The second AWAC
Advanced World Aerobatic Championships 1997

Taking place between July 4-12 in Lawrence, Kansas, AWAC is the biennial world-wide competition organised by CIVA, the aerobatic wing of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, and the International Aerobatic Club.

"We have been working for over a decade to bring a world-wide competition of this magnitude to Advanced Category competitors," said CIVA President Mike Heuer. "The Unlimited World Aerobatic Championships, which have been going for over three decades, have helped establish the Advanced aerobatic category as a permanent fixture in the sport."

Members of the British team flew out to the USA two weeks before the start of AWAC, and Alan Cassidy has been keeping us up to date with their progress.

The first week saw a fair bit of training on the Yak 55 based in Florida, although getting the Aeroplane set-up correctly, and getting used to it, proved to be a slow process. Problems encountered included bad propeller vibration, due in part to a bad paint job coming adrift. Some practice time was lost going to Pompano to get a second-hand one put on. Team members are flying very well at times, although consistency will be the key when the time comes in earnest!

On Saturday 28th June, Alan flew the team Yak for 9 and a half hours, Florida to Kansas, including 3 stops.

Day 1
"It is now day 1 proper, and we are all flying relatively late in "Programme Q" - the Known in which you have to get 60% to qualify" said Alan. "Patrick is the first to go at about number 35 out of 55, and they are now on number 10 at 1145 local. The rest of us are then in fairly quick succession. The only change may be as the Czech Zlin has been broken and that will probably take 5 pilots out of the order if they can't fix it."

"Patrick and I had a late breakfast and just arrived a few minutes ago. As we pulled up a Yak was just starting and after a few figures it was obvious it was a Russian, not a South African (they fly standard colour Yaks). Then I had the delight of seeing him zero the goldfish by doing one-and-a-half snaps on the 45 up! The Russians turned up with 9 pilots and only 8 are allowed in the Team - so the Jury let the 9th fly as an "Independent" - this was the one I had just seen."

"Overall results for this programme won't be known until about tomorrow lunchtime, just before we start the Free - assuming we qualify!"

Day 2
Here are the judges scores, totals, penalties etc. and percentages for the Known (Qualifying) Programme. All have over 60% so go through to the rest of the contest. These are raw scores, not TBLP.

 Known              J1   J2   J3   J4   J5   J6   J7   J8   J9    AVG.   Pens
=====================================================================================

 Alan Cassidy      2259 2333 2222 2301 2346 2220 2243 1942 2320 2242.89   0   76.81%
 Nick Buckenham    1864 2126 1879 1930 2096 1988 2076 1664 2050 1963.67  20   66.56%
 Patrick Williams  1961 2056 2014 1962 2023 1998 1927 1794 1977 1968.00  40   66.03%
 Dave Kaberry      1998 2095 1973 1948 2110 1952 1985 1774 2032 1985.22  80   65.25%
 Chris Noon        1801 2135 1938 1968 2003 2097 2114 1832 1826 1968.22  80   64.67%

Positions after TBL of Known:

 Alan Cassidy      10th  77.53%
 Nick Buckenham    38th  67.06%
 Patrick Williams  42nd  65.89%
 Dave Kaberry      43rd  64.57%
 Chris Noon        44th  64.53%

First place John Morrissey (USA) with 80.48%

The Top Ten include,

3 Americans
1 Pole
2 Russians
1 Canadian
1 Ukrainian
1 Slovak
1 Brit.

The Free programme is now underway. Weather is good. Here is the 1st Unknown. "I don't think it is going to be too testing!" said Alan.......

Here are abridged results after the Free Programme, the first programme to count towards the overall trophy.

 1 Kasperek     Poland  84.76%  Extra 230
 2 Molidor      USA     83.20%  Pitts S2B
 3 Morrissey M  USA     83.05%  Pitts S-1-11B
 4 Morrissey J  USA     82.72%  Pitts S-1-11-B
 5 Wack D       USA     80.41%  Extra 230
 6 Tchekalova   Russia  80.37%  Yak 55M
 7 Cassidy      UK      79.43%  Yak 55M
 8 Jardine      Canada  79.18%  One Design
 9 Machacka     Czech   79.17%  Zlin 50LS
12 Tucek D      Czech   ??.??%  Zlin 50LS

UK team member positions after the Free Programme,

 7 Alan Cassidy      UK  79.43%
27 Patrick Williams  UK  75.00%
30 Dave Kaberry      UK  74.22%
31 Nick Buckenham    UK  74.12%
51 Chris Noon        UK  63.79%

Flying the first unknown starts Tuesday morning, beginning with the lowest placed pilots from the Free.

09/07/97 14:00 Update

One correction on yesterdays results: they found an error in the K-factors for Danial Tucek's flight so he dropped down from 5th to 12th. Hence Cassidy moved up from 8th to 7th.

All pilots except Cassidy today flew first unknown. Chris missed out a 2-point roll so zeroed, and had quite a few outs, so got only around 55%. Dave and Nick both had no zeroes, but a couple of outs and finished just over the 70% level. Patrick's scores are yet to be given out.

Alan will fly Unknown tomorrow morning, weather permitting, and the second unknown will start in the afternoon.

After the 1st Unknown, Cassidy is in 7th place with 78.35% behind a Pole, 4 Americans and a Russian.

Williams, Buckenham and Kaberry are all close to each other at 29, 30 and 32, with 72.5 - 73%.

Chris Noon did not have such a good time and finished 51st after the 2 scoring flights with 59.31%. Due to time constraints, Chris and 5 others with less than 60% overall were cut from the second unknown.

2nd Unknown

Dave and Nick flew the second Unknown this evening and Patrick will be on first tomorrow morning. Alan will fly sometime mid-afternoon. For Friday and the third unknown, there will be another cut, of the top 25 or 30, so as to finish at about 4pm local time. Here are the aggregate results after the second Unknown:-

 1. Kasperek     Poland  83.60%
 2. Molidor      USA     82.51%
 3. Morrissey M  USA     81.98%
 4. Morrissey J  USA     81.22%
 5. Tchekalova   RUS     79.83%
 6. Panzl        USA     79.56%
 7. Cassidy      UK      79.00%
 8. Cico         SLO     78.76%
 9. Czech        CZE     78.76%
10. Lebedev      RUS     78.62%

28. Williams     UK      73.08%
31. Buckenham    UK      71.98%
33. Kaberry      UK      71.16%
51. Noon         UK    did not fly

As you can see, there are 1 or 2 close on Alan's heels!!!!!!! Last day and the field will be down to 20 or 25 for the last flight.

Final day hit by rain. Seven pilots left without flying last Unknown, so results stand as of last night. The final field was reduced to 15 after early morning low cloud. In a gap of about 2 hours, 8 flights were done, working towards the leading pilots flying last. Cassidy got airborne at about 1130 but cloud in the box was forming at 700m, so played safe and landed, as no break had been agreed.

Judges came in for early lunch, but flying was not possible thereafter. CD abandoned contest at 1500 local after 2 weather flights and radar showed no big possibilities.

Now, we are getting ready for the party, and the first beer for a day or seven. It is still raining outside and the closing banquet is - you guessed it - an open air affair!! Looks like gumboot and brolly rental time......