For a full breakdown of scores, please visit AcroScore | Leicester Medals 2024

Contest Director's Report

Our original planned event for Leicester this year was modified as a result of aircraft and pilots not being available. An important aspect to going ahead was to give the judging team a chance to evaluate, learn and test out a new scoring system on trial from Spain. Unfortunately, the Spanish weather was not part of the package and we were left with decidedly challenging conditions for this time of year in the form of strong winds, heavy showers and thunderstorms, keeping our visiting pilots firmly at home in the dry and warmth. 

Fortunately, our two Club pilot entrants, Sean Link and Sebastian Pierson are based at Leicester and could wheel out their tidy Super Decathlon between downpours. 

Friday was dedicated to judge/score training with the new tablets and software, using pre-recorded videos of advanced flights in the comfort of a warm office. Could remote scoring and video links be the future? Probably not but it was a fine way to build experience on how to use the new tool. This was all done under the careful tutorage of Jamie Williams and Steve Green …..Don’t touch the big red button. 

Saturday morning looked fantastic for a few minutes and then low cloud and rain kept us in the classroom for further scoring practice. With some quick decisions and well prepared effort from Seb and Sean, we manged to sneak an 8 minute flight in a gap early afternoon and then following a late lunch, launched Seb into a gap for a further club sequence with over 3000 feet and no rain. Both flights gave us the opportunity to test out the live scoring and immediate results available on a live website which was all very encouraging. I must say both pilots flew the Decathlon very well and a joy to see a high wing aircraft perform aerobatics so well. Now we are prepared for the Sywell Open (perhaps we can upgrade the software to include the WX-Español enhancement). 

Thank you to Leicester and support from Kat in operations to accommodate our needs. The Adv and Unl trophies will now be moved to the next Leicester competition, 17-18 August, when summer will finally arrive!

Julian Murfitt

16th June, 2024