Past Winners
1985 Chris Rollings – triangular flight Petersfield Welshpool York 1st 25% 750km tri in UK
1986 Justin Wills – 835km cross channel flight from Rufforth to near Dijon, breaking the straight distance record by 123km at a speed of 104kph
1987 Chris Garton - 670k O & R Lasham/York
1988 John Jeffries/Ron Parsons 300k O & R Dunstable/Monmouth
1989 Mike Brook - 500k SHK Sutton Bank/Lasham/North Hill 3rd attempt in 5 days!
1990 Norman James – flight in tutor 300km
1991 Alan Purnell – 951k Portmoak various TPs. Also in recognition of his life-time achievements – over 760 x 300k’s, 160 x 500k’s, 16 x 700k+ and a 750k diploma, plus first to get all three diamonds in the UK
1992 Mike Cumming – 1000km attempt using various sea breezes and/or a cross channel attempt being converting into a circumnavigation of the London TMA
1993 John Jeffries 170k triangle & 345k O & R both using wave from Dunstable in February
1994 Ian Beckett – 300km flight in a Duster he built himself
1995 Chris Rollings – for his contribution to Enterprising gliding in the spirit of Philip Wills and the sponsorship from Mobil for young people in gliding
1996 Mike Oliver 2 x 500k in consecutive days in a SHK
1997 Peter Redshaw 1st 503k O & R from Barrow on Furness LS6c 17.5m
1998 Neville and Richard Allcott – 750km wave flight in a DG500
1999 Charlton 65k in a K8 Kenley to Challock under controlled airspace
2000 Aerotow 2000A K21’s epic journey around the UK 1,550nm in 13 days
2001 Jack Stevens – 750km flight out through Lockinordie (Lock Kinnord near Aboyne) Ros Dubh House, Roseneath, and Huntly. It was thermal into wave flight of 8hrs 10 mins of which 7 hrs 10 mins were on task in a DG400 not using the engine at all because always high and there were no ‘dodgy bits’!
2002 Robert Tait 500k flight from Easterton in an Astir CS77 in thermals from a winch launch. At the time it was thought to be only the 4th Diamond distance flown within Scotland and the first flown from Easterton.
2003 Not awarded
2004 Afandi Darlington/Gordan MacDonald 665k Aboyne to Lasham 710k/ Chris Garton O & R Lasham/Lands End
2005 Roy Wilson 766k Aboyne various TPs
2006 Phil King – 600km flight from Carlisle to Plymouth, via Eden Valley, Wensleydale, east of the Leeds and East Midlandszones
2007 John Williams – in a month flew 528km, 1312km (double 656km), 1536km (double 768km), finishing with a coast to coast 1,016km between a remote TP in the North Sea and 2 west coast TPs!
2008 Trevor Stuart – 602 km circumventing the London TMA from Nympsfield, via Arundel Castle, Ashford and Bury St Edmonds
2009 Desmond Pearce 195k O/R in an Oly 463 from Skelling to various TPs into the Lake District using ridge, thermal and wave. Highlighting an example of the enterprising flying carried out by Edensoaring
2010 Bill Payton – The first 750k FAI triangle to be flown from Sutton Bank (and indeed the north of England) via Talgarth and Cambridge
2011 Matt Wright – 75k O & R task totally over the sea using the south coast cliffs of Devon and Dorset in an ASW 20. The flight evoked memories of bygone days when intrepid pilots bunjyed off cliffs sometimes landing on the beach below! Flying from North Hill, Matt gained his inspiration and experience from Nympsfield’s Trevor Stuart, a past Philip Wills trophy winner, then set about planning and waiting for the right conditions to soar the south coast cliffs of Devon and Dorset. Not only has he encouraged others to follow suit, he wrote an excellent article in S & G, posted a very professional film on YouTube and has come to this conference to share his experience with many others. All, totally in the spirit of Competition Enterprise.
2012 Ed Downham - Flying from Bicester on an uninspiring day, with an inversion and an easterly wind of up to 40 knots, Ed elected
to declare a 500km flight over Wales with a remote start at Cinderford (on the River Severn) and a finish back at
Bicester turning Abergavenny, Cwmbran and the Menai Strait en route! After climbing to 7000’ on the engine
at Little Rissington, the flight almost worked out with the next engine start at Edgehill on the way back – just 30
km short of Bicester with a flight distance of 475 km. Ed could have failed early in the day though when rock
polishing at little more than 100’ above the ground near Abergavenny on the northbound leg and a report that a
landing at Talgarth shouldn’t be attempted . Following the Usk Valley and Hay Bluff, Ed picked up wave near
Talgarth finally climbing to 15,000’ south of Snowdon after turning the Menai Straits. Even an EB28 couldn’t
get back to Bicester in a straight into wind glide from there but thermals at Droitwich and Stratford at least got
him back to Edgehill from where a short engine run got him home. The flight is a great example of what can be
done with intelligent use of an engine on an otherwise poor day. Only 7 flights were recorded on the National
Ladder that day – the next furthest was a 150 km flown in Scotland. England only managed 120 km out and
returns from Gransden.
2013 Rob Lockett - In its 54 years, his Oly had not gone far. There were lots of circuits, more than a few crashes, a 100 km flight in the 90s and his 230 km in Germany in 2009, but that was about it. It was time for the Oly to have a decent cross country – 300 km at least. So in Enterprising fashion, he decided on a good old fashioned downwind dash. With north easterly winds forecast for Easter week, 353 km, Tibenham to North Hill looked like a good task. With a week off work, and after a few false dawns, Friday was his last chance. The conditions didn’t look great, but he arranged an early aerotow, drove to Tibenham and got airborne. After the tow, he burnt his boats heading downwind, scraped away from 500’ in the 20 knot wind and found he was on his way. From Cambridge, it was a heroic struggle with few good climbs until finally at Avebury, he got to 5500’ and roared westwards rarely turning. Barely 4½ hours into the flight he was abeam North Hill and passing the declared goal. It was only 3.15 and conditions ahead looked reasonable. He pushed on taking in a view of the airliners parked at Exeter airport! He found Dartmoor higher than he expected, but somehow managed to clear it, passing Plymouth and finding himself flying along the beautiful southern Cornish coast now lit up in the late afternoon sunshine. By 6.30, the sky was dying and the last few potential thermal sources failed to work. He landed just short of Truro having flown 496 km in 7 hours – a cross country speed of over 70 kph. Not bad for a 54 year old aircraft that had never flown more than 230 km in its life!
2014 Phil King - the flight stayed within Great Britain and indeed, it was declared entirely within a fairly small part of Great Britain, one in which dragons are known to dwell. Perhaps for the first time, a 500 km flight was declared entirely within Wales. It was on 19th March last year. Although the flight started and finished at Shobdon, a remote start and finish was declared at Presteigne just over the border, with turning points to the south at Pontypool and to the north at Lake Vyrnwy, each turning point to be used twice. The plan was to fly most of the trip by cruising in wave. With a launch at around 11 am, the flight needed to achieve 70 kph to be completed in the available daylight. After a struggle because the remote start was in the down of the wave, our pilot cruised in the wave down to Pontypool between around 3000’ and 6000’ averaging 83 kph before turning north towards Lake Vyrnwy. Initially attempting to stick to the cruising strategy, the trip north initially proved to be a major struggle needing steps to be retraced a couple of times with fields round the River Wye tempting. Finally, the strategy was abandoned and a climb was made to 14,000’ at 2pm, less than 10 km west of Presteigne, the starting point for the flight. From 14000’ on oxygen, the whole of the task area was visible! Lake Vyrnwy was turned at around 3 pm but just 42 kph had been achieved for the northbound trip. With the new strategy of stopping to climb and then gliding established, the leg back to Pontypool was achieved at a rather more respectable 80 kph, but time was running out. Turning north again, the flight continued to achieve a good cross country speed, but it was only March and sunset was looming. Just 14 km short of turning Lake Vyrnwy for the second time, our pilot turned for home fearing the possibility of having to land in a field full of dragons as darkness approached. As it was, he turned his finish point and landed back at Shobdon just 3 minutes before sunset! The pilot had completed over 491 km along the route of his planned flight on a day that only 6 flights were recorded on the national ladder. The next best flight managed just 140 km.
2015 Roy Garden and Jack Stephen - the trophy is awarded for two bold, declared flights in an ASH 25 in which the pilots attempted to complete an FAI 1000 km flight from Aboyne on an east – west route. Their plan was to start from Potarch Bridge east of Aboyne and then head west to turn Fladda-Chuain, a small island some 10 km north west of the Isle of Skye. From there, back across the sea and Scotland to turn Todhead on the east coast south of Stonehaven before returning to turn Kilmaluag at the northern end of Skye. Then back to Potarch Bridge to complete the flight. The first attempt last October met 60 knot winds but crossed some 50 km of water to turn Fladda Chuain. They returned across the water and right across Scotland to turn Todhead before meeting a front half way back which prevented the return to Skye. The front forced abandonment. However, no less than 774 km of the task had been achieved. A further attempt on the task a few days later was also unsuccessful. This time, getting over the sea to Skye proved challenging, and getting back even more so. Then the wave collapsed and our intrepid pioneers were committed to ridge bashing for a while before getting back to altitude. This time, they struggled back to Aboyne contending with ever increasing amounts of cloud commenting that “going over the sea to Skye is much less stressful when there is 7/8 or more cloud cover when you can’t see how much water there is to cross, how big the mountains are and how few flat bits there are to land on”! Having got beyond Skye to Fladda Chuain, perhaps Stornoway is the next turning point challenge, it’s only about another 25 km of water across to Lewis – or perhaps Skye’s the limit! Our pilots have not, yet, completed their task but, on the right day, it is clearly possible. They have pioneered a new 1000 km task and done most of it. For this, they are awarded the trophy.
2016 – Christof Maul and Thomas Seiler - Two flights emerged as worthy contenders for 2016, both involving flying to somewhere named Lewes or is that Lewis! Neither used thermals. The Scottish folk song “You Take the High Road and I’ll Take the Low Road” came to mind. In Scotland, the High Road involved using wave to stretch the boundaries even further west crossing yet more water to the Isle of Lewis. Whilst in the South of England, taking the Low Road, meant running the South Downs in a November flight from Nympsfield and turning the town of Lewes at great speed and mostly very low. The 2015 winners showed that it was possible to take off from Aboyne, fly west across Scotland, get beyond the Isle of Skye to Fladda Chuain and return to Aboyne. In the citation, it was noted that having got to Fladda Chuain it was ‘only’ about another 25km to turn Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, but perhaps ‘Skye’s the limit’. In 2016, the contenders taking the High Road had had some practice for their flight. In 2014, they had followed the wave from Aboyne and gone halfway across the Minch when, with the Hebrides in sight and despite being over 15,000 feet they turned back. In September 2016, however, after an 8 am launch in an Arcus, and in a strong southerly wind, they set out to achieve a turn on Lewis. They were able to cross the Kyle of Lochalsh at 15,000 feet and, after dropping back a couple of wave bars, head off from the northern tip of Skye across the Minch at close to 18,000 feet. After dropping to 12,000 feet over Lewis, they climbed back up over 18,000 feet close to the west coast of the island where they turned for home. There are no BGA turning points on Lewis and it is believed that no one has ever soared that high, or even at all. over Lewis before. The return to Aboyne in the face of winds of over 30 knots took a while but they took the opportunity to explore the area to the north east of Aboyne before returning to land shortly before sunset having flown for over 10 hours. At 10 hours for an undeclared flight of just over 500 km, this flight was not going to win any BGA speed trophies! However, crossing some 90km of water during the out and return legs of this flight and going where, to our knowledge, no soaring pilot has been before, can only leave us saying WOW! Whilst Trevor Stuart and Steve Eyles flight on the Low Road running the South Downs, was a truly commendable flight, the sheer scale of the achievement of our German visitors, Christof Maul and Thomas Seiler on the High Road stood out as 2016’s clear winner. In his ladder submission, Christof commented “Daring the jump to the Hebrides needed some mental and physical effort, but once one has set off, second thoughts aren't really helpful. I wonder how a retrieve from Stornoway would be like.”
1985 Chris Rollings – triangular flight Petersfield Welshpool York 1st 25% 750km tri in UK
1986 Justin Wills – 835km cross channel flight from Rufforth to near Dijon, breaking the straight distance record by 123km at a speed of 104kph
1987 Chris Garton - 670k O & R Lasham/York
1988 John Jeffries/Ron Parsons 300k O & R Dunstable/Monmouth
1989 Mike Brook - 500k SHK Sutton Bank/Lasham/North Hill 3rd attempt in 5 days!
1990 Norman James – flight in tutor 300km
1991 Alan Purnell – 951k Portmoak various TPs. Also in recognition of his life-time achievements – over 760 x 300k’s, 160 x 500k’s, 16 x 700k+ and a 750k diploma, plus first to get all three diamonds in the UK
1992 Mike Cumming – 1000km attempt using various sea breezes and/or a cross channel attempt being converting into a circumnavigation of the London TMA
1993 John Jeffries 170k triangle & 345k O & R both using wave from Dunstable in February
1994 Ian Beckett – 300km flight in a Duster he built himself
1995 Chris Rollings – for his contribution to Enterprising gliding in the spirit of Philip Wills and the sponsorship from Mobil for young people in gliding
1996 Mike Oliver 2 x 500k in consecutive days in a SHK
1997 Peter Redshaw 1st 503k O & R from Barrow on Furness LS6c 17.5m
1998 Neville and Richard Allcott – 750km wave flight in a DG500
1999 Charlton 65k in a K8 Kenley to Challock under controlled airspace
2000 Aerotow 2000A K21’s epic journey around the UK 1,550nm in 13 days
2001 Jack Stevens – 750km flight out through Lockinordie (Lock Kinnord near Aboyne) Ros Dubh House, Roseneath, and Huntly. It was thermal into wave flight of 8hrs 10 mins of which 7 hrs 10 mins were on task in a DG400 not using the engine at all because always high and there were no ‘dodgy bits’!
2002 Robert Tait 500k flight from Easterton in an Astir CS77 in thermals from a winch launch. At the time it was thought to be only the 4th Diamond distance flown within Scotland and the first flown from Easterton.
2003 Not awarded
2004 Afandi Darlington/Gordan MacDonald 665k Aboyne to Lasham 710k/ Chris Garton O & R Lasham/Lands End
2005 Roy Wilson 766k Aboyne various TPs
2006 Phil King – 600km flight from Carlisle to Plymouth, via Eden Valley, Wensleydale, east of the Leeds and East Midlandszones
2007 John Williams – in a month flew 528km, 1312km (double 656km), 1536km (double 768km), finishing with a coast to coast 1,016km between a remote TP in the North Sea and 2 west coast TPs!
2008 Trevor Stuart – 602 km circumventing the London TMA from Nympsfield, via Arundel Castle, Ashford and Bury St Edmonds
2009 Desmond Pearce 195k O/R in an Oly 463 from Skelling to various TPs into the Lake District using ridge, thermal and wave. Highlighting an example of the enterprising flying carried out by Edensoaring
2010 Bill Payton – The first 750k FAI triangle to be flown from Sutton Bank (and indeed the north of England) via Talgarth and Cambridge
2011 Matt Wright – 75k O & R task totally over the sea using the south coast cliffs of Devon and Dorset in an ASW 20. The flight evoked memories of bygone days when intrepid pilots bunjyed off cliffs sometimes landing on the beach below! Flying from North Hill, Matt gained his inspiration and experience from Nympsfield’s Trevor Stuart, a past Philip Wills trophy winner, then set about planning and waiting for the right conditions to soar the south coast cliffs of Devon and Dorset. Not only has he encouraged others to follow suit, he wrote an excellent article in S & G, posted a very professional film on YouTube and has come to this conference to share his experience with many others. All, totally in the spirit of Competition Enterprise.
2012 Ed Downham - Flying from Bicester on an uninspiring day, with an inversion and an easterly wind of up to 40 knots, Ed elected
to declare a 500km flight over Wales with a remote start at Cinderford (on the River Severn) and a finish back at
Bicester turning Abergavenny, Cwmbran and the Menai Strait en route! After climbing to 7000’ on the engine
at Little Rissington, the flight almost worked out with the next engine start at Edgehill on the way back – just 30
km short of Bicester with a flight distance of 475 km. Ed could have failed early in the day though when rock
polishing at little more than 100’ above the ground near Abergavenny on the northbound leg and a report that a
landing at Talgarth shouldn’t be attempted . Following the Usk Valley and Hay Bluff, Ed picked up wave near
Talgarth finally climbing to 15,000’ south of Snowdon after turning the Menai Straits. Even an EB28 couldn’t
get back to Bicester in a straight into wind glide from there but thermals at Droitwich and Stratford at least got
him back to Edgehill from where a short engine run got him home. The flight is a great example of what can be
done with intelligent use of an engine on an otherwise poor day. Only 7 flights were recorded on the National
Ladder that day – the next furthest was a 150 km flown in Scotland. England only managed 120 km out and
returns from Gransden.
2013 Rob Lockett - In its 54 years, his Oly had not gone far. There were lots of circuits, more than a few crashes, a 100 km flight in the 90s and his 230 km in Germany in 2009, but that was about it. It was time for the Oly to have a decent cross country – 300 km at least. So in Enterprising fashion, he decided on a good old fashioned downwind dash. With north easterly winds forecast for Easter week, 353 km, Tibenham to North Hill looked like a good task. With a week off work, and after a few false dawns, Friday was his last chance. The conditions didn’t look great, but he arranged an early aerotow, drove to Tibenham and got airborne. After the tow, he burnt his boats heading downwind, scraped away from 500’ in the 20 knot wind and found he was on his way. From Cambridge, it was a heroic struggle with few good climbs until finally at Avebury, he got to 5500’ and roared westwards rarely turning. Barely 4½ hours into the flight he was abeam North Hill and passing the declared goal. It was only 3.15 and conditions ahead looked reasonable. He pushed on taking in a view of the airliners parked at Exeter airport! He found Dartmoor higher than he expected, but somehow managed to clear it, passing Plymouth and finding himself flying along the beautiful southern Cornish coast now lit up in the late afternoon sunshine. By 6.30, the sky was dying and the last few potential thermal sources failed to work. He landed just short of Truro having flown 496 km in 7 hours – a cross country speed of over 70 kph. Not bad for a 54 year old aircraft that had never flown more than 230 km in its life!
2014 Phil King - the flight stayed within Great Britain and indeed, it was declared entirely within a fairly small part of Great Britain, one in which dragons are known to dwell. Perhaps for the first time, a 500 km flight was declared entirely within Wales. It was on 19th March last year. Although the flight started and finished at Shobdon, a remote start and finish was declared at Presteigne just over the border, with turning points to the south at Pontypool and to the north at Lake Vyrnwy, each turning point to be used twice. The plan was to fly most of the trip by cruising in wave. With a launch at around 11 am, the flight needed to achieve 70 kph to be completed in the available daylight. After a struggle because the remote start was in the down of the wave, our pilot cruised in the wave down to Pontypool between around 3000’ and 6000’ averaging 83 kph before turning north towards Lake Vyrnwy. Initially attempting to stick to the cruising strategy, the trip north initially proved to be a major struggle needing steps to be retraced a couple of times with fields round the River Wye tempting. Finally, the strategy was abandoned and a climb was made to 14,000’ at 2pm, less than 10 km west of Presteigne, the starting point for the flight. From 14000’ on oxygen, the whole of the task area was visible! Lake Vyrnwy was turned at around 3 pm but just 42 kph had been achieved for the northbound trip. With the new strategy of stopping to climb and then gliding established, the leg back to Pontypool was achieved at a rather more respectable 80 kph, but time was running out. Turning north again, the flight continued to achieve a good cross country speed, but it was only March and sunset was looming. Just 14 km short of turning Lake Vyrnwy for the second time, our pilot turned for home fearing the possibility of having to land in a field full of dragons as darkness approached. As it was, he turned his finish point and landed back at Shobdon just 3 minutes before sunset! The pilot had completed over 491 km along the route of his planned flight on a day that only 6 flights were recorded on the national ladder. The next best flight managed just 140 km.
2015 Roy Garden and Jack Stephen - the trophy is awarded for two bold, declared flights in an ASH 25 in which the pilots attempted to complete an FAI 1000 km flight from Aboyne on an east – west route. Their plan was to start from Potarch Bridge east of Aboyne and then head west to turn Fladda-Chuain, a small island some 10 km north west of the Isle of Skye. From there, back across the sea and Scotland to turn Todhead on the east coast south of Stonehaven before returning to turn Kilmaluag at the northern end of Skye. Then back to Potarch Bridge to complete the flight. The first attempt last October met 60 knot winds but crossed some 50 km of water to turn Fladda Chuain. They returned across the water and right across Scotland to turn Todhead before meeting a front half way back which prevented the return to Skye. The front forced abandonment. However, no less than 774 km of the task had been achieved. A further attempt on the task a few days later was also unsuccessful. This time, getting over the sea to Skye proved challenging, and getting back even more so. Then the wave collapsed and our intrepid pioneers were committed to ridge bashing for a while before getting back to altitude. This time, they struggled back to Aboyne contending with ever increasing amounts of cloud commenting that “going over the sea to Skye is much less stressful when there is 7/8 or more cloud cover when you can’t see how much water there is to cross, how big the mountains are and how few flat bits there are to land on”! Having got beyond Skye to Fladda Chuain, perhaps Stornoway is the next turning point challenge, it’s only about another 25 km of water across to Lewis – or perhaps Skye’s the limit! Our pilots have not, yet, completed their task but, on the right day, it is clearly possible. They have pioneered a new 1000 km task and done most of it. For this, they are awarded the trophy.
2016 – Christof Maul and Thomas Seiler - Two flights emerged as worthy contenders for 2016, both involving flying to somewhere named Lewes or is that Lewis! Neither used thermals. The Scottish folk song “You Take the High Road and I’ll Take the Low Road” came to mind. In Scotland, the High Road involved using wave to stretch the boundaries even further west crossing yet more water to the Isle of Lewis. Whilst in the South of England, taking the Low Road, meant running the South Downs in a November flight from Nympsfield and turning the town of Lewes at great speed and mostly very low. The 2015 winners showed that it was possible to take off from Aboyne, fly west across Scotland, get beyond the Isle of Skye to Fladda Chuain and return to Aboyne. In the citation, it was noted that having got to Fladda Chuain it was ‘only’ about another 25km to turn Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, but perhaps ‘Skye’s the limit’. In 2016, the contenders taking the High Road had had some practice for their flight. In 2014, they had followed the wave from Aboyne and gone halfway across the Minch when, with the Hebrides in sight and despite being over 15,000 feet they turned back. In September 2016, however, after an 8 am launch in an Arcus, and in a strong southerly wind, they set out to achieve a turn on Lewis. They were able to cross the Kyle of Lochalsh at 15,000 feet and, after dropping back a couple of wave bars, head off from the northern tip of Skye across the Minch at close to 18,000 feet. After dropping to 12,000 feet over Lewis, they climbed back up over 18,000 feet close to the west coast of the island where they turned for home. There are no BGA turning points on Lewis and it is believed that no one has ever soared that high, or even at all. over Lewis before. The return to Aboyne in the face of winds of over 30 knots took a while but they took the opportunity to explore the area to the north east of Aboyne before returning to land shortly before sunset having flown for over 10 hours. At 10 hours for an undeclared flight of just over 500 km, this flight was not going to win any BGA speed trophies! However, crossing some 90km of water during the out and return legs of this flight and going where, to our knowledge, no soaring pilot has been before, can only leave us saying WOW! Whilst Trevor Stuart and Steve Eyles flight on the Low Road running the South Downs, was a truly commendable flight, the sheer scale of the achievement of our German visitors, Christof Maul and Thomas Seiler on the High Road stood out as 2016’s clear winner. In his ladder submission, Christof commented “Daring the jump to the Hebrides needed some mental and physical effort, but once one has set off, second thoughts aren't really helpful. I wonder how a retrieve from Stornoway would be like.”
