CD Report

Sleap is a delightful, welcoming and busy airfield. It has become much busier in recent years, with several new hangars. If you have never visited, it is definitely worth a detour. The Advanced and Unlimited British National Championships were held there this year in what should have been the warm and sunny month of July.

The British Weather is fickle and unpredictable. We know this, but continue to organise and fly aerobatics in the UK as an example of hope over experience. Such optimism is sometimes rewarded. This was the case for the first two days at Sleap, where despite adverse weather forecasts, we managed to complete two Unlimited sequences and three Advanced sequences by Friday evening. Saturday was a complete washout, as bad as Sunday at Old Trafford. 

Forecasts for Sunday were many and various. Despite briefing at 08.00, we had to wait until 13.00 before a box flight by Bob Pooler determined that the cloud base had risen above 2,800 feet. The Unlimited pilots had unanimously decided to not fly their second Unknown, so it was the Advanced pilots who were invited to fly. The first pilot reported a lower cloudbase and, after consultation with the Chief Judge, landed and elected not to try again immediately (all in accordance with CIVA rules). All six Advanced pilots then flew and thus completed the published programme for Advanced. 

Chris Brook emerged as a worthy British National Unlimited Champion and winner of The Sunday Telegraph Neil Williams Memorial Trophy. He scored best in both sequences and was 3.4% clear of Tom Cassells, last year’s winner. Nick Wakefield and David Nichols were some distance behind the top two, having incurred several hard zeros.

At Advanced, the competition was tight with 1.28% covering the top four pilots in the final analysis. Our Italian guest, Andrea Pesenato, was ahead after the Free Known but faded a little during the Unknowns, particularly incurring a hard zero on a high tariff figure in the 3^rd Unknown. Paul Elvidge flew particularly well in the 1^st Unknown and Steven Bakhtiari saved his best for the 3^rd Unknown. When all the scores were added up, the Gold Medal Winner was birthday boy, Maciej Kulaszewski, who had flown very consistently and was best in the 2^nd Unknown. The British Aerobatics’ rules on Foreign Pilots at National Championships prevented him from being crowned as British National Advanced Champion, which title went to Steven Bakhtiari.

The trophies and medals were presented by newlyweds Alex and Klara Cartwright. Alex is a member at Shropshire Aeroclub, has been British Aerobatics’ webmaster for around a decade and recently completed the construction of the Pitts “Super Stinker” that you see in the winner photos.

The normal responsibilities inherent in the role of Contest Director were divided between Steve Todd and myself with Steve responsible for liaising with the airfield manager, Bruce Buglass, the tower, instructors, club members and visitors, as the event organiser, whereas my responsibilities were largely “pilot facing”; to run a safe, efficient and hopefully enjoyable event, in tandem with the Chief Judge. We were fortunate to have as Chief Judge, Pierre Varloteaux, a very experienced aerobatic judge and Chair of the CIVA Judging Committee. His career had included 28 years in the French Air Force where he was a fighter pilot, with 15 years in the French Air Force Aerobatic Team. He had also been a competitor and airshows aerobatic pilot before becoming an aerobatic coach and judge, so he could hardly have been better qualified to lead the international judging team of Rene Meijer (NED), Luca Andraghetti (ITA), Alan Cassidy, Ian Scott (Thursday & Friday) and Rod Herve (Sunday). They were ably assisted by Nick Buckenham, Brian Gleave, Steve Green, Anne Sandford, David Heard and Sander Vliet (NED). The team also included Lidia Dzieciaszek (POL, who assisted Pierre with the CJ paperwork), Kieran Bye, Jamie Williams, Gary Frederick, Jacob Hinson, Paul Stanley and, particularly, Dominic Gleave who videoed all the flights and was able to find relevant figures quickly for ”Zero checking” by the judges. And without whom we could not have done? Jen Buckenham, of course, as unflappable and efficient registrar and scorer. The other person, without which the event would not have happened was Steve Todd who seemed to be everywhere (particularly because I was nursing a very sore knee) and kept pilots moving and kept the officials fed and watered whilst also keeping all at Shropshire Aeroclub informed and content with what we were doing.

The standard of flying was very high and all pilots are to be congratulated on their professionalism and airmanship. Congratulations to both winners!

My thanks to all those who contributed to a thoroughly enjoyable National Championships and to Shropshire Aeroclub and Bruce Buglass, the airfield manager, for providing such a brilliant venue for this contest!

Martin Sandford

P.S. Our intrepid IRE competitor, Laura Russell, flying in her first major ADV contest in the UK, very wisely opted to sit out most of P4 when the holes in the Swiss cheese started to line up. She collected a bagful of HZ's for the privilege, but in doing so demonstrated the core principle of aerobatic flying. Safety first! Well done, Laura, & thank you.

Steve Todd