The Don Henry & Air Squadron Trophies, 2015 results

07:30 Friday morning and as I depart Banstead my optimism is running at max; sun glasses on, enjoying the blue sky.  Two and half hours later I am sitting at Compton Abbas airfield in glorious sunshine 811 feet above sea level.

If you have never visited the site then you should put it on your list for this year. The Café/Restaurant is well run by a team of young enthusiastic professionals, buzzing around like a swarm of worker bees. Sitting on top of a hill the views are wonderful, looking towards Shaftesbury across the rolling countryside.

Having had a brief from Emma Hughes the Airfield Manager there is time to check the weather and listen out for any pilots not enjoying the same blue sky I was having. Sure enough further North things are looking different with Cas Smith calling to say he is in drizzle and Alex Cartwright looking out to a grim sky in the North West.

As the team arrive and Jen opens up registration the sky turns white with a high cover of cloud followed by a call from David Thompson sitting at Dunkeswell with a 100 ft cloud base. Yes 100ft which means by the time it gets to us we will have a minus 700ft cloud base. But fear not all the Beginners Event pilots and the rest of Advanced have arrived, so briefing at 12:00 is underway and the front which is not yet upon us gives a little extra time to talk to the Beginners to make sure they are prepared. And then a bit more time for lunch and then tea. The front was moving very slowly and despite all the hot air we were all talking, little change was seen. David was heard a couple of times in his CAP 232 (arguable the finest aerobatic machine, in a Jeremy Clarkson voice) close to the field, but landing was not even an option by this time and yet my optimism continued.

As afternoon tea approached some decisions were going to have to be made:.

  1. How late can we hold out and still fly. Emma kindly agreed we could fly as late as we liked.
  2. After the disappointment at Gransden, do the Beginners pilots fly home as planned that evening or can they buy fresh underpants and a tooth brush from the local petrol station and stay another night.

After several re scheduled briefings and the arrival of David in the CAP we agreed that 7:00pm would be the final cut off decision for beginners, having now scrubbed the Advanced guys. This gave our Dutch visitors the chance to get in the bar and sample the local amber. Adrian Willis and his merry men however were not going to be so lucky. With no hotels booked or spare clothes I finally called it a day at 18:40 knowing too well that come 20:00 we would be in clear skies again, but enough is enough. Then the task in hand becomes where do we put 6 pilots for the night? By this time most of the other pilots and judges had gone for dinner and bed. Meanwhile hard discussion were still under way on who gets the hangar floor and where can one buy sleeping bags, when…the Compton ops crew pull an almighty rabbit out of the bag. Radio operator, Phillip, and office operations, Michelle, offer to take 5 of the burley pilots home with them -  Michelle’s husband turns out to be very understanding!

No 6, Vincent Hargreaves, borrowed my spare sleeping bag and we both took up residence in the airfield crew room which was not so bad having a running tab at the bar, keys to the front door and  Margaret Hughes went the extra mile with pillows to boot. Oh, and yes by 8:30 the skieys looked great again.

Day 2 – Bright and early and the cloud base was sitting around 1000ft so briefing was delayed half an hour while Emma seemed to single handedly cook  about 40 bacon sandwiches for the whole of the BAeA. With all the competing pilots now on site, our eyes are on the weather and clouds rolling in over our hill. Patrick Caruth would be first to fly in the box as our weather scout allowing me to do a flight evaluation, so he could compete in the Apprentice Air Squadron Trophy.

For those who know Compton Abbas, you may be familiar with the sucker’s gap that forms just up wind of the runway to the East. A large area of blue appears giving you the idea that it will soon be over the runway and clear to fly but sadly the air mass rises up the hill and obeys the laws of physics by condensing right in the box.

But fear not, despite this being Glastonbury festival weekend and hence historically a wet weekend, the cloud crept up to 2900 feet and by 11:00 engines roared with Vincent taking the first slot with Adrian as safety pilot.

Once up and running the mixed Advanced (free program) and Beginners heat went well, all bar a few dropping out due to low cloud. The judges supported the idea of pushing on through Intermediate Apprentice sequence before pausing for lunch which we had sat out by the judging point at 2:30. Knowing our window to fly could be cut short the Beginners only got one flight, so after lunch Advanced could fly the Unknown.

David Nichols made in my opinion a very sensible decision to stand down having decided his fatigue level was too high to push and pull in the way the Unknown demanded. This Unknown turned out to be harder than expected and having spent 2 long days on the airfield most of the competitors were showing signs of fatigue or maybe they were just flying a different sequence to the one we had drawn!

After a short stop after Advanced, Lucky Luke launched for the Intermediate Free and as 18:00 loomed we were all done. Well we were all done-in that is for sure. The judges had barely stopped in 6 hours and they still had to put up with an extend prize giving ceremony due to my waffle and  some extra thank you’s for our impeccable hosts.

I won’t repeat the results which are already posted, but would like to say it’s nice to see the CAP on the top spot at both levels and applause for Chris Brook who had to change aircraft just before the event, jump into his CAP231 and still came 3rd. Think where you would have been Chris, if you just stayed in the CAP.

Well done to all. Thanks you for conducting your selves so well and respecting the hard work of our judges and airfield staff.

Julian Murfitt

The Don Henry Trophy

Rank Pilot Aeroplane Registration Free Unknown Totals O/all %
1 David Thomson CAP 232 OH-SKA 2616.05 2362.02 4978.07 76.468
2 Paul Brice Xa-42 G-DMON 2447.24 1722.74 4169.98 64.055
3 Chris Brook XA-42 G-XTME 2576.75 1508.14 4084.89 62.748
4 Ringo Massa Extra 300S D-EXML 2412.05 1587.93 3999.97 61.444
5 Brian McCartney Pitts S-1S G-MAXG 2507.24 1326.49 3833.73 58.890
6 Phil Burgess DR-107 G-RIHN 2424.76 2424.76 37.247
7 David Nichols Extra 300S N600YS 1435.50 1435.50 22.051

Contest Director: Julian Murfitt, Contest Chief Judge: Ian Scott, Scoring Director: Jen Buckenham

Judges: J1 - Ian Scott, J4 - Sape Miedema (NED), J3 - Steve Todd, J2 - Rod Herve (FRA),

Judges Assistants: Julie Wood, Marianne Miedema, Leif Culpin, John Royce

FairPlay SystemACRO Version 4.0 • Build 30-06-15

Beginners Results - Final

Rank Pilot Aeroplane Registration Known #1 Totals O/all %
1 Stjohn Youngman Pitts S-1F G-MAXG 632.75 632.75 75.328
2 Pablo Martinez Extra 200 G-EEEK 593.35 593.35 70.637
3 Etay Crespen Decathlon G-OCOK 547.67 547.67 65.199
4 Daniel Teszka Extra 200 G-EEEK 527.97 527.97 62.853
5 Vincent Hargreaves Extra 200 G-EEEK 500.12 500.12 59.538

Contest Director: Julian Murfitt, Contest Chief Judge: Ian Scott, Scoring Director: Jen Buckenham

Judges: J1 - Ian Scott, J4 - Sape Miedema (NED), J3 - Steve Todd, J2 - Rod Herve (FRA),

Judges Assistants: Julie Wood, Marianne Miedema, Leif Culpin, John Royce

FairPlay SystemACRO Version 4.0 • Build 30-06-15

Intermediate Free Sequence - Final

Rank Pilot Aeroplane Registration Free Totals O/all %
1 John Scott CAP 10B G-BXRC 1617.73 1617.73 77.035
2 Luke Goddard Pitts S-1E N-IIN 1578.59 1578.59 75.171
3 Martijn Kersten CAP 10C PH-RIC 1539.58 1539.58 73.313
4 Stephen Hipwell Extra-230 G-ROMP 1224.38 1224.38 58.304
5 Patrick Caruth Pitts S-1E N-IIN 1147.73 1147.73 54.654
6 Willem Dekker CAP 10C PH-RIC 866.54 866.54 41.264

Contest Director: Julian Murfitt, Contest Chief Judge: Ian Scott, Scoring Director: Jen Buckenham

Judges: J1 - Ian Scott, J4 - Sape Miedema (NED), J3 - Steve Todd, J2 - Rod Herve (FRA),

Judges Assistants: Julie Wood, Marianne Miedema, Leif Culpin, John Royce

FairPlay SystemACRO Version 4.0 • Build 30-06-15

The Air Squadron Trophy - Final

Rank Pilot Aeroplane Registration Apprtcs Totals O/all %
1 Martijn Kersten CAP 10C PH-RIC 1965.41 1965.41 75.593
2 Stephen Hipwell Extra-230 G-ROMP 1842.25 1842.25 70.856
3 John Scott CAP 10B G-BXRC 1824.06 1824.06 70.156
4 Patrick Caruth Pitts S-1E N-IIN 1555.13 1555.13 59.813
5 Willem Dekker CAP 10C PH-RIC 1259.38 1259.38 48.438
6 Luke Goddard Pitts S-1E N-IIN 1145.04 1145.04 44.040

Contest Director: Julian Murfitt, Contest Chief Judge: Ian Scott, Scoring Director: Jen Buckenham

Judges: J1 - Ian Scott, J4 - Sape Miedema (NED), J3 - Steve Todd, J2 - Rod Herve (FRA),

Judges Assistants: Julie Wood, Marianne Miedema, Leif Culpin, John Royce

FairPlay SystemACRO Version 4.0 • Build 30-06-15