News aggregator

Susan Dixon offers a round-up of the parachuting events of the FAI World Air Games 2009 on the homepage of the FAI Parachuting Commission.

read more

The process of recruiting a new FAI Secretary General for the beginning of 2010 is now under way.

read more

The weather Gods looked kindly upon us for the spectacular final day of the helicopter events. There was great tension among the local crowd who had come to watch; would the Italian crew maintain its position in the midst of the more highly experienced and medal-winning Russian crews? In short, yes; the Italians were able to celebrate great success and managed to secure themselves a podium place.

read more

At last the Paramotor pilots have their gold medal winner of the World Air Games: Michel Rouanet from France, who overcame the Canadian Laurent Salinas in a nail-biting final.

read more

It’s really hotting up in Avigliana, and not only because of the weather! Thanks to superb organisation of logistics, the Paragliding Accuracy competition completed two rounds on Friday, bringing it back on schedule for a final, sixth round on Saturday.

read more

The citizens of Turin and participants in other airsports at the World Air Games are being treated to an unrivalled spectacle in the indoor arena at Palaruffini. The aeromodelling commission of the FAI (CIAM) has developed a set of rules to promote the very exciting and affordable sport of building and flying indoor model aircraft.

read more

We are in the last day of the ballooning competition of the World Air Games 2009. It has been a very exciting week with another exciting day today to finish the Championship.

read more

For the first time in the World Air Games, spectators are able to follow the Glider racing and Ballooning action live and in real time. Using a system of satellite trackers linked to the Iridium satellite network, coupled to a series of computers in both Mondovi (Ballooning) and Turin (Gliding), spectators can follow every tactical decision made by the pilots during the race.

read more

After two attempts to get the paramotor competitions under way, both of which were thwarted by strong winds, the 22 pilots here at the Games were able to complete the first task.

read more

The Third Gliding Grand Prix Race was held today from Turin with a task length of 137.9Km. The task took the pilots north east from the start along the western edge of the Susa Valley around a northern turn point at Lagola ( Lake Alice) and then back past the start line 53Km to Condove. From Condove competitors turned north again for a further 24Km to Bolangera and then a short 18.2Km to the finish.

read more

Firstly, a few words about the qualification round; this was flown on Tuesday. In the early morning hours the thermals were not very strong and therefore the longest flight in the first group was only 201 seconds. The second group had better conditions and two pilots were able to fly for a full five minutes.

read more

The second Gliding Grand Prix Race was held today in Turin with a task of 226.6Km. The task took the pilots north east from the start along the western edge of the Susa Valley around a northern turn point at Trausella and then back past the start line to a midpoint called Pinerolo. From Pinerolo the task took the competitors south a further 46 Km to the southernmost turn point at Dronero where the pilots then turned north again back to Pinerolo with a final dog leg of 13.5Km to the finish at Maritani.

read more

The Hot Air Balloon competition continued on day 4 with a very challenging 5 task competition flight. David Levin, the competition director called 1 Fly-In, 2 Judge Declared Goals, 1 Hesitation Waltz and One Greatest Angle.

read more

Day four (Wednesday) saw the next qualifying round of the Helicopter Parallel Fender Rigging and Slalom tasks. The teams pulled out all the stops in extremely exciting races in order to achieve the best result, because every team realised that today was ‘knock-out’ day where four of the remaining eight teams would be eliminated.

read more

Parachuting had an excellent day on Tuesday in spite of a poor weather forecast. Competitors were able to do an extra round of accuracy which enabled them to partly make up for the two rounds that were cancelled on Monday evening because of rain.

read more

The first World Air Games event came to a close today in the blink of an eye with the Microlight Pylon event final. The winners were the British team of Rob Grimwood and Chris Saysell who flew the three circuits of the 1200m course in a time of 3 minutes 30.6 seconds.

The second British team had to settle for second place but were only one tenth of a second behind. The semifinal was held shortly before the final round with the Italian team of Rossi Soavi/Vanzini gaining the bronze medal in a time of 3:53.3 min and Carra/Rossa coming fourth in 4:47.2 min.

read more

The qualifying rounds in Helicopter Parallel Fender and Parallel Slalom took place yesterday and today in which the crews sought to provide great entertainment in what was a very attractive event for spectators.

read more

Conditions were perfect today for the second round of the Microlight Pylon race. After an unsure start, the weather improved to offer no rain and a gentle breeze; this was coupled with slick organisation from the Italian administrators. The excitement built up quickly as the spectators could see the pilots’ race times improving.

read more

The first Gliding Grand Prix Race was held on Sunday from Turin with a task of 178.3KM. This took the pilots South from the airfield along the western edge of the Susa Valley allowing the pilots to choose to stay over the hills and mountains or use the valley floor.

read more

The microlight 'trike' competition got underway on the second day of the Games. The first round would see the relegation of the three slowest crews, though the Hungarian team (Matuska/Török) were unable to make the start line because of engine problems. During the contest the teams from Russia (Bushev/Astafiev) and Poland (Jurkiewicz/Jurkiewicz) posted the slowest times and therefore do not qualify for the next round.

read more