Gunpowder, Roy Legg & Cavendish Trophies, 2026 results
A Happy Return to Leicester!
We were very happy to return to Leicester Airport and were welcomed enthusiastically by our hosts, Leicester Aero Club (LAC). The weather was CAVOK and our first briefing started promptly at noon. Having dealt with the formal business, it was a pleasure to sing “Happy Birthday” to Gary Ferriman, whose birthday had been spotted by Rich Gale whilst checking credentials for the contest; Rich had also organised a cake!
At 14.00 we commenced flying with the Advanced Known: Simon Wood flew marginally better than Nick Riddin but both recorded scores over 70% with no zeroes. This became a theme for Friday afternoon. At Intermediate, Gary celebrated his birthday by recording close to 77% with Charlie Coode on 73.7%. Matt Schumann led Sports with just under 81% ahead of Neil Whitehead (78.2%), Paul O’Connor (76.4%) and James Bowkett on just under 74%. Neil was returning to competition aerobatics after a long absence and was flying the RAFSA Pitts S2AE. All flights were completed by 16.00.
Saturday dawned CAVOK again but with the wind off-judge and possibly slightly tail to a contest wind of 280, which was what pilots had rehearsed. We chose to leave 280 as the contest wind. Unknowns are what separate the best from the good, and so it transpired. Advanced were to fly first and last on Saturday, taking account of the increased difficulty of their sequences. Nick had less good positioning but scored only one HZ, where Simon had two. This meant that in addition to scoring more highly on this sequence, Nick also took the cumulative lead. The HZ’s left them with scores of 56% and 53%. At Intermediate, despite a slightly lower score (67.5%, compared to Charlie’s 69.2%) on the 1st Unknown, Gary retained the cumulative lead. In Sports, both Neil and Matt had two HZ’s with Matt also having an Insertion. This took Matt (50.6% for the 1st Unknown) to 3rd and Neil (50.9%) to 4th cumulatively. James had a HZ free flight to score 72.9% and take the lead with Paul, on 56.5% after one HZ, moving up to 2nd cumulatively.
For the 2nd Unknown, the scores were sufficiently close for a good or less good flight to change the final result for the leading pair at Sports and at Intermediate and Advanced. Unfortunately, Gary had two early HZ’s and a penalty for a break so was reliant on Charlie making some errors to retain the Intermediate lead. Charlie managed to score a cumulative zero for the 270 degree rolling circle with three rolls inwards but this still left him with a sufficiently better score (63.4% for this sequence) to pip Gary (54.8% for this sequence) for the Roy Legg Trophy, 68.2% to 65.3% overall. At Sports, no-one scored an HZ! Matt returned to form with a 76.6%, followed by James on 75.9%, Paul on 75.6% and Neil on 72.3%. This meant James won the Gunpowder Trophy with an overall average of 74.3%, followed by Paul on 72.5%, Matt on 69.3% and Neil on 67%. Saving the most intricate until last, Simon needed a good score at Advanced. He had 0.0 for the third figure but recovered well until getting HZ’s for thee of the last four figures, leaving him on 40.7% for the 2nd Unknown. All Nick needed to do was to keep calm and carry on. This was a challenging sequence but, despite some wayward positioning, he zeroed nothing and scored 57.3% which was enough to give him the Cavendish Trophy with an overall score of 61.5% ahead of Simon on 54.6%.
Flying had finished by 16.00 and after checking all the scores and results we were ready for the presentations at 16.40. Medals and trophies were presented by Jasmine, who is in charge of the catering at LAC. It remains for me to thank Steve Green, Rich Gale, Nick Buckenham and David Thomson for huge amounts of work in preparation for the event, Chief Judge, David, who also designed all the Unknown sequences, his other judges Ian Scott and Jamie Williams ably assisted by Rich Gale, Farrell McGee, Gary Frederick, Penny Attridge, Carina Hendrikx, Steph Gale, Simon Abbott and a special mention for Merlin Ohta who videoed all the flights, saving a couple of pilots from HZ’s. This was great team who made my job easy.
I must also record my thanks to the very hospitable team at LAC including Daniel (Ops and radio), Toby (Ops and radio), Jasmine and Poppy (Catering), Alison (Duty Instructor), Brad (Safety) and John (radio). In addition, LAC members, Chris Bishop, Gort, Yvonne Byrne and Steve Simmons volunteered to help us by spotting for intruder aircraft and in admin.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable contest and I personally look forward to seeing everyone again and returning to Leicester Aero Club.
Martin Sandford
Contest Director
9th August 2026
