Contest Director's Report

49 flights across 3 classes in 2 days. All programmes flown. The stats speak for themselves - we had a great comp at Leicester!

The weather was nigh on perfect over a site that most definitely is. Cohorts of ambitious and capable Sports, Intermediate and Advanced pilots gathered on a Saturday morning to be briefed on what become a steady stream of flights from morning to late afternoon each day - completing 4 programmes in Sports and Intermediate and the scheduled 3 in Advanced.

I've had to opt out of aeros this year and so really enjoyed watching the flying from the judging line in between episodes of the CD "rushing around" ritual. I saw some seriously impressive flying at all levels - and clear evidence of the benefits of structured training in a number of sequences. The bar was high and the competition fierce but executed with good sportsmanship.

In the Sports Class, the two Pitts S2A's of Tom Gamage and Ben Voce sandwiched homegrown talent Seb Pierson in the beautifully-flown Decathlon. Seb scored an average of 81.56% across four programmes - with Tom delivering a stunning 85.44%! Their flying was superb - with Tom clearly justifying BTTR's regular appearances near my back garden(!) with his remarkable overall score which secured him the Gunpowder Trophy.

In the Intermediate Class, the two Gary's (Ferriman and Frederick) took Gold and Bronze, with Nick Riddin the Silver. This class was seriously tight in terms of overall scores: Michael Engster scored 72.91%; Moinak Das 73.26%; and the three medallists 73.27%, 75.47% and 75.86% respectively: 0.01% for a Bronze medal! Very well done to all - with the highly experienced Gary Ferriman making his One Design look as if it was on rails to take the Roy Legg Trophy.

In the Advanced Class, I saw some poetic, beautifully tempo'd and accurate flying: David Heard's and Simon Wood's overall scores were 72.52% and 71.68% respectively. I learnt that both had been training hard - and it really showed. David was the ultimate winner of the Duxford Trophy.

So what a weekend of flying. But it wasn't just the time in the air that made the event special. The whole Leicester Aero Club team were wonderful - seamlessly integrating us with busy club flying and helicopter training. Massive thanks and appreciation to the instructional, reception, ground safety, tower and catering teams; and to Operations Manager Kat Voets, for all their support to us. At our request. the team kept the airfield open until 1800 on the Saturday - this made all the difference to our getting the overall programme completed.

Finally, I would like to thank Brian Gleave for all his hard work as CJ and scorer - excellently supported by Deva and Piers; Ian Scott for judging - supported by Eric Marsh; Steve Green who reviewed various documents and arranged the NOTAM; and Jamie Williams who put in simply vast amounts of preparatory work and was available for help as the event unfolded: thank you all.

Based on this event, I suspect that the forthcoming Sports and Intermediate Nationals will be rather competitive....!! Good luck to all competing.

Paul Brice

21st August, 2024