2014 United Kingdom National Championship
Berkeley, Gloucestershire
Reported by Dominic Bareford
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Final Flight - Saturday AM
As expected unstable and windy conditions made both slots on Friday unflyable, so it was all down to one flight on Saturday morning to decide who would be the UK champ for 2014 and in all likelihood it would be one of the top three separated by only 35 points at the start of the flight. A four task flight awaited and it was relatively simple by today’s standards, a JDG, HWZ, JDG and Fly on to finish, all free marker drops. This was another morning where no one wanted to be the first off but just like the first flight it was Richard Parry who was the first to blink, it worked for him before and he was hoping it could work again. Next was David Bareford followed by Stephanie Bareford, Nicola Scaife and me. Andrew Holly was one of the last off. Richard Parry was first to the JDG but leading the pack has its disadvantages, he came down to late and couldn’t find the left on the ground he needed, a 37m drop put him next to last on the task for only 154 points, David Bareford saw this in time and got down quickly and glided along the target field only a few feet above the ground to win the task with 60cm drop. I was wary of going the same way as Parry and came down too early, I climbed to get back to the right and although I was right over the target I had to drop from height and badly misjudged it dropping it 8m too late for an 8m result worth 596 points, made all the more worse by watching several balloons come in after me with good drops, including Andrew Holly who threw it just to the edge of the cross for a 5m result worth 785 points. Next up was the HWZ which was a set of four road junctions in between the two JDG’s, however this became a third JDG as all pilots went for the same road junction. This road junction was located in a valley and as Richard Parry and David Bareford were lining up there approach the left on the ground started to weaken and disappear, Richard Parry managed 15m which earned him 538 points but David Bareford only got 40m, the balloons behind all saw this and most were able to adjust. As the ground winds were changing I opted for a drop from height and a better timed drop with the help of a bounce off my sister’s balloon below me got me 5.47m drop worth 852 points, just inside Andrew Holly’s 6.76m drop. My sister won the task with a 1.43m result. Next up was the JDG located at a golf course and Richard Parry needed a good score to put himself back in contention, but unfortunately for him the left was still fleeting and he was well the right of the target, finishing last on the task with 300m. My approach was not one of my best, coming down too early again and only managing an 11m drop, only 462 but Andrew Holly still had to approach the target, he flew brilliantly under pressure and won the task with a 1.32m result. Now all Andrew needed was a solid fly on and the title was his. Taking off late has its disadvantages too and by the time he was at his fly on the ground winds were quite unpredictable, Andrew was only able to manage a 42m drop however this was good enough to secure 1st place and his third national title in a row, congratulations Andrew and I am sure there are many more to come. Despite a shaky morning I moved up from third to second just ahead of the charging Rupert Stanley. Taking off first didn’t pay out for Richard Parry and he dropped to 4th, however it should be noted this is his lowest finish in a UK Nationals since 2006. Overall a great event and I am happy with second, many thanks to my amazing team and family for supporting me and Rick Vale for lending me a balloon, I already look forward to trying to go one better next year! |
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Thursday AM Flight
For Thursday morning Paulo Oggioni had prepared a three task flight. A JDG followed by a minimum distance double drop with a Gordon Bennett task to finish, all gravity drops! After some deliberation in the briefing however the throwing method for the MDD and GBM was changed to the more traditional free throw. The steerage was similar to Wednesday morning with the wind going north on the ground and turning right with height all the way to 2000ft where it was going due east. As we waited on the common launch area the winds started to pick up and many of us suspected the flight would be binned, a briefing was called and the flight was a go. This surprised many of us however it was absolutely the right call as the ground winds dropped off.
First off was David Bareford quickly followed by Stephanie Bareford, they were then joined by Nicola Scaife, Rick Vale, myself and competition leader Andrew Holly. A sharp climb to 2000ft was in order to get the most right to allow more time to play with the lower winds on the approach. David Bareford was first over the target and was caught out by the sharp left turn on the ground on his approach, David made an aggressive climb to get the right needed, he timed his drop from height excellently despite travelling at some speed to achieve a 6.00m result, 2nd overall on the task. Nicola Scaife looked like she was on a great line but the ground right on the deck turned back to the right slightly and her drop was (only) 25m, as has been mentioned before sometimes scoring can be harsh with only 13 pilots and this drop was only good for 385 points. Watching her over the target made me nervous about using the lower winds over the target and I opted for a drop from height, I was probably straight over the target but my hands aren’t as measured as my fathers and my drop was slightly too late, still only 10m away from the target but how had the other leaders faired? Andrew Holly was next after me and he also got caught out by the low level right and got a 19m result, Richard Parry was one of the later ones over the target but made the most of Andrews setback by getting 959 points from a 6m score. Hopes of catching up took a blow when the three task flight effectively became two tasks, there wasn’t enough right to reach the double drop and no one posted a result or even dropped a marker for this task. So it was all on the Gordon Bennett task. This task involved a cross in the centre of football (soccer) field where the entire field was in bounds except for the centre circle. The cross fabric was also out of bounds. David Bareford was again first over but couldn’t afford to drop from height this time where a slight mistime in your marker drop could leave you with a no result, on his approach he drifted off to the right and wound his marker and threw it 18m from the centre, the radius of the centre circle was approximately 9 metres. Next up were the girls and Stephanie Bareford and Nicola Scaife both got good drops in of 11m and 12m respectively. Me and Andrew Holly were side by side as we approached the target and were both missing it to the left, how to correct? Come down for the light and variable right or climb for the reliable right? We both descended and were still missing it to the left, we descended more, still missing it, what would you do? Andrew Holly had seen enough and climbed sharply, I put my (borrowed) balloon as low as it could go, right at rooftop height I slowed down and slowly moved towards the target field where I stopped. Meanwhile Andrew Holly was above and had pulled out his marker ready to throw, but the baggie tail was too short for a proper wind up throw! No time to ask for a replacement marker now he had to make do and wound with all his force and let rip, just out of the field, no result. In the meantime as if there was a magnet on my balloon I gravitated towards the target and was able to drop my marker at low level right outside the centre circle to win the task with a 9.43m drop. A huge point swing and with Richard Parry only just getting in the target field things had been bunched up at the top. Richard Parry had moved up to first with Andrew Holly second and me still third but now only 35 points separated me from first, here’s hoping we fly again. This evening’s flight is already cancelled and Friday doesn’t look good either, but the last slot on Saturday morning for the moment looks flyable.
For Thursday morning Paulo Oggioni had prepared a three task flight. A JDG followed by a minimum distance double drop with a Gordon Bennett task to finish, all gravity drops! After some deliberation in the briefing however the throwing method for the MDD and GBM was changed to the more traditional free throw. The steerage was similar to Wednesday morning with the wind going north on the ground and turning right with height all the way to 2000ft where it was going due east. As we waited on the common launch area the winds started to pick up and many of us suspected the flight would be binned, a briefing was called and the flight was a go. This surprised many of us however it was absolutely the right call as the ground winds dropped off.
First off was David Bareford quickly followed by Stephanie Bareford, they were then joined by Nicola Scaife, Rick Vale, myself and competition leader Andrew Holly. A sharp climb to 2000ft was in order to get the most right to allow more time to play with the lower winds on the approach. David Bareford was first over the target and was caught out by the sharp left turn on the ground on his approach, David made an aggressive climb to get the right needed, he timed his drop from height excellently despite travelling at some speed to achieve a 6.00m result, 2nd overall on the task. Nicola Scaife looked like she was on a great line but the ground right on the deck turned back to the right slightly and her drop was (only) 25m, as has been mentioned before sometimes scoring can be harsh with only 13 pilots and this drop was only good for 385 points. Watching her over the target made me nervous about using the lower winds over the target and I opted for a drop from height, I was probably straight over the target but my hands aren’t as measured as my fathers and my drop was slightly too late, still only 10m away from the target but how had the other leaders faired? Andrew Holly was next after me and he also got caught out by the low level right and got a 19m result, Richard Parry was one of the later ones over the target but made the most of Andrews setback by getting 959 points from a 6m score. Hopes of catching up took a blow when the three task flight effectively became two tasks, there wasn’t enough right to reach the double drop and no one posted a result or even dropped a marker for this task. So it was all on the Gordon Bennett task. This task involved a cross in the centre of football (soccer) field where the entire field was in bounds except for the centre circle. The cross fabric was also out of bounds. David Bareford was again first over but couldn’t afford to drop from height this time where a slight mistime in your marker drop could leave you with a no result, on his approach he drifted off to the right and wound his marker and threw it 18m from the centre, the radius of the centre circle was approximately 9 metres. Next up were the girls and Stephanie Bareford and Nicola Scaife both got good drops in of 11m and 12m respectively. Me and Andrew Holly were side by side as we approached the target and were both missing it to the left, how to correct? Come down for the light and variable right or climb for the reliable right? We both descended and were still missing it to the left, we descended more, still missing it, what would you do? Andrew Holly had seen enough and climbed sharply, I put my (borrowed) balloon as low as it could go, right at rooftop height I slowed down and slowly moved towards the target field where I stopped. Meanwhile Andrew Holly was above and had pulled out his marker ready to throw, but the baggie tail was too short for a proper wind up throw! No time to ask for a replacement marker now he had to make do and wound with all his force and let rip, just out of the field, no result. In the meantime as if there was a magnet on my balloon I gravitated towards the target and was able to drop my marker at low level right outside the centre circle to win the task with a 9.43m drop. A huge point swing and with Richard Parry only just getting in the target field things had been bunched up at the top. Richard Parry had moved up to first with Andrew Holly second and me still third but now only 35 points separated me from first, here’s hoping we fly again. This evening’s flight is already cancelled and Friday doesn’t look good either, but the last slot on Saturday morning for the moment looks flyable.
Wednesday AM Flight
Stable conditions on Wednesday morning allowed pilots to be greeted at briefing by a very busy looking task sheet, a five task flight awaited with two virtual tasks and plenty of steerage, at least in the early part of the flight. Pilots would again take off from a common launch area and have a choice of three goals for the Hesitation Waltz. Next on the task sheet was a pilot declared cake, JDG, Fly on and (virtual) maximum distance. This was the order that most pilots chose to fly them however the pilot declared cake and fly on could be flown in any order and therefore could be moved around, Nicola Scaife chose to declare her cake after the JDG meaning she had to declare her fly on after the maximum distance, just a few hundred metres before the edge of the competition map. As it looked like there was a long morning ahead I opted to take off early and was the first off quickly followed by the other Barefords. The ground winds out of the launch site were due north and we had to climb to 1000ft to get the 90 degree turn to get to the northern most goal, it was difficult to judge the descent with such a hard left on the ground and my approach was slightly off, however a good throw got me within 4 metres for a good score. David Bareford came in just after me with a good approach and great throw to win the task with an 85cm score. David is chasing his illustrious tenth national title. Next was the cake which only just fitted in the gap between HWZ and JDG, this meant that a lot a pilots would have to compromise their cake at some point to get a good approach into the JDG as the higher winds for the top two slices of the cake would take pilots well to the south of the goal, so you have to descend early to get a good line to the target. To complicate matters more the hard left that was on the ground at the first goal had gone completely, instead there was a very gentle drift to the south, this caught out a lot of the pack including myself and almost everyone missed it to the right. Those that came in later were able to do a good job to correct this and Rick Vale and Andrew Holly both recorded sub 10 metre results on a tough gravity drop task. Next it was on to the fly on and most pilots chose the same junction as it was on a good line from the JDG and kept your options open for the maximum distance. Again there was a gentle surface drift to the right which made the approach difficult, again David Bareford showed his experience in changing conditions and despite it not being his best throw (he claims co-pilot Benedict Bareford threw the marker) it was good for 12.10 metres and third place on the task. I was able to use this to judge the surface wind over the goal and with the help of a big wind up throw achieved an 8.75 metre score.
The maximum distance was an interesting task measured by distance from the launch site to a logger mark in one of five scoring zones. Two larger circles close to where our fly on goal was, and then three smaller circles with only a 200m radius were further out with more left required to reach the furthest circle. As the task was measured by logger mark and not track point it was pointless to fly through two zones, you had to commit to one and press the drop marker button as late as possible! The steerage of the early morning at low level had greatly reduced and for a while it seemed that none of the zones would be achievable from our choice of Fly on, however David Bareford made a leap to climb to 3500ft where the wind kicked back round to the left enough to reach the second best scoring zone and he was soon joined by Richard Parry, Marcus Green and myself. The high level winds were quite stable and very steerable, with all four of us heading right through the middle of the zone and Rick Vale and Nicola Scaife on good lines too, because of this it became obvious that to get a really good score you would have to be aggressive with your logger mark, but leave it too late and you get a no result. I was fairly aggressive but not as much as some others, 8 pilots got into this zone and was 5th out of them and therefore 5th on the task, as no one got into the very furthest zone. Only 30 metres separated the top 6 on this task with a top result of 14,159m, quite incredible. Nicola Scaife had chosen to do her Fly on after the maximum distance but remember that she had to declare it before her JDG drop! She won the Fly on with a 6 metre drop despite declaring it from further out than anyone else.
Defending champion Andrew Holly had a very good morning winning two tasks and only dropping 575 points over 5 tasks, a very impressive performance in a flight where most had to sacrifice one task or another. This put him in first place with a 700 point lead over Richard Parry and a 1200 point lead to me in third place. The evening briefing was delayed and after standing in a field for a while the flight was cancelled due to unstable conditions.
Stable conditions on Wednesday morning allowed pilots to be greeted at briefing by a very busy looking task sheet, a five task flight awaited with two virtual tasks and plenty of steerage, at least in the early part of the flight. Pilots would again take off from a common launch area and have a choice of three goals for the Hesitation Waltz. Next on the task sheet was a pilot declared cake, JDG, Fly on and (virtual) maximum distance. This was the order that most pilots chose to fly them however the pilot declared cake and fly on could be flown in any order and therefore could be moved around, Nicola Scaife chose to declare her cake after the JDG meaning she had to declare her fly on after the maximum distance, just a few hundred metres before the edge of the competition map. As it looked like there was a long morning ahead I opted to take off early and was the first off quickly followed by the other Barefords. The ground winds out of the launch site were due north and we had to climb to 1000ft to get the 90 degree turn to get to the northern most goal, it was difficult to judge the descent with such a hard left on the ground and my approach was slightly off, however a good throw got me within 4 metres for a good score. David Bareford came in just after me with a good approach and great throw to win the task with an 85cm score. David is chasing his illustrious tenth national title. Next was the cake which only just fitted in the gap between HWZ and JDG, this meant that a lot a pilots would have to compromise their cake at some point to get a good approach into the JDG as the higher winds for the top two slices of the cake would take pilots well to the south of the goal, so you have to descend early to get a good line to the target. To complicate matters more the hard left that was on the ground at the first goal had gone completely, instead there was a very gentle drift to the south, this caught out a lot of the pack including myself and almost everyone missed it to the right. Those that came in later were able to do a good job to correct this and Rick Vale and Andrew Holly both recorded sub 10 metre results on a tough gravity drop task. Next it was on to the fly on and most pilots chose the same junction as it was on a good line from the JDG and kept your options open for the maximum distance. Again there was a gentle surface drift to the right which made the approach difficult, again David Bareford showed his experience in changing conditions and despite it not being his best throw (he claims co-pilot Benedict Bareford threw the marker) it was good for 12.10 metres and third place on the task. I was able to use this to judge the surface wind over the goal and with the help of a big wind up throw achieved an 8.75 metre score.
The maximum distance was an interesting task measured by distance from the launch site to a logger mark in one of five scoring zones. Two larger circles close to where our fly on goal was, and then three smaller circles with only a 200m radius were further out with more left required to reach the furthest circle. As the task was measured by logger mark and not track point it was pointless to fly through two zones, you had to commit to one and press the drop marker button as late as possible! The steerage of the early morning at low level had greatly reduced and for a while it seemed that none of the zones would be achievable from our choice of Fly on, however David Bareford made a leap to climb to 3500ft where the wind kicked back round to the left enough to reach the second best scoring zone and he was soon joined by Richard Parry, Marcus Green and myself. The high level winds were quite stable and very steerable, with all four of us heading right through the middle of the zone and Rick Vale and Nicola Scaife on good lines too, because of this it became obvious that to get a really good score you would have to be aggressive with your logger mark, but leave it too late and you get a no result. I was fairly aggressive but not as much as some others, 8 pilots got into this zone and was 5th out of them and therefore 5th on the task, as no one got into the very furthest zone. Only 30 metres separated the top 6 on this task with a top result of 14,159m, quite incredible. Nicola Scaife had chosen to do her Fly on after the maximum distance but remember that she had to declare it before her JDG drop! She won the Fly on with a 6 metre drop despite declaring it from further out than anyone else.
Defending champion Andrew Holly had a very good morning winning two tasks and only dropping 575 points over 5 tasks, a very impressive performance in a flight where most had to sacrifice one task or another. This put him in first place with a 700 point lead over Richard Parry and a 1200 point lead to me in third place. The evening briefing was delayed and after standing in a field for a while the flight was cancelled due to unstable conditions.
Tuesday AM and PM Flights
The UK Nationals got underway today in Berkeley, Gloucestershire after several delays due to weather. The general briefing was originally scheduled for Saturday 16th but was pushed back two days after weather forecasts suggested no flying would take place on Sunday or Monday. This turned out to be correct but on Tuesday morning the weather was calm enough for a two task flight. Event director Paulo Oggioni called a Hesitation Waltz with four goals spread across 2km all on road intersections. A Fly on was to follow and I pleased to say this was a non-virtual Fly on! We are fortunate that for the event we have observers and FAI loggers, so I expect to see a wide range of tasks called throughout the week. A common launch area was used and after the green flag went up many balloons were quick to hot inflate, but no rush to take off, no one wanted to be a human piball! With only seven minutes until the end of launch period Richard Parry took the leap and was the first off with many other balloons quickly following. Special mention to Chloe Hallet competing in her first nationals and despite a plethora of problems on the launch field including retrieve vehicle getting stuck and parachute getting twisted, still managed to get her balloon off 5 seconds before the end of launch period and achieve 13 metres on a gravity drop in her first competition task!
Most pilots went for the northern of the four goals as this allowed more time to play with the lower winds. Richard Parry was first over the target and despite an early drop got a good score of 10 metres good for 855 points. Dave Medcalf has been heard to say ‘he is only here to make the scoring system work’ but proved himself wrong by winning the task with a score of 6.58m. Fly on goals varied a lot due to a ridge directly past the first goal, some opted to choose a goal over it and some on it, some pilots including me chose to fly to a goal in a valley just to the north of the ridge and this turned out to be a good decision as winds were quite stable in the valley and I was able to get a 39cm result. This put me in third place after the morning flight with Rupert Stanley in second and 2009 champion Richard Parry in first.
For the evening flight pilots were greeted by rain showers as we walked to briefing, not a promising start but as the evening went on the rain subsided and there was enough time for another two task flight – a JDG followed by a HWZ. Again a common launch area was used largely due to the changing weather conditions, there were some showers forecast to pass in the nearby area. As I felt these showers could change the winds as the passed by I decided to launch as soon as I could within the launch period, and for a while this seemed like it might be a good decision, but 5 minutes into my flight I changed a full 40 degrees in not much time and with no change in height, taking me nowhere near the targets. Balloons that took off later were worse off however three pilots made the very bold decision to wait until the very end of the 30 minute launch period to take off, hoping that once the showers had passed to the side of us the previous direction would return. This turned out to be right and Ken Karlstrom, Andrew Holly and competition leader Richard Parry will have all done well on both tasks.
The UK Nationals got underway today in Berkeley, Gloucestershire after several delays due to weather. The general briefing was originally scheduled for Saturday 16th but was pushed back two days after weather forecasts suggested no flying would take place on Sunday or Monday. This turned out to be correct but on Tuesday morning the weather was calm enough for a two task flight. Event director Paulo Oggioni called a Hesitation Waltz with four goals spread across 2km all on road intersections. A Fly on was to follow and I pleased to say this was a non-virtual Fly on! We are fortunate that for the event we have observers and FAI loggers, so I expect to see a wide range of tasks called throughout the week. A common launch area was used and after the green flag went up many balloons were quick to hot inflate, but no rush to take off, no one wanted to be a human piball! With only seven minutes until the end of launch period Richard Parry took the leap and was the first off with many other balloons quickly following. Special mention to Chloe Hallet competing in her first nationals and despite a plethora of problems on the launch field including retrieve vehicle getting stuck and parachute getting twisted, still managed to get her balloon off 5 seconds before the end of launch period and achieve 13 metres on a gravity drop in her first competition task!
Most pilots went for the northern of the four goals as this allowed more time to play with the lower winds. Richard Parry was first over the target and despite an early drop got a good score of 10 metres good for 855 points. Dave Medcalf has been heard to say ‘he is only here to make the scoring system work’ but proved himself wrong by winning the task with a score of 6.58m. Fly on goals varied a lot due to a ridge directly past the first goal, some opted to choose a goal over it and some on it, some pilots including me chose to fly to a goal in a valley just to the north of the ridge and this turned out to be a good decision as winds were quite stable in the valley and I was able to get a 39cm result. This put me in third place after the morning flight with Rupert Stanley in second and 2009 champion Richard Parry in first.
For the evening flight pilots were greeted by rain showers as we walked to briefing, not a promising start but as the evening went on the rain subsided and there was enough time for another two task flight – a JDG followed by a HWZ. Again a common launch area was used largely due to the changing weather conditions, there were some showers forecast to pass in the nearby area. As I felt these showers could change the winds as the passed by I decided to launch as soon as I could within the launch period, and for a while this seemed like it might be a good decision, but 5 minutes into my flight I changed a full 40 degrees in not much time and with no change in height, taking me nowhere near the targets. Balloons that took off later were worse off however three pilots made the very bold decision to wait until the very end of the 30 minute launch period to take off, hoping that once the showers had passed to the side of us the previous direction would return. This turned out to be right and Ken Karlstrom, Andrew Holly and competition leader Richard Parry will have all done well on both tasks.
