Breighton hosts Vintage Aerobatics World Championships

It all started in 2016 when a team from Denmark, lead by Vintage Aerobatic World Championships founder Soren Dolriis organised the first event at Stauning in Denmark. The following year it returned to Stauning, and then moved the short distance to Skive, also in Denmark, in 2018. And it was then that a group from the Real Aeroplane Club, Breighton attended, with Taff Smith taking his Jungmeister, Les Clark a Jungmann and Charles Sunter the support aircraft, a Max Holste MH1521 Broussard carrying other members.

A great time was had by all, and it was then that the seeds were sown for plans to eventually stage the 2022 event.

However, it was in 2019 that the event was held outside Denmark, with the competition travelling to Gera in Germany, which was a great success.

In 2020 it was cancelled due to Covid, and a smaller event happened in 2021 at Odense, Denmark. And so it was all systems go for the competition to come to Breighton in 2022, which it did from 18-21 August.

Breighton, near Selby and not far from York, is a former WWII RAF heavy bomber base, but has long been disused. There’s just a small area on the southern edge of the former airfield owned by the Real Aeroplane Company, which has developed it into a superb club airfield.

It has an 800 metre grass runway and an abundance of mostly new hangars, into which there must be at least 70 or 80-based aircraft, nearly all taildraggers and mostly vintage.

While most of these aircraft are privately owned, the Real Aeroplane Company also has a great collection of vintage aircraft which are flown by company-authorised pilots on sunny weekends, and sometimes to airshows and events around the country.

It’s a great place to visit. There is always a warm welcome, a sensible £5 landing fee and free landings if you buy fuel, which is usually among the cheapest price in the country (£2.20 a litre during the weekend of this year’s event, when many places are still £2.40-£2.50… some even more).

The new clubhouse is almost finished, which will be a great addition, and will also allow indoor catering to start again.

Visitors by road were encouraged, and the car parks were full, with quite a few camping overnight. Similarly, a good selection of visiting aircraft were present, which flew in to watch the displays.

The weather was almost perfect with blue skies and fluffy clouds, if not a little windy on Saturday, but it was just about down the runway.

On the Saturday evening there was a big hangar party plus the presentation of the awards before the visitors flew home again on Sunday. Next year’s competition will once again be in Odense, Denmark.

The competition aircraft started to arrive during the week, together with some interesting support aircraft, too.

The following categories are allowed to compete and all categories compete against each other:

Vintage: Aircraft with a type certificate (or similar) before 1955 and at least 65 years old

Classic: Aircraft with a type certificate (or similar) between 1955 and 1975 and at least 45 years old

Replica: Replica or modified vintage or classic aircraft.

To many the Bücker Bu133 Jungmeister is the ultimate aerobatic aircraft, and no surprise that it was the most popular aircraft entered with five examples taking part and a couple of them flown by multiple pilots.

The aircraft taking part were:

• Bücker Bu133C Jungmeister D-EIII
• Bücker Bu133C Jungmeister D-EJJI painted in the colours of the aircraft flown by famous German aviatrix Liesel Bach, who was German aerobatic champion in 1938, flying the original D-EJJI
• Bücker Bu133C Jungmeister G-BUTX built in Germany, but delivered to Spain for assembly, restored by Taff Smith at Breighton in the 1990s, including modification to a 185hp Warner Scarab engine, now owned by Stephen Stead and often based in Czech
• CASA 1.133C Jungmeister G-RPAX, built under licence by CASA in Spain before WWII, restored by Taff Smith at Breighton in authentic Spanish Nationalist markings
• SP-YBK SSH Bu133PA replica Jungmeister powered by a 200hp Walter LOM inline engine, thus giving it a similar appearance to the prototype Jungmiester although that was powered by the smaller Hirth engine that powered the original Jungmanns. Production Jungmeisters had the familiar radial Siemens-Halske SH14A
• G-UANO OGMA DHC-1 Chipmunk built in Portugal for the Portuguese AF with whom it served until the late 1990s, now owned by Richard Stirk and based at Breighton
• OE-CSA Zlin 526F
• D-EZLI Zlin 526F
• OK-0975/ BGA5015 LF.107 Lunak, the only glider, but Dietmar Poll did some great aerobatic displays in it
• N92107 Piper J3C-85 Cub (Clip wing) based in Belgium with a Belgian owner
• D-EFJH Bolkow Bo209 Monsun

Support aircraft and vintage aerobatic visitors

• N3010B Cessna 195 with the two German Jungmeisters from Landshut
• G-ANRF DH82A Tiger Moth
• D-EAAM Bolkow 209 Monsun
• G-RETA CASA 1.131E Jungmann
Aerobatic display
• G-TAFF CASA 1.131 Jungmann

There were some great aerobatic displays high above Breighton in the aerobatic box, judged by the international judging team, who came to their conclusions and awarded the following as winners or the various categories:

Looping the Loop: Richard Stirk, Chipmunk G-UANO
Dancing the Cloverleaf: Jan Schiedek-Jacht, Bücker Jungmeister D-EJJI
Rolling the Circle: Bernhard Drummer, Bücker Jungmeister D-EIII
The Performance: Benoit Dierickx, Jungmeister replica SP-YBK
The Sportsmanship Trophy: Maxim Schelfhout, Piper J3C-85 Cub (Clip wing)

• For a full flavour of the event here is an excellent video by aerobatic pilot and fan John Tempest. Watch it here.