Helifest and Air Competition 2012

The weather was dead set against this weekend, but despite that it was an amazing event.

Grant Cooper put together a superb 3 day Helifest, which involved as much flying as the weather would allow. When it wasn’t raining, there were helicopters in the air!

The Air competition, organised by our very own Richie Clark (and I believe Mattie Lodge had a little to do with it too) was also a great success. There were worried faces through the weekend as the weather did its best to upset the flying, but we all managed to get through it, and as far as I could tell, every pilot there thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Catering to 41 pilots in a competition is no mean feat, but these guys did a superb job. The flights were broken up into small groups and separated by demo flights from sponsors of the event. this makes it better for the judges, the pilots and the spectators, so everyone wins!

Some pilots had a little bad luck, with failures of machines and/or thumbs, myself included with a stripped main gear on my second flight (Sunday), but overall I think everyone did exceptionally well.

On a personal note, I managed to place 3rd overall in the Pro class, and I can tell you I am thrilled with that result as the field of contenders was made up of lots of the best pilots in the country!

Well done to Duncan Osbourn for winning the Pro group, and also to my fellow Team Midland pilot Adam Turner for placing 2nd – a great result for Midland helicopters!

We are already looking forward to the Air competition in 2013.

Thanks once again to Richie and Mattie for a great competition, and to Grant for a great weekend.