Colin Paddon Wins Interglide for a record 4th time!

Perhaps the headline should have read 'Wow, what a scorcher! in true tabloid style. After a summer that most flyers would choose to forget the weekend of 26th/27th July was the best of the year. Temperatures were in the mid 20sC for the whole weekend with light winds but as the temperatures rose during the day the clouds bubbled up and lift and sink were around in large quantities.

This year the competition was hosted by the Ivinghoe Soaring Association at Marsh Gibbon near Bicester in Oxfordshire. This location is an excellent flying site but which has not always enjoyed the best of weather conditions but for two of the three Interglide competitions which have been held there have been superb. A particular feature of this site are the large number of Red Kites which inhabit this area of the Chiltern Hills and when there are thermals about it is a great sight to see these large and graceful birds circling in rising air. They also make great pointers for the human flyers!

As well as competitors from all over the UK there were entries from Holland, Norway and Germany and by Friday afternoon many of the pilots had arrived and were taking advantage of the good weather for a pre competition practise. The field was laid out in anticipation for an early start on the Saturday after some debate about wind direction. Three different forecasts gave three different directions! Fortunately the right one was chosen and, after a pilots briefing, the first round was away by 9.30 on Saturday morning.

As the day progressed with lift and sink available in great quantities nearly all the slots were being flown out but even some of the best pilots were sometimes being caught out in the wrong place resulting in a poor round score. Five round were completed by 6pm when flying was called to a halt and the BBQ began. What a feast this proved to be! Jim Wright, Chairman of the ISA proved have a career as a chef awaiting him and, assisted by his wife Norma, produced a magnificent meal which with the help of a warm evening and free beer lasted long into the night!

The Sunday morning dawned with very light and variable winds which necessitated a shift in the flight line before round 6 was underway. For the early slots the lift was light and scratchy but during the morning the thermals became stronger and the breeze was being pulled in all directions. Three more round were flown but under the rules of F3J one round score is dropped after 5 rounds are completed. This enabled some pilots who had had one bad score on the day before to climb back into contention.

By mid afternoon eight rounds had been completed and the top six pilots qualified for a 3 round fly off. By this time the wind was very light and sometimes the pilots were launching with a slight tail wind. Round 1 of the fly off saw all six pilots fly out the 15 minutes leaving nothing in it at the top. In round 2 some pilots came off the line at low altitude and gambled on gaining a few seconds but whether this was by accident or design was open to debate! It certainly did not work for Austin Guerrier who, after being the top scorer in the rounds, failed to contact lift and landed early. Adrian Lee and Kevin Beale were also scratching at head height after 6 minutes but, with great skill, both of them picked up a bubble over the landing spots and were able to work it gently upwards at very low altitude for several minutes until the thermal eventually built to take them to a safe height.

All six pilots also flew out round 3 so the final scores depended a few seconds of flight time and the best landing bonuses. Age and experience proved to be a an advantage for Colin Paddon who narrowly beat Adrian Lee and Peter Schmitz of Holland. Kevin Beale was fourth followed by Jo Grini of Norway and Austin Guerrier.

This was Colin's fourth Interglide win, an amazing achievement! His prize in 2007 was an Experience X Pro and this year he won a Tragi 707 3.5m F3J/Open model kindly donated thanks to the generosity of Heino Korvel of Tragi Models. A very pleased Colin thanked Tragi for their generous sponsorship and commented how impressed he was with the specification and build quality of the model. Some cynical observers commented how strange it was that Colin always seemed to win when there was big money prizes on offer! They were joking of course, weren't they?

More pictures from the Dutch team here.

See you next year, don't miss Interglide 2009!