Team Mazda UK

Final Freestyle

2010-09-12T21:42:00.004+01:00

Sorry for another late post to the blog, but yesterday was a busy day at the airfield and it was a difficult day for the Organisation with a landing incident occurring during the 4 Minute Free Programme involving Hanspeter Rohner in has Cap 232. Hanspeter was completely unhurt and stayed at the airfield all day and attended the closing ceremony. Unfortunately we ran out of time to complete the 4 minute free, but the organisers did manage to get three programmes (Q, Free and Free Unknown) complete despite some pretty poor weather during the Championships.

The closing ceremony was held at the contest hotel, which is built on the site of a historic monastary. Medals were awarded to the winners and Renaud Ecalle crowned Men's European Champion and Elena Klimovich Women's Champion. The British Team of Nick Onn, Gerald Cooper, Tom Cassells and Eric Vazeille were awarded the bronze team medal, with France winning silver and Russia gold.

Tom Korinek (Contest Director) announced that he would be retiring from running Championships - this is his third major Championship that he has organised - but that he hoped to stay in touch with everyone in the future. Tom is a great man and has worked very hard at all of the Championships to ensure that the contests are successful. He has an amazing ability to achieve all of this whilst still smiling and remaining calm, patient, understanding and helpful to everyone, regardless of the questions or requests being asked of him. It has been a pleasure to meet Tom and to share time with him at the Championships and I wish him health, happiness and lots more smiles in all of his future endeavours.

Here are some photos from the closing ceremony taken by Graham Hill.

Women's European Champion - Elena Klimovich.

Men's European Champion - Renaud Ecalle.

Team Mazda UK - Bronze Medal.

4 Minute Freestyle and Airshow

2010-09-11T07:05:00.002+01:00

Today is the last day of the European Championships and the plan is to fly the 4 Minute Freestyle Programme, followed by an airshow and then a closing ceremony. Gerald and Eric are going to fly in the 4 Minute Programme. The weather looks good at the moment - a little foggy, but the forecast is for that to burn off quickly, so we hope to have a full day of flying which is good for the organisers who should have lots of flying on display for the public.

Its great that the weather improved sufficiently yesterday for the Free Unknown to be completed. The Organisers have worked very hard to get as much flying done as possible and to make this a very friendly event. They are very pleased that they managed to get the unknown done.

Free Unknown Finished

2010-09-10T21:45:00.004+01:00

We completed the Free Unknown today and the final results from the Free and Free Unknown are published - the complete results are available on www.civa-results.com.

Gerald, Tom and Nick all flew clean Unknown programmes which was a very good way to finish the Classic Aresti part of the Championships. Nick was the highest ranked British pilot. The British Team won the bronze team medal, although the three Spanish pilots flew brilliantly to accrue more points than the three British pilots, but their placing did not count in the medal standings because they competed as Independent entries, registered as EXP (Expain) for various political reasons concerning their National Aero Club.

Castor Fantoba flew a simply excellent Unknown programme, backed-up by a very good performances from Juan Verlarde and Anselmo Gamez - it was great to see their team put in such a strong performance and demonstrate their talent and commitment to the sport at the Championships. Our sport is richer for their participation.

One of the things that is very special about these Championships is that the pilots compete with total commitment when they are flying and are focussed on doing all they can to post the best scores and win medals, yet at the same time, once flying is complete all of the competitors and teams have fun together - the atmosphere at this contest has been very friendly and the Championships have been contested with great sportsmanship, something that is often missing from sport these days.

Here are some photos of the British and Spanish teams after the final Classic flights were complete today. The smiles say it all - lots of relief that the stress of Unknown sequence flights are over and good sequences have been flown.

Update on Free Unknown

2010-09-10T17:44:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the late post, but its been a busy afternoon. The weather has improved continually since lunchtime and we started flying at about 1400. It looks like we will finish the Free Unknown tonight. Nick and Gerald have both flown and put in good clean performances. So the results for the Free Unknown and the combined Free Programme plus Free Unknown (the Q Programme scores won't count towards the Championship titles if the Free Unknown is completed) should be available on the civa-results.com website this evening.

Still waiting

2010-09-10T10:50:00.002+01:00

The cloudbase is currently 500m and so we have to wait to see if it will lift to 800m. Unlikely to get much done before lunch. Lets hope it starts to rise this afternoon.

Clouds in box

2010-09-10T09:09:00.002+01:00

We have just finished the first briefing for Friday and there are clouds in the box, but it is hoped that they will rise sufficiently to allow us to fly. There are around 20 flights left from the Free Unknown and the priority is to get those finished. Box orientation will be 26 with judges in the south. Forecast wind is 270 at about 10 knots. So we are waiting to see if the clouds will co-operate.

The forecast for tomorrow is better, but it would be really good to finish the Free Unknown today.

No improvement in the weather

2010-09-09T13:03:00.002+01:00

The weather is not cooperating today and the Organisers have reluctantly cancelled flying for the day. So we will have a briefing at 1000 tomorrow morning (Friday). The forecast is a little better, although there is a chance that low cloud could disrupt flying again. Let's hope that the occluded front moves away from Touzim soon.

Cloudy Thursday Morning

2010-09-09T09:36:00.001+01:00

This morning is cloudy at the airfield and the weather forecast suggests that flying is unlikely today. We are going to wait for a while at the airfield to see if there is any unpredicted improvement, so for now we are waiting and hoping for better weather. The forecast for Friday is a little better, although the weather man still thinks it is unlikely that we will fly. Saturday sounds like a good day. So it looks like its going to be a waiting game for the next few days.

Next Briefing

2010-09-08T12:42:00.003+01:00

There is definitely no flying planned for today because of bad weather. The next briefing will be at 1000 on Thursday morning, although the weather forecast suggests that it is unlikely that we will fly. The met forecasts have been pretty good so far throughout the contest, but its possible that the weather system could change in a way that has not been predicted, which is why the Organisers have scheduled a reasonably early briefing. We need about 5 flying hours to complete the Free Unknown, so its possible to get that done if we can just find one good afternoon's worth of weather.

The Four Minute Freestyle is scheduled for Saturday, but the Organisers have said that priority will be given to completing the Free Unknown if time is limited and a choice between running the two programmes has to be made.

Second Unknown Final Version

2010-09-08T07:35:00.002+01:00

A number of protests were received about the first sequence selected for the Second Unknown Programme, so the Jury recommended the following sequence which has now been officially adopted as the programme that will be flown if we manage to get sufficient flyable weather.

Progress Update

2010-09-08T07:22:00.002+01:00

Its Wednesday morning and the bad weather that was predicted has arrived - in fact it arrived a little sooner than expected and stopped us from flying from 1800 last night. There is no chance of flying today with low cloud, wind and some rain here at the moment and forecast to stay all day. The likelihood is that we will have the same weather tomorrow, with a possible break coming on Friday afternoon - although even then we may have low cloud in the box. Saturday, which is the last competition day, looks better, so we are hoping to get the Free Unknown finished on Saturday.

The Organisers have done a really good job of getting as much flying done as possible when the weather has been good. I really hope that the weather improves so that we can complete the Unknown - everyone here in Touzim really deserves that after all the hard work they have put into setting up and running the contest.

Second Unknown Sequence declared provisionally

2010-09-07T12:49:00.006+01:00

The International Jury has selected the following sequence from those submitted and it will be the one all pilots will have to fly for the Second Unknown - it is provisional at the moment until the two hour protest period expires. This allows the teams to look at the sequence and raise any safety concerns they have about the design with the Jury before it is finally confirmed as the sequence that will be used.

Update on Tuesdays Activity

2010-09-07T12:40:00.002+01:00

We have not managed to get any flying done yet today, except for the Jury Plane which has done quite a few cloud base checks, but at the moment the clouds are hovering at about 600m and we need them to go up another 200m before we can start. The wind has increased a little compared to the last two days (its now about 7 meters per second from 100 degrees), but the sun is still making an appearance, so perhaps the cloudbase will either rise or dissipate. It would be great to make some more progress with the Free Unknown. Each sequence is taking about 12 minutes, so we can get around 5 an hour done, which means we have something like 6 hours of flying left to do to finish the Programme. Its 1345 here now, which means its unlikely we will get the Free Unknown completed unless we can start at 1400 and fly beyond the 1900 curfew. But everything is set-up here ready to go as soon as the weather improves, so lets hope we can get some flying done today.

Morning Mist

2010-09-07T08:08:00.002+01:00

Tuesday morning is a bit foggy at the airfield, although we can see the sun, so perhaps the mist will dissipate soon. The warm-up pilot has now been scheduled to take-off at 1000 and then we will continue with the Free Unknown flights. The box orientation is the same as yesterday - main axis direction 08 and judges in the south. The weather forecast suggests a stronger wind for this afternoon as the warm front approaches - perhaps as much as 24 knotts (120 degrees). So we will have to see how much flying is possible today. Hopefully we will get the Free Unknown finished, because we are expecting poor weather for Wed through to Friday. That would still allow us some time on Saturday to fly the Second Unknown and proposals for that sequence need to be submitted by 1200 today. The Organisers are working hard to make maximum use of any good weather, so I am sure that we will be flying as soon as possible this morning. Nick and Gerald will probably be flying after lunch.

Figures selected for Second Unknown

2010-09-06T21:41:00.004+01:00

Here are the figures selected for the second Unknown. Eight figures were proposed by the remaining National Aero Clubs still represented in the Championships and two of the figures (9 and 10) were added by the International Jury.

Each team can now submit a proposed sequence that is composed using these ten figures and some simple linking figures to make the sequence flow. The International Jury will then review the submissions and select one sequence that all pilots will fly. The deadline is tomorrow morning.

Free Unknown flights started

2010-09-06T17:22:00.002+01:00

The organisers, especially the scoring team, did an excellent job at processing the final results for the Free Programme and sorting out the running order and paperwork for the Free Unknown and we were able to start the next set of flights at about 1700 today. Tom has just finished his flight and he flew an excellent Unknown sequence - three or four of us watched the flight following the sequence card and couldn't see any zeros or major errors. It is a difficult sequence - we timed it at 11 minutes on average to complete the sequence (with no breaks) from getting in the air to final wing rocks, so its a test of skill and endurance. Tom got into a very good rhythm and flew all of the rolls and flicks accurately with good, solid clean stops. Very stylish.

The organisers want to get the first 14 pilots complete tonight, so they have got an extension to fly beyond 1900 tonight to get all of those flights done if possible, which would put us a third of a way through the programme. The CD, Thomas Korinek and his team have really pushed on whenever possible to get the flying going and the pilots appreciate this. So with some luck with the weather, we should get the Free Unknown complete tomorrow.

There is a briefing at 1930 today for selection of the figures for the Second Unknown and then sequences have to be submitted to the Organisers by 1000 in the morning. The Jury then select one of the proposals and all of the pilots have to fly that sequence - no choice this time!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is good, but poor for Wednesday and Thursday, so we may end up flying the second unknown on Friday and Saturday. But the Organisers have done an excellent job of moving things forward and that means that even if we have a day or two of poor weather we still have a realistic possibility of completing the second unknown.

Free Programme Completed

2010-09-06T14:01:00.002+01:00

We have just finished flying the Free Programme - scores are just being entered. Gerald and Nick both had clean flights and scored in the high 70%s. The full listing of the results for the Free should be on the civa-results website in the next hour or so. We will then get the flying order for the Free Unknown which the organisers plan to start this afternoon. It is possible that Tom will fly the sequence today.

Flight Progress

2010-09-06T11:51:00.002+01:00

The judges have stopped for a lunch break and we will resume flying soon - the jury plane is just checking the cloudbase to see if a Free Break is still permitted. Assuming we start at 1300 we expect Gerald to fly at about 1330 and Nick about 1430. The box orientation is the same as the last couple of days - Judges South and wind from the East.

Flying Resumes

2010-09-06T10:09:00.003+01:00

The cloudbase has lifted to above 800m so flying is starting again here now. We expect Gerald to fly at about 1230 local time.

Free Programme Update

2010-09-06T10:00:00.002+01:00

We are still waiting for the weather to improve. Tom's scores have been published and unfortunately he zeroed figure 1 flying a 6 of 2 instead of a 4 of 2. The rest of the sequence was clean and he scored about 67% for the Free including the zero which shows that the rest of the flight was good, so its still possible for Tom to make up ground in the two unknowns.

Choice of Unknown Sequences for the Free Unknown

2010-09-06T09:25:00.003+01:00

The pilots have now submitted their choice of sequence for the first unknown and all of the pilots have chosen either Sequence D or G, pretty much in equal numbers.

Sequence D was designed by the French team and Sequence G by the Russian team. The organisers hope to be able to start flying the first Unknown this afternoon, but that will depend on how quickly we can get the Free Programmes finished - there are about 15 Free Programme flights still to be completed which will take about three hours. So we hope that the heat from the sunshine will lift the cloudbase soon so that we can start flying again.

The weather forecast for the next few days is for good flyable weather tomorrow (Tuesday), but a high probability of poor unflyable weather on Wednesday and Thursday, with better weather predicted for Friday and Saturday. So its looking possible that we will get through two Unknown sequences which would be excellent.

Update on Free Programme Flights

2010-09-06T09:20:00.002+01:00

Monday morning in Touzim and it is a nice day, although there are some small clouds building up now in the box. The grass airfield is on top of a hill at around 2100 feet and so we tend to get a clear start first thing in the morning but then small clouds build up during the early part of the morning. Today there was just enough time before the clouds arrived for the warm-up pilot and Tom to fly. Tom flew what looked like a clean Free Programme from where we were watching - some minor errors but overall a good flight which should keep Tom in contention as we head towards the Unknowns. We will see what the judges made of the flight once the scores are in the computer (see www.civa-results.com).

Flying is now suspended while we wait for the cloud base to rise - which usually happens late morning. Gerald is the next British pilot to fly, then Nick.

Update on Progress with Free Programme

2010-09-05T17:30:00.001+01:00

The Free Programme flights are progressing well and more than 30 will be complete by the end of today. The decision has been taken to fly the final block of pilots tomorrow, so all of the British pilots will fly then, with Tom likely to be first up in the morning. So its an early night for the team today and an early start tomorrow.

Progress with Free Programme Flights

2010-09-05T14:02:00.002+01:00

Flight 17 of the Free Programmes is in the air now. Tom is the first of the British pilots to fly the Free Programme and he is Flight Number 33, so its probably at least three hours from now, so perhaps six o clock local time or later.

Unknown 1 sequences

2010-09-05T14:00:00.001+01:00

And a few more...

Unknown 1 Sequence Options

2010-09-05T13:56:00.003+01:00

Here are some of the options for the Unknown 1 sequences:

Free Programme Update

2010-09-05T11:52:00.003+01:00

The weather this morning at Touzim is sunny but there have been some clouds in the box. We completed about 8 Free Programme flights yesterday before the 1900 curfew. Overnight the teams prepared their Unknown 1 programme submissions and 8 alternative sequences have been proposed - I will try to get copies to upload to the blog. Each pilot can now select one of the eight sequences to fly, which gives them an opportunity to pick the design that best suits their style and aircraft. The deadline for notifying the organisers about their choice is 1730 today.

We have not done much flying this morning because there was a landing incident involving one of the Italian pilots, Gianfranco Cillario. Gianfranco is unhurt and needed no medical attention which is good news, although the aircraft is damaged.

The cloudbase midmorning was below 800m, so the judges have had an early lunch and we are hoping to start again at about 1330. If the weather holds we should get a good way through the Free Programme and its possible that Nick, Tom and Gerald will fly today (late afternoon).

Mike Heuer's Blog

2010-09-04T22:07:00.002+01:00

Mike Heuer (President of CIVA and the International Jury at EAC) is writing a blog. You can find it here (http://www.fai.org/aerobatics/PresidentPage). It gives you more info about what is happening here and has some excellent photos.

A few photos

2010-09-04T21:56:00.003+01:00

Here are a few pictures taken by Graham Hill.

Figures for Unknown 1

2010-09-04T21:37:00.004+01:00

The figures for the construction of the 1st Unknown (Free Unknown) were selected by the 10 teams representing NACs at the Championships - competitors that are registered as Independent do not propose figures. The teams draw lots to decide the order in which figures are submitted, since no duplication of elements of figures that have the same catalogue numbers is allowed - so those who submit their figures first get the best choice of components to use to build their figures. The final 10 figures proposed are shown below (this is not the official drawing from the organisers - just our notes from the selection briefing, so we need to check that its the same as those documented by the organisers, but I hope it is accurate!).

Each team can design a sequence using these 10 figures plus between 1 and 4 linking figures of their own choice. The teams must submit their proposals to the Organisers by 1000 tomorrow morning. Sequences are then checked for legality and then all of the proposals are published so that each competitor can decide which of the proposed sequences he or she will fly. So its going to be a busy night while people design their sequences in time for the deadline tomorrow. A lot of high K (difficulty) figures have been proposed, so its going to be a challenging sequence and it needs a lot of skill to design a sequence that is flyable. It will be interesting to compare the different proposals tomorrow.

Q Results

2010-09-04T15:48:00.002+01:00

The preliminary results for the Q programme have been published. Tom is 8th, Gerald 12th and Nick 13th. All three will fly in the highest seeded block for the Free Programme which is an excellent team performance, although there is a lot more flying to go. Renaud Ecalle won the Q Programme with an impressive 81.6%, with Oleg Shpolyanskiy in second and Svetlana Kapanina in third. Elena Klimovich was just out of the medals in third place, putting two men and two women in the top four.

The organisers are aiming to start the Free Programme this afternoon to make best use of the good weather. Its a high pressure job for the organisation to calculate the results of the Q programme, set the flying order and collate the Free Programme paperwork ready to start, but the organisation here have been very good at getting on with the flying and making the most of good weather when it is here. Everyone is working hard to make the contest a success and it is appreciated by the pilots.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is reasonably good, so with luck we will finish the Free Programme tomorrow and it looks likely that we will fly at least one Unknown sequence at the Championships.

The draw for Unknown figures for the first unknown is at 1930 this evening.

Three British team flights complete in Q

2010-09-04T14:06:00.001+01:00

Tom and Gerald have just completed their flights. Both put in very clean sequences. A number of pilots watching thought that Tom's flight was possibly the best of the day, so we will see what the judges think. Michael Racy flew a little before Tom and Gerald and put together a very nice, clean, rhythmical sequence which displayed the Sukhoi very well.

The weather is holding - it looked like we may have got a rain shower or two, but those seem to be holding off. So the organisers are hoping to complete the Q and start flying the Free Programme this afternoon.

Lunch Break

2010-09-04T11:37:00.002+01:00

Its lunchtime in Touzim, so we expect Tom and Gerald to fly at around 1530. Nick is in 6th place at the moment which is an excellent start. There are about 18 more pilots to go. Philipp Steinbach also had a good flight putting him in 4th place, flying an aircraft he designed himself. Its impressive to see how much performance the aircraft has - its got a remarkable ability to maintain height throughout the Q sequence, which means that the figures can be positioned nicely in the box for the judges. There are Russians in first and second place at the moment, France in third, but more flights to go.

The weather looks good for this afternoon. Wind and Judges in same configuration. We are just starting again now.

More Q Flights done

2010-09-04T10:19:00.002+01:00

We are now up to flight 32 in the Q Programme (out of about 53) and the weather is OK although there are some small clouds forming which may make their way into the box soon. Nick Onn has just flown and he put together a good sequence which looked clean from where we were watching. This is only Nick's fourth flight in the Sukhoi he is using, but his hundreds of hours experience on type served him well. We expect Tom and Gerald to fly in the next couple of hours, weather depending.

The atmosphere here is very good with a lot of banter between the teams. Its one of the things that makes this a great sport - very competitive when people are flying, but extremely friendly on the ground - not something that happens in many sports these days.

Saturday morning and good weather

2010-09-04T08:24:00.003+01:00

This morning is a lovely day at Touzim. Currently the only clouds in the sky are very high and the wind is light and variable. We had some rain overnight here, so we may see some cumulus develop as the temperature rises, but at 0925 it all looks good and the warm-up pilot is about to fly. If the weather stays within limits we expect Nick will fly at about 1045 and Gerald & Tom at about 1215. Given the very light wind the judges will be in the South position, with the main box axis being aligned with the runway. Forecast is for the wind to increase a bit during the afternoon from the North, making it an on-judge wind. I've just heard Nicolas Ivanoff take off to do the warm-up flight and low lines and the box looks clear of cloud. Nicolas stepped in to do the warm-up pilot job at short notice, because there were no other warm-up pilots available from the participating teams, so we are very grateful that he was prepared to do the job.

Update on Q Flights

2010-09-04T08:22:00.001+01:00

The weather remained flyable all afternoon, so we have completed 25 Q flights today, which is excellent for the first day given that we had poor weather this morning. Results are available at www.civa-results.com. From the flight line the pilots standing close to me thought that Alexander Krotov had a very good flight and he is leading the provisional results list.

Briefing in the morning is at 0800. The weather forecast is for cloud in the morning with a lunchtime start likely. Nick Onn should fly about an hour after we start tomorrow and Tom and Gerald will fly about an hour and a half later.

The German team provided beer, wine, cheese and meats for all the participants and organisers at the close of flying this evening so that people could relax, meet and chat, which was an excellent way to finish the day and very kind of the German team.

Let's hope that we get some more good weather so that we can complete the Q Programme tomorrow.

Q Programme Flights Start

2010-09-03T13:43:00.003+01:00

The cloudbase has lifted to around 850m, so we have had a warmup pilot flight and the first two competitive Q flights have been completed by 1445. We can fly until 1900 tonight. Each pilot is allowed 10 minutes flight time in the box, so in 4 hours it is theoretically possible to complete 24 flights and Nick has drawn flight 30 for the Q programme, so it looks like all of the British pilots will fly tomorrow. The weather is still cloudy here, but the base looks to be sufficiently high to allow sequences to be flown with a free break.

A few photos below - Castor Fantoba getting ready to fly the Q. Flags over the main club hangar. British Team in their smart gear, minus Eric who has to fly an Air France jet to Africa before he can come back to Czech to compete in the 4 minute free.

Clouds still being cloudy

2010-09-03T11:43:00.002+01:00

It is 1245 in Touzim and there are still clouds in the box at 600m, so still waiting for the cloud to rise another 200m. Fingers crossed that it will brighten-up this afternoon and we can start the Q programme. So there are a lot of pilots sitting around the airfield trying to work out how to fill their time while we wait. iPads and videos on laptops seem to be replacing iPods as the preferred entertainment. Hope I have some flying to report later!

Preparations under way for Q flights

2010-09-03T08:17:00.002+01:00

Its Friday morning at Touzim and the 0800 briefing is complete. The judging positions are now being set-up ready for the warm-up pilot to fly at 1000 if the weather is good enough - at the moment we have low scuddy cloud forming, probably due to the moisture in the ground all around the airfield. Touzim is a really nice airfield, all grass on a plateau which is about 2100 feet high. So its likely that we may have to wait a while for the sun to burn off the cloud. Current wind is around 6m/s from the North and the judges will sit at the Eastern judging position this morning. We have three possible judging positions - W, E and S. The runway runs east to west, so with the judges in the East pilots will be flying across the runway when they are on the main contest axis.

The warm-up pilot will go up at 1000 to assess the cloudbase and once its above the minimum we will start the Q flights.

The aeroclub at Touzim is a very welcoming, friendly place. The club house has been rebuilt over the last 15 years or so and it is warm and cosy, with a bar, sofas and internet. Everyone at the club is working hard to put the facilities in place that we need for the contest and its a very nice place to be.

So all we need now is some good weather and we can start flying.

Order of Flight for Q Programme

2010-09-02T20:04:00.002+01:00

The first briefing and opening ceremony are done and the pilots have drawn lots for order of flight for the Q programme. 53 pilots are competing from 13 countries. The British Team all drew high numbers (Nick 30, Tom 42, Gerald 43). Two of the Italian pilots drew flight numbers 1 and 2, so they have an early start in the morning. Nick may fly tomorrow late afternoon, depending on the weather, but its unlikely that Tom and Gerald will fly until Saturday. So lets hope for some good weather tomorrow so that we can make progress with the Q flights.

Practice Flights in Progress

2010-09-02T14:02:00.002+01:00

The runway has dried out sufficiently to allow flying to start today, so most pilots have flown at least once in the box. Gerald and Nick have flown twice and Tom once. The cloudbase was a bit low this morning so it was lots of rolls and rolling circles for practice. This afternoon we have a bit more space to work in and pilots can fly some vertical figures and parts of sequences. Briefing is at 1600 and the opening ceremony at the airfield (or in the town hall) depending on weather.

The forecast for the next few days is a bit more promising so fingers crossed that we can start the Q Programme tomorrow.

Practice Possible

2010-09-02T07:29:00.002+01:00

This morning the Contest Director has announced that the runway is usable and at 0800 the weather is reasonable, so we hope that not too much cloud cover builds-up when the temperature rises - there is a lot of moisture in the ground! But all we need are some gaps in the clouds and the pilots will be able to get some practice done. Feedback from some of the pilots who have flown in the box is that there are very few ground features to use as references for orientation, so its going to make stopping on heading tricky. The aim is to ensure that all of the competitors get at least one go in the box before the first briefing (1600 today). Some of the pilots (Russian Team, US, Spanish) have been here for between 5 and 8 days, but most pilots have had very few practice flights in the box because of weather and runway conditions.

Tom, Gerald and Nick should get practice flights between 1000 and 1100 today - Eric has had to leave to go to work flying for Air France and will return next week in time for the 4 Minute Free. Then we have the first briefing and opening ceremony this evening. Everyone at the hotel and airfield are very friendly and working hard to get everything ready so that we can start competition flights tomorrow.

No flying at contest site today

2010-09-01T14:21:00.002+01:00

The weather has not improved much here at Touzim. Low cloud and a still wet runway prevent any practice flights today at the contest site. Its been raining this afternoon, so it looks like it may take a while for the runway to dry out sufficient to let us use it for training. The airport is accepting arrivals but no other movements. The weather forecast suggests that we may see an improvement on Friday or more likely on Saturday. So we will see what happens... Time for more coffee.

Wednesday Morning Touzim

2010-09-01T09:05:00.002+01:00

The plan today was to start training flights at the competition site at 0800, with Tom first in the box, but the runway is still too wet to be used, so we are waiting until 1200 to see if its going to be possible to fly today. Its reasonably windy here today so we are hoping that is going to dry out the runway. So we are spending the morning getting all of the Free Programme paperwork finalised. Gerald is still training at an airfield in Germany, but will transit to Touzim as soon as training starts here.

EAC Touzim Arrivals

2010-08-31T20:53:00.004+01:00

Graham Hill and I arrived by car at Touzim today. Tom Cassells managed to get here a couple of days ago in his 232. Nick Onn initially set-out with Tom but had some problems with his Sukhoi 26 on route and landed in Holland. Despite valiant efforts to fix his aircraft with a lot of help from friendly locals, he had to leave his aeroplane in Holland and flew to Prague on a scheduled airline. Castor Fantoba who will be flying at the contest has very generously offered to let Nick fly his Sukhoi in the contest. This is the second time that the Spanish team have lent an aircraft to the British team to allow one of our pilots to compete at a Championships and we are very grateful for this very sporting gesture by Castor. Eric Vazeille has also arrived via Prague and is going to train the team over the next few days ahead of the Championships. Gerald Cooper decided to train at an airfield on-route in Germany because of bad weather at the contest site. He is a 45 minute flight away from Touzim and we expect him to arrive here early tomorrow morning.

There has been very little (if any) practice at the contest site so far, due to poor weather (wind, rain, low cloud) and the grass runway is a little wet/muddy, so the organisers are trying to minimise movements on it ahead of the contest. The weather forecast for tomorrow (Wed) is a bit better and it is hoped that the runway will have dried out overnight.

Touzim is a nice airfield is very nice and the local people are very friendly. We are staying in a hotel about 20 minutes drive from the airfield.

Tom is scheduled for a training slot at 0800 tomorrow morning and then we hope to get two training slots for each pilot (Tom, Gerald, Nick and Eric) tomorrow.

The first briefing and opening ceremony are scheduled for the 2nd September, so tomorrow is the last full practice day that has been scheduled - so I suspect its going to be busy at the airfield!

More news tomorrow.

Some photos of the airfield, hangars and clubroom are shown below.

Team Mazda UK prepares for European Aerobatic Championships

2010-08-26T19:28:00.001+01:00

Team Mazda UK pilots Tom Cassells, Gerald Cooper, Nick Onn and Eric Vazeille will ferry their aircraft to the competition site in the Czech Republic this weekend. They plan to spend five days training at the contest site ahead of the Championships which start on the 2nd September. Around 40 pilots will participate at the Championships in a battle to win the title of European Aerobatic Champion in both Classical and Freestyle disciplines. Steve Green (Team Manager) and Graham Hill (Member of the International Jury) will drive to the Czech Republic early next week in a Mazda support car, ferrying essential spares and luggage for the team.

More information about the EAC is available here.

Regular updates on the teams progress at the event will be posted on this blog.

We wish all of the team pilots a safe and successful Championships.

Team Mazda UK win medal at World Advanced Aerobatic Championships 2010

2010-08-26T19:07:00.002+01:00

Team Mazda UK pilots competed in Poland this month at the World Advanced Aerobatic Championships and Alan Cassidy won a Silver Medal in the Qualifying Programme flying a single seat Pitts Special. The team just missed out on a bronze medal, coming fourth out of 12 teams competing at the Championships, with France winning gold, South Africa silver and Russia bronze. Nick Wakefield was the highest ranked British pilot securing 16th place out of 82 competitors and was also the highest ranked pilot flying a biplane. Congratulations to all of the Team Mazda UK pilots for an excellent performance.

Great Britain Aims for European and World Gold

2010-06-18T08:37:00.002+01:00

2010 is a year when Great Britain could produce a World and European Champion in the sport of aerobatics for the first time ever when teams selected by the British Aerobatic Association compete in the European and World Advanced Aerobatic Championships this summer.

The teams to represent Great Britain at the European and World Advanced Aerobatic Championships have been selected following a rigorous process based on competition performance during 2009 and 2010 and are now training in preparation for championship glory.

The European championships are to be held in the Czech Republic in September and the Unlimited Team is Tom Cassells, British Champion Gerald Cooper, Nick Onn, Richard Pickin and ex-World Champion Eric Vazeille.

The Championships run from the 2^nd until the 12^th September and attract teams from across Europe, including the French World Champions. However, the British team starts as one of the favourites for medal honours and with two months to go the team is undergoing an intense period of training.

The British advanced team will be competing for the World Championship title in Poland in August. At the last WAAC in 2008 the British team took the bronze medal in the USA, narrowly missing the silver.

The British Advanced Team is British Advanced Champion Alan Cassidy MBE, Chairman of the BAeA, Marco Kalweit, Nick Richards, Cas Smith, Paul Tomlinson and Nick Wakefield.

The World Advanced Aerobatic Championships run from the 5^th of August until the 15^th in Radom, Poland. Both teams can be seen at various UK competitions in the run up to the championships, including the British National Championships at Sywell, near Northampton, on the 15^th – 18^th July.

Competing on the global stage requires not only exceptional flying skills, but also huge personal dedication by each pilot, including significant commitment of personal time, money and energy to mastering the sport.

“Aerobatics is not just about making shapes in the sky,” commented Nick Buckenham, the British Aerobatic Association’s Head of Contests. “It is about intellectual strength to make split second decisions in a stressful environment, it is about the physical demands of high G manoeuvring, it is about meticulous planning and execution of a sequence of figures that the pilot may have only seen for the first time a couple of hours before and then the ability to string together those figures in the correct order in a small cube of air without making any mistakes and on a World stage this is vitally important if you are to beat the best in the World.”

- Ends -

For further information please contact:

Graeme Fudge

info@aerobatics.org.uk

07702 666886

Team Mazda UK Pilots to Fly at Compton Abbas

2010-06-16T16:41:00.006+01:00

The Team Mazda UK Advanced Team will be competing in the British Aerobatic Association's contest to be held at Compton Abbas airfield between the 25th and 26th June 2010. Public entry to the event is free of charge, so come along and support the team.

Team Mazda UK Pilots Win at Duxford

2010-06-16T16:31:00.005+01:00

Team Mazda UK was represented strongly at the British Aerobatic Association's contest at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, with five Advanced Team and three Unlimited Team pilots competing. Gerald Cooper won the Unlimited Contest and the Freestyle event. Alan Cassidy won the Duxford Trophy flying in the Advanced Category. Duxford is a magnificent venue and provided the teams with excellent preparation ahead of the international Championships. A more detailed report of the contest is available on the BAeA website.

Team Mazda UK Pilots to Fly at Duxford

2010-05-16T15:20:00.008+01:00

Team Mazda UK Pilots will fly at the Duxford Imperial War Museum at a British Aerobatic Association contest scheduled for the 12th and 13th of June.

More information about the event is provided on the BAeA website. Visitors are welcome to come and watch the pilots fly at Duxford. Public entry to the event is included with the usual IWM ticket.

Team Mazda UK WAAC 2010 Pilots Selected

2010-05-16T15:08:00.006+01:00

The British Aerobatic Association has selected seven pilots for Team Mazda UK to compete at WAAC 2010: Alan Cassidy, Garry Ferriman, Marco Kalweit, Nick Richards, Cas Smith, Paul Tomlinson and Nick Wakefield. They will be supported by Angela Cassidy as Team Manager.

Team Mazda UK is supported by Mazda UK, the British Aerobatic Foundation and the British Aerobatic Association, all of whom provide financial and logistical support to the team, for which the team members are very grateful.

This blog will provide progress reports on team preparations for WAAC and their performance at the Championships.

Team Mazda UK EAC 2010 Pilots Selected

2010-05-15T18:55:00.001+01:00

The British Aerobatic Association has selected five pilots to represent Great Britain at the European Aerobatic Championships (EAC) being held at Touzim in September 2010: Tom Cassells, Gerald Cooper, Nick Onn, Richard Pickin and Eric Vazeille. The team plans to train in the UK and the Czech Republic ahead of the Championships, as well as competing at domestic contests to be held at Duxford and Sywell in the coming months.

This blog will provide progress reports on the teams preparations for EAC and updates on their performance at the contest.