CD's Report
I wondered, yet again on the trip up
to the Real Aeroplane Company's airfield, just how many times I've
been to Breighton ... seemingly a permanent venue on the BAeA
calendar since at least the early 90's. That would
make well over 20 events for some of us there, since the early
days when Taffy Smith set up shop and bought a job-lot of Jűngmeisters, that gorgeous Mew Gull, a couple of L39
jets, the warbirds ... and despite a longer grass strip and some
more hangars, nothing much has changed. Certainly the down-to-earth
approach to life reigns supreme - the two chaps who arrived from
Doncaster in their PA28 on Sunday and were firmly instructed to get
rid of
their bright yellow high-viz jackets got the meaning
right away! The competition weather was unfortunately pretty much on
the limit throughout the event, the cloud-base reluctantly
scratching up to the magic 2,800ft and with scary temperatures and
biting winds to boot - Stuart Walton's deeply frosted S2C wingtip
(see above) provides the evidence from early Saturday morning! BAeA pilots
however are made of stern stuff, and by the time the the well
attended first briefing got under way the sun was almost
shining ... although it did go away for a couple of hours while
the straggly low stuff kept the teapot well engaged. The judges
stoked up early, and the Standard class eventually got on the road
at about 13:00.
One very welcome return to the Aresti
environment this year is that stalwart Pitts BKDR - not any more
with squared-off wingtips and the black-and-yellow paint job some of
us remember,
but still enjoying the extra set of
flying wires deemed necessary for unlimited stresses over two
decades ago. How time flies ... with a replacement prop at the last
moment and now toted by newbie Lauren Richardson, 'KDR seemed to
continue just where it left off. It was Richard Welch however
heading the first sequence list by just 1% from Lauren, closely
chased by Paul Elvidge's T67 and the rest. Another 'oldie' making a
most welcome re-appearance was Pitts G-OODI, Bob Woods getting a
late Standard sign-off on the Friday afternoon to join the fray and
his first competitive event done. We moved quickly to Beginners
then, and enjoyed some very smooth flying from four newcomers in the
two elegant T67 Slingsby's; Al Holmes drove
the Cassells SKYC
machine to a fine 77%, putting some distance between himself and the
followers led by Seb Tyler. Good performances people - the Standard
class beckons.
The cloud-base was still quite
marginal when Advanced got going, but improved as time went by. Gary
Ferriman's magic touch held good for this first sequence,
comfortably ahead of Stuart Walton's S2C and DJ's feisty Edge. Brian
McCartney's frozen judging team finally returned to club-house
warmth just shy of 19:00, at which point the S2C and the Jenkins
Edge unfortunately had to depart for non-flying Sunday duties.
The original plan had two Unknown
sequences for the Standard crowd, and although Sunday as usual
dawned CAVOK ... by 10:00 the 1,500ft scud was firmly in place and
black towering cumulus cells marching around the horizon. The
temperature seemed to stay somewhere around 6°c, which is a bit
below the accepted judge comfort mark ... Tom Cassells
joined the judging panel for the last
day; with Ian Scott and chairman Al unfortunately away for their own
Sunday duties we were down to just three judges, but the standard
remained good and no-one doubted the quality of work done out there
somewhere to the east of the airfield. The loose plan for the
Unknowns was to fly Advanced between the two Standard sequences;
with a Wx forced break after the first few managed to complete, the
first two sequences were done before hail at the judging line drove
the judges back into the warm again at about 14:00 ... we waited for
half an hour, but the remaining seven Standard pilots were much
relieved with the almost inevitable decision to call it a day - five
sequences in the bag despite quite unfavourable weather being deemed
a worthy result. With the S2C and DJ's Edge absent for the second
Advanced sequence it was Phil with the little green machine that
topped the Advanced list, while in the title chase Richard kept his
cool to claim the John McLean Trophy from Paul Elvidge's
steady-as-ever T67 and a beaming Lauren in her first event. Perhaps
KDR's experience helped! Trophy and gongs were dispensed, and the
remaining 14 pilots and aeroplanes quickly departed for
home bases around the country, no doubt nursing a few frozen
fingers along the way.
Thanks as usual to the ever-helpful Breighton staff, the judges,
their scribes, plus of course the teamakers, viewers, talkers,
advisors, scoring fingers and all the rest without whom this just wouldn't work. We shall
return.
Nick Buckenham Contest Director
|
The John McLean Trophy |
Breighton Airfield - 14/15 April 2012 |
Ranked by scores
|
Rank |
Pilot |
Aeroplane |
Registration |
Known |
Unk'n #1 |
Totals |
O/all % |
1 |
Richard Welch |
Pitts S-1S |
G-WIGY |
1093.36 |
901.94 |
1995.30 |
78.555 |
2 |
Paul Elvidge |
T-67M |
G-BKTZ |
1047.80 |
898.54 |
1946.34 |
76.628 |
3 |
Lauren Richardson |
Pitts S-1S |
G-BKDR |
1078.97 |
784.86 |
1863.83 |
73.379 |
4 |
Steve Kirton |
Slingsby T-67M |
G-SKYC |
1021.64 |
839.07 |
1860.71 |
73.256 |
5 |
Stephen Evans |
Pitts S-1E |
G-OKAY |
976.68 |
878.81 |
1855.49 |
73.051 |
6 |
Mark Bennett |
Extra 200 |
G-EEEK |
886.04 |
891.94 |
1777.99 |
69.999 |
7 |
Bob Wood |
Pitts S-1D |
G-OODI |
912.34 |
825.00 |
1737.35 |
68.400 |
|
Contest Director: Nick Buckenham, Contest Chief Judge: Brian McCartney, Scoring Director: Jen Buckenham, Judges: Brian McCartney, Ian Scott, Eric Marsh, Alan Cassidy, Tom Cassells. Judges Assistants: Julie Wood, Debie McKellar, Anne Willis, Richard Jones, Julie Lawley, Steve Todd, Gary Ferriman, Adrian Willis. |
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FairPlay System |
Aerobatic Contest Results Organiser, Version 3.1 Build 13-04-12, with FairPlay Scoring System |
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