Seventy-five years ago, three Polish pilots arriving at an English airfield would have been there to  join  the crucial fight for survival which was the Battle of Britain. The current generation of Polish Aerobatic Glider pilots are still very proud of that. Jan Wozny, Maciej Pospieszynski and Slawumi Talowski made it clear that they wanted to dedicate their flights in our Nationals to the memory of their predecessors. They made a big impression, both in the air (and in the bar!) and made many friends.

The competition ran from Thursday to Saturday, as usual, for Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited. Sports pilots joined us on Friday and beginners on Saturday. We met up on Wednesday at 6.0 pm for figure selection for the unknowns in Advanced and Unlimited. The old tradition of Swift flyers inventing Fox-flummoxers is alive and well. Some “challenging” figures were posted.

The weather was typical for Saltby.  A fickle high pressure to the south just failing to become properly established that far up the country, leaving us mostly dry but with a complex system of fronts giving variable amounts of cloud and, to start with, a stiff westerly wind. The game remained the same throughout; standing by until the base went up enough for split programmes with just the occasional luxury of 4000 feet available for full sequences. We did an awful lot of cloud-watching. Thanks to Howard Whybrow we learnt that those smudgy grey low ones are “weather dogs” to a Bedfordshire farmer!

With patience, persistence and a late finish, by the end of day one all the top three classes had flown a known sequence and a free. Maciej led Dietmar at the top of unlimited, by a whisker, with Paul and D-J not far behind . Advanced was almost too close to call and Dave Gethin led Steve and Charles, but not by a lot. There was some lovely flying and scores were impressively high.

On Friday the wind had gone round 180 degrees. We made the long drag to the far end of the main runway to make an optimistic start under a sheet of lumpy cloud cover, just above box top. The first of the Sports level pilots, Dave Humphreys, flew his first known nicely, then Paul Conran followed in the Fox to fly the unknown, but unluckily disappeared into cloud on the tow. Lower cumulus had started to form and he had to abort. The rest of that day was a frustrating wait. We got a few more split flights done but eventually had to give in and scrub it in favour of go-karting or the temptations of the Melton Mowbray charity shops.

At briefing on Saturday we remembered Sam Mummery, our recently-departed old friend and Pilatus B4 legend, with a minute's silence.

Next day it was a slow start, again on runway 07, but we were flying split sequences by 11.45, carrying on in the same order as the previous day. Roger Hamilton, the Buckminster GC launch marshal, kept the two tugs running efficiently. With a few pauses we at last got around to flying our two beginners, who both did well. That gave us an official result, but Sports were eager for one more so we shortened the  known 2 by three figures and all six pilots flew from 3000 feet. No need for the reserve day on Sunday..I declared the competition finished, early enough for some fun flights in the Fox and for Maciej and Slawek to fly Graham Saw's lovely Lunak.

As for the results, at Unlimited Dietmar and Maciej flew outstandingly well (as one would expect from their world rankings) both scoring over 80% and the former finishing ahead by only 7 points. Paul Conran scored over 75% and retains the National Championship.

At Advanced, Slawek flew a near-perfect unknown to end up clear winner, just shy of 80%. Alex Harris finished second on 72% and becomes the Advanced National Champion. Graham in the “Loony” a close third. Intermediate winner was Dave Gethin, doing it the hard way by flying the K21 against the B4s and scoring an impressive 74%. Steve Hardy, in his first outing at Intermediate, did well in the LGC B4 to come second on 69%, only a little ahead of Charles Baker. In the Sports class, Michael Corcoran really nailed it this time and finished on 79%, but the standard was admirably high and Rod Herve got silver on 76% and Trevor Dale bronze on 74%. The Beginners obviously learnt something by watching. Jan Wozny scored 73% and Mark Butcher 72%...pretty good first-time scores. Sports next time!

A finished competition always leads to a good Saturday night. The wonderful Buckminster Buffet and Bar under Barry and the Girls produced a vintage spread. Later we had music and Unlimited vodka-drinking coaching from the Poles. The Duke of Rutland kindly presented the medals and trophies on Sunday morning. Each of the polish pilots made short but sincere speeches and promised to return. We have made good friends there. The judges did a marvellous job, managing to supply the unknown sequences and the scoring as well as spending some long vigils on the line. My sincere thanks to Nick, Lief, Chris and Rod. Thanks also to the pilots who helped out scribing.  Well done, Buckminster Gliding Club, again...thank you all and see you for the open!