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23
Oct 2022
Local pilot wins national aerobatics competition aged 67
At the tender age of 67, Tom Cassells has become the oldest pilot to win at the top level of UK aerobatics.
Mr Cassells recently won the Neil Williams Aerobatics Championship trophy, the pinnacle of British aerobatics competitions.
Mr Cassells, who previously worked at Reed Boardall in Boroughbridge and is about to move to Upper Dunsforth, has been flying since 1983.
It isn’t the first time he has won the top title — he’s actually won it four times, firstly back in 2002.
The competition consists of two parts, a pre-programme of around 11 figures and then two unknown programmes.
He told the Stray Ferret that the aim is to demonstrate the pilots total control of the plane:
Mr Cassells, who is an aerobatics instructor and leads an aerobatics display team called the Starlings, flew solo in an Extra NG aircraft for the competition.
To compete and win at this level means looking after yourself:
Mr Cassells said aerobatics is unrated for its ability to improve a pilot and make them safer . If you can control a plane in all directions, even upside down, he said, it’s an important way of making flying safer.
Asked if he finds it all an adrenalin rush, he says not:
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