Tony Ayre Blade 2019 – Sywell Aerodrome.

1/9/18 RAF Scampton. Conversation takes place between myself and Squadron Leader Dave Hall about the possibility of hosting the 2019 event at a civilian airfield. 

Winter 2018/19. Royal Air Force Flying Club’s Association approve the use of a civilian airfield and the selected location is Sywell Aerodrome.

7/5/19 BBC News. “Fire breaks out at Sywell Aerodrome” An industrial warehouse is completely destroyed and asbestos debris is deposited extensively over the airfield.

8/5/19 NOTAM. Sywell Aerodrome closed to visiting aircraft.

13/5/19 Email from Sywell Management. Main hard runway and taxiways cleared of asbestos and airfield usable for RAFFCA event.

15/5/19 RAF Benson Met dept. Weather forecast for the competition day looks poor. Event organisers take the decision to continue as planned in the hope that the forecast improves.

18/5/19 - 09:30 Event day. The weather is poor! Very low cloud and light mist. However, the forecast is promising a clearance by the afternoon but, although we have all the competitors present at the briefing, all but one of our instructors and their aircraft are stuck at their home bases. Briefing complete, we break for coffee with a further briefing called for 11:00hrs. The good news by 11:00hrs was that we now had two aircraft and three instructors, one Extra 200 and a Pitts S2A. However, we were still under a blanket of low cloud, albeit a little higher than earlier. So, we took advantage of our enforced grounding and were treated to a mini judging seminar by Nick Buckenham, complete with his terrific graphics and demo videos. By 12:00hrs, the sky was looking much more friendly with large gaps, so the pilots were dispatched to the available instructors for sequence and aircraft briefings.

12:30 – Runway 03. The first flight takes off. The RAFFCA Tony Ayre Blade Competition 2019 was off and running. More good news - a report back from British Aerobatics member Trevor Dugan, who was conducting a private flight in his Pitts, revealed a cloud base in excess of 4,000ft over the field so when the first two training flights returned from their practice areas, they had plenty of sky to play with. Even more good news – the remaining two instructors arrived with their Extra 200’s. They were prepared to go straight into the task and although the predetermined flying order was now out of the window, their willingness to launch as soon as their tanks were refuelled was greatly appreciated by the rather pushy Contest Director. That’d be me then. With the strike rate now up to maximum speed, and the cooperation of the ‘we don’t need a break’ judging team, we were looking at finishing by 16:20hrs.

16:20. We finished. With some superb pilot wrangling by event organiser Simon Makosz, very fast turn-a-rounds by the instructors and some creative adjustments to the use of the practice areas, we finished. Looking at the smiles on the pilots’ faces, it had been a very successful day. You simply can’t hide that look of ‘I really enjoyed that’, and as a matter of fact, I really enjoyed it too, a lot. 

16:40 – On the grass outside. Speeches and medals time. The quality of flying had been outstanding with the top 11 pilots all scoring above 70%, but there’s no cigar for 11th. Bronze medal went home round the neck of Chris Gamble and likewise the silver dangling off Chris McHutchinson, but who would be sporting the Gold and the also take hold of the beautiful trophy? That would be going home with Steve Buckley, who’s smile was as wide as the wings on the Pitts S2A that he piloted to victory with instructor Emily Collett right behind him, even though he rolled right in the competition having practiced to the left in training. Of course Emily wasn’t the only instructor. Also working very hard were Mike Collett, Adrian Willis, Tom Cassells and the man who was instrumental in the inception of this annual event, Phil Burgess. Thank you all. Chief judge Rod Herve and his team, Chris Sills, Nick Buckenham, Ruth Scott, Sarah Hardy and Julie Lawley were outstanding in their field all afternoon without a break. Thank you to you all too. And of course thanks to Jen and Ling who tapped away on the ‘puter. And so we look forward to next years RAFFCA competition and hopefully we will have the Spirit of Ayre Pitts S2 G-PULR there too. 

Postscript. Anybody need a bucket or two of asbestos? 

Brian McCartney

Contest Director