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  Nigel Hopkins took second place overall in the Aero GP event at the Al Ain Aerobatic Contest held from 27 - 30 January 2010 in the UAE. Zoltan Veres won the event, with Nigel second ahead of Castor Fantoba, Gerald Cooper, Andy Bickmore and Smokey Young. See full results at www.alainaerobaticshow.com.

• Newsletter 25 Feb 2010

• Newsletter 16 Feb 2010

• Newsletter 6 Jan 2010

• Newsletter 12 Oct 2009

• Newsletter 28 Sept 2009

• Newsletter 7 Sept 2009

• Newsletter 10 July 2009

• Newsletter 29 June 2009

• Newsletter 20 May 2009

• Newsletter 09 April 2009

• Newsletter 16 March2009

•   Newsletter 5 March 2009

•   Newsletter 26 Feb 2009

•   Newsletter 4 Jan 2009

CIVA CONFERENCE NEWS

 - AWAC 2010 to be held in Radom, Poland 5 - 15 August 2010.

 - World Intermediate Champs not approved.

 - Aircraft restrictions to be removed for Advanced class from 1 January 2011

CIVA Conference 2009

An International flavour to the Gauteng Regionals!

Well the first contest of the year has come and gone and it is great to see the enthusiasm within the Aerobatic community. Once again the number of entries was right up there with record numbers for a Regional contest! A great job was done by the Contest Directors Warren and Alan (and Annie) and all the Volunteers, Judges and Sponsors. It was also very good to see the support from out of town. Will Allan flew in from the USA to fly Intermediate and his wife Linda joined in as a Judge, Etienne Verhellen from Belgium flew in the Intermediate class, and Valentina Drokina from Russia helped with some coaching and then added a critical eye as a Judge. Also thanks to Patrick Davidson for making it up from P.E and putting in another excellent performance. Congrats on winning the Contest! It was also great to see some of the “stalwarts” performing so well. Mike Beresford won gold in the Sportsman Class and also Mark Shepherd back in the saddle and winning Intermediate. A special mention of our two “new comers” Todd Montgomerie and Paul Lessing! Great to have you guys back! Some other noteworthy performances came from Craig Pearce in the Decathlon and Charles Urban’s performance in the Advanced free.

"Sport Aerobatics" Magazine Article

During the Nationals in Oudtshoorn we had a visitor from the States along with Alan Fergus. He wrote a fantastic article on his experience flying here and of his thoughts on the state of Aerobatics in South Africa. Here is an excerpt from that article, a feather in the cap for our Members, Committee and Sport. Well done to you all.

"Flying there is a freedom, but of course it isn’t free. Aero clubs are the Norm as they are in most countries I have visited, helping to spread out the expenses all they can. I saw plenty of people out flying, some in homebuilts like RV-7’S and -8’S, some in Citabria’s and of course the usual stock. It is about like it is here, accessible, but more to those that earn a good wage or those willing to sacrifice to afford it. This makes aerobatics a small part of the big picture, and participation in Aerobatic Clubs and Contests a bit thin. Sound familiar? The focus organization for Aerobatics in S.A is the Sport Aerobatic Club. These guys are no ‘Sluffs”. The Club sends a team to compete in the Advanced World Aerobatic Championships(AWAC) and is home to Chief International Judge John Gaillard. The club organizes annual contests and has a great system of classes. A beginner starts in the basic class and cannot advanced until earning at least 75% score. There is a sportsman class to go to next and of course, Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited. So you can see it is about the same as here, but after that it starts to differ a bit. These South Africans decided they were leaving a whole bunch of Pilots and Aircraft out of the loop by sticking to the standard rules. These guys scooped up a whole new group by simply designing a separate RV class. That’s Right! They write a routine appropriate for the RV pilots/aircraft and give them all a chance to compete in their own Arena. Not to stop at that, the Club also has a class called the Classic category. This is a class for non inverted system airplanes to compete with like equipment. Cubs, Citabrias, Stearmans and all kinds of homebuilts get a chance to go for a trophy without being scored down for flying a bit of an arc in their rolls! I am sure this concept isn’t new but what escapes me is why it isn’t huge here in the states. With more RV’s flying than Fire Ants in my yard, you would think a club like ours could double its size with an RV class. A classic class would round up, I don’t know how many Pilots/Airplanes that could be getting their first taste of our great sport.  Who could guess how many of those would move up to the more advanced categories. Flying just isn’t cheap, buying a dedicated aerobatic competition plane is unattainable for a great many of us. The truth is: I would be less than comfortable flying in any contest, even Primary, when my non-inverted system airplane has to go face to face with an Extra while we’re all being graded for perfect lines and symmetry. Getting my blood revved up to compete means I have a reasonable chance to go home with a trophy. A category that whittles the competition down to more even grounds sounds fun to me."

By Greg Koontz

Aerobatic Extravaganza and EAA Sun ‘n Fun

 Please note the change to our calendar. Due to logistical problems the EAA event planned for Tempe had to be moved to Klerksdorp. The flying club could not cater for two events in consecutive weekends so they approached us to move our contest so that the events could be held together. There has been some confusion regarding the date of the contest. The Extravaganza contest will be held on Sunday, 21^st March with practice slots in the afternoon on Saturday 20th. I think this will be a great way for us to showcase our sport, and excellent for our sponsors and members to mix with the EAA and G.A Pilots. Please support this weekend as it promises to be loads of flying fun! Cliff Lotter is trying to arrange hangarage for Saturday!

Gauteng Regionals, Vereeniging

From Contest Director Warren Haslam:

Welcome to 2010, I hope you all had a great new year and are rested for a great aerobatic season that lies ahead.

 Congratulations to Patrick Davidson for being the overall winner of the 2010 Gauteng Regional Championships held this past weekend at Vereeniging. With this being the 1^st contest of the year a phenomenal 24 competing pilots, including 2 international pilots from Belgium and USA respectively participated. Also on the Judging line we had 2 additional opinions coming from Russia and USA. To the Judges, thank you for scoring the day under the tremendous African heat, much appreciated.  

 I would like the say a big “thank you” to Annie and Kathy, you ladies Rock and Alan for helping turn this contest into a great success. I would also like to thank Harry for assisting as starter and controlling the airspace around Vereeniging.  Special thanks go to Craig from FTS who again assisted in providing the contest with Fuel for the day. To all competing Pilots – Thank you and well done!!!!

 A quick look at the results

 Overall Positions

 1^st Patrick Davidson

2^nd Nigel Hopkins

3^rd Mike Beresford

 Individual Winners

 Graduate - Todd Montgomerie

Sportsman – Mike Beresford

Intermediate – Mark Shepherd

Advanced – Patrick Davidson

 Safe flying!

Warren