The 15th FAI World Helicopter Championship started on Thursday in Zielona Gora, Poland. In the first event of the competition, the navigation, Russians pilots took the first six places. In the overall standings of the Championship the Viktor Korotaev/Vladimir Ziablikov crew top the ranking with a score of 299,7 points. The best result from a Polish team was achieved by Maciej Wegrzecki and Jakub Malec. With a score of 272,0 points they are at the 12th position.

The world's best helicopter pilots will compete in three disciplines: Parallel Precision, Fender Rigging (Friday) and Parallel Slalom (Saturday). For the final classification of the Championship the total score of all four events will be counted.

In addition to the best Poles Węgrzecki and Malec, the three other Polish crews have achieved the following results: brothers Marcin and Michal Szamborski - 17th place with 260,5 points; Jędrzej Wiler with Jacek Ciszewski - 26th place with 205,5 points; Marysia Mus and Magdalena Woch - 32th place with 115,5 points.

Thomas Morgenstern, which participate in the Championship for Austrian, has an interesting story. He ended last year a wonderful career as a ski jumper. Although "Morgi" does not yet achieve spectacular success, as helicopter is a new sport to him, he is doing better and better. After Thursday's competition, his crew were placed at the 22th position. 

49 double crews from all over the world are attending the Championships. Teams come from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and China and Macau S.A.R.

More information can be found on the official website of the competition: www.whc2015.pl

(Photo credit: StanislawMalinowski.com)