Dan Smith Memorial Trophy, 2017 results

The eponymous Dan was not only Chairman and CFI of the London Gliding Club for many years, in the fifties, but also the winner of the National Glider Aerobatic Championships, held at Dunstable in 1957. He lived, and flew on into his eighties, and the Competition was set up, in his memory, in 1997, with a rather beautiful (if fragile) carved wooden looping glider as the trophy. This was therefore the twenty-first of our “home” event...and one of the best ever.

There was an excellent entry of fifteen pilots. Three withdrew but the very talented young Fliss Jones was included at registration on Saturday morning to make up the Lucky Thirteen at the nine-o'clock briefing.The weather for both days was predicted to follow a similar pattern of  cold, westerly wind with early low cloud cover rising and breaking for a start early afternoon. Thanks to the sincerity of the CD's silent prayers it came to pass! We achieved 21 flights on the Saturday before the exhausted and freezing judges could take no more.

By then, though, we had completed the Known 1 programme and eight had flown the unknown, leaving only five flights to complete on the Sunday. Cloud base rose, as predicted, and the last pilot flew the amusing lavatorial plumbing-shaped figure one at about 2.0pm. Andy Roch, the CFI of our Club, kindly presented the medals and trophy at 3.0pm, giving the rare opportunity for some training flying in the rest of the afternoon of lovely weather.

The Trophy itself, which is won by the top-scoring Sports-level pilot, went to Joel Hallewell for a truly remarkable score of over eighty percent. Fourth overall he was only beaten by present and past champions...well done! Ramon Dormans flew very well to get 83% and the Bronze. The top could hardly have been tighter, or higher standard, as Maz Makari  won the Gold with 85.66%, a whole 0.1% ahead of Paul Conran in Silver. Our very welcome Czech Guest, Jan Rolinek, performed nicely, as usual, to come fifth.

I think Chris Cain, Michael Corcoran, Steve Lewis and Alex Harris all enjoyed themselves, and kept up the tradition of doing the Dan Smith with no practice...still kicking yourself about that wrong-way quarter clover, Alex? Both Matt Cook and Will Jones deserve congratulation for scores of over 70% in their first competition. Our two female competitors, Sally Walker and Fliss Jones, also scored very respectably on debut.

This was the second year that we ran the programme from 3000 feet, which is clearly adequate for the Sports sequences. No lows were given and we were able to start earlier and run through more quickly...and everyone saved some money! Standard practice form now on.

Thanks, as ever, to all involved in the running...it all went well and we had a complete comp...HOORAY!

Andy Cunningham

The Dan Smith Memorial Trophy 2017

Rank Team Pilot Aeroplane Registration Known #1 Unknown Totals O/all %
1 UNL Maz Makari ASK 21 G- 1265.71 1218.52 2484.23 85.663
2 UNL Paul Conran ASK 21 G-? 1214.88 1266.35 2481.23 85.560
3 ADV Ramon Dormans ASK 21 G-? 1202.17 1213.70 2415.87 83.306
4 SPO Joel Hallewell ASK 21 G-GOK 1222.56 1122.54 2345.09 80.865
5 UNL Jan Rolinek ASK 21 G-? 1089.63 1046.51 2136.14 73.660
6 SPO Will Jones ASK 21 G-DNO 1005.79 1047.14 2052.93 70.791
7 SPO Matthew Cook ASK 21 G-? 1154.58 881.40 2035.99 70.206
8 ADV Chris Cain ASK 21 G-NAC 872.59 1098.46 1971.05 67.967
9 SPO Felicite Jones ASK 21 G- 967.67 953.16 1920.84 66.236
10 SPO Sally Walker ASK 21 G-? 831.38 1077.06 1908.44 65.808
11 ADV Alex Harris ASK 21 G-? 705.92 1179.47 1885.39 65.014
12 SPO Michael Corcoran ASK 21 G-DUN 968.77 844.49 1813.26 62.526
13 SPO Stephen Lewis ASK 21 G-? 802.72 892.32 1695.04 58.450

Note! Score Adjustment Factors have been applied Contest Director: Andy Cunningham, Contest Chief Judge: Charles Baker, Scoring Director: Cindy Copsey

Judges: Charles Baker, Rod Herve, Brian McCartney, Guy Roth,

Judges Assistants: Margaret Baker, Julie Lawley, Chris Cain

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