The BAeA National Senior Championship used to be held at Wickenby as the last contest of the season, and it was there that I did my first contest directing in late 1980’s. Event was moved to Sywell in late 1990’s (when also I was CD), and has been held there ever since. In those days the airfield and hotel were much less sophisticated than they are now: the hotel was modest in the extreme, and the airfield was all grass with a number of similarly basic hangars. I guess it was another decade before owners, the Bletsoe Brown family, bravely invested large capital sums to convert the site to what it is now: architectural masterpiece might be an exaggeration, but the facades of the hotel and the detail in its design must be quite unique and, in my opinion, greatly unexploited. Certainly from BAeA’s viewpoint it is the ideal contest location, even if some of the Aviator Hotel’s services do not match its extraordinary style.

The above, dear reader, is what is called padding, aka waffle, for alas there is little to say about the contest that you might define as reportable.

All (three Unlimited pilots, 12 Advanced pilots plus almost as many crew) convened in The Cockpit Room of the above Aviator Hotel at 1000 hrs on Thursday for a standard but comprehensive briefing from principal officials Eric Marsh as CD, Nick Buckenham as CJ, John Domaine as ATC and – a new delegate – Steve Todd as Weather Advisor.

The first of three Unlimited pilots took off at 1200 to fly Programme 1 Free Known, and at 1240 the first of 12 Advanced pilots to fly their Programme 1, both immediately followed by Programme 2 First Unknown. During the latter group, first Emily Collett had to withdraw feeling unwell, then Mike Collett landed back with a technical problem, causing both to be deferred to the end of the group. Pleasingly ATC demonstrated exemplary cooperation by facilitating flying right upto the curfew, with the last pilot’s final wingrock at 18.00.45.

Then started the lengthy process of pilots selecting figures for the remaining two Unknowns, Programmes 3 and 4. It is undoubtedly time consuming, arguably tedious, and certainly labour intensive: Scorer Jen B was at her workplace at 0600 next morning to process the paperwork. Although numerous alternative options have been suggested, the system remains: perhaps in future a simpler solution might be found.

Friday dawned unflyable, such that it was not until 1430 that we were able to launch both Colletts  to fly deferred Programme 2, then the three Unlimited pilots to fly their Programme 3, but only 4 of the 12 Advanced pilots to fly their Programme 3, by which time it was 1800 closure. With no admin that evening, the contest dinner was attended by most pilots and officials at the a local pub, organised as ever by Jen B.

Saturday morning’s weather was good, so that after a 0900 briefing the next pilot Tim Barnby – 2007 Unlimited Champion and making an excellent comeback in a diminutive S1-S – flew at 1040, but then  numerous low cloud interruptions disrupted the flow considerably before Advanced Programme 3 was completed. However this did facilitate the David Perrin Four-minute Freestyle event to be inserted during lunch break and judge re-positioning, then later in the afternoon the Fourth Programme of the three Unlimited pilots.

Because Sywell is such an excellent (albeit not inexpensive ) venue for BAeA, it seems a pity not to use the full four days we had available, but several factors, including an ever-changing weather forecast for that fourth day, made the prospect increasingly unattractive, so as CD I took the decision to end the event after Unlimited Programme 4 at about 1730 on Saturday. At the final briefing I expressed my regret and apologised to any consequently disappointed pilots (“too many unknowns” was the explanation I unwittingly gave!), and after thanking all who had participated – notably judges, airfield personnel, scorer and pilots – newcomer Ruth Scott was invited to present awards to those listed elsewhere.