Cliff Lotter reporting form Shenzhen, China with the Marksmen Aerobatic Team

Good morning all from a bright and smoggy China!. Actually, I can’t figure out if its smog or moisture as we’re stuck in quarantine rooms in Shenzhen for the next five days. Each of us in his own room from which we are not allowed to leave. I was imprisoned at the age of 18 for alcohol related sins, so I know what it feels like but that was only for a day and that only because my dad told the cops to leave me there to teach me a lesson. Fat chance at that age! But this is different, not only is it much longer but every morning a Chinese lady knocks on my door to do a PCR test and then tries to talk to me in a language that sounds like a Labrador pup trying to bark whilst running into an electric fence! I return the favour by talking to her in Afrikaans and smiling.

We will be here until the end of November and it promises to be a wonderful experience. The boys have been practising for months and flying really tight and promise to represent South Africa and the SAC in a very positive, disciplined and professional manner.

Now back to local issues. Firstly, apologies for the long period between chirps, life just seems to flit by as I get older and there never seems to be time to do anything anymore.

What a year! We have never experienced such a lack of interest in comps in the sixteen years I have been involved in aerobatics and I have been trying to figure out, as all of you have, why this phenomenon is taking place and it still seems that the major contributing factor is COVID and the dampening and negative effects it has had on all social activities. Friends and acquaintances from many social disciplines have all shared similar stories. People just don’t seem interested anymore. To support this, I was in the UK in June and attended one of the UK regional contests where Nick Buckenham, the current CIVA president, was chief judge. He and I were discussing this issue as they have exactly the same problem. That particular comp only saw 8 or 9 entries! In our chat it was evident that our situation was rather different in that they had no fatal accidents, finances were not a problem, their avgas price was stable, so all that was left was the fallout from the COVID pandemic. The upside to all of this is that we are hopefully slowly coming out of this madness and returning to normality and I have every confidence that things will improve in the new year.

In view of this the committee has decided to implement ‘Box Days’ next year to get the interest going again, and for those of you who don’t know yet, these will be planned every month at an airfield where there will be judges in a relaxed atmosphere, judging your sequences and giving feedback and depending on interest, we could possibly arrange a full blown contest on the Sunday.

We also have WAAC coming up in the new year and this will be hosted by the Americans in Las Vegas. The official team will be chosen in the new year after several training camps and comps. The first comp will take place in January at a venue to be advised but more than likely at Tempe as it is most central.

We have had to cancel several comps this year as a result of insufficient entries, but we are looking forward to our last comp, Ace of Base at the beginning of December and I hope that we can end off the year with a well-attended comp for a change, so please all of you make an effort to come along even if you don’t fly. Come along and assist the judges. We really miss all of you!
Kind regards
Cliff
13 November 2022