CD: Ashley Hoyland.

Judges P11-F11-Unkowns and wrong manoeuvre Alan Simmonds, Ken Moss, Brian Hoare, Adrian Harrison.
Judges P11: Matt Hoyland, Richard Christopher. Judges: Peter Scoles, Steve Hunt.

Score recorders: Kath Hoyland, Jenny Smitheman.

Thanks Ken for helping Kath and I set up on Friday afternoon after which five of us met at the Haxey Gate Inn for a chat and a meal. Richard and Brian were late arrivals who just made it before midnight on Friday.

Pilots briefing was at 8:45 with Charles taking off just after 9am for the first flight of the competition. An interesting situation arose through the day as this was the first time we have had no ‘none flying’ judges. That this competition got off the ground at all was with the kind cooperation of Richard and Matt, who agreed to fly P F and 2 Unknown schedules, which allowed them to judge the P11 flights.
Three judges judged the P11/F11/Uks and other pilots judged all the other schedules. I thank those pilots who were not involved in judging for the extra scribing duties they needed to do. I think we all will agree this arrangement worked well, even with some close results.

The weather is always worth a mention and the forecast was uncertain. On Saturday the wind was blowing out and then as the day progressed it was variable blowing from left to right. We had one forced 30 minute break for rain before lunch, (what lunch!).

The rest of the day was fine until we were about to meet at the Haxey Gate for our evening get together (It was good to catch up with Steve and Sue Dunning). Matt and Richard were helped by Brian, Ken, Adrian and Alan to pick the 2 ‘unknown’ schedules they would fly on Sunday. I think it rained on off all night and very heavily at times. What would Sunday bring?

Sunday started very pleasantly with intermittent warm sunshine and lighter winds. We pressed on without any formal breaks until it was time for the unknown schedules to be flown by Adam Lomax first with the stick plane and then for real. Adam flew all the manoeuvres with no zeros and some good scores. Richard flew first with Matt calling then Matt with Richard calling, an arrangement agreed by each pilot so neither would have any advantage. The first 5 rounds had been completed with few interruptions. Matt was first to fly the second unknown in round six and started when the weather took a turn for the worse, the light rain may have cleared, but not to be. Matt was asked to abort his flight half way through but he was in the grove by then and I don’t think he knew it was raining. Matt kept flying in the heavy rain and blustery winds. Thirty minutes later the front had blown through and it was decided that Matt should fly the second half of his flight again. It was questionable which was Matt’s better flight, the one in the rain or the second half after the rain, but in the end both Richard and Matt won three rounds each with Richard winning the Mike Birch trophy by just 5 points. Through the prize giving it was obvious everyone had enjoyed the weekend but there were some tired soles wending their way home that evening. Ashley