Counties Challenge Resurrected

For some time we have thought about how to resurrect a form of the ‘Counties Challenge’ competition that could make it easy enough to compete wherever you are in the world as a BBAC member and with the return to flying in 2021, we’re ready to launch our new competition. 

Each year will be broken into quarters – March – May; June – August; September – November and December to February with the results being announced at the AGM and the trophy presented to the winner by the BBAC President. 

A similar format to the competition we used to love, but much more simplified competition areas. The competition area is split into Scotland, Wales, Ireland (North and Republic are included as one), England North, England Central and England South. The permitter splitting England is the M4 / River Thames (Central to South) and Latitude 53 degrees (North to Central). There will be a seventh area which is Overseas, although we may defer this contest area until travel restrictions are nearer normal. You will be able to submit your longest flight anywhere else in the World in this category. 

At the end of the year, there will be an award for the longest flight in each zone as well as a trophy for the overall winner. Entry will be free provided you have a paid up BBAC membership and you will need your membership number to submit your entries which you will do through the website. Results will be published online and also in the next aerostat as they used to be in the old days… 

Rules and more details will follow, essentially you will have to take off and land in the same zone to score, minimum distance is 1km, night flying is not permitted and maximum balloon size is 120,000 cubic feet. Flights submitted for the Great British Long jump will not count towards this event. You’ll be able to submit your flights on the website using good old fashioned grid coordinates, but a GPS track uploaded will be preferred. You can also submit pictures and a short paragraph or two about your flight and these will all end up published online and maybe in print for you at the end of the year.