From Jojo's diary:

DAY .. 23.June 2008 - Interglide - Contest Eurotour event
OK this time my keyboard could not stop so quite a long one ;)
First of all Big congratulation to Colin Paddon that both had birthday and won the event after both Austin (leader after prelim) and me (2nd after prelim) found our spotted thermal that simply did not work in the second of 3 finals ;O  A GREAT event.
I found myself bored back home in Norway and figured I would send some emails on last Tuesday to see if I could enter the Interglide F3J. It did not get long before I got emails back that Uncle Sydney off course could pick me up at the airport so I ordered some tickets with Ryanair (that actually have their own tab in the ticket order so you can order "sports equipment luggage" for a reasonable price). After spending both breakfast and dinner every night with the British team at the World Championship I decided there had to be more of that kind in the UK. I was dead on in that assumption. They are just as crazy as me and that suits me just fine. A UK pilot can take a bit of heavy jokes of himself and take back with a smile on his face. What I discovered over the weekend was a gang of pilots that takes care of you as much as they can and is eager to know who you really are. I took a very early flight and got lunch at Sydney's home before we went up to the Interglide event. Brenda - Sydney's wife (she was in Canada WC also and occasionally attends Eurotours) is a straight forward "girl" that just as well could be our aunt. Brenda knows all about modelling so don't try to explain here slowly about a rear CG or whatever - as she will talk you over into enjoying the food instead of adjusting your CG. Modelling talk is for the flying field while the "aunts" are there. And I have to agree...
Well arriving at the Interglide field (after learning what a "M41 motorway parking lot#¤%" is) I did a few flights on a winch and met many of the guys attending and the Netherland guys that was camping on the field. Checked out the B&B and went of for a Birthday party for Colin Paddon that turned 59 (no I meant 49?...). Anyhow we enjoyed both champagne and food throughout the evening before we dipped down into the bed in decent time.

Left:briefing. Middle: the Trophy. Right: CD Graham also does really nice small parts in brass and iron

32 pilots had entered the Interglide this year. Not a big number but if you take out the Netherland guys I think you see a good amount of UK pilots wanting to do towing since they normally do winch on their events. The first price was a Tragi and that might have triggered a few. Although I do believe Austin have sold quite a few NAN models that have become popular but I did not do a count. My team was probably not the best towing team on the field but with did have a lot of fun. It consisted of Uncle Sydney (Sydney Lensson, pensioned ing., reporter and the writer of the Gossip Columns.). Richard Read (former American that I think loves to be a UK man but all hear he has his roots from US). Robin Sleight (that I believe also is retired and is leader of the Barcs association). Cengiz Philcox (a second time in F3J and first time for him towing. He was great for the team and very keen to learn). And off course me that is not meant to be running at all according to my doctor... What we did do was to compensate very well for the low launches by spotting the thermals pretty well and have a good organizing of the team (thanks Sydney) so we managed without any ambulance having to rescue us. The weather was not helping us with close to 30C each day and a lot of downwind launches! Graham Wicks the CD (and rescuer of the UK league the last years I hear) listened to the pilots as much as he could and did change the whole layup to try and get it into the wind (that was off course shifting with the thermals). Most of the slots were with booming thermals but as soon as a cloud came over us it became almost dead. Some slots were won with 6min something.
The Saturday barbeque was a treat and I am not saying this just to be friendly. It was just what you hope you find after a long day on the field and we all gathered around and watched a beautiful red sunset with free drinks. Many was camping in the field and there was even a shower although I did not use it as the B&B shower without cowshit around seemed more pleasant (those farmers needs to have dipers on their cows... ;).
We managed to get in 8 rounds before we had 3 finals with the best 6 pilots. After preliminaries I had a good solid 2nd place after loosing a few seconds in the launch the first round and a bad landing after my flaps went bananas in round 6 I think (bad repair on a wiper after the worlds I think). Austin Guerrier had a perfect score and the only time we flew against each other we both got 1000p (we did not do decimals in the prelims). First final was in sunny but a bit calm weather so I took a 4 second launch to be sure. All pilots had a easy task I think and I lost the round by only 0,7s to Adrian Lee. Second round final I obviously needed to step it up a bit and since I had spotted a good hint about a thermal on the field I did a 2-3sec launch and headed for it. Austin did the same only 50-100m away from my spot and had to do an early relaunch. I found my thermal and worked it for 4min before it faded and I decided to check it out in the direction I felt it must have gone. Found a new small patch but even worse and then even a worse one leaving me in 30-40m at the other end of the field as the other that were struggling in 50-100m. Peter Schmitz that has done F3J for only 3 years went up far away the other way so a big cheer to him for that. I did a relaunch after 5min and tried the best to do everything else that the others but they did all get their time. In the third final I did my own thing but the sun was up again and all got their time. Only 3 final rounds so now throwout and I ended in 5th place just before Austin that had the same result of the spotting as me. Thinking about it afterwards I would have done just the same again and are in fact pleased with my decisions. Results will be up here I guess: Interglide and Contest Eurotour

From left in no special order the finalists and the models that they choose for the picture after the finals ;)

So any criticism to give for this event? Very little and not much to mention. I volunteered to the jury and we had very little to do. We did have to wait a bit for the price giving as I believe they wanted to pack up most of the stuff before all disappeared. A good thinking for the UK league but maybe not for Eurotour. Results were out after each round and it was all run rather smoothly with a good 5min between each slot with lunch as one can do with only 6 slots in each round (no stress and that is good for the less prepared teams).
More in general though: One thing I have seen at most of the Eurotour events is that they all want to run the timing on a computer and with 10 beeps the last seconds. First of all the computers do mistakes (including here by sometimes 0,5-0,7sec) and that ends in your timers voice is not correct with the beeps. WHY cant we use a MP3 player???? They never do mistakes and you don't have to run a computer out on the field. I understand that some displays needs to be run by a computer but we did not use display here. Also I think the beeps needs to be a countdown. Graham (the CD) said that with countdown pilots were flying a lot overflying and he needed to be more observant of overflying. With beeps they were scared and landed earlier. I believe pilots land earlier with beeps because they have no idea what "beep" they are on. It is stated in the rules: "The organisers must positively indicate the start of a group's working time, by audible signal; see 5.6.12.1 for details." and "The organisers shall ensure that each competitor has no doubt about the precise second that the group's working time starts and finishes.". I understand that what has been done up until now is "common practice" but that should not stop one from doing things better. This final points about timing is therefore for all the Eurotour events. Please use either a MP3 player or any other device that is not based on a computer as they do mistakes (ask any computer guy that is managing servers and their timing each night). And please use a countdown for both start of working time and end of working time (we did have a countdown for start at Interglide. Thanks!). This might be getting political... But it is all meant as positive input as I know so many CD's read this ;) MP3 files can be obtained for free HERE or if you want me to make you fresh ones with other voice or whatever just ask. I will never ask for any provision ;)

Finally I have to mention what we did on Sunday and Monday as I did not go home before Tuesday morning. Me and Sydney came "home" to Brenda and enjoyed and inside Barbeque as a thunder shower made their beautiful garden a bit wet. Richard joined us. Sunday morning we slept a bit more than usual and I did not get my "usual" coffee by Sydney at 06:00 but 08:00 instead! Duxford was next up with the museum there. Many of the guys in my club are enthusiasts of the Duxford airshow so I now got the chance to see what on earth they were talking about. It was a nice museum and we would have had to use a lot more than one day to really see it all. So I can recommend a visit here even if there is not an airshow going on. Later we visited Sydney's "private" flying field and met up with Andre Borowski that flew an Espada RL but struggled to get a good launch setup. He did manage to adjust it I think as line after line broke off in the launches. Normally a good sign ;) Evening was spent in a nearby restaurant together with some of the Interglide event pilots and I had Fish & Chips for the first time in my life. It was excellent and impressive although they kept saying this was extraordinary well done. Well - good for me!
Thanks again to all the smiling faces. I think you will see me again in the UK flying F3J!

Lots of pictures from the Interglide HERE - And some of the pictures from the Duxford museum HERE
 

Left: Colin gets his birthday cake. Middle: Jojo in the middle of 2nd final (photo Sydney). Right: Typical B&B breakfast