Wellesbourne: Mid Season Update

Royal Aero Club RRRA
4 days ago
6 min read

July Update – Airbourne & Goodyear Trophies

There are some airfields you simply look forward to returning to every year, and Wellesbourne is definitely one of them.

Sitting proudly beside the iconic Vulcan, with the brilliant Touchdown Café overlooking the apron, it makes for one of the best race weekend venues on the calendar. Whether you're enjoying breakfast while watching aircraft taxi past just metres away, or chatting with fellow competitors after flying, Wellesbourne always delivers.

Being almost perfectly central makes it one of the easiest venues to reach which meant we welcomed our biggest field of the season so far, with 12 aircraft making the journey from across the country. New faces joined returning champions, creating one of our strongest grids of the year.

Weekend Entrants:

Pilot	Navigator	Race number	Aircraft	Aircraft registration	Aircraft Colours
Anthony James Maxwell	Daniel William Grundy	5	Van's RV-6	G-CIFL	White
Bob Johnson	Allen Payawell	9	RV7 / Starduster 1	G-CISZ / G-IIIM	Grey & White / Blue
Bill Leary	John Royce	11	R2160	G-MATT	Red/White
John Kelsall	Ian Scarbrough	15	Vans RV7	G-XERK	Light RAF Roundel Blue
David Moorman	Adam Geere	22	Cap 10B	G-DAVM	Red/White/Blue
Jonathan Willis	N/A	23	RV6	GTNGO	Orange
Martin Gosling	N/A	25	DR 400	G-GOSL	Red & White
Gavin Johns	N/A	42	Robin DR400-120A	G-GBVX	White & Red
Gordon Bellerby	David Lee	82	Robin DR 401	G-GORD	White/Blue
Richard Bisiker	David Sellwood	84	Piper PA24 Comanche	N84VK	Blue & White
Neil Fleming	Catherine Ruddick	111	Shark 600	G-TOPE	White
Cliff Hawkins	N/A	200	C180	N71CW	White & Blue

Airbourne Trophy: Saturday

With some teams arriving Friday night to kick off the weekend socials, and others arriving on a gloriously sunny Saturday morning – the weekend line up looked busy. This weekend saw a new racer with Richard & his navigator David in the lovely Comanche, the only retractable gear plane on the grid.

Saturday morning practice, the weather was glorious, basking in a multi-week heatwave! With the active runway 36 in use, meant the full use of all the scatter points. From the pilot & nav perspective

SC1 – End of runway = an easy spot

SC2 – The gate between a row of trees right off the end of the runway – found it eventually

SC3 – only appeared once you were practically sitting on top of it. Spot it too early? Impossible. Spot it too late? Also very possible.

SC4 – deserves a mention of its own... because after an entire weekend I'm still not convinced it actually exists.

SC5 – On top of a hill, nice and easy to see which then lines racers up perfectly into TP 1 to a straight shot to TP 2!

RACE:

All racers lined up on the grid together this year at Wellesbourne, with the first racer starting at 3PM on the dot, and our last racer just over 13 minutes later, meant for a tightly packed race. Want to see what a race start looks like…. Check this out!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bfb04d_c72662cb59ec49d192b85f26ebdd2096/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

It was great to see many familiar planes and faces, however a few new planes lined up this time around with Cliff in his Cessna 172 (N71CW). Mid pack - a new Shark race number 111 (Shark Fins if you couldn’t guess) was a slimline addition to the grid – followed by the usual gaggle of RV’s waiting to overtake anyone and everyone quickly!

From the ground it looked like perfect flying weather. From the cockpit it was a different story. Weeks without rain had turned the countryside into one giant patchwork of identical-looking fields. Many of the landmarks we'd normally rely on blended into the background, while the summer haze made spotting turning points from distance much harder than expected. Accuracy was definitely being rewarded this weekend.

By the fourth lap, the race really came alive. The faster RVs had finally caught the slower starters and suddenly every turn on the last lap became a decision. Overtakes were happening all over the course, with aircraft separated by seconds despite having started more than thirteen minutes apart.

With some new planes, some new planes and new pilots and hot weather creating lots of thermals to utilise – meant over the line we saw a different story to the adjusted race results as below.

Congratulations to Jonathan, Racer #23 in his RV taking the top spot – whizzing through the field early on. Following some adjustments ensured that Cliff, Racer #200 kept his podium place

Rounding out the top spots was the Shark and Neil, Racer #111 having a great time sneaking up on people playing the Jaws theme tune as he goes.

Goodyear Air Trophy: Sunday

The beautiful weather continues (you have to say these things when living in the UK as its very unusual!) and we kicked the day off with confirmation of using the same runway and therefore another round to hit our scatter points – and hope we don’t miss SC4!

With our learnings from the day before, some minor adjustments were made to the handicapping as we continue to hone in our calculations. Still the start line up remains fairly similar with one saw of Racer #200 drop a couple of spots and a 12^th racer joining the line up with Racer #82 – welcome to the weekend!

With the slight re-shuffle, the race kicked off again with an exciting start whizzing above the tree tops...

With our Restricted airspace active, Gavin, Racer #42 once again kicking things off right at the top of the hour – followed by a steady roll of starters each minute behind. Robins, Cessna, Comanche, Cap 10b, Shark, RV’s – speeds ranging from 122 to 168 kts! That's nearly a 50-knot performance difference across the grid, yet thanks to the handicap system everyone still found themselves racing wheel-to-wheel (or wingtip-to-wingtip!) by the final lap. A steady difference – one that helps make for a good race start… however, SC4 proving hidden once again.

For those trying to visualise the course, from the cockpit perspective the conversations went a little like:

TP1 – Off the airfield, this time a nice warehouse construction made for quick findings of the general area, but the pylon kept hidden in trees until you were right over the top of it. Good news though it was pretty much inline with the runway heading 18.

TP2 – Rounding out the corner from TP1 , we look into the distance for a small hill ridge as a roll out point – bringing it back to what looks like a barracks and honing down into a farm. This one easily visible from the half way point between 1 & 2.

TP3 – Coming round TP2, we were looking for a small hill to keep on our left and a pool of water to the right, splitting the difference perfectly meant a straight shot to TP3. In this case, even though you could look directly at the point you know where the pylon is, it doesn’t raise its head until you’re having to look right over the nose cone down at it.

TP4 – Likely one of the easiest spots of the course, right in the middle of a motorway junction and a short 20 seconds away from TP3 meant we could see this one well before we even got to TP3!

TP5 – Rolling out of TP4 directly along the motorway. You follow the motorway track down for the longest leg of the circuit – finally counting 1 bridge, 2 bridge, 3 bridge.. there it is! Just off the bridge behind again more trees!

Airfield – Thankfully, airfields are pretty easy to spot in the air – so TP5 turn back to the field is a nice spot. And on the final lap dive makes for a good exciting finish when diving to the line.

The race itself provide better this time around with the slight adjustments to the handicap. In the air, overtakes cam thick and fast - Heading towards the finish line it became three aircraft abreast. Racer #23 blasted past on one side, Racer #111 appeared on the other, while Racer #22 Cap 10 suddenly found itself sandwiched between two much faster machines competing for the win over the line.

Jonathan, Racer #23 once again proved why the RV is such a formidable racing machine, taking another victory. While there was a definite overtake on the home straight to the finish by the Shark #111 – unfortunately a high speed penalty was applied for being 1.62% above his handicap speed. Therefore moving him down the order to 6^th.

A formidable Racer #23, David taking home another 2^nd place and finally rounding out the field John Kelsall, Racer #15.

Wellesbourne once again reminded us why it's such a favourite on the racing calendar. Sunshine, twelve aircraft, incredibly close racing and a fantastic host airfield made for one of the highlights of the season so far.

A huge thank you to Matt for another weekend of refining the handicaps, the volunteers who make these events possible, and everyone at Wellesbourne for making us feel so welcome.