They Also Serve...

Now that the competition is over I must say a word about those who didn't win medals. Chris & Claire I've already mentioned. Rees Keene did a great job in his first international; I am sure we'll be hearing more from him. Simon Baker & Anita Holmes had their soaring task blown out by an electrical failure but remain very competitive and key members of the team. Finally, Neil King & Alan Weatherall, with a combined age of 128 years, flew a great comp in their first season together. The fact is that the whole team did really well.

Of course, I must now mention the non-flyers. Len Tanner & Malcom Finch did the catering during practice and breakfast throughout. They were cheerful and selfless and great company. Sue Keene once again took on the burden of cooking the meals during competition week. Somehow she smiled happily throughout and as usual everyone agreed they were excellent; I guess that comes from being a farmer's wife with a big family. Nigel Beale brought the spares and Rob Robinson, both invaluable. Nigel kept his monkey bike on the road for me and also found time to fly his sub-115 Chaser and top up his sun tan. Matt drove the van and was only arrested once. Our thanks go to all these terrific team supporters, together with the Eileens, Dawn, Jeanette, Claire and the kids, Tom, Jessica and Holly. Finally, of course, I must thank my Shirley for braving yet another comp, for putting up with me and giving me her support from start to finish.

So ends EMC2008. For me, the enduring memory of the European Microlight Championships at Leszno will be the British Team standing alone on the airfield in the twilight cheering ourselves hoarse as 'Foggy' Dewhurst and 'Hadders' Hadley taxied slowly back in from the deck after their amazing win in the soaring task.

Next year in Czech?

The Medal Tally

The results came out just before the closing ceremony which ended at 4.00 pm on Sunday and since then we've been on the road home with no decent wi-fi. I'm now back at Lilac Cottage and here at last is the tally.

I'm delighted to report that we won a record of 3 gold medals, one in each of the qualifying classes. As expected, Paul Dewhurst & David Hadley took the dual 3-axis gold by a comfortable margin. Rob Grimwood & Chris Saysell won the gold in the biggest class, dual flexwing, and were also the highest scoring crew of the competition. The nail-biter was the solo flexwing task, won by Richard Rawes. At one time he was only 2 points ahead, although the eventual margin was a little higher. And as a bonus, Robbie & Timmy Keene won the dual flexwing bronze. Chris & Claire Wills came a very creditable 4th in the dual 3-axis class. Finally I had my moment of glory when we took the team bronze.

The competition ended as it started, with rain, so the closing ceremony was inside. As is often the case in Eastern Europe, many dignitaries including a junior minister, were there. They had the pleasure of hearing the British national anthem three times and were proud to join in lustily. It brought a real lump to the throat.

Sunday - the morning after

After the party we went to the disco back at the airfield then went to bed at a variety of times in the late night or early morning. Sunday morning promised rain and I was up early to start packing. Then Robbie, with the benefit of a little sleep, looked at the scores and twigged that others had claimed a turnpoint he knew to have been off track - and that this could put him in the running for a bronze. At 6:30 pm I filed a complaint which resulted in all the scores, including the official scores, being changed. Sadly, our gain was the Hungarians' loss, but when the scores became official Robbie had his bronze.

Saturday Night in Leszno

Having given himself a full day to deal with protests the competition director found he had to use it dealing, I'm afraid, with his own cock-ups. As the day wore on complaint after complaint caused the scores to be adjusted, with new provisionsal scores issued. By the end of the day everything seemed firm but the dual weightshift class. We couldn't wait but instead went down to have our own party in Leszno. We had found a place in the square a week earlier so we went back. The photos were all a bit dark but we had good time. However, twice duing the dinner I had to go back to the airfield with Rob and Tricky to look at breaking news from the scorers. By the time we returned we thought the whole thing had been put to bed. But....

Now the Waiting

It would be fair to say that this has not been one of the better competitions as far as task scoring is concerned. One by one the results come out for each task. The first provisional scores are riddled with errors which are teased out. With each new issue the provisional score sheets become nearer and nearer their final shape, as competitors move up and down in position following each adjustment. Finally, the official scores are released, task by task, It's like drawing teeth. Medals come within view and then disappear again.

Right now we are sure of one gold medal for Paul and David, who have a clear lead. But there may be more. I don't want to tempt fate by giving anything away, but I'm off to see if there are more scores in our pigeon-hole.

The Last Task

The penultimate task flown on Friday was a race involving spotting photos and markers and passing through hidden gates. The out-leg was straight and the return a wide sweeping curver giving a total run of about 70 km. The final task, tacked on the end, was a touch & go in 6 metre box, 10 metres wide. That final touch & go was worth 250 points and Rob Grimwood & Chris Saysel were initially judged to have missed it. However, a video taken by one of the stewards, Vladimir Silhan, showed that they were in.

Spot Anything Different About This Trike?

Patricia Roumier is flying for the first time in the French team and seems to be enjoying herself. Her trike, a two seater flown solo and manfactured by DTA of Montélimar, France is powered by a Rotax 582 so power is not a problem, although fuel consuption will be. However, the interesting thing about this trike, which is not a new design, is that it has a fabricated pylon, no front strut and no drag links. Patricia says it gives better visibility, which is true, and it is certainly easier to get into and out of.

The Aeroprakt 20

The Aeroprakt 20 is one of my favourite aircraft in the competition. It's a tandem two-seat 3-axis with the engine in the rear. "I designed it specifically for competitions," Yuri Yakovlev told me. The navigator sits high behind the pilot and both have an exceptional all round view. In its flying attitude the view is almost as good a that of a trike. It's a taildragger and when spot landing Yuri slams on the brakes and the tail comes up while the nose drags along the ground. It doesn't do much for the paintwork but it certainly does stop. "I made 50 then I stopped," said Yuri, "and no two are the same." Yuri was hot favourite to win the dual 3-axis gold medal until Paul's amazing effort in the soaring. Now he'll have to go some to catch up.

The Lows - and the Highs

After the cold front had come through on Wednesday morning the cold air and hot ground was ideal for creating thermals, so Thursday was allocated to a soaring task. The two seaters were given 14 kg of fuel and the single seaters 9 kg. The task started with a deck takeoff and ended with a deck landing, after which aircraft had to taxi to the checking area where fuel tank seals were checked.

Fueling took almost 3 hours, the fuel having been weighed the day before. The teams were paired off to check each other's draining and fuelling. Our partners were the French and I must say that the whole thing was very cordially done, which was to be of great benefit later. Rob Grimwood displayed an as yet unrecognised talent for sucking the dregs of fuel out of French tanks. The more squeamish amongst you will be relieved to hear that he did not swallow. There were too few marshals to keep up with sealing the tanks so we stood around and chatted with our French counterparts while we waited.

Once the last had fuelled, first away were Ukranians, Yuri Yakovlev & Igor Pugach, in their very nice Aeroprakt. They were regarded by hot favourites in the dual 3-axis class by everyone, including our best, Paul Dewhurst and David Hadley, who took off reasonably soon afterwards. At first many microlights circled over the airfield, going up as far as cloudbase where the lift reduced under cumulus clouds that were soon past their best. However, the thermals seemed to move downwind and soon the skies overhead were almost clear of aircraft. Then we waited.

The first bit of news we heard was bad. Simon Baker and Anita Holmes, in one of the 3 GT450s, was down with an electrical failure. Len Tanner and Malcolm Finch immediately set out to find them, performing what Simon described as the quickest recovery he could remember.

One by one the other aircraft came in. The flying window was set to close at sunset, 8:00 pm, and as the sun started to sink Yuri and Paul flew overhead. Our thought (and Paul's we later heard) was that they would fly together until the time ran out and then come in at the same time. Yuri then surprised us by breaking away and landing, leaving Paul alone. He bimbled around in the overhead, any free lift being long gone, and patiently waited another half hour or more until sunset, when he landed with a litre of fuel remaining. We were all there to greet them, cheering and waving the flag, an odd bunch of Brits making a fuss on an empty airfield in the gathering gloom. It felt really great. They had been up for 6 hours 47 minutes, some 28 minutes longer than the Ukranians, of which over half had been flown engine off, not bad for a boring old rag and tube microlight.

The story does not quite end there. There was some confusion over the tank sealing and we spent a tense half hour trying to get hold of the French Team Leader who had witnessed the process. In the end he came back early from his dinner in Leszno, together with Joel Amiable, the French Jury President, and confirmed that all was well. This was very good of them and typical of the great atmosphere which exists between the teams at this competition.

The flexwings had some notable achievements, Endre Thuroczy & Ferenc Hojec stayed out in their 912 Apollofor 5 hrs 35 mins while Rob Grimwood & Chris Saysell were second with 5 hrs 1 min. Richard Rawes took 3rd place in the solo flexwing class flying for 4 hrs 34 mins.

A Long Wednesday

I spent 6 hours out on the deck filming spot landings, something I've never done before and will probably never do again. Surprisingly it was really very entertaining and I plan to put the films on You-Tube when I can work out how to do it. 56 aircraft made 2 engine off and 1 powered spot landing, starting at 2:00 pm and finishing at 8:00 pm. The general standard was very high indeed. Of the engine off landings 65 out of 112 (just under 60%) scored the maximum 250 points, with many more only missing by a whisker. This meant that the task was won on stopping distances and some were spectacularly short. 21 of the flexwing landings were of less than 30 metres with 6 less than 20 metres. Robbie Keene stopped his Quik GT450 in an amazing 22 metres. The biscuit, however, goes to Richard Rawes who put his Chaser down in a mere 18 metres. Pace it out when you get a moment and then imagine landing and stopping in that distance! There were loads of nice aircraft flying but of the flexwings the 3 GT450s with their distinctive winglets really stood out. I couldn't find a decent photo of Robbie's trike so I've used on of Stever Slade's shots from Over (thanks Steve).

A Hot Tuesday

Tuesday brought another navigation task, followed by another powered spot landing and finally two engine off spots. The nav task had some tough penalties fro flying off-track or missing pedicted times at turnpoints. We had some solid scores but no first places. However, there seem to have been some track interpretation problems and we have found some mistakes which may change things in our favour. Hopefully we'll have the results later today.

The spots went very well in conditions which were thermic and windy. Paul Dewhurst, Richard Rawes, Rob Keene and Rob Grimwood all touched down in the first 5 metres on both landings. All the precision landings involve measuring the stopping distance and it was astonishing how many big two seat flexwings touched down and stopped within 50 metres.

Honda Outboard

Robert Haliński of Poland is flying this single seat trike with what seems to be a 3 cylinder Honda engine. I haven't being paying attention to his performance but I will update this with more info when I have it. What I can say is that it doesn't appear to be a soaring trike.

The Norwegian Team

A new addition to the competition scene is the Norwegian Team, managed by our old friend Tormod Veiby. This team is small with just one dual flexwing, but doing a great job. The pilot, rightly described by some as a cazy dude, is Per Hoeyland, a Norwegian Hells Angel (seriously) heavily tatooed with gold teeth that glint in the sun. He looks scary in the dim light of the bar but is a very friendly chap and certainly knows how to spot land his Apollo trike. His navigator, Hakon Fosso, is an experienced aviator in his own right, with many years of precision and aerobatic flying behind him. He's taken to microlight competitions like a duck to water and loosened up nicely after sampling the Polish firewater on Wednesday night. They have brought a second trike, a 914 powered beast they plan to use in the World Air Games trail we hope to run on Saturday. One thing the Norwegian do have is some solid sponsorship, from Lunde who provided a big liveried truck to bring them to Leszno. Let's hope they stay on the scene.

Catching Up

It's 6 am on Friday and the first chance I've had to catch up with my blog. It seems that whenever I wasn't running around the wi-fi was down. Enough excuses, I'll make up for it before everyone gets up for breakfast.

Having lost Sunday's spot landings from the programme because of the weather there was pressure to get things weaving. On Monday a navigation task was run, rather short and rather late, but the last minute addition of hidden gates spiced it up a bit. Chris and Claire Wills in their very tidy Escapade scored maximum points in the dual 3-axis class on this, a great start to their competition. Richard Rawes in his Chaser maxed in the solo flexwing class while Rob Grimwood and Chris Saysell did the same in their GT450 in the dual flexwing class. The solo 3-axis class having been declared invalid because only 3 nations were represented, this gave us a first place in each of the valid classes, very positive stuff. The task was followed by a spot landing under power.

Weighing the Aircraft from 13 Nations

Although the sun has now come out, the decks are still pretty wet. The wind, which has been around 25 knots, should dry them out but more rain has been forecast for later so we'll wait and see. In the meantime weighing is drawing quite a crowd. The rules are strictly enforced and the crews are weighed, kitted to fly, together with their aircraft. Later we expect those that are close to the microlight maximum takeoff weight (450 kg for two-seaters and 300 kg for single-seaters) to be pulled off the start line at random and spot weighed. Having flown a Tanarg, Rob Grimwood is very keen to see them all weighed - particularly the French for some reason...

There are 13 nations competing with some 60 aircraft. The flags look a jolly sight in sunshine with a stiff breeze. The organisers have erected a useful signpost for those feeling homesick although we were disappointed not to see Deddington named. One nation appearing for the first time is Norway and they've done it in style with a big beefy team truck and an interesting flexwing, of which more later.

The Czechs have a strong team of 13 aircraft, followed by the Poles with 11 and we Brits 8. The two seat flexwing class is the biggest with 22 aircraft. Sadly, it looks unlikely that there will be a solo 3-axis class. David Broom could not take time off from instructing at Suttom Meadows, which is a shame. We're all missing you, Dave, particularly the chap in the Sluka as it takes 4 nations to make a Championship class. Hopefully, with the new deregulated single seat class we'll see more British entries in the future. Maybe I'd better complete the work on my Streak (and my diet) in time for next year so I can compete.

Leszno welcomes Microlighting

Well, that didn't take long! The briefing is now delayed until 11:00 am while we wait to see what the weather will do. The rain has now stopped and we have 25 kts of wind; not perfect for spots unless it's right on the nose, but it will certainly dry out the airfield.

The airfield is huge, by the way, so huge that Neil King compares it with trying to land on a big beach, devoid of all points of reference so practice spots landings have been tricky. It will be different, of course, when the marshals are there.

Leszno is a well known international gliding site so the facilities are not bad. The showers and toilets are fine, which makes all the difference when you're camping. The town of Leszno is only a few minutes away, with a pretty main square in the centre of which is a baroque town hall. The Team Leaders were invited there after the opening ceremony. As is usual with these events, on one side of the room were the suited officials and VIPs while on the other were the microlighters, fresh from a wet campsite. It would be fair to say that we were not at our best and only the Polish Team Leader spoke the language so we stood in the usual two groups and smiled at each other. Ho hum!

Breakfast now calls, so more later.

Our Place in the Sun?

My first blog so don't give me a hard time. For my sins I'm Team Leader of the British Microlight Team flying in the 10th European Microlight Championships in Leszno, Poland. Being Team Leader puts me pretty low in the pecking order, just below the team and way below Len Tanner and Malcolm Finch who are doing a great job managing logistics and catering. My office is in a double toilet tent, not much but mine own and so far it has kept the rain out.

Did I mention the rain? "We've been waiting for this rain for three months," said the Mayor of Leszno during the opening ceremony. Well, I dare say he has but by now I suspect that even HE has had enough! Nigel Beale, who has been coming to these events since 1986, can't recall worse weather. We had a couple of really hot days at the start of the week to lull us into a false sense of meteorological security. Since then the temperature has dropped by some 15 degrees (and I don't mean Fahrenheit) and it has bucketed down. The only dry spot is the team marquee and we regularly murmer little prayers of thanks to the blessed St. David Daniel who procured it for us. We shiver around the camp in our fleeces and flying suits marvelling that the sky can hold so much water. But enough of rain, already.

There are 8 aircraft in the team, 4 two-seat flexwings, 2 single-seat flexwings and 2 two-seat 3-axis. (If you're new to all this I'll add some photos later). More to the point, the team also includes 5 international gold medal-winning crews. Of our 4 two-seat flexwings, 3 have gold medalists on board. And I only have two Union Flags. Ooops, I shouldn't have said that, should I?

In the single-seat flexwing class flying in his first international we have Rees Keene (we have more Keene's here than you could shake a stick at, the whole family but for Abbie who is home minding the farm). We also have the reigning World Champion Richard 'Tricky' Rawes. However, Tricky's track record in keeping his engine in one piece is not wonderful; indeed, the last time I saw him he had his starter motor spread all over the gound. Nevertheless, motor willing Richard ought to do well.

Of course, Paul Dewhurst, holder of a phenomenal number of medals, is flying his Sky Ranger. He and David Hadley seem to be working very well together and what with the 912S motor and David being built for speed they probably won't have a problem getting out of the box. The box, by the way, is the 100 metre takeoff and landing deck; if aircraft run out of the 'box' on takeoff or landing they lose 20% of their task score. Here are Paul and David outside my toilet tent. Note the fleeces and hats; and this was before the serious rain started.

Anyway, I must now rush off to a Team Leader's briefing. There is a rumour that we will be flying wet-weather spots this afternoon. Judging by the state of the ground I suspect the first person to land will hit his brakes and broadside his way out of the box and across the airfield while the last will land in a large muddy trench! More later.