ALFRED PYE 1976-2009
In New South Wales we have an annual trophy called the Alfred Pye Memorial.
A lot of pilots who are relatively new to our fraternity never had the opportunity to know Alf so we have tried to put together a short story to give a little back ground.
Alf is most widely known for living and flying in Coonabarabran. When he was a young fella his mum (Grace) and stepdad (Tony) would drive him all over NSW to aerobatic competitions.
He became so immersed in “pattern flying” that Grace and Tony became the Contest organisers and score keepers at all the NSW aerobatic events, a task they did for a couple of decades.
Alf was one of those youngsters, that had a natural model aircraft ability and easily did well at competitions, as he became a young man he attracted sponsorship and invitations to bigger events.
He represented Australia at CAOC and World Championship events a number of times and is remembered by many global competitors.
We believe he is still the highest positioned Australian at any F3A World Championship.(to date)
His mum, stepdad, wife and daughter were his biggest supporters and were a large part of the “Pattern” fraternity in NSW and Australia. He worked in both full size aviation and RC model industries and was involved at all levels of our hobby.
He was a country boy at heart and eventually moved his family to the Gunnedah district.
The saddest part of this story is that Alf was very badly injured in an accident and lost his life.
Grace approached the NSW flyers and put forward the suggestion that we have a Memorial Trophy to prolong our memory of Alf, and to encourage future pilots in Precision Aerobatics .
Coonabarabran is again his home and the Gunnedah District Aeromodellers was his last club so we now try to compete for this prestigious Trophy at an event close to those towns.
Make sure you have a good look at the trophy, not only does it show the names of the winners, it has a great photo of Alf.