Chatsworth Country Fair

AEROBATICS DUO DISPLAY
With Stephen Carver and Gary Ferriman

Overhead display: Friday 1615, Saturday 1645, Sunday 1630

One of the highlights of today’s programme is a spectacular display of low level solo and formation aerobatics from Aerobatics4You. The pilots are Midlands based Steve Carver and Gary Ferriman.

Aged 46, Steve flies the German built single seat Extra 260. As you’ll see this afternoon, there are very few aircraft to rival the performance of this 315hp beast of an aeroplane! With around 10,000 hours in his log book, Steve lives in Derbyshire with Elaine and their three dogs. Here he swapped life as an academic for that of a Training Captain flying the Embraer 145 Regional jet for a major UK airline.

Flying the Extra 300L today is Nottinghamshire businessman and British advanced National champion for 2006, Gary Ferriman. At 58, Gary has been flying for over 30 years and has around 2,500 hours in command. The 300L has two seats, a relatively luxurious interior by aerobatic standards and is powered by a 300 hp engine: design wise, it is a step up from its team mate, the 260 in the wider use of composite materials.

The team will begin with some formation aerobatics; but having split for their solo slots, you will notice with manoeuvres such as the knife edge spin, the ruade and the rolling loop that there is nothing at all gentle about today’s performance. A power to weight ratio of less than 5 lbs per hp is the result of a very light airframe married in each case to an engine normally used in a 4 seat touring aeroplane of 2 to 3 times the weight. Hold onto your seats - these boys are GOOD!