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BRITISH NATIONAL AEROBATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: STANDARD & INTERMEDIATE 16-18 August

WORDS Nick Buckenham
PHOTOS Darren Baker

PAUL Tomlinson not only won the British National Aerobatic Intermediate Championship at Peterborough Conington, but also walked away with the Air Squadron Trophy left over from a wet day at Compton Abbas earlier in the season.

In the Standard class, Charlie Kimbell headed the points after the first day's 'known' sequences but was overtaken in the unknowns, and the class was eventually won by a delighted Richard Verrall.

The combination of two national championships and the trophy meant a final tally of 142 competition flights - quite possibly the most ever at a British aerobatic meeting and a hard target to beat.

The middle day of thye three-day event was the best - a consistently high cloud-base let everyone get on with the job, while largely preventing too many boiled faces amongst the judges and scribes. By the end of the second round of sequences Charlie-K had Richard Verrall, Ed Yard and John Wicks pushing very hard to spoil the order.

In the intermediates Luke Goddard, David Cowden and Richard Buchan put in their very best Free sequences attempting - as yet unsuccessfully - to upset the master plan of early leader Neil Bigrigg.
A dodgy weather forecast for the final day persuaded me, as Competition Director, to keep the flying going into the late afternoon.

In the Standards, Richard Verrall triumphed by the astonishingly small margin of little over a quarter of a point (in over 4000!) from Ed Yard's Pitts S-2A, with John Wicks and his CAP-10 just behind. These three, and Randal Hockey, each won a sequence, and the top five all recorded fine performances at over 70%.

At this stage Luke Goddard led the inters by a little over 1%, but Paul Tomlinson was back on form and raring to go.

Day three probably started well at about 05:00, but by 09:45 and with a pretty stiff wind, the low scud started to drive through and Conington's restaurant was clearly a better place to be than outside. However, the cloudbase eventually lifted, and the show rapidly re-assembled. The remaining intermediate unknown was quickly despatched, and most then elected to give the Air Squadron Trophy a bash.

RESULTS
British National Aerobatic Championships 2007
Peterborough Conington

Standard
1 Richard Verrall, Extra 300L 76.49%
2 Ed Yard, Pitts S-2A 76.48%
3 John Wicks, CAP-10C 75.45%
4 Charles Kimbell, Pitts S-2A 74.14%
5 Randal Hockey, Pitts S-1F 71.78%
6 David Kean, DR-107 69.98%
7 Phil Burgess, Pitts S-1C 69.26%
8 Chris Waddington, Pitts S-1SE 69.21%
9 Elise Mason, Decathlon 68.51%
10 Farrell McGee, Pitts S-1SE 68.11%
11 Simon Hampton, Pitts S-IF 68.04%
12 Giles Caunter, Pitts S-2S 66.21%
13 John Calverley, Yak-52 66.09%
14 Paul Stanley, Pitts S-2A 61.91%
15 Areles Molleman, Pitts S-2A 61.78%
16 David Thompson, Decathlon 61.45%
17 John Smith, Stampe 56.57%
18 David Shutter, Pitts S-1D 43.64%

Intermediate
1 Paul Tomlinson, Pitts S-1T 75.87%
2 Luke Goddard, Pitts S-1F 74.90%
3 Neil Bigrigg, Pitts S-2A 72.56%
4 David Jenkins, Laser Z200 72.08%
5 Stephen Hipwell, Pitts S-1T 68.21%
6 John Vize, Pitts S-1T 67.06%
7 Brian McCartney, Pitts S-2A 66.18%
8 David Slater, Pitts S-1T 61.79%
9 Ed Harding, Pitts S-1F 61.11%
10 Richard Buchan, Laser 52.87%
11 Simon Johnson, Pitts S-1T 52.27%
12 David Cowden, Pitts S-2C 50.20%
13 Alan Wood, Extra 230 44.07%
14 Mark Stewart, Extra 300 43.99%
15 Simon Janvrin, Pitts S-2A 41.53%
16 Arnd Schweisthal, Yak-55M 37.02%
17 Alex Smith, Edge 360 36.73%
H/C Mark Davies, Pitts S-2A 73.74%

Air Squadron Trophy
1 Paul Tomlinson, Pitts S-1T 72.30%
2 Brian McCartney, Pitts S-2A 71.03%
3 Luke Goddard, Pitts S-1F 68.17%
4 Mark Davies, Pitts S-2A 64.98%
5 Stephen Hipwell, Pitts S-1T 58.72%
6 Neil Bigrigg, Pitts S-2A 55.49%
7 David Jenkins, Laser Z200 54.74%
8 Ed Harding, Pitts S-1F 53.39%
9 David Slater, Pitts S-1T 52.97%

Advanced & Unlimited Championships: 30 Aug-2 Sept, Sywell

WORDS Nick Buckenham
PHOTOS Darren Baker

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