SAC Ace of Base Aerobatics Competition

By Garth Calitz

Heidelberg Airfield was once again chosen to host the final Aerobatics competition of the year, the annual “Ace of Base”. The competition is unique as a pilot from any of the classes can be crowned Ace of Base the pilot that receives the highest percentage on the day becomes the proud holder of the coveted floating trophy for the year as well as the honour of adding their names to list of greats that have become Ace of Base in years gone by.

The entry list was rather disappointing with only five pilots competing officially and one unofficial entry, four of the five competed in the Sportsman Class and one Unlimited.

Mitchell Wright and Dean Houghton two of the Sportsman Class pilots have only recently started flying competitions, largely due to the ownership programme set up by Warren Eva, the SAC Chairman, and his team. Warren managed to secure a Yak-52 for the club and has made shares available to aspirant young aerobatic pilots, this overcomes to a large degree the main stumbling block preventing pilots from joining competition aerobatics, the exorbitant costs.

The morning started with the mandatory safety briefing held by the Contest Director Adam Pucjlowski. Adam stressed the importance of taking note of Density altitude as the mercury was set to peak in the very high 30s during the day which resulted in a Density Altitude in the vicinity of 900ft this would have a massive impact on aircraft performance. Chief Judge, Quintin Hawthorne, requested that all pilots take a break during their sequence to climb for altitude, this would normally attract penalties but said penalties would be waived to enhance safety on this occasion.

The first pilot to get airborne was Dean Houghton and after marking the box for the judges he commenced his “Known” sequence. Dean was followed by Ivan van der Schaar in his Pitts S2A, Ivan is currently operating out of the Middle East so planning for competitions is a rather difficult situation.

Harry Kassel was the third Sportsman pilot to take to the sky in his beautiful GameBird GB1, Harry is relatively new to competition aerobatics but is starting to show massive improvement and hopefully will be stepping up to Intermediate in the new year. The final Sportsman competitor was Mitchell Wright also in the Yak 52.

Barrie Eeles the only Unlimited competitor then took to the air in his Extra 330SC, Barrie and his son Tristan have recently secured a new sponsorship and this was the first time we got to see the new aircraft livery in full, thanks to companies like Reclam for assisting pilots with sponsorships. Kayle Wooll unofficially took part in his Extra 330LX and should be back to official competition in the 2025 season.

With temperatures reaching 37° the lunch break under the lapa at the clubhouse was a very welcome relief albeit very short-lived. After lunch, it was time for the Sportsman Class to fly their Free sequence and Barry flew his Known sequence after completing his Unknown earlier in the day.

Once all the flying was done the scores were tallied up by Natalie Stark, who was in Cape Town. Once the final scores were received it was time for the trophy to be presented to the latest Ace of Base. Harry just managed to edge past Mitchell with less than half a percentage point to take the win in third place was Barrie Eeles.