De Havilland Trophy 2012

Andy Bardgett was awarded the BGA's De Havilland Trophy for the 'Greatest Height Gain' in the UK for 2012.

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George Lee presents Andy with the De Havilland trophy; taken by BGA Photographer Paul Morrison


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The De Havilland Trophy: former winners include Philip Wills, Derek Piggott and George Lee



Andy wrote:
"I collected the De Havilland trophy at the BGA Conference this weekend. Sadly it wasn't easy to get any very good photos but I have attached what Gillian managed and a shot of the 'pot'. I don't know how best to photograph a shiny silver trophy like this. The inscription reads :-
"Presented to the British Gliding Association by Geoffrey De Havilland 1934"
I think this must have been Geoffrey De Havilland Snr. who was the founder of the De Havilland Aircraft Company. He set a British Altitude record in 1912 in his BE2 designed aircraft (all of 10,500'!) De Havillands went on to produce the Moth (many still flying ), the Mosquito and the Vampire. His son (also Geoffrey was born in 1910) died flight testing the DH Swallow a prototype tail less swept wing jet.

On the base it has a fascinating list of recipients which is very humbling to follow.
  1. Phillip Wills,
  2. Frank Foster,
  3. Tony Deane-Drummond,
  4. Derek Piggot,
  5. Humphrey Dimmock- all world-reknowned pioneeers of gliding.
It has also been won by Mike Costin who is a country member at Milfield and by George Lee who presented me with the trophy. George was a hero to me when I was an early solo pilot. He won the World open class championships 3 times in a row in 1976, 78 & 81 and he also flew Prince Charles in a glider. A little known fact is that, at the age of 24, I wrote to several newspapers and the BBC complaining that, although we were rubbish at most sports we had a World Champion who had gone un-reported. In frustration I wrote to Jimmy Saville (Jim'll Fix It) asking if he could fix it for me to go flying with George, in the hope of generating some publicity - but that request was ignored (good thing in hindsight ?) !"
Regards
Andy