Contest Directors Report
  As dawn approached on the day of the Beginners Aerobatic Day, I woke
from my fitful night’s sleep still thinking about my first aerobatic
day, also at Little Gransden, and how nervous I felt. However, all
that was a long, long time ago ……… August 2008 actually, and look at
me now Ma, on top of the world, woohoo.
Well not quite, but
first day of summer, first aerobatic outing for nine newbies and my
first go as Contest Director. What could go wrong? I left my house
at 07.00hrs with the sun shinning and blue skies above, as I drew
closer to the airfield some 45 minutes later I could see grey skies
and a cloud base so low that only a limbo dancer could pull off a
decent loop; well 1,800 ft and the TAF had it at that for the rest
of the day.
However, we have all sat around at airfields
waiting for the Gods to make it happen for us, and therefore pressed
on with briefing at 09.30hrs. Airfield procedures and facilities
were communicated to the awestruck
 pilots by Mark Jefferies whilst
Chief Judge Ron Allan
 gave an informative overview of what he and
his team of judges were looking for.
As ever in these
Beginners events, the day was not so much about competition but more
about gaining constructive feedback and guidance from a seasoned
judging line having flown a fairly straightforward sequence. The day
was to consist of a practice flight, somewhere away from the
airfield and box. For some of the pilots it was the first time they
would fly the aircraft they were subsequently going to fly a couple
of hours later in front of the judges.
From there, it was to
be the first flight of the Beginners Known sequence, get a score
plus some critique, then do the best you can to improve on that. We
knew that slick timing was more likely to be wishful
  thinking
because Adrian Willis and G-EEEK were flying with five out of the
nine competitors, sorry - make that “eventers”.
The day
gradually got warmer, the cloud base started to lift, people started
to practice and at about 2,300ft Chris Sills very kindly flew the
sequence in front of all to show the newbies what it should look
like. At 2,800ft we decided to get the pilots that were flying with
a safety pilot, and the S1S taking part, to get the show on the
road. We had ourselves a competition……… Whoops.
The day went
very well. The skies continued to brighten, the TAF was wrong this
time, we had one or two spectators, some guys from a marketing
company looking at how we could raise the profile of our sport,
 some
really enthusiastic pilots and new additions to the judging line as
scribes. What went wrong? – Nothing. What a great day.
So in
no particular order it was many thanks to Jen for being the bedrock
of the event as always, Adrian Willis who ran his Extra more like a
Formula 1 driver pulling into the pits, refuelling and then gone
again, the Jefferies family for some good food, Chris Sills for his
flight, Chris Birkett for a cracking aerobatic display a bit later
on in the day just to show everybody how it should be done, the
judging team led by that Sky God Ron Allan, and last but not least
the pilots who all flew safely, with enthusiasm and humour. Look
forward to seeing you at the next event. |
| Final Results |
|
BAeA Open Beginners Event, Little Gransden
- 1st June 2013 |
|
Ranked by scores
|
| Rank |
|
Pilot |
Aeroplane |
Registration |
Known |
Totals |
O/all % |
| 1 |
|
Alan Millson |
Pitts S-1S |
G-BRZX |
560.17 |
560.17 |
81.185 |
2 |
|
Jon Millson |
Pitts S-1S |
G-BRZX |
523.06 |
523.06 |
75.805 |
3 |
|
Phil Chappell |
Extra 200 |
G-EEEK |
517.35 |
517.35 |
74.978 |
4 |
|
John Pollard |
Extra 200 |
G-EEEK |
496.34 |
496.34 |
71.934 |
5 |
 |
Francesco Fullin |
Extra 200 |
G-EEEK |
495.02 |
495.02 |
71.742 |
6 |
|
Nick Heard |
Slingsby T-67M |
G-BNSP |
469.61 |
469.61 |
68.060 |
7 |
|
James John |
Slingsby T-67M |
G-BNSP |
415.31 |
415.31 |
60.189 |
8 |
|
Jun Yip |
Extra 200 |
G-EEEK |
400.31 |
400.31 |
58.016 |
9 |
|
David Rolfe |
Extra 200 |
G-EEEK |
362.31 |
362.31 |
52.508 |
 |
| Contest Director: Phil Massetti, Contest Chief Judge: Ron Allan, Scoring Director: Jen B. Judges: Ron Allan, Chris Sills, Ian Scott. Judges Assistants: Sarah Hardy, Julie Wood. |
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FairPlay System |
Aerobatic Contest Results Organiser, Version 3.2 Build 27-05-13, with FairPlay Scoring System |
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