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Welcome to the Eighth (August) issue of Air Sports International netzine.
How time flies - and before we will realise it, it will be a full year
since we started the netzine with the January 1998 issue !
We now have a calendar full of events as our sport aviation season has started. Inspite of a lean period till now, we have managed to keep up with our promise of giving as rich a fare in our netzine as any printed monthly magazine would do. We have had articles, pictures, letters to the editor, press releases, records and all that one can possibly get about aviation sports in any printed magazine. For this we must thank our contributors who have reacted with a great deal of zeal. In the August issue we have a news story about Brian Milton's record breaking flight in a microlight. While the actual record will be established only after Brian submits his record claim, with the required supporting evidence, we carry the story as put out by Associated Press (AP). A point to note - an important news agency like AP is carrying stories on aviation sports. This is not their first story and I am certain will not be their last. As a reader of many international publications, I have invariable come across AP putting out news and pictures of our air sports fairly regularly. There is a lesson in this. National Aero Clubs need to keep up with the AP correspondents in their country - and cultivate others similarly. Women have been in the news ! We have two stories on women related issues. We have a profile of Riikka Vilkuma, a women hang glider pilot, done by Jocelyne Ribillard and a report on the 2nd World Conference on Women in Sport done by Ina Neef of Namibia. Air sports are basically non-gender sports but since there is talk of women in sports, we have also taken the opportunity of highlighting the issue by carrying two articles in this issue. We also have in this issue a delightful story on the synergy of aerobatics and music by Nikolay Timofev. It makes delightful reading and really brings out the true spirit of aerobatics. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we did. Finally, we have a report on the 10th International European Club Class Gliding Championship by Jiri Dodal. Jiri is very well known personality in air sports management. His story is as neatly presented as his charming ways during General Conferences and Council Meetings. I really must thank all the new contributors who have taken all the time and effort to write our stories. Do keep it up.
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