The Mazda Advanced and Unlimited
British National Aerobatic Championships

CD's Report
Whatever it is that drives the class size at BAeA contests, at this year's two nationals we've seen real strength and depth at Advanced (Sywell) and previously also at Intermediate (Conington). Ten years ago we thought that fourteen advanced pilots was pretty good, but the twenty who fought hard with seven biplanes and a dozen monoplanes this year set a new standard for the senior British championships. At Unlimited the strenuous efforts of the UK Team prior to and during WAC seemed to have rather dented their holiday credits for the year, but with two Extra-230 drivers taking the plunge upwards the top class was moderately well represented too. To complement this serious intent by so many people a meandering high-pressure weather system arrived just in time to provide exactly what we might have ordered, well ... for at least three of the four days.

Sywell is a great place for aviation events - the combination of a lovely grass airfield with the stylish hotel and excellent Pilots Mess facilities make a superb setting for this event. The new but as yet unused hard runway this time provided a splendid centre-line feature for the classic sequences, forming an unmistakeable (!) 'A' or 'B' axis depending on the judges choice of location for the classic flying, whilst for the Unlimited 4-minute Free and the Advanced Masters the judges repositioned in front of the tower to provide maximum effect for the other viewers - and there were quite a few of those too. This year has also been the first to benefit from Mazda's excellent support, following their invaluable contribution to the World Championships that we held at Silverstone during August.

The Unlimited class kicked-off with a fairly brisk "Q" by the five contestants, and right from the off it was Gerald who laid down the standard to beat. To be sure Tom and Richard were close behind - plus the venerable Extra-230 being urged along to keep up with the somewhat newer French machinery. At Advanced the situation was a great deal more tense, this seasons upstart Marco Kalweit emerging just 17 points clear of the Chairman with Gary Ferriman an even closer 8 points behind Uncle - two biplanes and another '230 this time. On through the second days Free sequences under a near-perfect sky it was again Gerald all the way in the upper class, whilst this time Gary clawed his way to the top j-u-s-t clear - by 0.7 points! - of Totty Tomlinson's Edge, with Advanced newbie David Jenkins a whole 10 points further back in his Laser. You had to go to 18th place before the magic 60% barrier fell, such is the pace and class this year .... At Unlimited the first "traditional" unknown sequence fell yet again to the man from Wickenby, this heavy trial leaving the poor old '230 breathless and it's two ardent pedallers somewhat out of contention.

Saturday morning dawned looking bright enough, but the high-pressure was busy pushing all that high-altitude moisture down with the usual milk-bowl result. This was definitely not to Tony Maxwell's liking, so a brief hiatus ensued whilst the Pilots Mess coffee machine cranked up the pace - then visiting Kester Scrope kindly zoomed to the top of the box for a look, reporting that although not for the faint hearted the viz. was indeed better than 5km's from 3,500ft ... and so Mr Maxwell re-embarked to do his stuff. This third Advanced sequence was at last the property of Uncle Cassidy, this time by a short head from a very on-form Alex Smith in his Edge - with Totty-T's similar machine right behind. The testing environment had slightly relented by the lunch break, but when the final Unlimited Free Unknown sequence commenced they certainly had to work hard for their money. And again ... that chap with the blue and white CAP-232 made it look - well, not easy, but impressive for sure. All that WAC training and confidence showed, and great to watch it was too.

At this point the judges all re-staged to the grass by the control tower, the best to enjoy the ensuing unlimited 4-minute Freestyle. Richard-P elected to sit this one out, so the two EA-230 upstarts took on the experienced CAP-232 pair ... once again the unstoppable Gerald firmly resisting Tom-C's best, whilst Julian's efforts edged him a stride or two in front of Steve Madle's first foray into non-Aresti playtime. A hugely popular set of victories for Master Cooper then, judging by the unanimous accolades from the assembled crowd, and a fitting complement to the enormous efforts that he and the other Unlimited Team members have made this year. The beautiful Neil Williams Sunday Telegraph Trophy was duly presented to Gerald by Mazda PR Director Graeme Fudge for overall victory in the classic sequences, together with the David Perrin Trophy for the Freestyle event.

And so to Sunday, and the last quarter of the Advanced Aresti flying. True to form we enjoyed yet another winner, this time Nick Wakefield pulling out all the stops to head a very on-form Michael Pickin - himself just a single point better than Nick Richards. Close or what, again! Then for one final period the judges scrambled to the tower lawn, to review the eight willing to throw their metaphoric hats into the Masters ring. This time it was Paul-T from Uncle, with young Pickin close behind - all covered by the proverbial 1% hankey.

This was indeed one of the finest senior championships most of us could remember, and bodes well for 2010. Huge thanks to Sywell and all their staff, to the many judges, assistants and scribes, scorer JB and especially to my assistant Contest Director Eric Marsh - without whom I would surely have been lost. One more to go at Wickenby then!
Nick B
Contest Director