Russian Team in front at the World Helicopter Championships

Successful precision hover flying in heavy wind conditions

EC120 Hover ParcoursThe first competition, called precision hover flying, took place yesterday at Eisenach-Kindel airfield in Germany as the first part of the 13th World Helicopter Championships. It was a successful competition in heavy wind conditions.

The first part was delayed about 30 minutes due to gusty winds. The fight started at about 11:00am with take off of the first helicopter. 43 crews have been scheduled to start there helicopter in a time leg of 6 minutes between each other in order to fly the machine in an exactly height through the hovering square. One part of the precision flying was to do a 360 degree turn for two times and a precision landing.

The preliminary result after this first part shows the Russian team with pilot Viktor Korotaev and his co-pilot Nikolay Burov as the leader with 292.0 points, followed by the winner of the Open German Championships 2007 piloted by Holger Hoven and his co-pilot Michael Schauff with 291.6 points. With 283.9 points, the Russian pilot Vladimir Zyablikov and his co-pilot Vladimir Gladchenko earned the third place.

The best women team is also from Russia, the best junior team (less than 250 flight hours) is pilot Bettina Schleidt with her co-pilot Gisela Freund from Germany.
Due to expected bad weather conditions on Friday with low visibility, the chief judges have changed the competition days Friday and Saturday. The navigation event will now start on Saturday morning. The Slalom event is scheduled for Friday, beginning at 11:00 am.