Doncaster 2019 - 27th to 29th September
Doncaster 2019 - 27th to 29th September
(I hope I have everyone’s names correct – if not please let me know and I’ll make the necessary adjustments. The same goes for any facts I have got wrong – put it down to the little gray cells not being what they were) PS This is really intended for those who did not/could not attend for whatever reason. Hopefully it will encourage you to try it, if you have never done so before – you will not regret it!)
Well that was an event and no mistake. What a great experience and what a great bunch of gals and guys. Thankyou one and all for a superb three days and especially to Rob, Chris and Neil (Skafloc, who sadly was unable to attend himself) and to anyone else who helped organize it all. But everyone helped in their own way, even if it was simply by being there. The conversations were a delight, mealtimes were shared and pretty enlightening, especially in the evenings when not a little refreshment was takenAnd believe me, a great time was had by all!
What follows is a small selection of pics which, hopefully, will give a flavour of what it was all about.
First off, our illustrious UK leader, Wing Commander Kyte, seen below in what I assume to be his admiral’s headgear, decided to announce his retirement from front line duties. He has been a stalwart for many, many years and has given so much to the UK wing. Ably supported, we must never forget, by Eileen (Mrs Kyte), his wife. So we wish him a long and happy, well earned, retirement. Hopefully, he will enjoy his reward for such lengthy service – a unique appointment to Air Vice Marshal! Congratulations to you sir.
So who will be his replacement. There he is, standing in front of us all, with a warm welcome and simple instructions on how to get on with it. Congratulations Chris (Hedeby), another member who has given a great deal of his time in helping the UK Wing to function well. Long may he reign.
And so on with the weekend.
Friday evening was spent catching up and nattering with old and new friends until the commencement of either a BSG or Tripes and Tripods game. I’m afraid I have no pics of the latter, but here are a couple from the BSG game.
Rules were kept simple and the object was either the defense of or destruction of utilities on the moon. Attackers flew MkII Vipers and defenders flew Cylon Raiders, except, that is, for David Manley, who flew one of his own personally printed vehicles (see top left of moon above); one of a pretty impressive range that he has already produced and which are superb.
On Saturday there was a choice of three games: Sails, WWII or WWI.
The beautiful scenery for the sails game was created by Air Marshall Rob Kyte.
Based, I believe, on a real action off the French Mediterranean coast, the fight looked to me to be taking place in very dangerous waters indeed. I must give this a try in the not too distant future.
WWI was covered by three games, during the day. The first was run by Reg (Rebel), who also supplied splendid models and a mat to play it with, and involved the Kaiser’s pilots attempting, successfully and all to quickly it has to be said, to destroy an observation balloon that was homing artillery onto two targets.
The defenders were a combined force of RFC scouts, AAMGs and a considerable amount of archie that merrily blew away anything that got in its way. Defender, RFC pilot Doug will ruefully confirm this I am sure.
In the last pic you see (from left to right in both cases) RFC players Doug and Tim (Flying Helmut) in the foreground, trying to work out how to take down the dastardly enemy, Joaquim (Blackronin), Andrzej (Night bomber), Paul (Tikkifriend) and Guus Aardvark1430).
Here Reg is doing his lethal stuff with the ground defenses, whist Diana, the fourth member of the RFC team of pilots, seems to be contemplating her next attack against Joaquim.
Fun scenario Reg, thanks a bundle!
Following that, Tim set up a truly excellent scenario which required players to take off, race a circuit, then land(see later) from a specific point. All the while working in pairs whilst endeavouring both to survive and shoot down competitors from other teams.
Here we see Paul taking his ease, with the scenario setup almost completed. Only clouds to come.
The playing cards were the precise start and finish points, which players drew randomly.
Red team, daringly led by new first time father Daniel (Dan-Sam) (congratulations on the birth of your lovely daughter Dan), held sway throughout, Dan landed brilliantly and red team might have been more successful had his wingman (seen above taking out a threat) not totally blown his landing, which resulted in a horrible crash landing. Said pilot attempted to “negotiate” his way through this ridiculous error, but one does not argue with the ref, does one(That’s a confession by the way
The race was ruthlessly run and some never quite made it to the end. Working as a team made it a great scenario and the obstacles and conditions made it pretty challenging. Thanks Tim
Last up, for the WWI addicts, was a long bombing run by DH4s, with B/A defenses. Up against them were six Central Powers scouts, a mixture of Fokker DVIIs and Albatros DVs, who were able to spawn at a number of points of their own choice along the five mat course.
The RFC crew were Steve (Guntruck), David (Naharat) and myself. The central Powers were represented by Doug (Merlin45), Tim and Paul. Officer commanding the scenario was Wing Co. Hedeby
I’m afraid I have no further pics of this one as I was simply too involved. Suffice to say the Germans were kind enough to permit me to reach the target, bomb it and make it back home again. Result!
Bombing the target was interesting, as depending on the speed and height you were travelling, at the moment of bomb release, you were given a number of plastic flighted magnetic darts and told to step back a number of pre marked paces. Then you had to try to hit the inner ring of a dart board. I enjoyed that part – used to play darts a lot
WWII
I’m afraid I only took pics of the final saturday scenario, but I suspect there will be plenty of other pics around.
Joaquim, Marion (Deadly M) (seated with back to the camera), Andrzej, Andy (Hawkhurst), Sven (Marachallanes) and Daniel (Dan-Sam) (seated at right hand) are doing battle with one another.
Another period I need to get into properly before too long!
Sunday
Again, I regret I have no pics of the final scenario, which took place between 9.30am and 1.00 pm. I really hope somebody has!
Basically, all players were handed, by Simon (Maverick) a playing card, either red or black, which determined the side you were on and the position you started from. The playing surface was long enough to accommodate 9 or 10 players on each side (central Powers on one side, RFC on the other) and fundamentally each side went about blasting any enemy that got in his or her way. Respawning was permitted twice, giving each player three lives. A kill was awarded three points. Being shot down lost the pilot one point.
The game was conducted with much merriment, but was also taken very seriously. At stake was the award of the “Pour Le Merit” otherwise known as the Blue Max for the overall winner and the satisfaction or otherwise on being on the winning side for everyone else.
Congratulations go, apparently yet again, to the central Powers players, who convincingly won the day. Congratulations also to Chris (Boney10) who was awarded the Blue Max. A worthy winner indeed. A couple of players came close to him though. Joachim would have won, it was announced by Simon, had not Diana shot him down late in the game. That’s love for you
Myself, I came close too, but Tim will probably never let me forget that he served me a boom card shot on the penultimate card of the game, which put paid to my chances
From a personal point of view, I must thank Joachim, Paul, Guus and Tim in particular for some great rivalry. It really made it all very worth while the fighting. Next time guys – I’ll ‘ave yer
Finally, a very quick word of thanks to our hosts, the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum. If you haven’t already been there, try to make it one day. Its well worth the effort.
It is run by Doncaster City Council (I think I remember that correctly) and does not have a great deal of funding available. Which perhaps explains why we must pay more each year to hire it for our event. I do hope we can continue to use it in the future, but there are other alternatives to be considered, so keep a weather eye open for Wing Co. Hedeby’s announcement of a ballot, on this matter, to be announced in the not too distant future.
PS I’m now the proud possessor of a very fine eagle’s head, mounted on a lovely wooden plynth, which I am very grateful and proud and very, very lucky to have been awarded. Many thanks to all who were there.
PPS I shall post all of the pics I took on my own home page.
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Originally Posted by McDorf
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