Just a few weeks after the Vic Champs the Australian Championships were held at Parkes over the Easter period. What a fantastic week...I was fortunate to get more coaching from Allen Kilpatrick in the weeks leading up to the comp, and once again it paid off. Again Stu the Nav and I made the trip across together, it's becoming routine now, we met overhead his house on the edge of the Blue Mountains and then made the transit to the west. The weather was great the entire time, a bit windy at times but nothing too serious. This was my second comp in Intermediate.
After winning the Vic Champs, I had high expectations which only puts you under more pressure.
I flew the first flight reasonably well but got down around the bottom of the box in the middle of the sequence. Half the judges "lowed" me which resulted in a 100 point penalty. That took me from leading to almost last! Ouch! I wasn't convinced that it should have carried, the rules are not crystal clear in that area when Chief Judge scores are included - so I protested and won. So now I was leading and got my $75 protest fee back - I was very happy going to bed that night! Unfortunately the other competitors, lead by John Sharpe who would have otherwise been winning, put their heads together when they found out the next morning and put in a counter protest. They won too, go figure! So the 100 point penalty was re-applied to my score. This meant I would need to fly very well to win the event overall but I wasn't giving up just yet.
John Sharpe was flying very nicely and no wonder, he is a competent Advanced pilot.
Luckily, I won the next 2 flights by enough to claw back the penalty and give me a win overall. That was a very good feeling to say the least!
John is trying to sell his plane, so this may have been his last comp in this plane. On some level I felt it would have been nice for him to win but I was there to win too - sorry John!
The presentation dinner was huge, actually it got quite ugly later on. There were no injuries and plenty of good stories the next morning, so all is well that ends well!
The next day saw a huge change to the weather. We couldn't fly home, so we hitched a ride and drove home to Sydney. Stu and I came back a couple of days later to get the planes and had a very pleasant flight back to Sydney in formation.
It was a great weekend and I congratulate all involved, especially the officials and volunteers, on a well run and enjoyable event.
