The Duxford 90th Challenge Cup - 2008

CD's Report
Once in a while a contest day comes by that you just know will stay in your memory for years to come. Two such days were at Duxford over the last weekend in June .... this glorious place in English aviating history where the Imperial War Museum has gently transformed almost a century of nostalgia and "the way things were" into a fine museum and working modern aerodrome, where once again (we ran the Icicle here once in the early 90's) the BAeA was privileged to tread the turf. And we had some "proper" aerobatic weather too - what more could a small boy wish for?

With the Advanced class brimming and Intermediates on a pretty good surge too, the entry was as good as ever. Duxford don't usually take the wraps off their pad until ten o'clock, which is a bit late for a normal BAeA briefing, but some arm twisting and a few pounds got the doors open an hour earlier and their AFIS experienced a few fraught moments coping with the unruly mob all anxious to make the 09:30 briefing on-time. This being the ninetieth anniversary of Duxford's formal appearance in the world of aviation it was appropriately the advanced class that kicked off the Duxford 90'th Challenge Cup shortly after 10:30. The cloud-base played ball right from the off at just over the magic 2,800ft, when Simon Cattlin's Yak-55M rumbled round the box at minimums for Chief Judge Graham Hill and his team to memorise, before opening the affair with this year's "Q" sequence.

Advanced pilots take their business very seriously, so almost three hours went by before Eddie Goggins closed the shop at the end of the first round. A brief respite for judges' comfort was quickly ended by the intermediate known sequence, then it was back to advanced again for their unknown. The sheer weight of entry numbers made it pretty clear from the start that the planned eight sequence weekend was just not going to happen, so we quickly settled for a known and an unknown sequence at each level, plus of course the Association's own brand of mental sorcery we so kindly refer to as Apprentices and Masters. By close of play at 18:30 on Saturday the irrepressible Edward G had stitched up John Paulson, a very on-form Aidan Grimley and the rest of the English for the new advanced trophy, whilst Randal Hockey had a tenuous lead over Mark Stewart, David Jenkins and the rest at intermediate.

Sunday was billed by the weather men as likely to be an improvement over the previous day, but the wind had other ideas and by mid-afternoon was allegedly over 30 knots up there in the box - though thankfully at least generally in line with Duxford's solitary 06/24 runway. With the intermediate unknown over - and Randal still clinging to the lead - the classic aerobatics gave way to that odd blend of tummy-rubbing head-patting  stuff that blends pure Aresti style flying with 'unusual' combinations of manoeuvre and a bit of freestyle thrown in. After Simon and Ron had wrung Yak and Pitts necks consecutively, it was Jules and the smoky Extra that finally got the crowd ooooing! and aaaahing! although those wise old judges had other ideas about who did it the best. David Jenkins claimed that honour for the Apprentice boys, and last to fly Eddie continued at the head of the queue in the Master's class. It was all done and dusted by teatime on Sunday - how Brit can you be?

It takes quite a crowd behind the scenes to set this sort of contest up at such a high standard, but of course it doesn't work at all without a bunch of hard working pilots to strut their stuff. Duxford's head of security Mick Martin was on hand to dish out the gongs, and naturally in pride of place Duxford's new Challenge Cup. Well ... most appropriately on the day it was a framed print of two Spitfires for Eddie to whizz back to Dublin, with a promise of the extra (sic) engraved bit for annual re-release in due course. A truly excellent aerobatic competition, in a style to more than match the hugely enjoyable surroundings. Long may it continue ..... thanks Duxford, we would certainly like to do that all over again.

Nick Buckenham
BAeA Contest Director