I have been very lazy. I mean very. Couldn't even finnish the story from UK...
so, here goes.
We managed to fly all flights for the contest. Even against strong wind. At some times, it looked like the glider was just staying there, hovering against the wind. But still everyone managed to stay in the box. Or almost :) Here you can find the CD's report from the contest. All the results are available here.
In Beginners class there was 3 pilots, they flew only Known sequence which - of course- was very easy. Basic manoveurs, good way to enter to contest world... Winner got the highest prosentage of the whole contest, 82,659 %. Way to go Robert Rizk. He did flew with a safety pilot, there was cameras in the cockpit to ensure it was really him flying the plane. Oh, did I mention? He is 13 years old. Ok, 13 and a half.
Very promising young guy. Seems to have a good head on the shoulders. Other pilots in Beginners were David Aherne (2.) and Nick McCloud (3.).
In sportsman, there was 5 pilots. 1 Pilatus, 4 flew with ASK-21. Best score was a bit over 80% Adam Lindsey. I am pretty sure we'll here from him later. Other pilots were George Rizk (2.), Rodolphe Herve (3.), Michael Corcoran (4.) and Peter Sharphouse (5.)
In intermediate class there was just one pilot. David Gethin. Finnished first (and last) with 66,230 %.
Advanced had 2 pilots, presumable seeing them in Wagac 2012 in Slovakia as well. David Morgan 65,345 % and Richard Brown 65,153 %. Very close as you see.
In unlimited the contest was very interesting. There was also one non-UK-pilot, Dietmar Poll from Austria. He won the whole thing with 79,018 %, but obviously didn't recieve the trophy for Brittish Champion. That went to Maz Makari, 72,717 %. The contest between him and bronze medalist Paul Conran was very tight, since he received 72,607 % which is only 0,110% less. Fourth was David-John Gibbs with 56,079 %.
About judging... Since I am not on the CIVA officials list yet, I need the rankings in order to earn my place there. I am not in a rush, I am perfectly happy working with "my judge" Kimmo Virtanen in the CIVA contests, but this was a good practise. For what I know, for the next 2 years there is no way even for me to judge in a CIVA contest... But I did well. When I received the RI's from our Chief Judge, the first thing came out of my mind was "are you kidding me?". I finnished second. For my readers who are not that familiar with Ranking Indexes and all this comotion about judging, it basicly means that I was the second best in knowing in what order the pilots end up in final scores. The smaller RI is, the better. In Civa sanctioned contests, where there is 8-10 judges, you hardly ever see RI less than 10, but the less judges there is, the smaller the RI is. We had 5 judges and my RI was 2.40. So I can be proud of my debute.
I must say THANK YOU all in Buckminster Gliding Club. Thanks Paul for inviting me. It was a great trip and a good opportunity for me. It was great to see all the familiar faces Paul, Maz, Rachel, David-John, Alex, Chris, Graham, Dietmar, Nick and Jen... And all the new people I met.
Thanks to the people in Cross Swords Inn. A perfect place to stay the nights and have dinner and few beers. The food was excellent and service... well, you couldn't hope for more!
Special thanks to Jen and Nick for the sleepover before my flight at their house and the excellend dinner Jen cooked. Besides, they have ADORABLE little Jack-dog there :)
And to Charles for picking me up and to Nick about the ride back to the airport!
Untill the next time!
