The first task was a short field take off and this was well carried out. The book says 10 degrees of flap, hold on the brakes until full power obtained, release the brakes, rotate at 51 knots and climb out at 56 knots until all obstacles are cleared. When clear of the obstacle, take up the flaps and resume normal climb speed. Holding on the brakes should only be done when operating on a good surface, so this was not done as we were using runway 26. Holding the climb speed at 56 knots could have been better achieved.

The short field take off was followed by a normal 1000 foot circuit and landing. For the most part, this was ok.

The next task was a 500 foot circuit with a short field landing. The 500 foot circuit is normally flown when we have a weather problem (low cloud base, poor visibility etc) and we should fly a tighter circuit than normal, otherwise it is easy to lose sight of the runway. Quite a few tended to fly too wide a circuit, but all competing were able to achieve the goals set for landing. I might add that the 15 knot head wind made the task a little easier.

The final event was a glide approach and this could have been better carried out. A lot underestimated the strength of the wind and were caught out when they applied flap too early, went too far downwind or reduced power too early. The glide approach is not used much today as the powered approach gives much better control, but it is a good way to smarten up judgement skills and, of course, will have to be used in an emergency landing. The two earlier circuits should have given pilots a clue to the wind strength and this should have been beneficial in conducting the glide approach.

Fly as normal a circuit as possible (I know this was a 1500 foot circuit and adjustment had to be made for this), close the throttle on base and observe the amount of drift, which you have. The drift will give some idea of the wind strength and the base can be adjusted accordingly. Aim for a point one third of the way down the runway and do not put flap down until you are certain that you will make it. If you like, even consider a flapless landing and approach accordingly until mid final and then apply flap if you wish to bring that aiming point back. The glide approach is all about judgement, so why not practice them when you do your next local flight.

Once again I must apologise for not stating that the landing and take off charts were to be used for Bathurst at 2435 feet above sea level. I assumed that all pilots would do this, but I have given marks for those that used sea level as the criterion and got the correct answer.

To use the charts correctly, we must first obtain pressure height. Pressure height is the height with 1013 hpa set, so we need 2 hpa difference from the local QNH. As the example was 2 hpa less, we have to add 60 feet to the local elevation of 2435 feet. This gives us a pressure height of 2495 feet (2500).

As we do not have a figure of 2500 feet on our chart, we have to interpolate between 2000 and 3000 feet. The difference is 115 feet, so if we add half of that (57.5 ft) to the figure for 2000 ft, we have a ground roll for take off of 1252.5 ft (1195 plus 57.5 ft).

In the second question to determine the landing roll, we have the same pressure height and again we have to interpolate between 2000 and 3000 ft. The difference here is 25 ft, so if we add half of that (12.5 ft) to 630 ft, we have a ground roll of 642.5 ft. The next step is to take off 10% for a head wind of 9 knots. This gives a ground roll of 578 ft, to which we have to add 45% because it is a dry, grass runway. The final ground roll is 838 ft.

The radio procedures and situational awareness were well handled by all competing, as were the cockpit checks, with the exception of some missed downwind checks.

The final results show Peter Ticehurst the winner with 70 points from David Bull on 63.5 points and John Marston on 61 points.