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CD's Report
Climate – aka
weather – dominates life on our planet. More important, it has a major
effect on competitive aerobatics. Typically it imposes said effect on the
day of said competition, but for Elvington this year it started its assault
several weeks out with wet (aka unflyable) meteorological conditions. As a
result, of the 24 who had entered over three classes, ten cancelled:
Intermediate suffered most with a field of nine decimated to two.
Considering all this, the most commendable transit must be attributed to
Laurent v Nieuwenhove and Jan Nijhof, who flew their tiny aeroplanes from
(and back to) Europe across an even wetter sea to compete in a BAeA contest:
well done both.
Initial briefing was held on schedule at 0900 on Friday in Elvington’s
crew-shed, but low cloud prevented a start until 1300, when eight Advanced
and two Unlimited pilots flew the Q and Free expeditiously before finishing
at 1700. Chief Judge Nick Buckenham then organised the composition of the
second unknown, to be flown by the Advanced pilots the following day.
Typically Saturday’s Intermediate pilots would position on Friday, but
because the met conditions prohibited not only that but also threatened
their return journey, only two made it. Both were duly briefed at 0800 and
flew soon after, but the weather, far from improving as forecast,
deteriorated and after three hours of tedium, and in consultation with
pilots, it was concluded that the prospect of a material improvement was
negligible and the contest be terminated.
Such conclusions are very frustrating for all: Peter Mac (he who has a
friendly forecaster in every airport) drove all the way from Scotland to
judge only two flights, BAeA groupie Lief Culpin came from Kent expecting to
take lots of sunlit photos (hopefully some of his work appears here), and
whilst not wishing to sound unduly mercenary, such events impact on the BAeA
funds with expenditure exceeding income, which is why our Treasurer holds a
material cash reserve for such – literally – rainy days.
Worst luck must have been suffered by Dave Kaberry, who made it thro the
rain in his covetable new S’bach only to experience not one but two
punctures on the runway, repairing which must inevitably have affected his
contest flights (and didn’t do his landings much good either).
The convention to my understanding was that a trophy should not be awarded
with an entry of only two contestants, but I could find nothing to that
effect in the rules, so as CD took the view that those who had attended had
made an extraordinary effort to do so and deserved their winnings. A further
factor was that the Cavendish Hotel Trophy had itself got lost in the
weather, so we would otherwise have NO trophies to award. Furthermore the
Nathaniel Alony Trophy had not been awarded since 2009 and deserved a better
home than a carton in my hangar.
As CD I final-briefed the assembly with thanks to all who had contributed to
the event, particularly Kimmo Virtanen, an international judge from Finland,
as well as CJ Nick Buckenham and his team of fellow judges and volunteer
assistants.
As sponsor of The Cavendish Hotel Trophy I appointed myself to present the
awards: for Intermediate to Richard Goodwin the Roy Legg Trophy, for
Advanced to Phil Burgess the temporarily invisible (to my embarrassment and
with groveling innkeeper’s apologies) Cavendish Hotel Trophy, and for
Unlimited to Gerald Cooper the Nathaniel Alony Trophy, plus the relevant
medals to runners-up listed below.
Erci Marsh
Contest Director
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Elvington, 27th-29th April 2012 |
| The Roy Legg Trophy |
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Ranked by scores
|
| Rank |
|
Pilot |
Aeroplane |
Registration |
Known |
Totals |
O/all % |
| 1 |
|
Richard Goodwin |
Christen Eagle |
G-KLAW |
1452.83 |
1452.83 |
72.642 |
2 |
|
Jan Nijhof |
Pitts S-1T |
N-196JR |
1433.50 |
1433.50 |
71.675 |
 |
| The Cavendish Hotel Trophy |
|
Ranked by scores
|
| Rank |
|
Pilot |
Aeroplane |
Registration |
"Q" |
Free |
Totals |
O/all % |
| 1 |
|
Phil Burgess |
DR-107 |
G-RIHN |
2146.24 |
2601.12 |
4747.36 |
76.943 |
2 |
|
Andrew Barlow |
Pitts S-1T |
N-85WS |
2085.68 |
2393.32 |
4479.01 |
72.593 |
3 |
|
David Jenkins |
Edge 360 |
G-EDGJ |
1797.85 |
2591.95 |
4389.80 |
71.148 |
4 |
|
Tom Bennett |
CAP 232 |
G-IIAI |
2043.80 |
2063.10 |
4106.90 |
66.562 |
5 |
|
Cas Smith |
Pitts S-2A |
G-ICAS |
1749.35 |
2074.64 |
3823.99 |
61.977 |
6 |
|
Mark Stewart |
Extra 300L |
G-KIII |
1907.96 |
1538.79 |
3446.75 |
55.863 |
7 |
|
Laurent v Nieuwenhove |
Pitts S-2S |
G-OSZS |
1721.45 |
1574.41 |
3295.85 |
53.417 |
8 |
|
David Kaberry |
S'bach-342 |
D-ECXA |
987.02 |
1265.16 |
2252.19 |
36.502 |
| The Nathaniel Alony Trophy |
|
Ranked by scores
|
| Rank |
|
Pilot |
Aeroplane |
Registration |
"Q" |
Free |
Totals |
O/all % |
| 1 |
|
Gerald Cooper |
WA-41 |
G-IIRI |
2952.17 |
3509.00 |
6461.17 |
76.736 |
2 |
|
Tom Cassells |
CAP-232 |
G-IITC |
2905.00 |
3084.17 |
5989.17 |
71.130 |
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| Contest Director: Eric Marsh, Contest
Chief Judge: Nick Buckenham, Scoring Director: Jen Buckenham,
Judges: Nick Buckenham, Kimmo Virtanen, Ian Scott. Judges
Assistants: Alex Cartwright, Julie Wood, Steve Kirton, Lauren
Richardson, John Royce, Debbie McKellar, Anne Willis, Eric
Marsh, David Thomson, Corinne Dennis. |
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FairPlay System |
Aerobatic Contest Results Organiser, Version 3.1 Build 29-03-12, with FairPlay Scoring System |
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