New Zealand Aerobatic Championships - Waipuk 2011
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- Published on Monday, 19 September 2011 09:15
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By Martyn Gosling
It’s never a good thing to arrive at Waipukurau in a cloud of dust. Either you’ve got something really wrong in the landing department - or you’ve arrived by car. In this case, a little old blue one. That it was old, little, and blue is another story, for another time, and another glass or two. But whichever way you look at it, arriving amid dust ain’t ever good.
It’s been a while since I crawled out from under PPS and looked over the trashed undercarriage, bent prop, missing tailwheel, broken spar, and stuff. A while since I last flew WIZ. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I flew anything. Haven’t even opened my logbook. Kinda lost it, and having my old mate and colleague Colin Greatrex get killed in MAD didn’t help the mental process. A lot of the fun died that day.
It’s not that I was getting old or scared or anything - and anybody who’s ever flown Pitts Specials aerobatically or extensively cross country in New Zealand and hasn’t been scared or at least aware of a dearth of options is either lying or not aware of the gravity of the situation - it just wasn’t fun. And that’s why we do this. There’s no other reason for aerobatics. No other reason for flying. It has to be fun.
And suddenly....it just wasn’t.
So I stayed on the ground. Renewed a lot of acquaintances with hobbies and pastimes I’d long forgotten. Focused on other stuff. But every clear day, every time I heard someone overhead, I’d look skyward and wish I was up there with the wings turned sunnyside down. Aerobatics wasn’t fun, but I was still in love with it. So this year, I went back to Waipuk. Arrived in a cloud of dust in an old blue car. This is really the story of what happened next.
Most pilots had arrived on the Tuesday and Wednesday and began laying out the markers and generally tearing up the box. The official practice was held on the Thursday afternoon, and that was probably the end of the best flying done. You always wish you were judged on the flight you did last week.
On Thursday night we held the annual general meeting. You can read the Minutes later in this issue. There was a time we’d have a special informal meeting on the Wednesday night so anything contentious could be gotten out of the way before we had the quick AGM on the Thursday night. Over the last couple of decades we’ve mellowed out a bit and it became a matter of pride to get through in about two minutes. The 2011 meeting was one of the longest on record - partly because Paul Marshall announced he was retiring as president. Bit of a shock really, Paul retiring. It’s only been about 18 years, after all. Gave him a wee token of our appreciation at the awards dinner with a more appropriate display of recognition and appreciation to follow. Grant Benns was elected president - an inspired and highly popular choice.
However, the AGM also gave me a chance to have a look around the pool of faces. John Luff! Haven’t seen him in a decade and this was the first he was back after a long break. Hasn’t changed a bit, the old bugger. Terry Johnson was also back for the first time in years and like me, he’s a lot thinner of top but that’s about it. Okay, we’re both thicker around the middle. There’s Richard, there’s Marinka (big hugs) and there’s Dave - no hugs but God it was good to see him. And there’s Gavin and Ian and Dion and Murray and Simon (remember the Wreck of the Simon Fitzgerald - that was a while ago - think I still had long hair then. Think I still had hair.) and there’s some faces I can now put to names like Morris Tull and Ivan Krippner and Darrel and that must be Cam and that must be Ryan and that must be Kylie and that must be Russell Bell. And behind the bar is imperturbable Neil and Rosco. Big handshake, cool beer. Mate!
The clubhouse hasn’t changed much. Neither has the Thornton. But the Tavistock? Someone waved a magic wand over that place.
Friday was beautiful - just enough breeze, just enough high cloud. Perfect. Fair bit of grass on the strip. Couldn’t be better for the 18 pilots.
But now the judge’s pens were poised. A 10 was briefly brought out and passed around and then put back in its box. That was the last we saw of a 10. At least it dispelled the myth that the judges don’t know what one looks like.
John Luff is back in PEG. He scoffs a lot about just making up the numbers, but there’s not a bone in his body that isn’t ready for a competition. He has his name on any number of our trophies and he was out to put his name on another one. He scored first blood in Sports winning the opening round. Murray Rogers is so proud of his old Airtrainer. They’re a lovely aeroplane and he knows how to fly it. He doesn’t have the symmetrical wing of a Pitts or an Extra, and he doesn’t have their power-to-weight ratio either. But he can stroke the old girl around a box pretty good. He was only 60 points behind John after the first flight. Morris Tull, who’s done such a great job in bringing FRJ back to life, came in third that time. Morris was happy to show his photographs of the wreckage against the fence from which he extricated himself. When I think of Pitts crashes, it is a testimony to a wonderful plane that so often their last act has been to protect their pilot. I can name a few who’ve crawled out without a scratch. I’m one and Morris is another.
Intermediate was tight. Less than 55 points separated the first three after the first round. Ivan had snuck ahead of Darrell and David was right behind. Gavin wasn’t out of touch and he was fourth! It was anybody’s. This was one of the best battles at the championships.
In Advanced the old warhorse WIZ was up against the fibre-fantastics - Richard’s Giles 202, Russell’s gloriously yellow single-seat Giles 200, and Wayne Ormrod’s Extra. Seven pilots launched themselves into the box, and not a single one of them can fly anything like a decent rolling circle. Sitting on the line as a scribe and zero judge I reckoned the best over three rounds scored about 2. The judges disagreed, but judges are like that. You know, kinda ornery. They suited the ol’ cow paddock they used to sit in.
Kylie was supposed to have a competitor in Primary but found herself on her own with just her Aerobat for company. There was a time when half the line was Aerobats. They aren’t easy to fly around the box - too damn heavy on the controls and too slow at just about everything - but Kylie was having a ball. Looked nice too. Watch her go next year.
The high cloud meant we could fly most of the day without worrying about blinding the judges. We launched into the Frees on the Friday afternoon.
Honestly, if there was a pilot who could routinely fly a 45 degree line you’d hand them the trophy. Any trophy. I mean, I really love Marinka and it was a joy to scribe for her, but hearing “too shallow on the 45” for two whole days gets a bit much. She did say one was too steep but I think that was just to stop me crying.
Back again to Sports and John’s got his hand on that trophy. Morris was charging hard though - flying far better in the second round to finish second on that leg. Terry was flying better too, just about doubled his first round score after flying the first one pretty much the wrong way round. Guess who got the Dip Stick award. Cam Wilson was kinda sneakin’ in just about better than anyone and Ryan Chapman deserved a medal just for herding that great gallumpin’ Firefly around the sky. Great contest.
Intermediate was close. That ol’ Zlin can fly and Dave Cranna won the Free sure enough. Darrell and Ivan were still so close...less than 80 points covered the three of them. Gavin was still hanging on.
And then we had Advanced...Russell’s yellow-death against Richard’s purple-peril. Richard had a free that looked like it should have been Unlimited. Not a great idea perhaps. Russell pipped him and closed the gap at the top of the table. Behind them Mr Consistent Paul Marshall was slugging it point for point with Grant and Wayne with the heavy jet guys Ian and Dion charging up behind. Ian and Dion? They give these guys big planes to fly? It seemed only yesterday they were spring chickens in the neat white shirts of North Shore Aero Club instructors. Now Dion’s making captain? It doesn’t seem possible. Have they seen him fly a Pitts? Have as anyone told them in Hong Kong what he’s really like? Surely he’s too young!?
Kylie made a nice job of her second round. Even beat her first round score. Made her the first winner of the day. Cool, eh?
There’s always that moment of dread when the Unknowns are posted. We immediately removed the quarter-rolling circle that had somehow crept unseen into the Intermediate, but apart from that it was game on. There’s some lovely footage of Dave Cranna flying his sequence in a bar. That was probably the only time he got it right. Nice stall turn.
Saturday. Blue sky. Lots of it, but some high cloud. A good day for aerobatics. Now, I have a confession to make - the sun and I don’t get on. Kinda estranged, you might say. Don’t see eye to eye. I’m alright as long as I wear a Stetson and black 501s or 505s and sleeves rolled down past my wrists. But this day I didn’t. I had my sleeves rolled up but I applied lots of sunscreen and stuff. Result....six weeks after the championships I was still recovering from the sunburn on my arms. Took two or three days for the full effect to come through. It wasn’t pretty. Looked like someone had attacked me with oxy-acetylene torch. Maybe we should hold the championships at night.
And so to the Unknowns. Unknowns are fun. If you’ve never flown an Unknown at Waipuk you ain’t never lived. You’ll learn more swear words, become totally fluent in their use, and think up entirely new applications for them in a shorter time than anywhere else you can think of. I don’t mean honest cussin’, I mean down in the dirt mean and grizzly honest to goodness oathin’. No-one but God can hear you, and He’s too embarrassed to listen. We saw some great flying at times - too bad they were the wrong manoeuvres.
Take, for example, Ian Young. Out there in WIZ flying his best in the Advanced unknown. Had to fly an inside rolling circle. Ian flew a rolling circle. Perfect. It was the best rolling circle we have ever seen at Waipuk. I do not exaggerate on this point. It was poetry. Marinka just about had the 10 out of its box and everything. It was also an outside rolling circle. Ian has never previously flown such a manoeuvre and they are harder to fly than an inside rolling circle but somehow he managed it. The sad thing is not the 0 he scored. That is not the sad thing. A shame, but not sad. The truly awfully sad thing, is that he will never fly an outside rolling circle perfectly ever again! Not ever!
Russell was flying hard. He beat Richard again. This was going to be close. The pair were definitely pulling away from the pack. Paul has won the Advanced title about 10 times, but it wasn’t going to be number 11 in 2011.
In Intermediate, Ivan was holding on but his nearest rival David slipped. Darrell was still charging hard and Gavin hadn’t given up. Close.
A recent development at the club, is that Sports also flies an Unknown. Doesn’t count to the championship but it is scored and it’s a nice touch.
And then a few of the lads flew the four-minute free. A Zlin does extremely nice torque manoeuvres, I’ll say that.
So...how did it go? Who won wot?
Ivan won just about everything....Kylie won just about everything else. They won so much they spent a bloody fortune in couriers because they couldn’t fit everything in the plane.