Air Races at Sywell

SYWELL Aerodrome in Northamptonshire was the setting for the fifth round of the Royal Aero Club air race championship on 1-2 July.

The Sywell course was a total of 120 miles, raced over 5 laps, with aircraft ranging from an Auster J1N to two Barons. Sywell owner Michael Bletsoe-Brown and Brooklands CFI Gareth Aggett also flew in the race, in one of the club's new Aero AT3s, G-SWLL.

On the ground, Paddy Carpenter and Philip Evans were responsible for tracking the aircraft and helping out with commentary. Philip said, "You can spot the faster and slower aircraft but the middle ranking aircraft are more difficult."

Malcolm Montgomerie was first past the post in his C172 but it's never quite as it seems with the results, as Malcolm explained. "As we came towards the finish line we had the strange feeling we were on our own. Normally there is a large bunch all racing to the finish.
"Unfortunately the glory was short-lived as somehow we had exceeded our determined race speed by a fair margin so were disqualified!"

The Saturday race was won by Alistair Allen in his Scottish Aviation Bulldog. Sunday's champion was Rob Turrell, flying a C177 Cardinal.

Len Smith and navigator Christopher McDougall both celebrated 50 years of flying over the weekend. Flying Len's Piper Cherokee, they came ninth out of 24 racers on the Saturday. Len told LOOP, "To be placed ninth is quite respectable, but of course although we are veterans we still want to win!" 

W: www.airraceuk.org

Words: Kirsten Corrigan