"Justin Craig" wrote in message
...
Having just read the posting by Alistair Wright I was
some what alarmed by his narrow minded attitude in
respect to a club that he does not appear to have flown
at for thirty years.

What's that got to do with it? Hus Bos looks just the same to me in the
accident report pictures as I remember it. Oh no, sorry. The caravan park is
bigger.

Reading further into the post, I rather wonder if in
fact he is a competition pilot himself.

No, I never flew comps but I did fly a lot of cross country.

I am guessing probably not a current one.

Well that's right, I am 74. I retired from instructing before the current
glass fibre era.

.....grounding highly experienced
pundits because he did not like their circuit pattern..come
on, he must have been the laughing stock of the whole
comp.

Well, no. The CFI agreed with me, went up with the grounded pilots, and two
of the offenders had further check rides. Have a look at the picture and map
of HB. Circuit discipline was essential on such a narrow strip with no
escape routes. With a whole heap of competion pilots swanning around, good
patterns were ESSENTIAL to see and be seen. Several of the competitors took
me on one side later and congratulated me on my stand. I have to say I
wondered why HB had been selected for those Nationals (at which incidentally
I was chief scorer) unless it was because we were furthest from the sea in
all directions of any other club.

Given his attitude, I would hazard a guess that he
has some sort of military back round, and may have
learned to fly with the RAF GSA.

No. I was a founder member of the private club that trained me (not HB). I
was the first ab initio to solo at that club, and the first to complete the
Silver, and the second to become an instructor. I sent nearly 100 people
solo in my time and AFAIK none of them went on to have accidents.

The volume of correspondence that my comment has produced is amazing, but at
least it shows a measure of understanding of the problem by most
contributors, though alas no consensus on a solution.

Alistair W