Jersey Battle of Britain Weekend 2005

Saturday: C.I. Aerobatics Competition 2005

The C.I. Aerobatics took place for the second year in a row after last year's revival, and was rather hotly contested through the field.  Consisting of three rounds per pilot, each pilot's best two rounds made up the final scores.  So, after all the flights were complete, the top three were as follows:

1st.  Pete Rondel (Jsy)

2nd.  Thomas David (Gsy)

3rd.  Dave Wilkinson (Gsy)

The other pilots who took part were Mat Besnard (Jsy), Simon Barr (Jsy), Chris Munns (Jsy) and Mick Wilkinson (Gsy). 

Guernsey also repeated the previous year's rather fine effort by claiming the Team's title once again!

Above, 6 of the seven pilots to take part in the comp.  Simon Barr is not in the picture.

Below, the top three, probably after one too many beers (except Thomas, as he's not old enough to drink...yet).

Below:  The Guernsey teams Driver and pit man Jess Druce.  "Get out my seat!"

Mick and Thomas...mind that tub of batteries to the side of you Thomas, they'll slide forward when we have to do an emergency stop later at the bottom of that hill...

Sunday: Display day

Hooray, it's not too windy this year. In fact, we were in for a good day, despite Thomas best efforts to not fly at all.  First the switch in his plane packed up, then the gyro came loose in the Fury Tempest, then he changed the switch, and it turned out it wasn't that at fault in the first place....Doh.  I only broke one plane this year.  My Mustang, during the Streamer Chop.  Mid-airs are bad, ok, specially when you crash and the other plane makes it back.  How did you land that Cougar with no tailplane, no rudder and only one aileron Pete?

It's official...the MagnumR is quicker than the old Magnum.  And a West 50 with new bearings is better than one which is worn out, off song, and in an old Magnum. 

I was well impressed with this Capiche 90. As you can probably guess by the stickers on the right wing, it is electric powered!!  Appears to fly a bit like a big shockflier...

A few of my planes, including the Chip Hyde Fore Play (biplane shocky) which had it's first ever flight about 3 minutes before this photo was taken.  Also the Venus 40, which I used in the competition to get third place.

The yellow and white Ultimate on the left is the 46% Hangar 9 ARTF, with a DA150  in the front.

The collection of helicopters we took over with us. I don't think the Fury would have gone any lower inverted without hitting the ground than it did on this day.

Paul Reynolds also made the trip over, and as far as I can remember didn't crash anything.

Mat Besnards Eurosport, weighs 37lbs!!!! Quite trick to land on the Jersey site, as the runway is not 2 miles long!!

Pete Rondel's Fury 60, did not fly due to mechanical problems.

Some of Pete Rondel's planes...

Ah yes, this was very interesting...Simon Barr flying his Cougar using nothing more than shouts of "up" "down", "left" and "right from his wife Cheryl.  Hmm....    As I'm sure you can tell the crowd loved it, with so many near misses and spirals toward the ground. 

Luckily Chris was on hand to remove the bucket just in time!!!

So, that's the round up of the weekend.  Lets hope for a proper Guernsey win next year, and bring that trophy back here with us...