Brief Description: Haverfordwest Air Race 2015 - 3
We had a lovely dinner at Slebech Park down by the Cleddau estuary and it was time to retire ready for Sundays race.
John Bate, first time racer in 2015 and also an RV8 owner, was staying with us and after a cooked breakfast it was up to the airfield. The wind had changed (clue I missed later) and so we had to practice a scatter - this happens when the runway does not align with the course and you have two points to turn round a certain distance from the start to prevent potentially dangerous turning at low speed by racers trying to gain an advantage.
I was busy greeting friends who had come to watch and after the scatter practice and briefing before I knew it I was airborne for the race. The final turn is over the airfield and on this track it was a very shallow turn angle. I find these the most difficult as to do them fairly tightly the turn is unsighted below the nose so you have to have a point to aim for in front and a turn trigger at the side. As I banked sharply to start the turn the marker was not where I expected it - see the image - I cut the turn! Only by 10 metres when I checked on Google Earth later but a cut is a cut. I crossed the line 4th but with my 15 second penalty I came 8th. All my good work undone.
In my very first race weekend in 2014 Martin Gosling, the 2013/2014 champion told me "until you cut a corner you dont know how far you can go". Well now I know. The problem was I didn't give myself time to sit and think about the effect of the wind which was blowing me into the turning point. A harsh lesson that I vow to learn from and it brought me back to earth after my first win but what a weekend. Bring on Enneskillen.
