Nopesport

Oli Johnson

Jet setting takes on a new perspective for Britain's elite as they compete for the British Championship titles this year (2008).
With the venue set for Culbin on the Moray coast in NE Scotland Britain's 2008 champions will be breaking new ground as they take over the all-but-actual controls of an RAF Tornado for a stomach raising "jet flight" to remember.
From accelerating down the runway, through a high speed tour of the Scottish countryside, until returning to base for a nerve tingler of a landing, both head and heart will be put to the test.
Championships organiser Jon Musgrave reports that he has teamed up with local RAF orienteer Mike Rodgers to land what are in fact, flights of fancy.
The pair have negotiated two slots- not in a Tornado - but in a Tornado flight simulator, where all round cinema style screening linked to cockpit controls, creates a mind fooling impression of high speed flight.
Mike is championship access liaison officer and just one of several RAF people involved in orienteering in the area.
Chris Spencer, also of RAF Kinloss, is one of the planners.
Dave Bolsover, the local rep for the company that runs the simulators for the RAF says that prize winners can opt to be "flown" by an experienced simulator pilot or take over the controls themselves.
Current British men's champion Ollie Johnson welcomes the news.
"That sounds pretty fantastic, a great prize," he says, while admitting, "I get a bit scared flying."
To fly a Tornado, experience all the thrills, without having to get off the ground would, he says, be a bonus.
Ollie, the JK title holder and winner of both the long and middle distance British titles last year, is no stranger to Culbin.
He ran there on his way to Scottish Six Day success last summer.
He had gone north nursing the disappointment that came with missing out on world championship selection.
"I was running to show I was fit enough to go to the Worlds. I wanted to prove to myself I was good enough."
Three wins in three days over Denmark's former world champion Allan Mogensen certainly did that, proving it to himself and everyone else.
But at Culbin on day four, he finished 4th - his worst result of the week.
"It wasn't a bad run. I just didn't put it together," he says. "It was different from the other days. I made a couple of mistakes."
He won't want to do that in April and Tornado flights will be very far from his mind as he hoofs it through Culbin's conifer covered dunes.
"It will certainly make the event more exciting," he says, "but if that pops into my mind out in the forest I won't be concentrating enough on the job."