AIR SPORTS INTERNATIONAL

Jan 1998

Long Range Air Race
By : Bernard Lamy

Dates of the Event :
From September 10th to 20th 1997.

Places :
Start from Reykjavik to Strasbourg - Seville - Rome -Tel Aviv - Amman - Trabzon - Adana - Izmir = 5.775 nautical miles = 10.695 kilometers.

Number of competing aircraft :
19 Divided in 4 Classes :
Piston engines normally aspirated (6) Piston engines turbo - charged (7) Turbo-props (4) and Jets (2)

Nationalities :
Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK and USA.

Mechanical problems :
One Canadian aircraft (C-414) had to divert over Scotland for an engine mal function with a lost of oil pressure. The plane landed safely but had to withdraw from the Race. One US aircraft (Mooney 252), had to divert to Corfu with an engine malfunction, the organization sent an ingenior on a Cheyenne II from Paris who did repaired the problem but too late for the crew to catch up with the Race, he could only joint the others at Izmir to assist at the closing Ceremony. Small other mechanical problems occurred, but were solved by the organization ingenior on the spot.

Weather
Very strong headwinds between Iceland and Europe - Warm and Cold fronts to be crossed between Strasbourg and Seville with mainly overcast over France - Fair weather, with no wind between Seville and Roma - Good weather with tailwinds between Roma and Tel aviv and Amman - Fair weather with headwinds between Amman and Trabzon with solid overcast over destination necessitating an instrument approach for most of the planes - Fair weather between Trabzon and Adana but with heavy rain at destination - Good weather between Adana and Izmir with some isolated cumulonimbus.

Unexpected event
Bad fuel management of one of the competitor, who arrived at Strasbourg quite short in fuel. Since the landing was performed safely anyhow, the Race Director did not gave him any penalty. But at Trabzon, he did it again and had to declare (emergency( creating an incredible mess in the holding pattern with the other aircraft. Then the Race Director had to recommend to the Jury to disqualify this crew considered as dangerous. The Jury followed the recommendation and he has being disqualified. Beside this matter, if has being no accident and no injuries.

Comments for future Lone Range Air Races :
Resting times : Due to a very tight schedule in order to fit into the WAG program, there were no sufficient time to rest between most of the legs. The crews were tired and had no sufficient time to recover and to reset their own gyros between difficult flights. It is then strongly recommended that one complete day rest be allocated between each leg. This will increase the safety and will bring down the blood pressure of everyone including the Race Director.

Timing
The official timing was the official times taken by the Control Towers. But these times are no longer precises since the participating aircraft are more and more faster. The difference between crews at the end of the race were few seconds. This proves that the handicape formula is now very accurate, but in the other, but in the other hand we need a much more accurate way for timing purpose.

Promotion
Since they were no promotion at all for the WAG in the international community, we had a lot of difficulties to have these 19 competitors. We could have at least 10 to 12 more if the event would have being properly promoted.

Communication
At each stop-over, since nobody was aware of the WAG, we managed to organize a (get-together( with the local Medias, then all the journalists contacted were following the events on Internet and the results and peripethies on our web page.

International Herald Tribune
This very worldwide distributed daily newspaper gave us for free 1/8 of a page at each stop-over relating the news of the Race. In order to catch the attention of those local medias, we managed to have the presence of the most important people in each city :

Reykjavik
With the great help of the President of the Iceland Aero Club, the President of Iceland himself came to give the departure signal to the crews. Since he was there, the two main TV channels covered the event.
Strasbourg
City of the European Parliament, the Mayor invited the competitor to an informal ceremony at the City House, full of history. The local Press and FR3 channel was present.
Seville
The Mayor herself invited us at the Reales Alcazares opened specially for the occasion. Of course, the Press was present. She offered a Trophy to the FAI, which will be given to the General Secretary. This was due to the Spanish GAC Delegate Fernando Bujabarral.
Rome
We had no time to meet anybody.
Tel-Aviv
Due to the efficiency of Arik Sinai, the Aeronautic Authorities authorized the Race to land at a military airfield in Tel Aviv, where the journalists came in order to interview the crews.
Amman
The Race landed at Marka airport, where His Royal Highness Prince Feisal came himself to great the crews individually. He was with us from the first to the last landing, welcome everyone, chated with every pilots, a welcome drink was organized with all the local medias including TV. On the departure day to Trabzon, he did the same, wishing good luck to everyone individually, and he waited to the last take off on the tarmac.
Trabzon and Izmir
We had some journalists and THK took over the media responsibility.

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