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The Loop Beginners Event #3 - 2010 |
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CD's Report The Saturday of the contest started off with hot sun, no wind and blue skies without a cloud in the sky…then my alarm went off and the dream ended. Outside it was 10 degrees, raining with a strong wind.  The lead up to the contest was one of those “will it won’t it” weeks. Four days before the contest the Met were forecasting blue skies with sunshine. By the Friday they had changed this to overcast at 2000ft with strong winds from the North. On Saturday I left home with low cloud, rain and a strong wind. Fortunately, Little Gransden was just far enough west to avoid the heavy showers driving in off the North Sea into East Anglia from the strong northerly. The TAF said 4000 ft and 12kts directly across the runway so we all gathered at 9.30 for the briefing. I say all, but we had two aircraft go tech, missing paperwork and pilots struggling to get there because of unhelpful work rosters. Because the CAP10 had gone tech so we had to squeeze 14 pilots into the two Extra 200s and the Pitts S2A. This meant that we didn’t really know what was happening until Jen finally herded the cats into place with minutes to spare before the briefing.  The format of the loop days has been well refined and consists of a practice flight followed by a critiqued flight in the box. The afternoon gives every pilot a second flight in the box with the judges scoring their performance to give them a taste of what it’s like in a competition. These events are becoming very popular with places at Little Gransden selling out 4 weeks in advance of the event. We had been worried that the 10-12 knot on judge wind would be too high. However, the pilots watched and felt the effect of it and quickly worked out that the best strategy was to take a free break in the middle of the sequence. One more lesson learnt!  Everyone had finished their first flights by one o’clock and the Judges and instructors took a well earned break out of the wind. Then the afternoon session started. Andrew Barlow had been coaching groups of pilots. Many had walked over to the judging line to discuss their critique with the Judges Aidan, Wixie, Brian and Phil. Things were getting serious. This wasn’t just an introduction to aerobatic competition. Points were at stake and we all know what points mean ….. Prizes! Matthew Duke kicked off the afternoon with a great flight in the Cambridge aero club Extra. We rattled through the program with 21 flights in 3 hrs. Then back to the clubhouse for tea and medals. While we were waiting for the computer to catch up Mark treated us to a display of what his Extra 330 SC could do. Hovering and microloops.  Then we were ready for the results: First place went to Will Hilton in Alans Pitts S2A with the incredible score of 80.89%. Will was the youngest of our pilots and he flew brilliantly in difficult conditions. I hope it’s at least a few years until he starts competing at my level!! 
In second place was Laura Russell who had flown almost as well but had scored lower on that tricky 4th figure, you all remember
the loop with a quarter roll. … a bit like patting your head and
rubbing your stomach at the same time. Don’t worry you will never need
to fly it again if you move up to Standard and beyond.In third place was Matthew Duke who hadn’t let being the first flight worry him. Fourth place went to Emily Ordish who put in a great performance in the Pitts, beating Bruce Hutton into 5th place by just 0.0024% We also had 5 pilots flying in Slingsbys. They had a slight disadvantage as their slower aircraft felt the effect of the strong winds. In the end it was the BUUF boys Daniel and Neil that took the top Slingsby honours. We had 9 pilots scoring over 70% which just shows the high standard of flying in quite difficult conditions. It was cold and windy, but everyone was smiling at the end of the day. I’ve had lots of great comments from the pilots and on their behalf I’d like to thank Jen for scoring, the chief judge Aidan and his team of judges and assistants as well as Andrew Barlow and other BAeA members who helped with the coaching. Thanks also to Adrian, Luke and Alan who flew 28 flights between them. Mark and Cathy and their daughters Tara and Jasmine kindly let us use their airfield and fed and watered us during the day. David Jenkins Contest Director |
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