

AGM, dates and locations to follow.