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The World Aerobatic
Championships
Burgos, Spain - 18th to 30th June 2001 |
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The BAeA Unlimited
Team |
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Alan
Cassidy |
CAP-232 F-GYRO |
UK Judge - Graham
Hill
Assistant - Steve Green
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| Patrick
Williams |
CAP-232
F-GJGM |
| Nick
Onn |
Sukhoi-26
G-XXVI |
| Val
Rahmani |
Sukhoi-26
G-SOOK |
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| BAeA
Teams Abroad - main page |
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BAeA Advanced Team diary |
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BAeA Glider Unlimited Team diary |
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Unlimited Team Diary |
. . . . RESULTS
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Thursday 28th June
The second unknown was completed this evening and thus the "classic" part of
the WAC has been decided.
The new World Champion is Russian pilot Mikhail Mamistov flying a Sukhoi 31.Having won the first unknown by a narrow margin, he flew an immaculate second
unknown beating the nearest rival in this sequence by 2.5%. This brought him
to the title from seventh place after the Free programme last week. Second overall is American Robert Armstrong, who flies a wooden-wing CAP231,
and third Frenchman Eddy Dussau in the ubiquitous CAP232. Today's flying again
saw a surprising number of zeroes from top as well as middle-ranking pilots,
showing just how high is the stress and difficulty in modern contests.
Eddy threw away a winning position after two sequences by zeroing a vertical
snap. Former World Champion Viktor Tchmal zeroed figure-1 of the last
sequence, finishing the wrong way up and so incurring an additional insertion
penalty. Aerobatics has shown yet again what a cruel sport it can be in its
merciless penalisation of lapses of concentration.
Among the UK pilots, only Nick managed this last sequence without problems
and finished a marvellous 13th in the second unknown programme. Our results
altogether this year have all been a significant improvement on the last two
or three years, even though none of us has found the consistency to be able
to fly our best in every sequence. We've al had a couple of really good
flights, one pretty average one and one we would really rather forget. Such
is life in the pressure cooker of WAC aerobatics.
Our final overall placings, out of 59 entrants, are therefore as follows:
Nick, 30th, 70.4%
Alan, 34th, 69.2%
Patrick, 41st, 67%
Val, 45th, 58.8%
There will be no flying tomorrow, then the Final Freestyle contest will be
held Friday morning. Between now and the weekend, we all face the somewhat
anti-climactic journey home.
See you somewhere soon...
Alan
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Wednesday 27th June
I now have to hand the full results (barring protests) of the Free and 1st
Unknown sequences at the power WAC. Leading is Eddy Dussau (Fra), just 140 points ahead of Mikhail Mamistov
(Rus) who is 60 points ahead of Robert Armstrong (USA). France are 70 points ahead
of Russia in the men's teams, with the USA another 440 points adrift.
Biggest news at the end of the first Unknown were zeroes from both the top 2
US men. Kirby Chambliss blew the Americans own figure by seriously under-rotating the third vertical quarter roll. David Martin blew the
Ukrainian figure by flicking with the wrong foot after the cross-over spin
and doing one-and-a-quarter instead of three-quarters. This has dropped the
USA from the individual and men's team gold medal slots.
Positions in the Unknown for the UK pilots were as follows:
Alan, 26th, 69.5%
Nick, 44th, 56.6%
Patrick, 45th, 56.5%
Val, 49th, 53.2%
Positions overall after two scoring flights are:
Alan, 30th, 73.9%
Patrick, 38th, 68.9%
Nick, 40th, 68.2%
Val, 42nd, 66.6%
The 2nd Unknown flights, cut to the top 45 pilots start this afternoon. More
results when I have them.
Thirty-six F******* degrees again this afternoon!! And that's not Fahrenheit.
Best to all
Alan
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Tuesday 26th June
What Ho,
The first unknown is almost complete, just ten flights remain to be flown
tomorrow morning. So we don't yet have any final positions.
The good news is that all the UK pilots will survive the 25% cut and will fly
Unknown 2 which starts later tomorrow, or possibly the day after if the
judges who want a day out of the sun have their way. The not so good news is
that, on this occasion, your intrepid reporter was the only one of us with a
clear round, so the placings have changed somewhat. We now stand in the order
Alan, Patrick, Nick and Val, with placings likely to range from about 27 to
42 assuming none of the top ten screw up really badly tomorrow.
When we have a consolidated list, I'll let you know more exact results of the
Unknown alone and the combined standings after the two flights.
Weather is still hot and high. 37 degrees C today at peak, most pilots
starting the Unknown well above 3,000 feet. The aircraft with the most performance are definitely the US Edge 540s - a function of power to weight
ratio. CAP 232s are coping well, as are Sukhois with PF engines. For Sukhois
without the extra supercharging, the thin air and the wing section seem to be
a bit at odds, requiring greater start heights and often lower finishes.
Attached is the second Unknown sequence - higher K than #1 but possibly less
demanding technically and from a framing point of view - (click it
for a full-size copy, then use your browser Back button to
return here)
Bye for now,
Alan
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Sunday 24th June
 Next news
installment from WAG2001!
The Free Programmes have just finished and the people smiling most are the Americans. They have 3 of the top 4 places with David Martin leading from Eddy Dussau (France), Kirby Chambliss and Robert Armstrong. Then there are a number of good Russians. With a couple of stiff Unknowns to come, though, all is yet to play for.
The programmes saw the usual array of triumphs and disasters,
perhaps the biggest blow being to US pilot Chris Panzl who had a nightmare
after figure 3 and dropped to close to bottom after starting 10th. Then there were a couple of lows, a drawing error from a Russian, and a smattering of zeroes in all the wrong places.
Your intrepid correspondent unfortunately fell into the last category with a sideways tail-slide that spoilt an otherwise quite pleasing flight. The rest of the UK team survived without zeroes, but with a number of smaller errors that did not escape the judges' notice. UK placings thus far, then, are:
Patrick - 33rd Nick - 34th Val - 35th
Alan - 39th
Only a hundred points separates all four of us, and movement is very likely as the unknown flights progress. Lets hope it is up rather than down...
On the right here is a gif file of the first unknown - (click it
for a full-size copy, then use your browser Back button to
return here)
From all of us in sunny Spain, have a nice day.
Alan
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Saturday 23rd June
All the Brits at the powered WAG aerobatics have qualified well, and go
forward for the remainder of the contest as of right. This includes our
judging team whose JPF for the Q Program put them in the top 10 for the Free
Programmes.
Individual results for the British pilots in the Q were as follows (out of 59
pilots who flew):
Alan 20th 76%
Nick 32nd 72%
Patrick 40th 69%
Val 50th 66%
Eddy Dussau (France) won the Q with David Martin (USA) second and Kirby
Chambliss (USA) third. Then came three Russians including Svetlana
Kapanina. Five pilots fell below the 60% standard, but all have been allowed to
continue as they were deemed safe enough!!
Just 7 Free Programmes have been flown before lunch (1400) today. Val will be
third after lunch (re-start at 1600 local) and Patrick maybe 2 or 3 hours
later. Nick will probably fly before we finish tonight. I anticipate that
they will keep the last 20-25 flights for tomorrow, so I expect to fly myself
tomorrow morning.
Of those who flew this morning I saw only the flight of Ramon Alonso. He is
the top Spanish pilot who flew over time in the Q so started much lower in
the list than expected. He started a very dynamic 7-figure programme well,
but made a big error at the end of figure 2 by doing a double vertical roll
up instead of 1 and a half. He then had to insert a half roll before starting
figure 3 so I guess he will be disappointed overall. He also gave a good
demonstration, if one were needed, of how to lose energy by pulling very hard
in a hot and high climate, finishing very near the bottom of the box and some
distance from the judges.
Will send more results after the Frees are finished tomorrow.
Alan
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Friday 22nd June
Now Then,
Its lunch time on the second day of the contest and flying of the Q Programme
is under way, albeit not at great speed.
Patrick's #10 starting place went out of the window when he had a most
unusual "technical" just before engine start. As he lowered the canopy for
the last time, one of the glass slip balls exploded with a number of shards
dropping into the cockpit. The plane had been sitting on the flight line in
the sunshine for several hours, and the temperature had climbed to 34
degrees. We surmise that some kind of differential expansion resulted in a
lot of stress on the glass. His flight was consequently delayed and he flew
first this morning in cooler air and without any major problem that I could
see.
My own flight was the last of the day, at 19.10 local time, and still with
the thermometer on 34 Celcius. During the afternoon, some planes had
struggled in the density altitude, Burgos being 3,000 feet above sea level.
So I started into the box diving from nearly 4,000 feet and started figure 1
from just under 2,000. This proved to be enough energy and the altimeter
didn't distract me for the rest of the flight, which went quite well.
Biggest upset of the first day occurred when the top Spanish pilot, Ramon
Alonso, frittered away too much of his 10 minutes and consequently overran
the time limit, zeroing the last 2 figures of the Q. No doubt he will be
allowed to continue despite getting less than 60%, because safety
was not an issue, but it was something of a surprise...
Val is flying about now, as I type this in my hotel room. Nick's flight will
be at about 18.30 local this evening, when the temperature is predicted to be
35C. Apparently these high temperatures are not typical for here at this time
of year, so the aerobatic contest effect is living up to its reputation. A
weak cold front is expected for tomorrow afternoon, with lower temperatures
thereafter. We hope.
The Q Programme WILL be finished today (so the CD said) so Graham and Steve
will be baking in the sun for many hours yet. The results should be known
late this evening, and I will send on points of interest in due course. The
full tabular stuff should find its way onto the CIVA website soon thereafter.
Bye for now,
Alan |
Wednesday 20th June
Dear All,
Sixty-one pilots from 14 nations are now gathered for the World Air Games powered aerobatic contest. The Q Programme starts tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday).
Patrick will be first to fly for the UK at number #11. Alan is #19, Val #35 and Nick #45. Val and Nick will not fly until Thursday, as flying does not start until 13.00 local time tomorrow after an early lunch. Somewhere between 20 and 25 flights should be possible, leaving 40-odd for Thursday. At least none of us is wind-dummy, so we should all get a fair crack at it, subject to the usual vagaries of the wind/weather etc.
Attached is a piccie taken today showing Nick, Patrick and Val walking from their planes to the terminal on arrival. In the background you can see the village of team tents, flags and so on. We have fairly high pressure at the moment and the weather seems set fair for tomorrow - fingers crossed.
Thanks to all who sent their best wishes for the contest.
Alan
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 Sunday
17th June
Patrick and I flew from France to Spain today,
successfully negotiating the odd CB and not a few mountains to
arrive at the WAC contest site. Burgos (Villafria) airfield is at
900m elevation about 240km north of Madrid. It has just one hard
runway, 24/06, with a parallel grass strip on
the North side. The attached picture shows the runways and the main
axis markers leading to the end-box T looking
in the 06 direction. I'll try to get some more pictures showing more
of the box before long.
Registration is on Tuesday and flying starts
Wednesday for the powered aerobatic lot. Not sure about the gliders
timescale, but I expect Chris will keep us in touch with goings on
at Palma del Rio. |
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The plan is to keep fresh with a couple of
training flights each day now until the contest starts, but this
will probably mean moving a few miles away as I do not expect they
will let us fly overhead here (privilege reserved for the Spanish
Team!!) So much for the level playing field.
Graham and Steve are en-route from France by
Mercedes and will arrive tomorrow (Sunday) morning.
Hotel is just 3km from field and appears to be a
centre for local wedding receptions. Thankfully, the noise is just
dying down at 11.30 pm.
Non-UK aircraft here at present are Spanish Team
Sukhoi 26s and 31s and Lithuanian Vitas Lapenas' modified Su29.
Modified because Vitas lost part of one leg and a hand in a Yak55
crash a few years back. He will be competing here for the first time
since, so god luck to him. There are, I think, 2 other Lithuanian
pilots. There is a Polish Extra 300S, ferried by one of their glider
pilots, for which 2 or 3 powered pilots will arrive by road shortly.
There are also 4 names for a Romanian Team, but
no-one seems to know if they are all pilots or whatever. Even less
known is what they will fly, if anything. The Russians are training
at Segovia, the French and Swiss still in France, the Americans
somewhere en-route from Ramstein and the Italians who knows where.
There is also rumour of two Brazilians and two Japanese this year.
The total for the power contest is something like
80 pilots, but it remains to be seen how many actually get here with
aircraft to fly. We'll know when registration is completed Tuesday.
That's all for now, more anon.
Alan Cassidy
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Wednesday 13th June
Hello from France,
The not-so-good news about the UK Team for the World Air Games is
that Tom Cassells, last year's Len Perry winner, had to pull out at
the last minute because of a major contract re-negotiation for his
business. Consequently, we are now just 3 chaps in the flying part
of the Team and one lass.
Nick and Val are staying in Spain to train there, so as yet I do not
have much news from them. Patrick and I are at Millau/Larzac in the
south of France and have now completed 2 days training under the
watchful eye of Eric Vazeille, last year's World Champion.
The other good news is that Judge Graham Hill and Assistant Steve
Green arrived last night after an 04.00 start from Wallingford, a
train through the tunnel and a LOT of driving south on autoroutes.
So for today's training we had the benefit of judging feedback as
well as the pilot-oriented coaching.
The airfield at Millau is 2,600 feet amsl, so is not far short of
the 3,000 feet at Burgos in Spain where we will start the contest
next week. It is not possible to select QFE at these heights, so it
is interesting to have to take off with 3,000 feet showing on the
altimeter and diving into the box from 6,500 feet!! Also, you have
to realize you are getting quite low when the altimeter reads
anything less than 4,000.
All ground operation and taking off etc has to be done with the
mixture out a bit to cope with the thinner air. Notwithstanding
these points, both the Q Programme and the Free programmes (we are
both doing 8 figures this year) are able to maintain adequate
height. Unknowns are a bit different, so a little extra starting
height is necessary at present until we get better at calculating
height loss. Here has been quite sunny, but not as hot, probably, as
Spain.
Of course, this being France the food is really lousy. So please
send your sympathy etc by return....
For now
Alan |
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