If you earn your PPL wings in September and by May you are competing for aerobatic honours, you are  definitely in the top percentile of UK pilots. If you finish second in your inaugural Beginners contest and only narrowly fail to score higher than your instructor in Standard, you can most definitely be assured of a bright future in sporting aviation. And if in doing so you learn the hard lesson that missing a figure out completely really does torpedo your scores, then you are well on your way up the aerobatic ladder. Welcome to the game!

Sleap Aerodrome and the Shropshire Aero Club have long been stalwart supporters of the aerobatic circuit. Not only does the surrounding countryside typify all that is good about our green and pleasant land, but the outstanding hospitality and totally positive support for upside-down flying is a credit  to the Club and its membership. Thanks to an enlightened CFI they now they have their own team of fledgling competitors as well. Encouraging times.

While the tragedy of our national economic fortune is not entirely Greek in its proportion (yet), there is no doubt that self-enforced austerity is affecting competition entries. A few days before the deadline there were fewer than a dozen candidates. A plea from the heart - if you are planning (even vaguely) to enter one of our competitions, please put your entry in at the earliest opportunity. It helps hugely in the  contest organisation and we can always carry your entry forward if you can’t make it.

Fortunately a positive weather prognosis teased a few more names onto the Saturday roll call, with an encouraging field of eight Beginners willing to be blooded in public. In the event the top four all scored above 75% in a really testing on-judge wind, producing the highest scoring initiation of recent times. The winner accumulated a mere 87.5%. With an audience of international judges and competitors from the highest level that is some feat.

This was the first year in a while that senior competitors had mixed with the tyros at this event. Of course when you reach the exulted level of Advanced flyer you know the score, you know the rules and you know a little of ‘how to play the game’.  Even so, some great sportsmanship was on display and a willing patience to indulge the newer volunteers. Sometimes you do need a little bit longer to process the whirring mass of sensory information that comes with an early foray into the aerobatic box. First time out of the nest can be daunting, but need not be made unnecessarily so. The reward for patience was a completed Advanced contest on the Saturday and a first and deserved Gold and Duxford Trophy for our newest Advanced UK team member.

Volunteering is also key feature of the judging line so it was really heartening to have a full team plus reserves, not only on Saturday, but also in the teeth of the continuing breeze early on Sunday morning. Club members, aspiring competitors, entrants and supporters all made their valuable contribution to the judging effort. Ably herded by our long suffering Scoring Director, any minor glitches were firmly attributed to the printer and definitely not to JP, making a most welcome reappearance as he did. Fortunately Marge was also present to provide the essential antidote of common sense and decorum.

Of course there is one way to ensure that you have a great weekend in the country. You simply turn up, win Beginners with the top score ever (probably) and then take the Golding-Barrett trophy for Standard in the heat of some serious opposition – again the top five pilots all exceeded 75% combined score. A genuine and tough competition makes the final result so much more rewarding. In my view the Standard Nationals this year will make the Olympics appear to be a bit of a picnic in the park.

Discretion, valour etc we opted against any further sequences in the face of forecast worsening weather to the north and it being close to bedtime for those darn sarf. A little touch of magic then as one of t’ northern hacks found himself ‘bounced’ by a Spitfire on the way home. Soft lad – din’t tha clock ‘im ferst?

A final thought. In these challenging times where does the continuity of our sport really lie? Is it with the big names, known and respected, or even with those pilots who have already earned the accolade of representing their country on the world stage? Important as they both are to the Now, the Future actually lies with the neophyte, taking his first tentative steps on the way to greater things, safe in the knowledge that he has time to learn, time to succeed and plenty of time to be safe. And no better place to do that than at Sleap. I can’t wait to be back. 

Steve Todd
Contest Director