The Loop Beginners Event #1 - 2010

After a lengthy first briefing from Chief Judge Nick Buckenham and myself, each of the pilots flew with Cas, or went away from the airfield to practise on their own, returning to fly the beginners’ sequence in the box before landing, therefore following the usual Loop Beginners Day format. The pre-lunch debriefing seemed to need to concentrate mostly on the orientation and the procedure required to fly the ‘up roll’ quarter clover, it proving quite tricky for a few! Other problems experienced seemed to be exactly when to kick the rudder and what else to do to prevent a tail slide / torque roll or a bridged stall turn. And so lunch was eaten and the weather improved further, giving a 4 knot wind straight down the box!

The post-lunch briefing illustrated that the pace would be stepped up in order to try and demonstrate the experience of being in a “real” competition. The format would be to fly into the box for a good look, position for start, wing rock and go straight into the sequence. Peter Mac and Nick B retired to the judging line to provide their expert scores and comments, Jen B assumed the scoring position and we were underway.

Stephen Evans in G-OKAY was still having some difficulty with the quarter clover and experienced his first Hard and two Soft Zeros, putting him in sixth position and duly won a Kit-Kat for his brave efforts. Martin Owen flew with Cas and got a bit muddled with the half roll in the opening half Cuban .... his lovely ¾ roll saw him collect a Hard and one Soft Zero, positioning him in fifth place but also winning him a Kit-Kat. Paul Macha had the advantage of helping on the judging line the previous week at Sandtoft and his prior aerobatic experience in the Czech Republic had been in a Zlin. His rolls to the right in the S-2B gave the game away but his score of over 64% won him yet another Kit-Kat and saw him into fourth place. John Firth in the open cockpit Skybolt scored very well but suffered slightly on his stall turn to leave him in third and winning him - wait for it - a Twix bar!

It was a toss up between Adrian Mardlin and Kate Banks as to who would be flying their hired Cherokee back to White Waltham, and who might be walking. I don’t suppose that it was Adrian’s ideal to be beaten quite so substantially by Kate, who had come along to support him at his first event. But so it came to pass; it was Kate who flew the cleanest sequence and consequently walked home with the trophy together with a half price power membership to the BAeA, and Adrian who drove home with a Mars bar. Like Paul Macha, Kate had also rolled right in the full roll in figure 5 (she said she did it just to see if anybody noticed! Yes we did!)

Loop Beginners Days not only provide some very useful advice and experience for budding competition pilots but also show that there is a great social side to competition aerobatics and good fun to be had amongst the adrenalin and nerves of trying to fly well in front of others.

We finished with a final briefing and prize giving. It was a great day and Nick B, Peter Mac, Andra, and Jen B were thanked for judging and scoring, Corinne Dennis, Ian Ross and Breighton Airfield as our contacts, accommodation and host, Cas and Phil O’Donoghue for aircraft and organisation, Kate (the Breighton one!) and her catering team, our chairman Alan Cassidy for offering the added incentive of a half price membership fee for the winner and of course to all the pilots for coming along and joining us for the best weather there has yet been at Breighton Loop Beginners Day. The next one is at Leicester on May 8th - will you be there?
Paul Tomlinson
Contest Director