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.