This article was first published in the Horsham Flying Club's newsletter The Fly Paper, February 2006 edition.
The Horsham Week competition has come and gone for another year. Six competition days were flown over the eight days of the competition. Thanks are due to those members and their partners who provided assistance with operations and looking after the domestic arrangements, feeding the troops, cleaning the toilets, emptying the rubbish. The multitude of things that need to be done to make the week the success it continues to be. Once again through the hard work of a small number of people we have been able to add to some much needed income to the club coffers. Lorelle and Leon have requested that some minor works be done to the toilet facilities to make then a little more usable when we have a lot of visitors at one time. The club has approved that Leon can undertake minor works in the mens and ladies toilets.[/dropcap]
Now for abit of history and trivia. Many pilots have been coming to Horsham Week for many years and we are thankful for their support. But we must remember that they do come to Horsham to fly and compete. One person who has done that for many year has been Keith Willis. Keith reached a special mile stone at this years competition. Many pilots would think that 500 hours gliding is an achievement in itself. This year Keith managed to total up his 500th hour flying in competition at Horsham Week. Well done Keith, a milestone in anyones book.
So on to some details of the actual Horsham Week operations. There were 8 aircraft competing in Open Class, with Tracy Tabart in his Ventus 2 the eventual winner on 4964 points, from William Hatfield in a Lak17 on 4521 and Pepe Grasa-Valero in a Janus on 4508 points.
The 15 Metre Class had another 8 gliders. Bruce Cowan in a Ventus was the eventual winner on 5100 points from Steve Trone in a Mini Nimbus on 4650 points and Dave Nugent in an LS3 with 4599 points.
Standard Class had 10 entries and was won by Gary Stevenson with 5005 points in a Libelle. Gary was followed by Wayne Mackley in a Jantar on 4073 points and David Wilson with 4050 points in his ASW24.
There were 8 gliders in Sports Class which was taken out by Brian Bailey in a Janus with 4688 points, then Noel Vagg & James Henkel in a Twin Astir on 4054 points and third place went to John Ashford in a Janus with a total of 3817 points.
So there were about 34 gliders and 4 tugs for the week. The week was about normal for Horsham Week, some days were good, others not so good, but everyone had a good time all the same. A summary of the weather on individual competition day can be found at Bruce Cowans 'Horsham Week 2006' web site. The tasks flown, the daily results and final results are also included. If you have access to the SeeYou program you can relive different days and watch the pilots and their aircraft race each other.