Newsletter

7/06/10

Many congratulations to Chris Barnes on recently winning the UK Precision Flying Championships held at Haverfordwest, with Howard Cox finishing in a very close second place. This means Chris has won the event 3 years running and has definitely made himself a top candidate to organise the 2011 Nationals !! By tradition, the runner up gets to write the competition report, so please click here to view Howard's report.

Due to various circumstances, the date of the Andrewsfield event has been moved from 19th June to 26th June. An entry form for the event, along with contact details of the event organiser, John Marsh are available by clicking here

19/05/10

Having returned from holiday, a quick report on the Beccles competition held in April. Once again a well organised competition from Rodney and many thanks to everyone at Beccles for their kind hospitality and warm welcome. The weather was fine if a litlle hazy in places which did provide a margin of difficulty and for the landing comprtition, a slight crosswind was evident. The nav route was conducted using the new international rules which uses more timing check points around the route but has a reduction in the max number of penalties for missing a check point. Also a photo of every turn point is provided, which may or may not have a ground target with it. For the landing competition the penalties per metre for overshoot / undershoot have been increased thus keeping the scoring from the Landing phase of the competition more representative of the overall score. Congratulations to Chris Barnes who came first in the Nav phase and second in the landings for an overall first place. Many congratulations also to John Waterman who came first in the landing competition and also displayed some good track keeping around the route. John Marsh would have done a lot better if he had remembered to have the GPS logger on!!! Scores that lead to League points are as follows:-

Posn. Name Nav Landing Total

1st Chris Barnes 595 142 737

2nd Mike Pepper 808 546 1354

3rd John Waterman 2114 136 2250

4th Martin Reynolds 1856 442 2298

5th Paul Smiddy 2003 360 2363

6th John Marsh 2450 208 2658

17/04/10

The Chairman (and webmaster) has had a busy time since the AGM. Firstly with having to work overseas for 3 months and then having to attend a fairly intense training course. Hopefully things will start to return to a more sense of normality as the year progresses. So apologies to all members if I haven't been as 'pro-active' this year as I would have liked. I did get a submission to Loop accepted which has appeared in the April Edition but it was heavily truncated and edited but I suppose something is better than nothing!! I have had a few enquiries via the website, so things are ticking over on that front. It's a shame about the limited entries for Dubnica, but with 2 crews entered at least we get a team entry. If there are any last minute changes of minds of members either wishing to compete or attend as supporters please get in touch ASAP. It's not too late for entries, it just means you've missed out on the 10% discount on fees, as the discount deadline of 31st March has obvioulsy passed. Congratulations to Paul Smiddy on getting his book published in e-book format for more details click here Fianlly look forward to meeting everyone over at Beccles next weekend and don't forget annual subs time is approaching !!

3/12/09

The recent AGM and Dinner, organised by Malcolm Evans, was a great success and much appreciated by those that attended. The calendar of events for 2010 was compiled and is available on this website. A rough team composition for the World Rally Flying Championships being held in Slovakia next year was compiled, although anyone wishing to compete as pilot or navigator, take part as International Judge, Team manager or supporter should contact Martin or Rodney as soon as possible.

7/09/09

All the British team have arrived in Castellon, Spain, and have successfully completed a couple of practice routes. The weather has varied from hot and sunny 30 degrees, to wet and overcast with the cloudbase obscuring the local mountain tops. Tonight is the official opening ceremony and tomorrow sees the official practice day which will count as a scoring day should we loose any of the competition days later in the week. Hopefully the website will feature daily updates on the competition - internet access willing!!

15/08/09

The webmaster has been away in Alaska which being the 'Final Frontier' also applies to the internet connection in the accommodation I had. I was unable to update the website with any info on the World Precision Championships in Poland and the teams progress. At least when I am out in Spain with the European Rally Championships I will hopefully be able to add daily updates and news from the competition. Once I've spoken to those that went I'll hopefully update the site with an account of the British teams efforts, hopefully with some photos.

The recent weekend saw a well planned and executed UK Nationals, being run by Competition Director John Waterman. Many thanks to John and his team of helpers for an excellent competition and the members of the Shipdham Aero Club for the use of their facilities and warm welcome. The weather over the weekend was fine but with some fairly gusty conditions adding an extra degree of difficulty with both the 2 navigation routes flown and the infamous landing competition. Congratulations to Chris Barnes for not only winning the event and thus retaining his UK Champion title for the third year in a row but also once again retaining the League title. Congratulations to John Marsh, who came second in the Landing competition but gained enough points to take first place in the Landing competition league.

26/06/09

Due to being away in Canada, updates on the site have been a bit thin but I'm back with a vengence. League Tables for the events held so far are on the site and it's close at the top with no outright winner leading the way. It's going to go down to the wire at the Nationals! Reports for Beccles and Haverfordwest should be on th esite in the near future.

The World Precision Flying Championships in Poland are now less than a month away - good luck to those members of the UK team. Unfortunately, we are thin on the ground for entries for both Precision World and Rally European Championships; a situation we'll need to resolve next year. Hopefully, the current national financial situation will have improved by then.

Congratualtions to Martin Reynolds, who with RAF Waddington Team mate Pete Williams have been awarded one of the prizes from their recent Top Nav 09 entry. Although they don't know what prize they have won, they will receive it from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh next month. Martin is hoping to introduce Pete into the world of Precision flying and get him to enter at Shipdham with other RAF Waddington members.

15/05/09

Team entries for both the Precision World Championships in Poland and Rally European Championships in Spain have been finalised and entry fees submitted to the relevant organising host country. Now all we have got to do is get some decent practice completed in preparation. Any updates for either event will be placed on the relevant fixture page, so visit these areas by selecting the tabs on the left of the page. We have an invite to attend the French Regional Championships at Nangis on the weekend of 13/14 June. Anyone interested contact Rodney. Finally a reminder, if you intend going to the Beccles event on 23 May, please contact Rodney Blois (contact details in Event Calendar) so he can finalise numbers.

4/04/09

Despite an initial murky, misty start, the weather at Shipdham finally developed into a lovely day for flying allowing the training day to be conducted, albeit with a later than planned start time. Although we were short of a few of our prospective beginners due to aircraft serviceability problems and the bad weather in parts of the country, it was good to see some new faces. John Waterman had prepared a practice route which was 40 minutes to fly, thus long enough to provide a 'taster' of precision flying but helped keeping the costs down. Martin Reynolds gave an introductory briefing and co-ordinated the flight planning and map preparation part of the day. There were several experienced members on hand to provide mentoring both in the classroom and in the air. In addition to the training opportunity afforded to the newcombers, some of our up-and-coming competition pilots managed to get some advanced competition training, by flying around the course with a 'pundit', offering advice and possible ways of practicing for the future. The day was a great success and hopefully similar events will be put on during the year as additional events to complement our competition calendar. Many thanks to John Waterman for organising the day and the members of Shipdham for their hospitality. Finaly a big thankyou to Rhona and Celeste for acting as 'soup dragons' and keeping everyone fed and watered throughout the day.

12/03/09

The AGM and Winter Dinner was a successful event, with thanks due to Tina for organising the venue. Alsp our thanks to the staff of the Malvern Hills Hotel for the friendly service, excellent food and keeping the bar open !! The majority of the UK events have now been finalised and the dates and venues can be found in the 'Events Calendar' section of the website. Unfortunately the splitting of the World Precision and Rally flying Championships between 2 venues at different times of the year (historically both events have been hosted at the same venue, one following straight after the other) has effected competitors willingness to undertake both events both on a time commitment and financial basis. Therefore it looks as though at both events we will be fielding smaller teams than we have at previous World Championships. Also it has had an effect on our own UK events calendar, as effectively there are now 2 months taken out of the equation due to World Championshps commitments rather than the usual one. We'll have to see what the FAI plan for 2010.

11/01/09

Happy New Year !! one and all. 2009 should prove to be a busy year especially as the World Precision Flying and Rally Flying Championships will be held at different times of the year, in different countries (previously they have been co-located, with Rally following on after the Precision Championships). The calendar is also filling up with dates for overseas events and the UK events should soon be finalised and de-conflicted from other events (where possible). For those that haven't booked up accommodation for the AGM yet, now is the time to sort it before the hotel is fully booked. Menus for the Dinner will be circulated by Tina and Paul in the near future so that the catering arrangements can be finalised.

22/11/08

The AGM and Winter Dinner will be held at the Malvern Hills Hotel on Saturday 28th February 2009, to which all members and prospective members are warmly invited. The AGM will start at 2.30pm with the Dinner starting at 7.30pm. I'm sure any partners will find something to do in Malvern whilst the AGM is in progress. For further details contact myself, Paul or Tina (details on Events Calendar). To book accommodation at the hotel please phone 01684 540 690 and mention that you are part of the BPPA group when making your booking.

19/10/08

Having had a slight break in work pressures, I've done some updating including the Marham Competition report from Howard and updating the league tables, with the Shipdham and Marham reports. Can anyone who attended the Shipdham competition offer a short report for the website? Also, although I've had some pictures from Chris Barnes taken at Marham (which will be uploaded shortly), has anyone else got pictures from the weekend? I will try and get some more updating next weekend when hopefully there will be some news from Rodney (who is attending the GAC Conference in Prague this weekend) about next years World Rally and Precision Flying competitions.

30/09/08

The weather over the weekend, after an initial foggy start, allowed a full Uk Nationals competition to be successfully completed at RAF Marham. Included in the competitors line up were entries from Ireland and Sweden. Many congratulations to Chris Barnes on retaining his title as UK Champion. A full report and photos will appear on the site over the next couple of weeks (as work permits). The next major event in the club calendar will be the AGM and Winter Dinner, to be held in the latter half of February 09. Please try and make an effort to attend this event. Hopefully the venue will provide facilities to keep partners entertained during the afternoon AGM and they can rejoin us and enjoy the dinner in the evening. Tina and Paul are busy finalising details for this event, so look out for further details soon. At this event we will be looking to finalise the calendar for 2009, so if you would like to volunteer and host a competition for 2009, please contact the Chairman to discuss venue and possible dates.

18/09/08

Apologies for lack of updates on the site for the last 6 weeks. I spent August overseas and since my return have been busy with work and getting everything sorted for the UK Nationals to be held at Marham on 27 / 28 September. Any reports / photos from any of the events that occurred in my absence like Shipdham woul dbe gratefuuly appreciated.

28/07/08

The closing Ceremony for the Rally World Championships took place on the morning of the 26 July. The result for the individual Gold medal was a close run thing but was finally clinched by the Poles, following a brilliant, and seldom seen, clear round (no penalties!!). The Silver medal went to the French thus breaking the Eastern European monopoly, with the Czechs taking the Bronze. In the team results (best 2 crews scores to count) it was Poland, Czech Republic and France for Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively. The Great Britain team finished 7th, just behind the Hungarians, out of the 14 nations taking part.

Following the closing ceremony, an airshow completed the day. It seemed that most of upper Austria came to see the show, which included some excellent aerobatic displays from the Red Bull race team. There was also some RC model aircraft displays, including a 1/4 scale Yak 50 that defied the laws of physics, and a model Wliga that towed model gliders to 1000ft allowing them to execute some interesting aerobatic manoeuvres.

On the morning of the 27th July it was time to bid farewell to Ried and make the journey back to the UK. Both Precision and Rally teams have learnt a lot from the Championships and how we can better prepare to compete on the World stage. Next year Poland are hosting the Precision Flying World Championships and the Rally Flying European Championships - so if you want to be part of the British team, now is the time to enter one of our UK events to try your hand at the sport!!

26/07/08

The 25 July was originally set aside as a reserve competition day. Had the results of the 24 July have been completed then this day would of been Nav route 3. Now it is important just to get a complete route, as to be a 'legal' World Championships, 2 nav routes must be completed. The 3 GB crews were due to fly in the afternoon group. The organisers kept putting delays due to weather on the morning group as they couldn't afford for them to scrub. Eventually the morning group launched after Lunch on a shortened nav route. This resulted in the GB crews launching in the early evening, so on westerly legs looking into the setting sun through haze proved problematical with regard to spotting photos and navigating.

25/07/08

On the 24 July we woke up to find the rain had stopped, with a highish overcast cloudbase with the occasional piece of lower Cu. All 3 GB crews flew in the morning group and had some really good results and were pleased that it should lift them higher up the scoreboard. Chris Barnes and Mike Pepper, in particular, had really put in an excellent flight. Unfortunately during the middle of the afternoon group, bad weather caused the jury to cancel flying on the course. Therefore all scores for the day were void. This was bad news for the British team.

24/07/08

The 3 GB rally teams are well into the Rally part of the World Championships. The first route was flown on 22 July. The weather was reasonable, but the route planner had decided to incorporate an arc to be flown within what most competitors are referring as 'the bad lands' of the competition area. This area is fairly featureless and hard to navigate in. The British team didn't do as well as hoped for, but at least they managed to remember to switch on both loggers before getting airborne, unlike some unfortunate Hungarian crew.

On the 23 July, all 3 British crews were scheduled for the afternoon group. After several delays due to bad weather, the morning group and therefore the whole day was cancelled. Those who got their names on the list quick enough were able to take the one 50-seater coach to Saltzburg (there are 104 competitors plus managers and supporters in the competiton!!) to visit the Red Bull Hangar 7 and 8 complex for the afternoon. By the time the GB arrived at the airfield the coach was fully booked.

19/07/08

Disaster!! On arriving at the airfeld today we discovered 2 of our aircraft have been vandalised. There was a rock concert on the non-airside of the airfield last night as part of the 2 weeks of events associated with the competition. It would appear that some of the local audience took a short cut home across the airfield (and probably intoxicated), took it upon themselves that out of over 70 parked aircraft would vandalise 2 G-registered aircraft. Malcolm Evan's Glastar had it's door forced open, the GPS removed, VSI and AH smashed and the throttle and mixture levers bent down through 70 degrees. Personal belongings, including prescription glasses were stolen. Later in the day, Malcolm's smashed up Skyforce III was found discarded in some bushes on the airfield boundary. It would appear that the GPS was used to smash the instruments. The vandals also tried to gain entry into John Fisher's RV, having used (and damaged) the right flap as a step. On being unable to gain entry they ripped off his comm aerial off the top of the fuselage.

The organisers were very apologetic and felt very upset that some of the local population could do such an act. Unfortunately, this meant that with both aircraft being unflyable, neither pilot concerned could complete today's landing test, resulting in a maximum of 200 penalties being awarded for non-completion of flight. Whether this incident spurned Chris and Rodney to show defiance, but with a '0' and a '+1m' respectively, the British team soldiered on.

Total landing scores for all 4 elements of the landing competition are as follows:-

Chris Barnes 58

John Marsh 187

Rodney Blois 193

Barry Pearce 230

Malcolm Evans 375*

John Fisher 400*

(* only 3 of 4 landings completed - see reason above with 200 penalties for non-completed flight)

The evening saw the Closing Ceremony for the Precision championship and the Opening Ceremony for the Rally Championships, which concluded with an excellent firework-to-music display. As expected the Czechs and Poles dominated the top 10 pilots, although it was nice to see Robert Verbancic of Slovenia (and only entry from his country) take the Bronze medal. Final placings for Nav and Landings with the British team for a field of over 60 competitors were:

Chris Barnes 17th

Rodney Blois 44th

John Marsh 56th

Malcolm Evans 58th

Barry Pearce 59th

John Fisher 60th

With the best 3 pilot's scores used to make up the team score, Great Britain finished 7th out of the 12 participating nations. The Czech Republic took team Gold, Poland the silver and France the Bronze.

18/0708

Today was the second and final navigation competition. The route was flown in good VFR conditions with the odd shower about, resulting in much better results achieved by the team members. Unfortunately both John Marsh and Malcolm Evans suffered in the flight planning section with John Marsh's lack of concentration resulting in a costly 350 (maximum) penalties. Tomorrrow is the final landing competition, the 'glide with flaps', which will then complete the final test within the landing competition. The weather forecast is good, so condtions should be ideal.

16/07/08

The practice navigation competition has been sucessfully completed, with the team of International Judges and local helpers working together like a well rehearsed team. The route provided a good test for the pilots and allowed them to iron out any last minute problems. The first real competition nav route was flown today in bright sunny conditions. Unfortunately, the forecast competition wind proved to be diferent from reality both in direction and strength, with pilots having to weave and fly a slow as possible on any easterly legs, whilst then having to fly with 'throttle to the firewall' on any legs with a westerly component. Most pilots did well with the ground targets, but once again photo spotting proved difficult. The results were not as good as our previous practices and the Great Britain team are now sitting in 6th place behind the Germans, with the Swiss and Russians close on our heels. As expected the Czechs and Poles are leading the field. The forecast for tomorrow is for an overcast day with rain showers, although the organisers are hoping to get some of the landing competition completed.

14/07/08

All the Precision Pilots for the team have arived safely in Ried and over the last few days have been conducting practice routes and landings. The weather has been variable, ranging from a hot and sunny 33 deg C, to cold overcast with heavy rain showers. Luckily the heavy thunderstorms we have witnessed have occured late in the day. However, the showery conditions meant the planned Opening Ceremony on Sunday evening became an indoor event, using a local Sports Hall. Although not on the scale of the Olympic games or recent European Football Championships, the marching band and dancing display were well performed. Afterwards the competitors were treated to a Civic reception with local foods and wine on offer. Today was the Official Practice Landing day, allowing the judges and the electronic scoring system to be tested prior to the actual landing competition later in the week. Team performance was variable, although Barry Pearce achieved an excellent 0,-2m,-1m,-2m. Hopefully he can replicate this standard in the actual Landing competition. Tomorrow is Official Practice for Navigation and although designed to allow the judges and volunteer helpers to test out their organisation, will allow one last practice before competition starts in earnest.

18/06/08

Two Rally teams (Rodney Blois/Martin Reynolds and Chris Barnes/Guy Penderleith) have returned from competing in the Austrian National Rally Chmapionships. The event was held at Ried which is also the venue for the World Championships to be held in July. The event provided an excellent training opportunity to familiarise crews with the Austrian 1:200,000 chart to be used and also fly in the local terrain. A more detailed report with photos will appear on the website shortly.

11/06/08

The Haverfordwest weekend proved to be another successful event, with a few new faces trying their hand at Precision flying. A full report of the event will be put on the website shortly.

19/05/08

The Beccles weekend proved very successful and provided some excellent training opportunities. Although weather for the Saturday started off in fairly dismal fashion, by mid-afternoon it had improved significantly to allow a short practice nav route and landing competition training to be completed. It was nice to see a few new faces, who we hope will attend some of our other events throughout the year. On Saturday evening, Guy Penderleith played host for a most enjoyable Bar-B-Q, which due to the cold evening progressed into a Dinner Party. The weather on Sunday was bright and breezy and enabled a full nav route to be completed and was followed by further competition landing practice. Everyone seems to be making overall improvements in their performances and are looking forward to the next event at Haverfordwest in June, to continue the upward trend! Our thanks to the owners and members at Beccles for their hospitality and assistance throughout the weekend.

10/05/08

Just a reminder that annual subscriptions are now due, so please send to the Treasurer, Peter Grist at your earliest convenience, or you can pass to the Chairman, for onwards relay, at the Popham training day or the Beccles weekend.

27/04/08

The Popham event took place in some fairly pleasant weather conditions (makes a change!), although due to forecast bad weather for the Sunday, coming in from the west (and lack of Sportsman entries), it was decided to complete the competition on the Saturday, allowing those pilots from the west side of the country to get home, rather than get weather stranded at Popham. Chris and Barry had produced an interesting and testing route, with start, finish and 5 turn points, 10 en-route photos and 7 en-route ground targets. The results for the first six entrants (thus gaining league points) were as follows:-

1st Howard Cox 393 penalties

2nd Malcolm Evans 1179 penalties

3rd John Marsh 1187 penalties

4th Paul Smiddy 1191 penalties

5th Martin Reynolds 1322 penalties

6th John Fisher 1476 penalties

Congratulations to Howard on a convincing victory! It is interesting that 2nd to 4th were separated by 12 penalties ie less than one missed photo / ground target or 4 seconds on check point timing !!

Many thanks to the staff and members at Popham for the use of their facilities and hospitality, and to the non-competition pilots in the circuit who did their utmost to afford priority to pilots trying to make competition timed take offs.

Due to the fairly high circuit traffic density it was decided that in the interests of flight safety and not to impose too much on resident and visiting pilots, not to hold the landing competition.

Finally, thanks to Chris and Barry for organising the day. A full report and photos will be put on the website and within the GA press in the very near future, so keep checking 'What's new' for details.

24/04/08

The latest issue of Loop magazine has a double page spread promoting the sport of Precision flying. Hopefully this will generate some participation in the forthcoming training/competition weekends. There has also been a feature on the sport in the latest pilot magazine. In future if any members take any photos during competitions could they please email them to Martin so they can be put on the website but also used for follow up articles within the GA media.

27/03/08

The team training day scheduled to take place at Sibson, Peterborough on 2nd April has been postponed due to water-logging of the grass runways, from all the recent wet weather. This event will be re-scheduled for a future date, which Mike Pepper will publicise when known. Details will also be promoted on this site when available.

18/03/08

The team training day at Beccles, organised by Rodney was very successful. It was encouraging to see a complete team turnout and demonstrates the commitment of those selected. With a constant crosswind and the grass portion of Beccles runway being on the soft side, it was felt that not much would be achieved from practicing for the landing competition element. Therefore the emphasis of the day was placed on timing. Rodney had devised a short nav route using a number of railway stations as timed points which most pilots then flew round with loggers. Another timing exercise involved flying 4 minute 'cloverleaf' patterns using the Beccles clubhouse as the turnpoint feature. Most pilots attempted this exercise twice during the day, with noticeable improvements on the second attempts. For the Rally navigators, time was spent on revising navigation techniques. cockpit organisation and time management. The next team training day is planned for Wednesday 2nd April at Sibson, Peterborough under the organisation of Mike Pepper.

18/02/08

The Winter Dinner was held at the Heythrop Park Hotel, near Enstone and a good time was had by all those that attended. Luckily the weather gods were kind, providing hazy sunshine and crisp cold calm conditions for all those that flew into Enstone. The time prior to dinner provided the opportunity for members to finalise some of the Competition calendar for the coming season, including the provision of some team training days in preparation for those members who will be competing at the World Championships to be held in Austria later this year. Rodney Blois, the recently retired Chairman, was presented with a commemerative engraved hip flask, in recognition and thanks for all his hard work as Chairman over the previous 10 years. Many thanks to Paul and Tina for co-ordinating and organising the event. Photos from the Dinner can be viewed in the Photo Gallery.

20/01/08

The latest Winter Newsletter 2007 from the Royal Aero Club has been received. Please click here to view or save the Adobe PDF file to your PC.

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