BRITISH AERO CHAMPIONSHIPS, ADVANCED AND UNLIMITED SYWELL, AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 2

Mark Jefferies is British Unlimited Aerobatic Champion for the fourth time - his third consecutive win. Here, he receives the trophy from Michael Bletsoe-Brown, operator of Sywell Aerodrome.

BY NICK BUCKENHAM
Contest Director

MARK Jefferies has won his fourth British Unlimited Championship, beating close rival Tom Cassells by less than 100 points out of a total of 3600. It was Mark's third consecutive Championship title.
It was close - Cassells scored slightly better than Jefferies in the final Unknown sequence, but not enough to claw back the deficit of earlier results. Gerald Cooper, Jefferies and Cassells' teammate at the World Championships this year, came third, just over 100 points adrift.

The Advanced Champion for 2007 is Julian Murfitt. Flying an Extra 230, Murfitt came from behind in the second Unknown to edge past Ron Allan in a Pitts-S2B. Clive Butler in an Edge 360 was a very close third, while last year's champion, Gary Ferriman, flying 'hors de combat' was just behind. Only 320 points separated the top five.

The event was held at the beginning of September at Sywell Aerodrome. The field of 13 Advanced and four Unlimited level pilots faced four tough sequences, the Unknown sequences being arranged by LOOP contributor Alan Cassidy.

The first, at Advanced, included no less than three rolling circle variants. The Unlimited second figure was a one-and-a-quarter erect spin directly into an opposite direction three-quarter hesitation roll vertically down to a pushed three-quarter outside loop with a half positive flick-roll and one-and-a-half opposite direction axial roll to erect level flight exit...  well, nearly 3000ft down and minus 7G would just about do it!

RESULTS
Daily Telegraph Neil Williams Trophy
Sywell

British Unlimited Championship 2007
1 Mark Jefferies, Extra 300S 73.54%
2 Tom Cassells, CAP 232 72.70%
3 Gerald Cooper, CAP 232 66.67%
4 Richard Gee, CAP 232 46.70%

British Advanced Championship 2007 (NOTE TO DC: SHOULD IT BE JOINT 3RD?)
1 Julian Murfitt, Extra 230 68.07%
2 Ron Allan, Pitts S-2B 67.74%
3 Clive Butler, Edge 360 66.02%
H/C Gary Ferriman, Extra 300L 65.65%
4 Stephen Madle, Extra 230 65.08%
5 John Paulson, CAP 232 64.05%
6 James Allison, Extra 300 63.82%
7 Nick Richards, Extra 300L 56.13%
8 Dave Kaberry, CAP 231EX 55.30%
9 Cas Smith, Pitts S-2B 54.46%
10 Tony Maxwell, Pitts S-2B 51.07%
11 Luke Goddard, Pitts S-1F 44.15%
12 Corinne Dennis, Extra 230 43.40%

W: www.aerobatics.org.uk