SM Veckan i Borås & Glider Nordics

I printed out the next tickets today. Tuesday morning I'll be flying to Göteborg and hopefully from there to Borås somehow.  They are hosting the glider nordics and their SM-veckan (Svenska Mästerskap), so many different sports will be present.

So, sorting out my luggage. I came home late in the evening yesterday from Lappeenranta. There was
this Unlimited Racing event and I was there with Fouga-Team. Still need to go to the hangar to refuel it (there was no service last night when pilots flew back home) and empty my car from "travel set" of covers and oil cans.  I also commented the flying show in that event, Unlimited Racing. It was mainly a car and moto show, but with a twist with airplanes. Finnish Aviation academy was present and flew in the show with their Extra 300L. "Our Fouga" from Pori and the other from Kuopio flew in formation and a solo. And the hit of the show was Martin Sonka, who flew some amazing freestyle aerobatics and actually someone jumped over him with a Mini.

So, more stories to come, next from Sweden.

Both Fougas and one Red Bull Extra in the hangar of Lappeenranta airclub. 

Waiting for their turn, OH-FMA and OH-FMM ready to go!

3/5 display pilots, Martin Sonka, Ari Tolonen and Mika Kanto. Missing from the photo are Ari "Asa" Saarinen and Risto Viljanen.

There they go. the guy in the Mini had much worse landing than Martin with his Extra! :D

UK Nationals in Saltby

Few photos from UK, pardon the quality, just got my phone with me....

On the way to Saltby...
So close, and still so far away. What? Duxford and the Imperal war museum. Now I have driven pass it four times. Come on! Need. To. Find. Time. To. Visit!

This is how you know you have arrived to an airfield. Besides the gliders, this time you had to watch out for cows too. And rabbits. And hares. And Partridges. And Pheasants. And Queils. And Chris and Cindys dog, Sonny (which was one of the friendliest dogs I've seen in a while :D )

Chief Judge Bernard and Assistant Leif

Judge Graham Saw and his temporary assistant Dietmar and his friend

Judge Rod and his assistant. Which changed quite few times during the days. 

It was only Sunday morning, when we got a nice blue sky. But then the clouds came for a while so again a bit waiting...

THE Apple tree. When there was some low clouds, we did some shopping, and visited Sir Isaac Newtons home and THE apple tree. I mean, how excited can one be about an apple tree? But it is THAT apple tree!!!

Sir Isaac Newtons home

Not much photos taken about flying or that, so to the price giving ceremony....

Judge Graham and Contestant Chris 

Leif does his magic also outside judging line, guy takes incredible photos. Besides, I think at least one of his lences costs more than my car, so there was a bit of lence-envy in the air. In a good way tho :D

Team France, Chief judge Bernard and Judge Rod

These guys finished very close in points, less than 1 % difference, Paul and DJ

And then the winners. Sportsman, Bronze, Steve Hardy (no photo) and  Silver, Fran MacLoughlin, Ireland

Sportsman, Gold, Alex Harris

Intermediate, Bronze, Charles Baker

Intermediate, Silver, David Gethin

Intermediate, Gold, Peter Sharphouse

Advanced, Silver, Chris Cain (only two contestants, so no Bronze medal was given out)

Advanced, Gold, Adam Hoskin

Unlimited, Bronze, DJ Gibbs

Unlimited, Silver and UK Champion) Paul Conran

And Unlimited Gold, Dietmar Poll, Austria

And then we were on our way back and I just had to get a photo of that lovely architecture, so, so very English view over there.

On the way to the airport

THANK YOU UK, UNTILL NEXT TIME (and France, Ireland and Austria too)

Ploops and Numpties

It is finally time to head back to the blog-world and update what has been going on during the winter.

After returning home from Texas without any bigger problems than major jetlag, it was quiet for a few weeks and then we headed to the CIVA Plenary meeting. I was attending too, since I was assisting in the meeting, as "travel and hospitality person" or something like that. Meaning, I helped the President of CIVA,  to organize the meeting, so took care of travel arrangements, meeting facilities etc. Of course, that didn't go as planned for me ( I lost my wallet in Helsinki-Vantaa airport in the beginning of my travel), but hopefully everyone else had a nice meeting. I was voted in the CIVA Bureau as the second secretary with Mady DelCroix. It is going to be an interesting journey deep into the world of aerobatics. And I thank all of you who voted me.

In the end of November we had our own annual meeting, and I was elected (well, I was the only candidate so...) as the president of Aerobatic Club of Finland. Along my school and  part-time work, this will keep me busy with aviation. Again, thank you for the confidence.

The real season kick off was held in Oripää, in mid May. The first aerobatic camp. I visited only on Saturday, since I had exams at school etc, so I couldn't be there full time: I was happy to see so many pilots and other enthusiasts and several new faces. Way to go guys!

My first assignment as a judge this year was the UK Glider Nationals in Saltby, UK. I was there 2 years ago, and now I had the privlidge to work with this good Frenchman, Bernard Courtois as a Chief Judge. Nick Buckenham was our Contest Director and despite of the weather genie playing games with us, we managed to pull through the whole contest.

I flew in on Wednesday and waited for few hours in Stansted. I met Dietmar Poll there and got a ride with him and his friend to Saltby. We had to scrap the whole Thursday, since the weather really sucked, but on Friday we got few flights. Followed by few flights on Saturday. The contest was finished on Sunday in not-so-typical Brittish weather. I also met few old friends, who didn't attend the contest, but visited the site. Good to see you people. Hope to meet you again soon somewhere! And always nice to meet new people!  Hope to see you guys again too!

We had a good time on the judging line,  I had an excellent assistant so it was easy to work. We also developed few new names to the figures. Like Ploop. Or a Numpty.
Ploop is obviously a P-loop. Numpty then again, is a Humpty with nothing on it. Hence Numpty.

A lot of laughs, good friends, Good flying, not so good flying, few oooops, few NO NO NO NO! -moments, and again, a lot of laughs.