Contest
Directors Report
Bank Holidays in England have a reputation for attracting bad weather, a
view endorsed by somewhat pessimistic forecasts from the BBC ahead of the
Elvington contest weekend. Thankfully the actual weather
 that
greeted participants at the airfield on Friday morning was better than
expected and allowed most of the Advanced pilots entered for the contest to
arrive in time for the first briefing, with Paul Tomlinson and Simon Johnson
following soon after, once fog and low cloud had cleared
 at their home
airfield. The BAeA were lucky enough to have sole use of Elvington for the
weekend. This is an excellent venue and Steve Roper, the airfield manager
and Joyce in the Catering Trailer are always tremendously
supportive of the event, which makes it a pleasure to operate at Elvington.
The Unlimited class had been rescheduled for
a Saturday start, which left the whole of the first day of competition
available for flights by the 11 Advanced pilots contesting the Cavendish
Hotel Trophy, with Gary Ferriman bidding to retain the trophy.
A Southerly contest wind on Friday morning
required the box to be moved slightly further south than usual, to allow the
judges to sit on an area of hard standing just to the north of the runway,
with the main contest axis set across the main runway. Intermittent cloud
and rain delayed the start of the Q Programme, but a rising cloud-base
allowed contest flights to begin around 1100, with pilots flying their
sequences according to the full CIVA procedure, which allows each pilot a 10
minute slot in the aerobatic box. The pilot can divide this time between
flying practice figures and the Q Programme, but pilots have to manage their
box time carefully, because the judges stop scoring figures when the 10
minutes is up! Any figures flown after the 10 minute period are
automatically given a zero score. Unfortunately, Richard Buchan (Extra 200)
spent slightly too much time practicing and failed to complete the Q
programme within the 10 minutes and collected some zero scores as a result.
Eddie Goggins (Extra 300L), who had flown in from Ireland that morning for
the contest, flew a very accurate sequence and won the Q programme, followed
closely by Paul Tomlinson (Edge 360) and Alan Cassidy (Pitts Model 12). Alex
Smith (Edge 360) flew the Q programme, but had to withdraw from the
competition due to illness.
The First Unknown sequence, designed by
the BAeA, was flown next, ahead of the Free Programme, so that the pilots
only had to fly one unknown per contest day. The sequence proved to be quite
tough for the lower powered aircraft, especially the transition from Figure
5 to 6. A challenging crosswind on Friday afternoon increased the difficulty
of positioning the sequence in the optimum place for the judges to view each
figure and may pilots found themselves blown out of the back of the box as
they flew the prolonged series of
 consecutive
loops. Rain intervened to stop play for a while and by the 1800 curfew Paul
Tomlinson and Simon Johnson (Pitts S1-T) still had to fly the sequence,
their flights having to be completed first thing in the morning.
Saturday morning brought good weather and
a rather more gentle Westerly wind. The box was repositioned to its usual
Elvington location and the judges viewed flights from just south of the
runway. Paul and Simon had the advantage of a lesser crosswind for their
Unknown 1 flights, but had to re-plan their sequence preparations to allow
for the change in box orientation. Simon took full advantage of the benign
wind conditions and flew a well positioned sequence, although he found the
one and a half flick roll in the final figure challenging in his Pitts S1-T,
yet still put it a creditable 6th place in the first Unknown. The early
morning start and change in box orientation saw Paul zero two figures and
lose ground overall in the contest.
Eddie Goggins impressed the judges the
most in the First Unknown, closely followed by Gary Ferriman and James
Allison. By the end of the First Unknown, Eddie Goggins had strengthened his
overall lead in the contest, followed by Gary Ferriman and Alan Cassidy.
Unfortunately, Eddie was unable to stay to complete
 the
contest on Saturday and he must have departed feeling a mixture of
satisfaction and regret given that he had won the two sequences flown and
was leading the contest. But the Cavendish Trophy is fought out over four
sequences, so the nine remaining competitors were left with two more
sequences to fly before the overall winner could be decided.
Saturday morning also saw the arrival of
two Unlimited pilots – Tom Cassells (Cap 232) and Mark Jefferies (Extra
300SC). Tom and Mark are members of the British Team that will compete at
the World Aerobatic Championships at Silverstone in August. Both are world
class pilots and put in four flights during the day that demonstrated some
very impressive technical flying skills. Mark impressed the judges the most
in the Q Programme, to establish a lead in the Nathaniel Alony Trophy.
The Advanced Free was flown next in good
flying conditions and saw a partial redemption for Paul Tomlinson who won
the sequence, followed by Gary Ferriman (Extra 230) and Alan Cassidy (Pitts
Model 12). In the overall standings, Gary had established a narrow lead over
Alan, with James Allison (Extra 300L) in third place and Paul making up some
ground to claim fourth place. The Free Unknown would be decisive.
The Unlimited pilots flew next, twice in
succession, because they wanted to notch-up four flights in the day – a
punishing
 schedule
of Unlimited level flights, but both pilots wanted to make the most of the
opportunity for critiqued flights overhead the airfield.
Tom’s Free Programme was hot off the press
– drawn in the contest office (pre-agreed with the Scoring Director) that
morning. Both Tom and Mark were at an early stage of working-up their free
programmes for WAC and were still experimenting with different structures,
trying to find a sequence design that capitalised on their own piloting
strengths, but also allowing each figure to be positioned optimally within
the aerobatic box. Mark won the Free Programme to extend his lead in the
Unlimited contest.
The weather seemed to be reasonably
stable, so a long lunch break was taken to give the pilots time to learn
their sequences and to recover from the physical exertions of the morning’s
flights. The Unlimited pilots resumed first after lunch, flying a BAeA
designed Unknown, which proved to be a testing sequence, that was quite
difficult to position in the box. Tom unfortunately zeroed one figure,
giving Mark Jefferies the overall win and the Nathaniel Alony Trophy for
2009.
The final Advanced level sequence saw the
introduction of a new CIVA sequence format - the Free Unknown. Pilots
nominate Unknown figures in the usual way, but each competitor is allowed to
design their own sequence using those figures plus up to four additional
linking figures. The range of sequences is published for
 all
to see and each pilot can then choose to fly any of the proposed sequences.
At Elvington, four alternate sequences were presented, but all of the pilots
chose to fly “Sequence X” which had been designed by Alan Cassidy in 10
minutes flat! However, Alan’s hard work paid dividends for him, because he
won the Free Unknown sequence, closely followed by Paul Tomlinson and Simon
Abbott.
The final standings in the Advanced
contest after four hard fought sequences left Alan Cassidy in first place
and winner of the Cavendish Hotel Trophy, with Gary Ferriman a close second
and Paul Tomlinson regaining third place. So Elvington 2009 proves that it
is still possible to win an Advanced contest in a biplane! Flying was
rounded off by a 4 Minute Free demonstration flight by Mark Jefferies and a
practice session by Tom Cassells.
Elvington was an excellent competition, at
an outstanding venue. The pilots conducted themselves professionally and all
flying was completed safely, in a competitive, but friendly and sporting
manner. Steve Roper and Joyce worked hard to ensure that we had all of the
facilities needed for the contest and an ample supply of freshly cooked food
and drinks. A large team of BAeA volunteers worked throughout Friday and
Saturday to make the contest possible – including a very well staffed
judging team. Jen Buckenham did a wonderful job running the Registration and
Scoring Office. Trophies were presented by Eric Marsh and Mel Buckenham.
Thanks to all the people who contributed to making this contest a success.
Steve Green, Contest Director |
