The Wellesbourne Instructors Contest - 2010

CD's Report
I am an innkeeper, and historically a major source of our business is through travel agents, so we target them in our marketing. In aviation a source of membership of the British Aerobatic Association is flying instructors, so once a year we convene a seminar in which we explain the principles of aerobatic competition and combine it with a simple contest. Our partner in this exercise is On Track Aviation, near Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire: they are in the business of training flying instructors and their principal, Alan Newton, is a training captain with a major airline, so the relationship is perfect. Alan Newton also has infinite nervous energy, so the whole operation is run with professional efficiency.

The event takes the classic two forms: theory then practice, and the seminar leader is aerobatics guru Alan Cassidy, MBE, Chairman of British Aerobatics Association.

The theory part took place in On Track’s excellent conference room on Wednesday evening: Alan describes it as a “discussion”, thereby inviting comment from his audience, but his knowledge and the flow of information are such that one senses a reluctance to spoil it with interruptions. It is a lecture which I have heard several times, but it is still fascinating, and the most important concept a tyro aerobatic pilot needs to grasp is that of seeing himself from on the ground rather from in the cockpit.

Next day’s weather was perfect, so after a standard briefing trainees were mated with mentors and aircraft and released to a high cloud base for some informal practice remote from the field, immediately followed by the set sequence in the box assessed by the judges. The rate of play was “leisurely”, but by lunch all seven pilots had landed and were displaying the happy grin they all unconsciously adopt. After lunch similar matings were made of pilot, safety pilot and plane, and a mock contest completed. With a Chipmunk and RF4 pitted against four Pitts Specials, their handicap was evidenced in the results, but it did not mar the enjoyment both in the air and from the ground. Debriefs indicated that a lot had been learned, certainly enough to enable all contestants (and their students) to enrol for a full BAeA competition in the near future.

Special On Track medals were presented by On Track boss Alan Newton, and supplemented by three beautiful cakes individually decorated by On Track instructor Stephanie Wall. Clearly a woman of many talents, Stephanie then agreed for me to accompany her as passenger flying number 2 in a nine ship display formation over the field: this was only the third time I had done this (the previous two having been at previous W-B events), but by far the most enjoyable: it can be quite scary until you get used to it.

Thanks are due to all those who participated, particularly the crews of On Track Aviation and Wellesbourne Mountford Airfield, and the many volunteers of the British Aerobatics Association.
Eric Marsh
Contest Director