British Open & National Championships, 2025 results

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The best weather, the best team of officials and the best comp I have had the pleasure to be involved with for many a year. What more can one say. 

This year, we experienced unprecedented fine weather for the whole week, with one exception on Wednesday morning when low cloud delayed flying until a little after 12:30. Every day was bathed in glorious sunshine, making the choice of judging position and start times a much easier process. With only a few drop outs due to aircraft or pilot readiness, we had 27 pilots competing across four levels, totalling 16 competition programs plus the freestyle. 

Tuesday was split between practice flights for the UNL and ADV pilots, followed by SPO and INT kicking off the known programs in the afternoon, and by 18:00 we had managed to close off two programs and launched everyone who wanted a practice flight under the watchful eye and time-keeping of my trusted deputy, Chris Sills.

With 08:30 briefs agreed for the next few days, Wednesday was a slow start, but despite this, we launched the first SPO pilot by 16:00, packing up for the day well after 18:00 in the evening with another three programs completed (ADV/UNL Knowns and SPO Unknown 1). 5 down/11 to go is a good place to be at the end of day 2. 

Good weather can never be taken for granted in aerobatics, so Thursday started promptly with judging to the East (out of the sun) and switching to the Southern judging position after lunch. Showing true grit, helped by ice lollies in the afternoon, the team managed to complete five programs, starting and ending with INT pilots who flew twice. They probably deserved an ice lolly too! Sorry chaps. The evening temperatures were Southern European for sure, which made the hog roast an extra rewarding and successful mid-comp recharge. I must admit there wasn’t a lot of pig left over this time around and it proved to be a great opportunity for judges, helpers, friends, family, and pilots to talk Pitts S*1T all evening. Play track 7 again :) 

Staying with the John Wayne theme! The judges, complete with Stetsons to ward off the sun were back on duty first thing Friday morning, aiming for another four programs, managing to fly the full field of pilots once again. By now, the judging software was working well and the fixed unknowns allowed for a quick turnaround from one pilot to the next. Once again, my trusted deputy Chris ran a smooth operation on the field to make sure each pilot was ready to launch when needed. Note-to-self, a ground operations director or launch marshal is a must and we need more parasols on the judging line if global warming is going to bring us more comps like this! 

Friday night was planned as our competition dinner evening, with some 60 places booked at the World's End pub (...did everyone pay David Nichols?). Of course, it was not a boozy night for the ADV and UNL pilots, but the SPO and INT pilots made up for it, having completed all four programs by the end of Friday, Day 4. 

Thinking we had a little time to spare, we briefed for the final 2 Aresti flight at 09:30 on Saturday morning. This decision would later plague me when technical issues with the XA42 would eat up all the spare time. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. My respect goes out to Igoris Lobanovas, who managed to keep his cool under incredible pressure to find a technical solution for his aircraft so he could fly the last program and win overall, plus relaunch for the freestyle later that afternoon.

The weather was good to us and I made the decision to push ahead with the Freestyle competition on Saturday rather than waiting until Sunday as originally planned. It was not easy for the judges or Jamie to pull this off, not to mention Mark Jefferies squeezing in the 4-6 minutes between pre-planned public air displays. All in a day's work. 

By this time we were all done, pilots and officials alike. What a week it was. The support from everyone was exceptional and could not have been possible without all the helpers and sponsors. Thank you to them and all the pilots.

Jules Murfitt, Contest Director