Tiger Trophy, 2024 results


Contest Director's Report

We’ve heard of phrases like, ‘a pork pie short of a picnic’ or ‘a marquee short of a campsite’ (ok, I made the last one up), but at Leicester Airport on 21st Sept, we were ‘a flight short of a contest!’

During the preceding week, the weather forecast was looking more and more grim by the day. There were 19 pilots entered but would they actually get there? Well the answer was that 6 did make it. A mixture of technical failures, illness and poor transiting conditions were to blame for the low turnout, but we had 6 pilots and more than twice as many officials, so we had ourselves a competition.

Charlie Coode was first up and reported that it was flyable, so we were on! It should have been plane sailing (see what I did there?), but Gary Ferriman had to land after a couple of figures because of a technical issue. The problem was quickly rectified and he was ready to fly again at the end of the pack.

So, by 13:00 we had completed The Tiger Trophy, just as the Leicestershire Aero Club catering staff delivered some superb sandwiches etc. for the hungry judging teams. Thoughts were turning to the weather now. An impressive line of thunderstorms were inching towards Leicester. I had been monitoring their progress on the radar, but now we could see the menacing dark sky approaching without the need for a device. We had to get a move on, so at precisely 13:45, Charlie launched again to start The Surprise Unknown. The ‘surprise’ element changes from year to year and this year’s surprise was that the unknowns were drawn in the Tiger style, so we could have another winner from any level. Sports level completed and we moved onto Intermediate. We could see the rain on the horizon now! Intermediate now completed and our only advanced pilot, David Heard, took off to try to squeeze his 2nd unknown in before the approaching storm arrived. Unfortunately it was not to be. He was forced to land, hence we were left ‘one flight short of a contest’. If only the storm had given us 10 more minutes, but it didn’t.

After The Nationals, The Tiger Trophy is the one that most of us want to win more than any other. The winners name will join a very elite set of engraved name plaques on this most magnificent trophy. Nick Riddin got the Bronze with his intermediate flight behind Sports pilot Seb Pierson who got the Super Decathlon round to bag the silver, but it was to be Gary Ferriman whose name will join the other greats on the trophy, after 30yrs of trying. Well done Gary.

In the Surprise Unknown, it was Charlie’s turn to lift the Gold medal with Gary getting the Silver in this round. Nick left with a brace of Bronze medals clinking round his neck. There was one more element to this event, the Team Tankard! Two teams of three pilots were formed, Team ‘On Time’ and Team ‘Extra DR107’. Their combined percentages for The Tiger sequence were averaged and the winners, only 0.5% ahead, were Neville Howarth, Charlie and Seb, or to give them their collective title, Team On Time.

Then the storm hit!! A couple of pilots took off as they were heading away from the black stuff, but boy did it then rain!! The wind was just about as much as the LAC conservatory could take with its southern wall threatening to blow in on us. It was as wild as I’ve seen, but we’d done it, we’d finished this years Tiger!

A huge thank you to everyone who made it and helped. The judges, Brian Gleave, Steve Todd and Ian Scott who were assisted by Gary Frederick, Ruth Scott, Elliott, Merlin, Martin, Penny, Eric & Amina. Sorry I missed your thank you from my final briefing, but your contribution was greatly appreciated. All the staff and crew at Leicestershire Aero Club, but of course the biggest thank you goes to the pilots. A great effort to get there, even with the knowledge that they might get stuck, which some did and were forced to catch the train home. Well done everyone.

Brian McCartney

23rd September, 2024