It is now !

After no flying on Thursday Fridays forecast was not much better, there was a small weather window in the morning to enable some timed spots, this did lead to much nervous nous beforehand, especially if you were in a medal position. The windy conditions did catch some pilots out however everybody held there nerve to consolidate and hold positions. That was it bar any protests, for once there were none at all and this has to be down to the good organisation and clear tasks. Therefore the party on Friday could begin.

Saturday was the official closing ceremony and this was another very prompt and well organised event. British national anthem played three out of four times is hugely satisfying. Results still oin official site - click on links below.

WL1 -click for scores

A very dominant performance from Richard to win Gold -look at the points margin which is quite considerable. David Hadley's position reflects a harsh gate penalties on the last navigation task dropping him from a certain medal to a lower position. Unfortunately because of the no fly on the Thursday the two nav tasks planned would have given pilots the chance to claw back some points.

WL2

Rob and John scored a convincing gold in WL2- favourites all week they gained a useful lead in the two more machine orientated tasks - the Triangle and the spiders web, The triangle being a task made for a Quik R, AL1 refugee Paul Welsh did incredibly well to score a popular Bronze in the flylight Tanarg ably assisted by 'spotter Proctor'; Frank and Emily his daughter in a standard Quantum did very well with some fantastic scores in the nav tasks, he was just pipped by former champion Simon to come 7th and 6th respectively. Neil and Alan just missed out on a diploma with a consistent performance in their Blade. Well done to Laurie and Mary who learnt a lot in the week and really needed Thursday and Friday to start putting into practice what they had learnt -fourth overall in the triangle economy task really demonstrates potential and Laurie's last spot of the comp was an absolute peach - I don't think I have ever seen a Quik stop in so little distance- 25metres ! !

AL2

An incredibly tight class and one which was wide open, David Broom once again won a silver ably assisted by Aircraft owner Chris Levings. Chris and Claire Wills once again did well to come sixth and newcomers to this class Dave Robbins and Michel Carnet did well to secure 9th in this competitive class. With the weather being bad on the Thursday and Friday this class would have been worth watching for some significant changes if the tasks had gone ahead.

All of this resulted in TEAM GOLD for the British team which clearly demonstrates the strength and depth to the team squad.

Well done to all the competitors in what was a fair and hard fought competition with a strong spirit running through it. The organisation was first class and very efficient and the tasks had the right balance which clearly tested pilot skill. Most pilots flew 12-14 hours in 5 days with the last two days spoiling what was planned.

Our team thanks to Len and Malcolm who did a superb job as always and to David Daniels team manager.

Well done to the organising team and in particular thanks to Rob Hughes, RMH, Jeremy and of course Paul Dewhurst and the FLYLIGHT team, Sywell was a fabulous venue which really showed the rest of the Europe how to run and organise a comp in style.

Thursday- heavy cloud, no flying - the crowds are on the pitch, they think its all over

A disappointing day, weather forecast was less than positive and the right call was made, coaches were booked and teams were given the opportunity to go to Old Warden and visit the museum. If you are in a medal position then pilots are doing a rain dance, however if not then you are hoping for a miracle and a better forecast tomorrow. Depending on weather windows there may be spot landings in morning in classes, if not it may all be over........

Weds night

After a hard days flying the Italian team kindly offered to cook for all of the competitors. A good night followed!

Thursday morning

Tuesday was a fuel limited task with pilots having to fly the largest area triangle possible on a limited amount of fuel. After much calculation and head scratching the best strategy was to fly downwind on the speed leg and then have an long two legs back to the finish point, all the time thinking about the fuel and getting back to the airfield. British Team pilots again did well with Richard and David coming 1st and 2nd in a task made for a chaser, Rob in the Quik R also produced a rather big triangle in a Quik R task also.

Yesterday was a spiders web task which involved flying to as many turnpoints in 2 hours, string at the ready pilots had to plan as quickly as possible to enable the longest time in the air. Good scores were again achieved leaving things finally poised into Thursdays task- a trip to Old Warden - the weather does mean that this could be interesting with an early start before the forecast showers arrive.

Plenty to fly for and plenty to loose !

Monday night party

The organisers put on a party last night in the hangar. The bar was set up for us to serve ourselves, so it was funny watching Czechs and Lithuanians getting to grips with an English beer pump - lots of froth to begin with. It started off quite quietly, a few videos on the TV and a big Jenga in the corner.

Then the music was turned up with the event organiser Rob acting as DJ. These parties are aimed at bringing together the teams who otherwise might not socialise between their different tented villages. The atmosphere was excellent with a lot of old friends getting together, as well as new ones being made.

Most of the competitors went to bed early which left the assistants and visitors to start the dancing. Chief Marshal Jeremy's wife Lorraine was jigging away with Dawn Dewhurst, being egged on by DJ Rob... who seemed to be enjoying himself too.

It was over by midnight, though the pilots were already long asleep, ready for Tuesday's flying - an economy task, trying to fly as big a triangle as possible. Let's hope Grimwood gets some points back... he's currently behind Paul Welsh!

snakes and ladders

Simple in concept but hard to fly especially in gusty conditions, this involved flying down snakes and up ladders at a pre-declared ground speed, the change from snake to ladder was achieved by identifying a TP photo and then drawing a line to your next start gate, the conditions which were fairly gusty made the task that bit more interesting for the trike pilots and the speed change from one corner to another made for some interesting flight attitudes, going sideways over track gates or just turning into wind to slow down were good tactics for maintaining ground speed. a washing machine day ! Scores again were good for the British team

WL1 - Richard again doing well, David Hadley also proved that a 508 engine will run with no oil, he did comment that he could hear it tinkling whilst flying, fortunately Conrad and Nigel Beale got to work and it looks like a fixed engine will enable him to fly today's task

WL2- Rob and Paul Welsh continued there battle with the Polish pair leading the way - look at the scores and you will see how close the margins are - one mistake and that's it - its only Monday.

AL2 - Robbins and Carnet had a good day and celebrated with 8 mints ! - a long story and Andy Aitkin won the precision landing task in tricky conditions. Chris and Claire also produced another good score. This class is really close.

All set for more fun and games today with a task to really test peoples machine and also there confidence in its fuel burn - the return back to the airfield could result in some 'squeaky bum' moments - more strong winds forecast ...... the planning continues !!

weekend update

Saturday

After an extremely efficient and quick opening ceremony the competition started with the Spitfire task. The aim was to fly around the outline of a spitfire spotting photos and also the flying at declared groundspeeds and also as fast and slow as possible. This was a fairly straightforward task and did not cause any surprises. If you look the scores for this task but be careful to check you have the latest ones, there have been many revisions! Saturday evening’s briefing was about two tasks the following day, one to get to Sutton Meadows in Cambridgeshire and one to return.

Sunday,

This promised to be a tough day with a lot of flying and probably a high number of points to be lost. The task over to Sutton consisted of a track line to follow with 3 ground speed declaration gates which pilots had to arrive at on their nominated times. Then pilots had to fly a track line which took them around the Cambridgeshire countryside, upon arriving at Sutton Meadows we then had to complete a short landing over a tape. task briefing sheet This task proved to be good fun with 10 photos to spot and a fairly high workload followed by the remainder of the flight into Sutton. Again Sutton Meadows proved to be excellent hosts and after a short rest and lunch the planning for ‘the pipeline’ task started. This was a sequential navigation task which really proved to be tricky, the problem with sequential navigation is that miss one gate and the consequences are dire especially when there was a groundspeed score attached to it!

There were 12 photos in all for this task and as well as marking track lines this was a high workload task. Fo r some pilots in the slower machines this took almost 3 hours so combined with the mornings task it was clear to see why there were some tired faces around after the days flying. At this stage of the week after only two days the pilots had completed 6-7 hours flying and already scores were looking promising for the British team pilots, In WL1 – single seat flex wing Richard has flown consistently well to gain a small lead of the leading Czech pilot with myself and David Hadley in the top six. In WL2 Paul Welsh (AL1 refugee) who only sat in his aircraft for the first time last week) is in 2^nd with Rob snapping at his heels, Frank Hodgson is also in the top 6. In AL2 David Broom is also proving that a last minute change of class and aircraft is not an issue and is well placed. With such consistent flying the team prize scoring is looking promising also.

Saturdays task

Sunset- let the comp begin !

Following a lengthy briefing the comp is set to start tomorrow. Hopefully weather permitting we should fly the spitfire task which is similar to yesterdays practice task. Let the comp begin !

That Friday Feeling

Yesterday was the official practice task and most competitors took chance to calibrate and have a go. The task was relatively simple and involving following disused railway lines and identifying photos. there was also a speed declaration element and also a ground speed. The purpose of the task was to mainly try out procedures and give everything a good run through. As yet the scores are not known but the team had a good day. The evening involved some team members popping off to Sutton Meadows to practice precision.

Friday has been fairly steady, with some flying this morning. There has been some flying and also the odd shower, it is pretty windy at present. Opening ceremony is at 11 tomorrow with tasks in the afternoon. Briefing is tonight at 6pm.

Set up

The majority of teams have now arrived and set up and preparations continue,just waiting for the vital services to be set up, wireless and the odd bit of power!
There are a few pics of campsite which is starting to take shape.