The latter part of August has, over the past few years, become the traditional ‘slot’ in the annual aerobatic calendar for the Gunpowder Trophy held at the excellent venue of Leicestershire Aero Club. As well as the Standard level Gunpowder competitors the competition is also open to Beginners and Intermediate level pilots who this year also competed for the Newbold Trophy which was held over from the cancelled Sandtoft event in March.

The history of British competition aerobatics stretches back many decades and the history of the trophies for this event is worth recalling. Of the two the Gunpowder is the most recent, being given to the Association by Howard Fawkes (hence its name) and first awarded in 2006. A little research revealed that the Newbold Trophy dates back to 1990. It is presented in memory of Nigel Newbold who flew a Tipsy Nipper and apparently would attend competitions accompanied by his cat on a lead in the tradition of British eccentricity.

Come Saturday morning the forecast featured a severe weather warning for thunderstorms from 3pm and a cloudbase of 1800 feet for the morning. Not an ideal forecast by any standard. However like the previous year the weather gods opened a window over the airfield and the low cloud only really affected Alex Cartwright in the Sleap based Pitts who persevered and arrived on his second attempt. A few withdrawals depleted the entries a little but still left a healthy field which kicked off with Beginners and our Norfolk resident Italian Francesco Fullin in his S2B. Progressing rapidly through the four beginners we arrived at the Standard entries where the multiple entered Pitts’ from White Waltham decided to play ‘will it won’t it’ with its engine starting. Application of scrounged lubricant enabled the continuation of flights by its pilots but did slow proceedings and forced Olivia into the Leicestershire Aeroclub based Pitts where she put up a respectable score in an unfamiliar aeroplane. Intermediate pilots flying their Free led us up to the lunch break. The lunchtime state of play in the Beginners saw Francesco in the lead with Dave Garrison in his Eagle in second place. Standard saw the yellow themed Pitts pair of David Hall and Iain Smith in first and second whilst Paul Elvidge and Stephen Hipwell were top of the class in Intermediate.

Resuming after lunch the threat of a weather deterioration held off although it was a close run thing with the occasional rumble of thunder, increasing wind gusts and darkening skies. Beginners flew their sequence again with unknowns for Standard and Intermediate pilots.

Final results for Beginners maintained the first and second places from before lunch with both Francesco and Dave achieving scores that should encourage their move to Standard in the future. Standard saw a switch of the top positions for the Tango Romeo boys with David Farley just beating David Hall for the Gunpowder Trophy with Phil Bennett in his One Design in third. Paul Elvidge continued his dominance at the top of Intermediate winning the Newbold Trophy for his efforts, Alex Cartwright moved himself up to second with Stephen Hipwell in third, missing out the square loop seemed to be a common problem in Intermediate.

As in previous years the staff and volunteers of the club at Leicester did an excellent job contributing greatly to keeping the competition flowing and enabling completion in a day. The judging teams worked very well under the leadership of Phil Massetti withstanding high temperatures and long hours to finish the event.

Thanks also to Jen and Jack Buckingham for their administration and scoring skills.