Do you remember the 2011 remake of the Lou Reed song ‘Perfect Day’? Basically, it was a collaboration between lots of talented people who all contributed small bits towards something that was a great success in the end. Well, I’ve got that song playing in my head as I write this report.

In the BAeA, we’ve always been very hot on safety. Aeroplanes can be dangerous, but we limit the risks by enforcing our well honed safety practices at every event, but now we have a  second threat to deal with - ‘The Virus’. We’ve come a long way to get to the point where we could restart competition flying again in the UK, but we’ve done it, even if the paperwork has quadrupled. Different airfields present different challenges, but a big dollop of common sense in the right place goes a long way. Face coverings, mandatory indoors. Conversations to take place at 2m distance. Keep contact with local people to a minimum for two way protection reasons. At Sleap yesterday, we had the luxury of two buildings. The main Shropshire Aero Club one and the museum. The locals could use the main building as usual while we used the museum. I established a simple one way system, in one door, out the other. Simple. So simple that I only broke my own rule 2 or 3 times!!!

Sat 12th Sept.

05:00 I pack what I need into my dear old SmartCar and depart Putney, SW London.

08:30 I arrive at Sleap airfield. It’s quiet. Very quiet. Nothing stirred, except David Slater who emerged from his tent. “Sleep well David?” “Well I slept, put it that way”. It remained eerily quiet until about 09:15 when it started to rain aeroplanes. 12 arrivals in about 30mins. That’s probably busier than Heathrow at the moment.

10:00 I delay the briefing to allow the last arrival time to fill up. Having taken delivery of a consignment of British Aerobatic facemasks the day before, I opened the shop to sell some masks to a few who were interested. The ‘shop’ was in fact a cardboard box in the back of my car. To onlookers, it must have looked pretty dodgy.

10:30 Briefing over and I have to reopen the shop as interest has caught on now and the fundraising masks are going like hotcakes. I’d sold 33 by close of play, so thank you if you bought one or two. (I do still have plenty left so you’ve not missed out).

11:15 The judging team began to assemble behind the cordoned off area near the fence. The hazard tape was to keep the public safe from the judges. There was also the advantage that the judges were in a controlled area where our Covid policies could be exercised without a wandering, well meaning member of the public approaching to ask what’s going on, or a disgruntled pilot who disagreed with their scores. But mainly it was to keep the public safe from

the judges. To the uninitiated, they may have looked like a bunch of old codgers sitting in deckchairs, with the obvious exception of Ross Turner, our youngest powered competitor, who at 16yrs, has now soloed, a year before he is old enough to learn to drive. But just in case there was any question surrounding the pedigree of the judging line up, here are a few facts. Present were;

The President of CIVA. Several International Judges.

Several International Chief Judges.

Several International Contest Directors, not least the CD at the 2009 World Championships held at Silverstone.

Several International Jury members.

British Aerobatic Team Pilots and Managers, past and present. Aerobatic Instructors, one with well over 5,000hrs on Pitts Special alone. The author of a global bestselling book on aerobatic flying.

A retired RAF Wing Commander.

And a dentist. (well you can’t be too careful these days).

11:30 James Seward has left the comfort of his B757 behind and has strapped on a Pitts  Special to go and do a cloudbase check. “3,500ft on the QFE”. Short pause, then I hear Chief Judge John Royce reply “Say again, did you say THREE thousand, five hundred?” James - “Affirm”. We were on. James went on to fly a great Sports Known sequence but left out the 4 point roll at the end - Doh!! Ian Gale was next to rock in, flying The Spirit of Ayre. He admitted to me that his last practice session was a shocker “absolutely awful” he said. Usually a good sign, and it was. He nailed the one and a half turn spin, recovering so crisply that it looked like he’d hit something. After a little over an hour, we were onto the Intermediate crowd, well 2 of them, but both well seasoned contest hacks. David Slater in his Pitts S1T and Graeme Fudge in the CAP

232. Bi-plane vs Monoplane. Night in a tent vs night in own bed. Who would come out on top. Read on…

12:40 Ex Microlease display pilot Nick Wakefield is first to get the Advanced show on the road, well air really, and by 13:50 we were all ready for a lunch break. The airfield management had advised me that the Raven formation aerobatic team would be visiting during the day and would it be okay if they practiced their display during our lunch break. Well, who am I to turn down a free display, the only one I’ll see this year. So they took off and showed us what they do. Having suggested to the team leader that they use our licenced safety frequency for their air-to-air calls, I was able to listen in during their routine. Very Red Arrows like “Hol-ding-the-bank now”.

Very professional right down to the synchronized engine shut down on the pumps, despite the fact that the crowd could no longer see them. Thank you Ravens.

14:30 Lunch over, we sent the judges back into their cage and we were off again, this time for the Unknown Programme. I don’t know if English gravity is stronger than Welsh, but  3 Advanced pilots in a row pulled up for a canopy up tailslide, presented their Dunlops to the

Welsh hills, only to be sucked back towards England and fell the wrong way. If you thought that sequence was challenging, you should see the two I rejected - Ouch…!!!!

16:50 Paul Elvidge, our final competitor, wing rocked out of the box and we were done. Two sequences in the bag. I do wonder what the judges' sun tans look like today. Normally they have a glowing red left side and a more normal right side, but with the addition of a face mask, they must look another level of odd. James pulled back his scores after the missed 4 pointer in the first round to bag 67.533%. A very respectable score, given a Hard Zero. If only, If only…. The bronze at Sports would have gone to Ian Gale, but unfortunately he had to depart early as he feared for certain parts of his body which he had been promised would be lopped off if he didn’t get G-PULR back in its home hanger before it closed. Medal’s in the post. Andy McKee took silver in his clockwork orange, but it was to be Steven Bakhtiari’s day of glory, taking gold and the Golding Barrett trophy home in his CAP 231. The daughter of Arthur Golding Barrett, Bryher Grimes usually likes to come and watch the event and we ask her to present the trophy that is in memory of her late father. This year she stayed away for Covid safety reasons but sent me a few words which I read out at the presentation. So, onto bed vs tent. And the winner is - drum roll please - Greame Fudge, but not by much. Great battle chaps. The Duxford trophy has spent quite a long time in Nick Wakefield's care, but he had to pack it up and bring it to be presented to its new holder. Who would that be? In 3rd and bronze position was Chris Sills in the Edge. Silver would go to Paul Elvidge, and the gold and the Duford trophy - went to Nick Wakefield, so he packed it up again and took it back to wherever he had it displayed before.

A huge thank you to everyone concerned. Jen for the scores, registration and thoroughly sanitised everything. John Royce and his illustrious judging team. Quite a line up indeed. The pilots for safe flying and safe Coviding. We don’t know what the future holds for this little sport of ours, but I do know that Sleap 2020 will be one to be remembered for a long time.

18:00 Not much fancying the 3.5hr drive back to London, I check into The Old Rectory in Wem for the night. I take my key from its sanitised plastic bag and put my bag in the room. There’s a wedding on downstairs, so not wanting to become guest no 31 and have the event stopped, I head into town for something to eat. I’m sitting in the corner of a pub when an old boy called Steve spots my BAeA shirt. He asks what I’ve been doing, so I tell him. Turns out he was a member of the Tiger Club back in the old Redhill days. He tells me all about the Tiger Moth he used to have a share of and how he’d fly it home and land in the field behind his house. He could taxi right up to his garden gate. He shared a picture of it which I’ll share with you too. We sat and talked a while, at a distance of course. We drank beer and talked aeroplanes, and I thought to myself, you know, this really has been a perfect day.

Brian McCartney Contest Director.