Another mediocre result. I made one daft decision which was the difference. They set us a 4 hour AAT round CER MAM and ABN. This is a great example of why AATs are sometimes a bad idea. If the weather had been as forecast with uniform 6kt climbs it would not have been possible to fly for four hours and because of the airspace involved everyone pretty much had to fly the same course anyway. I have drawn a couple of red lines on the task to illustrate the point.
Anyway the mistake: The CER area was clearly set so that pilots could exploit a sea breeze front. I didn't clock this until I was committed to a decision to fly W to a line running from Yeovilton to the coast. My line was a bit variable and I fell well behind the pack. As it turned out it wasn't so bad because the fast guys ran out of space and had to waft around in poor air to use up the time. 15 of the top 20 finished under time. I was 3 minutes over.
Other news: great curry in Alton last night. Tiny little restaurant, bring your own booze. Top grub at £15 / head; A well known whinger complained about my landing on day one! I had some water left in my left wing so when I came to a halt the wing went down and I turned a little left. The other pilot had chosen to land dangerously close to me and thought that he would collide with me. Now I know he is a the type of person everyone said he was all along; and, today we probably will not fly. 8/8 overcast now and rain later.
All for now.
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