Icarus Cup Week n+1: Trust me, I’m in control

You see, it’s funny because the committee has changed, but the song… oh, just look up the Longest Johns.

I was hoping to get one last post off before the competition came to an end, but due to team commitments we had to move the awards forward, then Betterfly took ages to pack away, prepping for leaving Monday… life stuff.

For those not at the AGM, the committee changes are:

• Hania has retired as chair, and Matt (hello!) has retired as membership secretary/treasurer (goodbye!)
• Tamara is the new chair
• Charles is the new secretary
• Lewis is the new treasurer

I can’t think of a better set of hands to leave the organisation is. I’m going to keep posting HPA stuff either way, whether here or on Upon This Box of Soap.

We also settled on a new competition week: the next Icarus Cup is being planned for 17th-25th June 2023!

Aftermath of the competition ceremony:

Lewis finally won the Icarus Cup!

The cup was always going to go to either Kit or Lewis, and after six years in the sport, Lewis finally clinched it!

Kit came in at a very close second, with myself taking a comfortably distant third.

Charles also got some well-earned formal recognition for his work resurrecting Lazarus and dramatically improving it for this year’s Icarus Cup.

Then we all had tea, cake and coffee, I stole a paper pompom as my rightful third prize, and then for some reason we draped Hania in the decorations.

All told, I believe we flew on:

23^rd – arrival day; no flying

24^th – too windy; teams still setting up

25^th – too windy

26^th – first flying session in the evening. Gusty and unpredictable crosswinds

27^th – morning flying. Relatively constant winds growing in strength throughout the morning

28^th – too windy

29^th – morning flying

30^th – morning flying

31^st – too windy; teams already packing up

For all that wind, we were fortunate to have blazing sunshine on most days.

Points for Improvement/Nope.avi

In addition to the fun and awesome stuff that brings us together every year, we did have some sobering and bad stuff that was needlessly dangerous and risked jeopardizing our hard-won good standing with Lasham airfield. We can’t have this happening again.

First up: Teams failing to cleaning up after themselves. Two of the three teams did a pretty great job at binning any waste before they left. The third… in addition to three tent pegs and enough blue foam scraps to rival the great pacific garbage patch, left this on the ground in the marquee:

We may have been on the corner of the airfield, but if the correct unlikely events conspired to occur in the correct sequence, that could end up in an engine and absolutely ruin someone’s day. If a bunch of us hadn’t stayed behind to fly Aerocycle on the Monday, we probably wouldn’t have spotted this.

If you makes a mess, you clear it up. If you didn’t make the mess personally but your team did, you clean it up.

Secondly, and I still can’t believe I have to mention this: we had someone land on the airfield without making any contact with us beforehand, who then not only failed to check in with the office but walked across the active airfield and over a glider tow line which was in the process of winching a glider. Words cannot describe how unbelievably stupid and dangerous this is. Even a week later, I am unable to comprehend so a human being – especially a pilot – can be so utterly careless.

They also left their bike on the – again, active – airfield, which alone is a major hazard and cause enough to be thrown out.

Were we not experiencing the driest July since 1935, I would have considered finding which aircraft was theirs and setting it on fire.

Suffice to say, if your teams are in contact with guests, make sure they understand stuff like this. Because as this has demonstrated, some people really can be that stupid – and we all stand to lose from that.

Anyway, back to the cool stuff.

Cool Non-Competition Stuff

For some reason we got a display from… the name and their reason for doing so escapes me, but we got a free nighttime aerobatic display from a pair of rainbow-lit Grobs on the Saturday evening.

This is not the kind of thing one expects to occur while unwinding over drinks.

With Sunday’s fun-flying cancelled due to weather, a small group of us decided to ditch having Monday as a rest day and fly Aerocycle 301 instead.

We had Alan Blundell take to the air at 84 years old! After being involved with SUMPAC back in the 60s… now that is an achievement to be proud of. Possibly also a record.

I also had my first flight in an Aerocycle (only the second HPA I have flown). I took some footage from the pilot’s seat, which while mostly blocked by my left arm, gives you a decent idea of how this stuff tends to work:

Parting Words/ALL OUT

It does not take an astute individual to notice that I have a profound respect for this community and the people within it. I am deeply grateful to have been introduced to this remarkable bunch – let alone taken such a big role in guiding it – and look forward to serving the community better by fully committing to Betterfly rather than splitting my attention between the BHPFC and my aircraft. Also so I can establish something resembling a social life.

Time and again I have been inspired by the generosity, ingenuity and inexorable tenacity of the people we work with. On the whole, I am by far a greater person for being a part of it.

Hania and I both wish the incoming community the best of fortunes. And just because we’re retiring doesn’t mean we’re going anywhere, so you’d bloody better do a good job.

To our members and extended readers: we’re all knackered after the competition and the handover will take a while, so please bear with us. The community is still plenty active on Facebook, so drop us a line and someone will get in touch.

See you at the next Icarus Cup!

RELEASE!