Competition Director, Martin Reynolds (right) gets
the first competitor, Malcolm Evans underway.
Once again, thanks to the good offices of Competition Director Martin Reynolds, a serving RAF Air Traffic Control Officer, the BPPA was able to utilise the wonderful facilities of this front-line Tornado base.Most of us arrived, in fairly dodgy weather it has to be said, on the Friday afternoon, to be ferried to the local hostelry for the AGM. Next morning armed with an improving forecast we assembled in the flying club for Martin to give us the day’s brief. Nav 1 would start in short order followed later by the landings.
Flight planning for me proceeded as normal, except it was a bit tricky measuring the tracks due to there being only one usable line of longitude on the quarter-mill print. Also I was able to use my recently acquired, computer printed, speed graph instead of my usual hand drawn rubbish! Did it help? I left the room early to peruse the photos whilst seated in the plane. I was impressed by the range of subjects of the photos, some I thought would be relatively easy to spot, being of prominent buildings but others might prove more problematical (a clump of bushes)!
Competitors busy in Flight Planning for Nav Route 1 
It still seems somewhat surreal to taxy out from a huge tarmac apron onto a huge tarmac runway on a huge deserted airfield and announce to no-one in particular that one is rolling. But, once airborne, here we go again, where’s the start, how long have I got, where’s the road, there it is, follow it a bit, how long have I got, where’s that wood, over there, turn right a bit, how long have I got, there’s the start, a bit early, weave a bit, bit more, bit more, still early, set course now, still early, still early, NO I’M NOT I’M LATE, dive dive dive BLAST!!!
A pleasant trip past Sandringham to Hunstanton, southeast to West Raynham (what did they have there, Victors?), northeast towards the coast again….wake up, you’re at Little Snoring!...then south to Dereham and the finish just south of Marham itself. TP1 was a
photograph, and the very same car that was on the photo was actually there! Very odd, like Martin had taken the pic two minutes ago! It was pleasing to spot all of the photos, especially the bushes, but I missed a couple of the ground targets. Timing OK at TPs but a bit wayward enroute. But overall not too bad.
A spot of lunch after debriefing, then the landings in the afternoon. What a joy to have a huge airfield to ourselves (except the gliders of course but they were using their own patch). Even so, more than one competitor still found it tricky to stay far enough behind the one in front! I was in the first group of four, and after I’d finished (not very good) I went over to the line to watch. I thought the standard pretty disappointing, except for two competitors whose skills were a joy to watch. Mike has obviously got the landing characteristics of YOGI hacked. All his approaches were rock steady and his touchdowns precise and consistent. I thought he would win the landings by a mile. Then, along comes Howard! Howard’s Cub is the simplest aeroplane in the Precision Flying world and brilliant for the nav, but it has two handicaps for the landings…it has no flaps, and it has a tailwheel. Also, it has a very low wing loading which makes it more susceptible than a 150, for example, to changes in the wind. So Howard has to get everything right, just right, not just nearly right, but absolutely right, four times in a row. And he did. Wow.
Parking behind the Tornado 'Rhubb' Hangars
Day two. I felt awful. Something I ate? I don’t know, I didn’t think I’d had anything different. No matter, I just had to get on with it. The weather was turning a bit nastier too, storms expected later. Off on the nav, initially to the east over similar country to yesterday, then west over the beet fields, more beet fields, then the canal and some more beet fields, then eek! a thunderstorm, with real lightning. Very luckily, it was moving north just quick enough for me to reach TP6 before turning to the finish. Happily, I managed a clear round on the piccies once more. Even the one that Mike had told us was two combine harvesters (they weren’t).
No lunch for me. I still felt terrible. Then I went out to the plane to get something and the heavens opened. Stair-rods, or what? I got marooned for nearly half an hour. Back inside for the results and prizegiving. I considered myself lucky indeed to have placed second. Howard’s landings had helped him secure a well-deserved victory.
Lucky too that my homeward track too me past the storms, but I had 40 knots on the nose and boy it was rough. It took me another two days to recover from whatever bug I’d collected. But what a great weekend. Martin and his helpers put on a terrific show, so thanks Martin, from all of us. Can we come back next year?