Knettishall Competition – 18th June 2022
Contest Director: Peter Jenkins;
Thankfully, the blazing heat of the hottest day in June, was replaced by a very much cooler and, at times, wetter day. Nevertheless, the visibility and wind conditions were challenging. The rain clouds were blowing towards the NE whereas the surface wind was from the 180 deg opposite direction i.e. coming from the NE! We had complete cloud cover all day but the varying degrees of grey made it challenging to track the aircraft as it traversed the various grey hues!
We were reminded that Covid had not gone away when Graham Gooch had to withdraw having tested positive for Covid on Friday. Bad luck Graham and hope you get shot of the bugs quickly. We had been at 19 pilots at one stage but on the day, due to various reasons, we were down to 15 and ultimately only 14 flew – I’ll save the blushes as to why one didn’t fly!
I should also like to thank the Bury MFC for allowing us to use Knettishall for this competition and for two stalwart Club members, Ron Gray and Ian McDowell, for helping us with spotting duties since we share the field with full size aircraft. However, given the lowish cloud base and much rain, we never did get even a passing light aircraft to disturb us.
Our, now, regular caterers, Irene and Richard, started the day off with bacon baps which went down very well! (Irene says that next time it will be egg and bacon baps!). They reacted quickly to lunch time being advanced by an hour to feed the assembled pilots and spectators following an unforecast rain squall. They even survived a potentially dangerous event when an unusually strong gust of wind blew their gazebo off them! A group of strong chaps quickly had the gazebo under control and back into place this time tied firmly to the big gazebo which was weighted down with water carriers!
Eugene did a great job setting up the Notaumatics although the upgrade in software standard caused some confusion on how to deal with pilots who had withdrawn. Eugene rose to the occasion and, with a bit of help from Phil, on the phone, Eugene managed to get the upgraded software system functioning fine.
FAI(P) saw a battle for the top two places between Garry Peacock and Javad Aghababazadah with Garry winning all 3 rounds. George Drever, back into competition, led the chasing pack. Mark Allen had his most successful FAI competition ever by claiming 4th place. Very well done Mark! Eugene, initially distracted by his Notaumatic duties, improved with each round. Mike Wood, Ross Donovan and Peter Jenkins completed in that order.
Masters saw the return to competition, after a gap of at least 10 years, by Pete Madden. Pete had recently acquired an Element and flew this to great effect to win. Pete told me that he had learned a huge amount during the competition and hoped to put that into practice for the next one. Pete’s daughter was calling for him but will need to take a box to stand on next time so she can see over his head! Pete had his family there in force!
Mike Rieder had the misfortune to lose his well flown Allure two weeks before the competition when the entire battery pack and shelf departed at the bottom of the half 8-sided loop. He has quickly got to grips with his replacement airframe, an Elixir with the CRS contra and, despite having just 20 flights in the week preceding the competition to get to grips with the Elixir, he managed to place a close 2nd. Chris Bond placed 3rd while Mike Pole, recently upgrading to Masters, placed 4th. Keep it up Mike Pole!
Intermediate ended up with a 2-way struggle with Mick Broad just keeping his nose ahead of Neil Martin. Neil had flown Clubman at the 2019 competition at Knettishall.
We had one full time judge, thank you Les Przytocki, who was supported by Mike Rieder, Garry Peacock and Chris Bond. Well done to Chris for completing his first stint as a GBRCAA judge! We really do need to have people step forward to take on the judging role and not continue to rely on the good old faithfulls, so thank you Chris.
It was noticeable that the number of Clubman entries appears to have dried up. We need to think of ways to attract more entrants as right now its looking a bit dire. However, of the 10 pilots who flew Clubman in 2019, four were flying at this competition in Intermediate and Masters so we were doing something right!
The photo gallery is somewhat deficient in photos as the planned group photo over lunch was overtaken by the downpour that meant we took lunch early and after that we were dodging rain showers for a bit. My apologies to those who were not photographed with their models! I promise to do better next time. Only a couple of the photos manages to convey just how cold it was for mid-June! Those who had turned up in shorts and sandals were at a distinct disadvantage from those with longs and socks! It certainly was a shock to the system after a blazing hot Friday, but we managed to get through 3 rounds without any mishaps.
Look forward to seeing everyone again on 3rd September at Knettishall for which there are still vacancies!
Photos courtesy of Ron Gray and Peter Jenkins.
Peter Jenkins
