Contest Director's Report

It was a close-run thing, said The Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo, very late on the day. Well, no such drama or event of historical significance took place at Compton Abbas. However, for two days, 14 pilots fought valiantly for three trophies; The McAully, Newbold and Don Henry and it was, in no small way, an example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

I am, of course, talking about the constant “will it, won’t it” play ball cloud base-wise and a howling cross wind-wise. Those of you who know Compton Abbas know that it can be CAVOK one moment and then 100% cloud cover the next; followed by lots of “Birmingham is giving 4000ft”, “we won’t fly today” and  “I think we might” comments from all and sundry. Friday afternoon, we finally got the first cohort of Sports pilots up and six sequences flown, followed by Intermediate and then Advanced. Flying at Compton is now restricted to a narrow window of opportunity (summertime 09.00hrs – 16.45hrs) but we did manage to get all the Knowns done that day. The battle favoured Charlie Coode (Sports), Gary Ferriman (Intermediate) and David Thomson (Advanced).

The following day looked far more promising. Two sequences each to fly and plenty of time. Maciej and Daz could not get out of Fowlmere the day before and were also due to join in. At the second day briefing at 08.30hrs it was CAVOK at Compton but still with a highly entertaining on – judge wind that only the truly skilled would manage well.

Out we went and no sooner had Charlie strapped in for the first flight when the cloud bubble up and sink. Yes, there were gaps, lots of them. Free breaks all round but it still made life extremely difficult. I spent my time issuing notices saying “Flying has now ceased for another hour, then another and then another.

The weather in other parts of the country did not look good with pilots needing to get home. My view was if this didn’t change by 14.30hrs, we would call it! All day long it was “shall we, shan’t we. We had managed to scrape Sports through up to around mid-day. By now we had eight pilots who had only flow one flight, Maciej and Daz hadn’t flown at all.

I admit I was convinced that that was that. Charlie Coode said he was happy to carry out one last cloud base check just before 15.00hrs.  “2700 ft AGL” he said and rising and holes starting to appear! Off we went! Another cloud base check and it was rising well and really opening up, which was good, very good. It was Saturday and many spectators had also turned out to watch our pilots doing their stuff.

Another eight flights completed just in the nick of time. Most pilots had flewn two sequences, the competition completed, and the crowd pleased. The pilots who took the lead on Friday continued their form and extended their leads at the end of day two.

Whilst we spent much time drinking coffee, scoffing and nattering, there are certainly worst place you can be stuck on the ground with nowhere to fly. New ownership and the airfield management team under Jason Hammond run a great show in an extremely smart environment. If you can get down there it should be well worth it.

Finally, thanks to our team with Brian Gleave as CJ, a special mention to Ann Sandford for running the scoring system and to Brian, Julie, Martin, David Heard, Hannah, Catherine, Piers and last but not least, Jamie who pulled out stops as did Mark Garrett (deputy manager) of the Compton team. End of Broadcast.

Phil Massetti

3rd June, 2024