Friday morning began with Neil joining an early call with Richard Pillans, Guy Westgate and representatives from Flight Recording Systems and the World Aerobatic Championship to learn more about a promising new flight-logging system. Richard, who serves as Flying Display Director for the Farnborough Airshow, is exploring improved ways of tracking aircraft movements during displays. At present the show relies on a ground-based radar system shipped from the United States at considerable cost. While effective, it has its limitations, and a modern logger capable of transmitting live telemetry could complement existing methods for monitoring display-line and crowd-line infringements, helping improve safety.
After breakfast, Elliot Cox and Graham Saw arrived to join Neil and Laura. The forecast suggested yet more low cloud, so the morning was spent making further small improvements to the SZD-59 trailer. None of the jobs were glamorous, but each one was aimed at making the operation simpler and more reliable when the glider is on the road for competitions.
By late morning the glider was rigged and, after Alex Phillips arrived, attention turned to the Bristol & Gloucester simulator for the afternoon. It’s an impressive setup using VR headsets and proved ideal for experimenting with new sequence designs. With a “co-pilot” calling out figures — much like a rally navigator — we worked through several newly designed sequences to understand how they flowed within the box and to identify sensible entry and exit speeds.
For anyone who hasn’t tried simulator training for aerobatics, it’s well worth the time. You don’t get the same physical feedback as in the real glider, but it’s an excellent way to learn sequences, test variations and explore how different figure combinations fit together. The evening finished with home-cooked food in the club kitchen followed by a screening of The Great Waldo Pepper in the clubhouse bar. Initial scepticism about Graham’s choice of film quickly faded — it’s now firmly on the list of aviation films worth recommending.
Saturday started (unnecessarily) early early, with Alex and Neil setting alarms for 4:45am to watch Formula 1 qualifying from Melbourne. Whether this was wise was debated later in the day. By breakfast time the airfield was still wrapped in cloud. Mid-morning the post arrived with a small but important delivery: the final locknuts needed to complete installation of the GyroFX logger unit. With those fitted, the system is now fully installed — all that remains is the small matter of some flyable weather so it can begin earning its keep.
The rest of the morning was spent listening to a presentation from Dan Weston on his approach to sequence design and the key considerations when building competition programmes. This was followed by a video call with team manager Toby Jones, who joined us from Kenya where he is currently supporting an attempt to set a new world record for high-altitude drone flight. After lunch we began building out the ever-growing list of tasks required for Fayence: logistics planning, kit lists, packing lists, documentation requirements — and, inevitably, lists of lists.
With flying still off the cards, the afternoon settled into a slower rhythm. Live sport on the television, a few competitive games of pool, dinner in the club kitchen and finally another stint on the simulator trying different sequence variations.
Sunday began much the same way. With the forecast offering little encouragement, Alex and Neil opted for another early start, this time 4:00am, to watch the Formula 1 race from Melbourne. The fog outside showed little sign of lifting, but spirits improved thanks to a cooked breakfast courtesy of Dan Welch, prepared on the barbecue. With the likelihood of flying fading, attention turned to packing up. Neil sealed a few potential leak points on the SZD trailer before the team de-rigged the glider and loaded everything away. With no real prospect of improvement in the conditions, it was decided to call it a day and make an early departure.
Another camp largely dictated by winter weather, but still a useful one.
