It's a scrub

So, we held the prize giving instead.

On the left, Anne Chapman and Shack Roberts receive their prize from Jim White (Comp Director, Met Man, Task Setter and person to be moaned at). On the right, overall winner Dave Watt announces what he's going to spend his prize on (see below for details).


Prizes were awarded as follows:

Winner of the best performing novice entrant (awarded to the top entrant who hasn't previously competed in a rated competition): Shack Roberts / Anne Chapman in Discus 'WD'.

Winner of the best performing non-Nationals entrant (awarded to the top entrant who hasn't previously competed in a National rated competition): Ashley Birkbeck in LS7 '944'

2nd Place went to Denis Campbell in Ventus 2CXT '370'. Denis has kindly agreed to use his winning to pay for an evening meal for the helpers.

1st Place was awarded to Dave Watt in Ventus 2 'DW'. Dave clearly had plenty of fun at this year's competition as he's used his £500 as payment towards his next year's membership at Booker!

Sunday task ?

At the 11:00 briefing it was announced that there was a 'slim chance' of a soaring window this afternoon. A rebrief will be held at 13:00. In the event that we scrub the rebrief will double as the closing ceremony/final prize giving. There's a few pilots who're still quite keen to fly as the scores are quite close!

An early scrub today

Results from Friday's flying were announced: Denis Cambell 3rd (87.0km/h); 2nd Andy Betteley (92.6km/h) and winner for the day Dave Watt (105.1km/h). Photo shows Dave receiving his prize.


An early decision to scrub allows us to relax and do something else for the day. Tomorrow's briefing will be at 11:00.

Saturday and blog comments

Not a good start to the day when you take a look at other gliding club forecasts and two of them include the word "dire" to describe today's conditions! We'll see what the Comp Director / Met Man / Task Setter decides.

On a seperate note, anybody looking at the coments to the blog postings may have noticed that we're being spammed by 'Sandy' who is putting up adverts to their website. Don't click on the link to their site as it's just a crummy "get rich quick" scam. As moderator it seems that I can't easily remove the comments but I will be able to moderate any future ones. I suppose the good news is that it means that the blog is generating sufficient traffic for a scammer to be interested in it - fame at last!

Friday's results

Are now available on the Booker Regionals Page.

Meanwhile here's a pic of Denis Campbell (370) at this morning's briefing as he walked us through his winning flight on Thursday.

Last minute retask!

After the Comp Director looking at webcams to the North, we had a rebrief at the front of the grid. Decision was taken to set a new task -

TASK C - Stokenchurch (SOS) - Oxford East (OXF) - Chilbolton (CBN) - Didcot (DID) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) = 183.3km.

This turned into a bit of a "Treasurer's Special" for a few pilots who didn't make it through the start, relight, retried, landed, relight again and so the "kerching!" of the launch fees eventually stirred up enough of a thermal for a few late re-re-re-starters to at least head off to Oxford.

Eventually three pilots didn't start, a few didn't complete the task but everybody made it back to the airfield. We await the results.....

Friday tasks

The Comp Director announced the tasks today as:

TASK A - Stokenchurch (SOS) - Northampton (NOS) - Andover (AND) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) = 243.7km
TASK B - Stokenchurch (SOS) - Buckingham (BUC) - Andover (AND) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) = 201.6km

Currently we're going for Task A, with first launch not before 11:30.

Bump charts updated

Ed Davies has updated the bump charts for Day Four.

Here's a pic of Ashley (944) and his retrieve crew, eight year-old Alice, in a field yesterday.

Extra points if you can spot Stokenchurch mast in the background. A comment from Ahley sums it up:

"It was the perfect field - with a pub in the corner...shame it was only 4.1 nm from BOO!"

We're off for a curry!

First off all, well done to Denis (370) who made it around the task. Great performance. Results are now available on the main comp website page.

This evening we went for a curry. This was very well attended with around 24 of us going along. With an eye on the weather the majority of us steered clear of the Vindaloo and Madras! Let's see in the morning if it's worked.

Showers B* showers

They (we) started just as a shower arrived in the vicinity of the start sector and for some it kinda went downhill from there! 732 & K4 headed back to the airfield and sat on the bus 'tactically waiting' for the showers to go through and the weather to massively improve (which it didn't). Both relighted in the hope that the day had sufficiently recycled. Subsequently K4 landed out and 732 scuttled home.

Everybody else set off on task and either landed out or started their engines except for 370 who we haven't heard from yet. Here's hoping he's made it around!

Anyway, we're off to go and retrieve 'WD' out of a muddy field now!

Thursday task

Task A - Stokenchurch (SOS) - Wantage North (WNW) - Mursley (MUR) - Newbury South (NES) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) = 225.4km.

Task B - Stokenchurch (SOS) - Wantage North (WNW) - Mursley (MUR) - Pangbourne (PAN) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) = 180.6km.

First launch not before 12:00, currently aiming for Task A.

Vini Vidi Scrubby

The Comp Director did as promised and went off on a sniffer flight to Reading and back (loads of lift, straight line to Reading and back, blah, blah)....He came, he flew, he scrubbed......Strong winds and weak enthusiasm combined with showers to the West convinced him that it wasn't really a taskable day.

So, briefing 10:00 tomorrow morning.

Bump Charts now available

Ed Davies has kindly created Bump Charts for this year's comp. Gives a different view on progress. They've been added to the useful links section as well.

He's not letting the day go yet....

The Comp Director/Met Forecaster/Task Setter has had a conversation with himself and concluded that there may yet be a slot to fly a task. So, the plan is that he's going to act as a sniffer between now and 14:00 and if he can stay airborne in a K-21 he'll land and set the task at the front of the grid. So, could be an afternoon to sneak around the task whilst other competitors have disappeared off for the day :-)

Is it an AAT ?

Matt describes tactics of planning how to fly an AAT while we wait for the rebrief at 12:30

Wednesday morning

The Comp Director announced at this morning's briefing that there was a "less than 10% chance of flying today". Not giving up totally on the day however, he's announced that a rebrief will take place at 12:30.

Day Three results

Are now available from the Regionals 2007 page.

Jim is still saying that tomorrow morning's briefing will be at 10:00. Maybe he's spotted that tiny bit of green/yellow on the 14:00 blipmap ?

Wednesday briefing be at 10:00

This morning's briefing at 11:00 confirmed that the day was scrubbed and we had the chance to watch the maggot race of yesterday's finishers (Matt, Dave Watt and Dennis Campbell) showing "how I dunnit".....talk of streeting, wave influence, scrapes from low down and why haven't an engine doesn't guarantee getting you home!

Tried to put a notice up on the whiteboard outside the clubhouse about tomorrow morning but was beaten by the pouring rain.....thereby vindicating Jim's decision to scrub the day.

Scores for yesterday will appear on the website this evening. I've been busy replacing a perfectly good, accurate and easy to use vario with another one that makes lots of different noises and has all sorts of interesting knobs and settings for me to completely mess up with.

Day Three results

Now that all the loggers are back following the landouts, top three places yesterday:

1. 315 Matt Cook Duo Discus 03:20:05 70.8km/h 236.0km 750 pts
2. DW Dave Watt Ventus 2 03:32:54 68.4km/h 242.8km 742 pts
3. 370 Denis Campbell Ventus 2cxT/18m 03:57:36 59.5km/h 235.7km 712 pts

Wake up and hear the rain

It's on mornings like this that I really appreciate the fact that I'm not sleeping in a tent. The Metcheck weather advisory issued last night gives a clue -

A developing low pressure to the southwest of the country will bring some highly inclement weather across many parts of the country during Tuesday. Outbreaks of heavy rain will spread into the southwest of England overnight and continue to push northwards across all but the far northwest of Scotland. A general 20 to 30mm of rain is possible, but western hills may well receive in excess of 50mm. Some localised flooding is possible. The other concern is strong winds. For a time, especially across southwest England and other exposed parts of western England and Wales, winds may well gust up to 50mph. A combination of the heavy rain and strong winds will bring hazardous travelling conditions and will also affect outdoor activities. Mariners should also be aware of unseasonal conditions at sea.

Sure enough, the noise of the heavy rain this morning has been replaced by the sounds of the wind picking up. Forecast rainfall is for it to peak at lunchtime (at 8.6mm) but continue drizzling (should that be grizzling?) for the rest of the day. Only task is likely to be an AAT (Assigned Area Tea drinking). I'm thinking BOO-COSTA-STARBUCKS-BOO.

A third competitor completed the task

Just discovered that 370 made it around the task as well (sorry Dennis!)

End of day.....

Two finishers (315 and DW). Three landouts at Thame (279, WD and 27B), 732 made it to Thame but thermalled back to Booker, two landed at Bicester (M9 and P4), several in fields (161 and 944, who are in the same field near Northampton), K4 at Silverstone, FUN Sackville Farm, EN near Northampton, Z near Brackley, 208 started his engine near Towcester, GA started his engine at Olney and at least one pilot didn't like the look of things and didn't start.

Task for Monday

It's an AAT (yippee, horray, boo hiss - depending upon whether you like them or not) and we're off to East Anglia.

Stokenchurch (SOS) - Calvert (CAL - 15km) - Chatteris (CHT - 45km) - Towcester (TOW - 15km) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish (BF1). 159.7km/410.3km. First launch not before 11:30 (so I'd better run to the grid and get strapped in!).

Monday morning

And the sky is looking better to the North. Briefing is at 10:00 (grid before briefing).

Day Two results

Provisional results are now available, check out:
http://www.bookergliding.co.uk/public/Regionals2007/datafiles/78c_BookerRegionals2007.htm

Thirteen pilots completed the task, two landed out and a couple never really got going.

Tomorrow's forecast varies between wet & windy, wet, or windy. Let's hope it's something completely different (at least the sky didn't spark today as was forecast).

They're back

Well, some of them are! As at 17:00 all but two had made it back (both landouts being aerotow retrieved). After looking at the sky, Ashley has decided to have another go.....that could be a very good tactic as the day just has got better and better. Lets hope he makes it back before we've all gone to the bar.

The tasks are set

Task A - BOB - Chieveley (CHV) - Thame Airfield (THM) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish (BF1) -BOO = 109.4km
Task B - BOB - Ilsley (ILS) - Thame Airfield (THM) - Booker SW ( BO1) - BF1 -BOO = 109.4km

Task A declared to be the task at the briefing. First launch not before 14:00. Those clouds are looking very dark and there's rain down the road at White Waltham.

Rebrief

The rebrief has been put back to 14:00. The Comp Director was last seen wandering around looking for signs of a thunderstorm that has been forecast. Probably going to be a short task.

Day Two briefing

Briefing started just after 11:00 and Jim White reviewed Day One's results - Winner was Dave Watt (Ventus 2, 114.9km/h, 886 points), second Dennis Cambell (Ventus 2CXT 112.3km/h, 869 points) and third Matt Cook (Duo Discus, 108.6km/h, 814 points).

Picture shows Matt, Dave and Dennis laughing at how they should have flown even faster.

Today's news - Due to the changing conditions, a rebrief will be held at 13:00, with the possibility of this being deferred until 14:00. The task setter remains 'cautiously optimistic' that there may be a window later today for a small task.

Here comes the rain!

Looking across the airfield to the West this morning and the dark sky is made prettier by the rainbow. Oh goody, there's now light rain arriving at the airfield. Forecasts suggest that there'll be showers this morning but there's hope that it'll clear sufficiently this afternoon.

Briefing is delayed this morning until 11:00.

Provisional results

Provisional scores on the doors for the Day 1 - Positions can be found at:
http://www.bookergliding.co.uk/public/Regionals2007/BookerRegionals2007.html

Further details will be published tomorrow.

Relaxation time

The Comp Director relaxes after a hard day of being patient with people (not the normal default setting for a Comp Director). He even flew a 'short' task (SOS-AND-OXS-BOO) while we were off romping around the countryside.

With estimated task times between 2h 6m and 3h 7min, it'll be interesting to see the results tomorrow morning at the briefing.

Blog postings ?

They seem to be going for a walk! I did post something this morning but it didn't appear.

This morning at briefing, tasks given were:

Task A SOS-AND-NOS-BO1-BF1-BOO (256.9km)
Task B SOS-AND-BUC-BO1-BG1-BOO (214.9km)

We stuck with Task A, with the possibility of blue or limited Cu.

19 flew....and everybody made it back.

Scorers are working hard. Top speed currently '370' (Dennis Campbell) with 2h 06m

Day One Tasks

A - SOS (Stokenchurch) -AND (Andover) -NOS (Northampton South) -BO1 (Booker SW) -BF1 (Booker Finish1) (256.9km)
B - - SOS (Stokenchurch) -AND (Andover) -BUC (Buckingham) -BO1 (Booker SW) -BF1 (Booker Finish1) (214.9km)

First launch not before 11:00

Competition Registration

Registration opened this evening until 18:00 at the airfield. Several competitors have taken advantage of this to get the paperwork out of the way. The trailer park is beginning to fill with-pre-rigged gliders as pilots ready themselves for 'Day One' tomorrow.

Briefing is at 10:00 in the BAS hangar and entrants should have their glider rigged and on the grid before then. Registration re-opens on Saturday morning at 08:30. See you all in the morning!