By : Luca Salvadori

The XIX World Aerobatic Championships, top aerobatic of the year, took place in the almost unknown city of Trencin (Slovakia) 11-23 August. Strange enough, but good to report is everything ran the right way: excellent weather, outstanding organization, nice place, well-equipped aerodrome and "human" food. Last but not least, the feminine presence, composed of a battalion of hostesses tasked with several organizational duties, was really top-class, so that no one was missing the Hungarian girls we met at WAC '94… at least not the savvy guys who left their wives at home!

No one was actually expecting too much for several reasons: WAC Bulletins were somewhat homespun looking and were (for the Europeans at least) reminiscent of EAC '95, held in the Czech Republic as a "mom-and-pop" business by Jiri Korble and his late wife, who was every kind.

We all changed our minds in a few hours. The indigenous population was devil-fast and worked very hard, and the most important fact, as aware of what they were doing because Trencin is home of the National Aerobatic Center managed by the Slovakian NAC. The crowd of teenagers hired for the event was made of clever, linguistically skilled girls (all spoke English AT LEAST), therefore any issue was quickly addressed and solved. It felt like Switzerland: after the "tragi-comical" experience in Turkey last year, it was paradise. Just think, the schedule stated that a particular day was to be "rain day", and it actually rained! I call that precision, don't you?

Now go back to the sport, the real one. Several countries sported high-level teams with good planes and lots of skill and experience, not to mention motivation to good results. The Frenchmen lined up Patrick Paris (1997 European and WAG Champion) and Dominique Roland as first drives, together with the nice and sweet Pascale Alajouanine and several top-level outsiders. Russians, even if troubled by internal fights (see sidebar), proposed Nikolay Timofeev and both World Champions Victor Chmal and Svetlana Kapanina. The US Team needs separate consideration. After what they considered a defeat at WAC '96, they were really determined to get outstanding results, backing well-trained and highly-reliable Matt Chapman and Mike Goulian with a new entry, Kirby Chambliss, in a new (on the international scene) plane, the Edge 540, built in Oklahoma. Just to say, Chambliss flew as warm-up pilot in Oklahoma City '96, impressing everyone for his skill and, if I may, his beautiful wife.

Organized as ever, the Yankees flew to Europe with a USAF Galaxy carrying all aircraft and a lorry. A lorry full of spare parts and tools, one might suppose. Not at all: besides banal cargo, it was full of… original California mineral water! Perhaps someone remembered my Turkish reports and prepared for the worst …

Other teams were assigned the role of "outsiders". WAC is a matter of competing with professionals flying hundreds of hours of aerobatics per year, while most "human" pilots, albeit good, are able to devote a limited part of their time to top-level training, and this makes the difference. That's it.

The Q-Programme (ie the late Known Program) begins to define the starting order of the first "real" flight, the Aresti Freestyle. With a crowd of 73 pilots, it's a matter of a couple of days of pure boredom, while competitors complain they'd rather have a normal test flight in an otherwise unknown box, just watching around as in the late, good times, instead of diving inside risking a zero. Additionally, the surrounding ground is not so easy, with hills and flats not actually helping, and it's easy to guess why the "Escargot Effect" took place, with all points using the allowed 12 minutes to go forth and back in the box before (and after) flying the sequence.

Paris scores best as planned and, therefore, is the last to fly in the Freestyle. The real surprise is the US guys - massively scoring after him and before the Russians, pushing back the remaining Frenchmen. Other teams follow.

The Spaghetti Team (a.k.a. Italy) is happy with Renzo Voceri's performance, mostly because he's the only pilot flying the venerable Zlim 50 and is congratulated by old aerobatic wolves such as Jiri Korble and Cico Pavel. Others mess with hills and slip back; therefore their angry team manager (the author) hardly kicks them in the bottom until they promise not to do it again! Protests begin as well, mainly due to "rotating box" issues: the working axis was changed without actual reasons, therefore someone complained that, after "Zuhu" pilots flew across the runway (the best reference all around), the axis was moved along it to ease top scorers. Whether the complaint was right or wrong, the axis didn't change because of "Zuhu" opposition.

Let's go on with the Free. After "R Factor" introduction (R as Ramon Alonso, the Spanish Champion), consisting of a 2.5 per cent bonus for each figure less than 15, top teams exercised fantasy and skill with very short sequences composed of figures of awesome difficulty. Average sequences are around 11 figures, while Timofeev outpaces and presents eight, gaining a huge 17.5 per cent. Asked to comment on the issue, Nikolay calmly stated that he actually prepared a seven-figure flight, but it turned out to be somehow uncomfortable… gosh! Anyway, Paris scores first another time, closely followed by Svetlana Kapanina and Timofeev. Then a long rank of Yankees and French. The "Black Shirt" is won by the only Japanese pilot, Takehisha Ueno, flying an E300L owned by the Polish Team. He scores a world record since most figures of his program are zeroed and the best vote is positioning, but some outs almost take him below zero. The Italians, very well known for their jokes, adopt him into their family and immediately give him the amazing nickname of "Mitsubishi Zero" which he won't get rid of for life.

In the meantime, Spaghetti Team prepares the traditional dinner, helped by an Italian pizza man relocated to Slovakia after finding the woman of his life (a nice girl indeed). Thanks to the Slovakian Air Force for supplying a wheeled military camp kitchen.

Everyone nevertheless goes to sleep early, since the Unknowns are coming with sado-maso figures, frightening for even the most skilled and expert contenders. Just to ease the task, the Italian good guys propose a simple figure (a loop with an eight-point roll on the top), and many Lindbergh's laugh at them. Just wait, since even the French would actually zero somewhere … "Fighting against GLOC" is the movie title of the first Unknown. The sequence includes high-g figures (fortunately climbing) able to squeeze most trained brains, and even Roland scores a zero when, apparently pulling too hard, he makes a bad mistake.

An aircraft loss is fortunately avoided: Kazakhstan pilot Sergei Boriak ("Casseur d'Avions"), flying Goulian's Extra 300S, waits took long before a 45 degree descending flick and breaks an aileron, the extra deflection causing the upper wing skin to rip off and the aileron command rod support to detach. The free aileron begins to flutter, and Boriak considers a bailout. Fortunately the aircraft is still controllable at low speed and he lands safely. The contest seems over for him and Mike Goulian, but Extra specialists fly from Germany to Trencin overnight and repair the wing with emergency tools (large "hairdryer" and epoxy glue) in less than two days. Not to mention that the next flights of both gentlemen are much mooooore cautious…

Continuing to hurt ourselves: other freezing figures in the second Unknown. Another "mistakes fair", no nice flights since the imperative for everyone is "Don't zero", but actual results are much different. It's logical anyway: to make the score, you wouldn't fly like a poet and risk an error - instead you'd better be careful - no zeroes, no outs. The beauty of the flight is dead and so is the public (a competent one, accustomed to airshows, though you won't suppose it at first), which stays home watching TV for free instead of getting bored at the airport for money.

We cited above the competent Slovakian public. They are competent to such an extent that a huge crowd comes waiting for the Four-Minute Freestyle. Very good flights in that case, demonstrating without any doubt that, whenever pilots (at that level, obviously) are left free to fly their own style and feeling, an amazing slow arises with little other efforts. Roland wins, followed by Paris, while Chambliss (after flying the best in "paddock" guy's opinion) is third. Some thrill for Svetlana Lupanova, nee Kabatskaya, flying really too low. Sergio Dallan, dean of the circus, watches the other flights flaunting indifference, but his grumbling for being excluded (his final standing is 24th) for the first time in 20 years is evident, since the Four-Minute Freestyle is the discipline he loves and got best results from.

It's over. Now it's only a matter of getting home, after a fun dancing party following a tool formal (and so booring) official ceremony, offered in a pure Soviet-style city hall.

See `ya next year