CLUB COMPETITIONS - DAY 1

Saturday 7th September

Well, despite the rather poor weather forecast (showers and westerlies) the competitors and judges managed a full day of flying.  I had entered myself for Senior Landings, Gentlemans' Circuits and Non-instrument Circuits for today and arrived at the club just before 0830 where things were just getting underway.  The wind was around 300º at 7-8 knots (and steadily backing around to the Southwest during the morning) so Grass 25L was our nominated runway for the competitions and the first thing to do was set up the grid.  As the first person there in a suitable vehicle (small SUV) I was volunteered to drive the car onto the airfield to pick up the cones and sheet marker for the landing grid layout and transport them over to 25L (the white sheet is laid out beside the runway at the mid-point of the grid - it is visible from 500' agl - the cones on each side aren't until you are pretty much on the ground!).  Now I know what it is like to be in the Fire Vehicles driving around the field.  Lights and hazards on and driving dead slow looking out for moving aircraft.  The tower asked us to pick up some rogue plastic which was quite near the runway so, having dropped the gear off, I headed down to the western end of the perimeter to pick up what turned out to be a supermarket bag.
Having re-parked the car I donned a high-visibility jacket and took my place on the grid for a bit of ground judging and photography.  The cloud base was around 2500' so marginal for the forced landing comps but the two guys competing in C-172 ZK-WAM went first and completed the exercise despite brushing the clouds (so it seemed from the ground).
After that I was next in "WAM", first to go for Senior Landings with instructor, Andrew as air judge.  This is judged from late downwind with the turn onto base, the speed for the base leg (I had nominated 70Kt) and short finals (65Kt) and then landing as accurately as possible on the runway grid.  Within the central 10 metre length scores 50 points and goes down 10 points per 10 metres short or long of that.  There is an imaginary 1 metre fence at the threshold (40 metres from the first cone marking the start of the grid) that you have to clear as well.  I flew the first approach OK right up to very short final where, as I was a bit high (I thought) I closed the throttle and dropped a little faster that I anticipated and, although I cleared the fence I was short and only just landed on the grid (10/50).  The next approach was much better and the landing near perfect just beyond the centre "cell" for 40 points.  OK, 50% average for those two - will have to wait for the air judges assessment.
After a couple of hours "on the grid" - the weather getting steadily brighter but windier - it was time for the sausage sizzle lunch and then up in the air for non-instrument circuits with air judge, Charlotte.  A fellow blogger, flyinkiwi, has described what this entails in great detail in one of his recent posts so I won't go into it further here.  Briefly, this is a challenging exercise; with the instruments obscured from the left-hand seat one has to fly an accurate circuit and achieve an acceptable landing.  We ended up doing three circuits instead of two as we had to extend a fairly long way upwind after the first touch and go and Charlotte said she would not mark that circuit.  I survived but wasn't too happy with my performance.  Charlotte told me I was consistently high on downwind and I got too slow on short final on the first circuit and was warned about it (a disqualification, perhaps?).
Then, after a bit more time on the grid getting chillier as the wind increased, it was "Gentlemans' Circuits" (sounds as though it should be flown in a vintage aeroplane from the 1920's or 30's such as a Tiger Moth - especially as there is "Ladies' Circuits" as a separate competition).  I think this was my best performance, certainly air judge, Hannah, was quite complimentary, and, also, the wind was getting gustier so I was particularly pleased to have a glimpse at my landing sheet after (it was on the top of the sheath of papers I trotted back to the clubrooms with) - a "30" and a "40" - not bad at all.
So, a tiring but satisfying day.  The first time I have entered the Club Comps and I am not expecting much - just happy to appear to have been competitive. I shall have to wait until the Club Dinner in 4 weeks to find out how well I really did.  I will sort through my snaps shortly and publish a few in a separate post. Tomorrow it is "Bombing" for me (I haven't entered "Liferaft Dropping").  More fun!!