Breighton was established in 1941 as an RAF wartime bomber base. It was gradually abandoned as such, until in the late 1980’s local businessman (he founded Custompac) and airplane enthusiast Tony "Taff" Smith acquired a corner of it. He has since established that corner as an aerodrome, and called it "The Real Aeroplane Company”" The title is well chosen, for it is the base for numerous interesting types, mostly still flying, and mostly of the purist tailwheel/wood and linen genre. Too, the management conveys an ethos of "Just FLY!",  rather than the more common "What do the rules say?" Thus it has attracted the patronage of BAeA, who perceive it as a favourite destination not least because there is a mutual empathy for aerobatics: Breighton even has its own designated aerobatic practice area, aka "Box".

This year’s first two powered BAeA contests were held there the weekend of 11-12 April, viz The Icicle Trophy (postponed from 28 March) and The John McLean Trophy. As ever, weather was a major factor: the week before the after cast was good, and the week after the forecast was good but, in the weekend between, the weather prospects were dire: winds upto 50kts, and torrential rain with snow. Perhaps cognisant of that most pilots positioned on Friday, so that by briefing at 0900 Saturday there were two Standard, 10 Advanced and one Unlimited entered. Although the sky was clear, the wind was exceptionally strong from the west, and at Breighton there is only one viable judging position, and that is on the west of the box, meaning all had a fierce cross-box challenge.

First flight was at 1045, with two Standard pilots flying their known, followed by 9 Advanced pilots (one withdrew deterred by the conditions) flying their Free, then the one Unlimited pilot flying his allotted ten minutes. Standard then flew their first unknown, followed by Advanced and Unlimited flying their first unknown for the Icicle. That should have been the end of flying for the day, for more than two contest flights per pilot per day is undesirable. However, in anticipation of potentially unflyable weather the following day, the Unlimited pilot elected  to fly his Free, and the two Standard pilots to fly their second unknown. Thus flying ended at 1630.

The John McLean Trophy was donated by Judith East (formerly McLean) to commemorate John McLean, an ex-Rothmans display pilot who was killed during a formation practice in 1984. His daughter Rebecca, then a young teenager, used to fly with him, and recently approached BAeA to ask if she could attend the competition which commemorates him. Thus it was that Rebecca travelled from Glasgow with her husband, Iain Stewart, and two children, Joseph and Eva. They spent the day watching the show, then we were honoured that Rebecca presented the awards to the winner of the 2015 contest. That winner, Neil Spooner, then took Rebecca for a fly in his Vans RV4. Rebecca had said that often she found evidence of previous passengers’ "illness" in her dad’s S2A, but happily no such occurrence in the RV4!   

The weather for the next day was difficult in that the southern edge of the forecast front was in the area of Breighton, raising the question of would it or would it not affect us. That being, so briefing was set for 0900, by which time the cloud was high and the wind low, so running order was re-arranged so that even if weather prevented an end to the group we still had a winner of The Icicle. Thus first pilot launched at 0945 to fly the Icicle second unknown, and with no interruptions the last landed at 1115.

Throughout the contest there had been evidence of friendly rivalry between Alan Cassidy and Emily Collett, so the results were viewed with some amusement. The Icicle Trophy was re-presented to Phil Burgess by Breighton’s caterer Gail, together with medals to winners listed elsewhere on this page.

Thanks are due to all those who facilitated such an enjoyable and successful competition, including Chief Judge Nick Buckenham and his hardy team, Jen Buckenham as Registrar and Scorer, Alan Marsland as Duty Manager for Breighton, the staff at Breighton, and most of all the competing pilots who provide such entertainment!