The Fenland and McAully Trophies - 2011

Fenland has always been a favourite of mine. A lovely airfield to spend a weekend at with very friendly staff and as my inspection of the runways in the fire truck was to prove, an airfield with more hares than me. The pilots at standard level, get a taste of thinking up a ‘free’ programme in the form of the 3 figures tagged onto the end of the known, and at intermediate there are four sequences to get their teeth into, but would we be getting our teeth into some flying, or cake?

The forecast in the week leading up to the event looked like the whole weekend would be a wash-out, but with a couple of days to go, the Friday outlook had improved to, quite nice really. In fact on the day, it was not only nice enough for competitor’s arrivals, but at 1300hrs John Scott’s Cap 10B lifted off, impressively bang on time, and the fight for the Fenland Trophy was on! A good flight it was too, scoring 71.69%, putting him in second place, a position he was very reluctant to relinquish, but could he hold onto it? Read on! Farrell McGee made an impressive return to competition with a 69.36% in his Edge 360, despite a boob in the middle of the sequence, (that’s not how he described it), placing him in third just ahead of a very happy, HZless, John Calverley. But it was Peter Rounce who led the pack after the intermediate known with a 74.74%.

The weather was still good enough to launch the two beginners. Anthony Cooke was drawn to fly first and enjoyed his loop so much that he did it again! Amelie Windel didn’t fall for that or any other gotcha and bagged a BAeA plaque for 1st place. Anthony’s bruises will fade when he finally stops kicking himself.

The weather was still good. We pressed on.

Intermediate free threw a few surprises through the scoring machine. Cpt. McGee ended up in 10th, having thought he’d flown a blinder – what happened there? He missed out a figure. Peter Rounce scored 81.59% “That’s what I wanted” he said. I bet it was Pete. Adrian Willis scored a 72.14% and second in the free was his reward for a good flight, but perhaps too late? But John Scott ended the free in 6th – what happened there? Was this the disaster he feared? What would the combined scores be? Would he still be in 2nd place?

John Scott was still in second place.

24 flights in one short afternoon, an excellent BBQ and quiz evening and it was onto the Saturday, when the standard pilots would join in the fun – except it was raining – a lot! What could a group of aerobatic pilots do to fill the time? Well, we listened to, and surely all benefited from an excellent talk and discussion with Gerald Cooper on the subject of preparation for an unknown. Thank you Gerald.

By mid afternoon we we’re off again with the standardees. Dutch weather had grounded our friends from Holland, a bleeding Extra put an end to Laura Russell’s huge effort to compete and two no shows, give us a ring next time Gents, left 5 entries. Richard Goodwin led the results after the known with Paul Elvidge 3.5% behind in 2nd and Paul Stanley in 3rd. Both the judges and the airfield allowed us to fly the unknown sequence late into the day, thank you both. Stephen Evans must have been chuffed with his 77.88% but again, too late. A very broad smile climbed out of the Extra 200 followed by Mark Bennett, flying in his first standard event, - no zeros! “I enjoyed that”. I think he did too. Paul pushed hard in the T67 but he couldn’t rock Richard who flew off in his Eagle with the McAully trophy in the front seat.

The first unknown for intermediate was won by David Slater in the S1T with Adrian taking the 3rd place. Peter could only manage 4th this time out but he had already done enough and the combined scores still had him at the top with David Slater squeezing up to 3rd. We had run out of day, so the 2nd Int unknown would be held over till the Sunday morning, as the forecast was promising. Unfortunately, it was a forecast! We gave it a couple of hours, but it was clear that it would never become good enough for the last sequence to be flown. With so many naughty showers to the south west, thoughts turned to allowing everyone to get home safely and make it to work the next day. So that’s how they finished.

A huge thank you to all the staff at Fenland airfield and the catering crew for feeding and watering us. To Ian Scott and his team of Judges and assistants, and to the pilots for marshalling themselves into the box with the minimum of delays. Well done all.

Oh and John Scott finished second!

Brian McCartney
Contest Director