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The AGM will be held
at the Toy Store hangar at Rand Airport on the 18 September 2010 after the Summer
Contest in Vereeniging. It is scheduled for 16h30 and will be
followed by a party celebrating Team SA's success in Poland.
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Just
before AWAC, Bertus du Preez and Johnie Smith took part in the
Nordic Championships in Sweden. Unfortunately they were unable to
complete the contest, as they needed to get to Poland, but they did
both complete the Q Programme and the Free programme. Their results
after these 2 rounds are as follows:
Q
Prog - Johnie Smith 1st, Bertus du Preez4th Free Prog - Bertus du
Preez 2nd, Johnie Smith 6th
Overall result after both programmes - Bertus du Preez 2nd and
Johnie Smith 5th Well done to both our boys, for fantastic results!
We really DO have world class pilots!
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Nigel Hopkins and
Larry Beamish competed in the Grand Aero Challenge held in Hungary
on 1st and 2nd July 2010. The contest format included three
disciplines; freestyle aerobatics, balloon chase and synchronised
aerobatics. Flying against seven other international competitors,
Nigel finished joint first with Zoltan Veres (HUN) and Larry third.
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Patrick Davidson is the
2010 National Champion after winning the Advanced class by the
narrowest of margins, beating Nigel Hopkins and Bertus Du Preez. See
Results page for detailed results in all the classes.
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.
CIVA JUDGES FOR 2010
- John
Gaillard will officiate at AWAC 2010 in Poland as Chief Judge. He will
also judge at the Glider WAC in Finland.
- Quintin Hawthorne
will judge at AWAC 2010, assisted by Laszlo Liszkay.
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
The CIVA conference was held
in Oshkosh in October 2009, where a number of proposals were
decided on. All the proposals are published on the CIVA website, and you
are encouraged to view these and make comments to the SA delegate to
CIVA, John Gaillard.
CIVA
Proposals
More CIVA news for their website
www.fai.org/aerobatics.
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AWAC 2010
Having recently arrived
back from Poland, Nigel is under huge pressure, so I have undertaken to
send out the latest newsletter on his behalf. By now I am sure you are
all aware of our huge success at AWAC!
It has been great to see
that the Sport Aerobatic Club has been in a state of tremendous growth,
and we engaged on a project 2 years ago to send a full strength,
properly trained and prepared team to the 9th Advanced World
Aerobatic Champs in Poland. We received a generous sponsorship to cover
the Entry fees from Suzuki Auto South Africa, and great support from the
African Outdoor Group. The squad of 12 Pilots embarked on numerous
training camps, at great personal expense, along with volunteer coaches
and support. It was made very clear from the outset that only pilots
that were deemed to be up to International Standard to compete at AWAC
would be selected to the final team. At the National Championships a
final team of 8 Pilots were chosen along with a team manager and
assistant manager.
The selection committee
was encouraged by the level all the Pilots had risen to over the 2 year
period, and declared all Pilots ready to compete on the International
stage. This has been a huge and successful project by the SAC committee
and its members.
The Team Pilots
consisted of:
Patrick Davidson
Mark Hensman
Nigel Hopkins
Mark Sampson
Barrie Eeles
Bertus Du Preez
Johnie Smith
Charles Urban
Team Manager:
Annie Boon
Assistant Manager:
Harry De Villiers
AWAC 2010 was the largest event ever, with
84 Pilots and 23 countries participating. The contest consists of four
programs/sequences. The Known Sequence, Free Sequence, Unknown Free
Sequence, Unknown Compulsory Sequence. Individual Medals are awarded for
each sequence as well as Individual overall positions. There is also an
overall team prize where the top 3 Pilots from each country’s scores
count towards the team placing. There was great excitement when S.A
Pilot Nigel Hopkins won the first two sequences. This put the S.A team
in a strong position from the outset. S.A Pilots Davidson, Hopkins and
Hensman finished 5th, 6th and 7th in
the Unknown Free Program and Nigel Hopkins 3rd in the Unknown
Compulsory. The final standings saw individual honors for Nigel Hopkins
in 2nd overall, winning 5 medals in total, 2 gold, 2 silver
and 1 bronze and Mark Hensman in 6th overall. Team South
Africa finished 2nd in the team category, with Nigel 2nd,
Mark 6th and Mark Sampson 11th, along with Team
Manager Annie Boon being awarded the team Silver medal. What is
important to note is that Patrick Davidson finished in 12th
place and his scores would have been good enough for a team medal too.
It has never happened that so many S.A Pilots have finished in the top
12! Also 6 of the 8 Pilots had a top 10 finish for a sequence, an
astonishing result! All the pilots flew extremely well and we are very
proud of the team’s achievements. We were also represented on the
judging line by John Gaillard (Chief Judge), Quintin Hawthorne and
Laszlo Liszkay. Furthermore we received numerous accolades from all the
countries about the fantastic team spirit and camaraderie. A tribute to
the hard work we have all put in. The SAC committee is overjoyed with
the success and will start with the next campaign to develop more pilots
and to make our sport grow even stronger.
Individual Results, S.A Pilots:
Known Sequence:
1st Nigel
Hopkins
6th Mark
Hensman
10th Bertus
Du Preez
Free Sequence:
1st Nigel
Hopkins
7th Mark
Hensman
10th Barrie
Eeles
Unknown Free Sequence:
5th Patrick
Davidson
6th Nigel
Hopkins
7th Mark
Hensman
Unknown Compulsory
Sequence:
3rd Nigel
Hopkins
7th Mark
Sampson
Overall:
2nd Nigel
Hopkins
6th Mark
Hensman
11th Mark
Sampson
12th Patrick
Davidson
28th Barrie
Eeles
42nd Charles
Urban
46th Bertus
Du Preez
68th Johnie
Smith
Team Results:
1st France
2nd South
Africa
3rd Russia
4th Great
Britain
5th USA
It has been an
incredible journey, with stunning results! On behalf of the SAC and the
aerobatic community, I would like to once again congratulate the pilots
for a great achievement!
SUMMER CONTEST & AGM
Next up is our Summer contest, to be held
on 18th September in Vereeniging. There are a lot of surprises in store
for this day, and an email in connection with this will follow shortly.
Hope to see as many of
you as possible there!
Chat soon,
Annie
2010 Nationals Championships, Ladysmith
From Nigel Hopkins
It is hard to believe that the 2010 South African National Aerobatic
Championships have come and gone. It has taken me a week to recover from
the stresses, strains, fun and excitement of another successful event.
Once again there were many contributing factors but it is the unselfish
commitment of our members that made for a superb week of aerobatics.
The flying started early with the AWAC squad members hard at training,
vying for the precious 8 team positions. It was inspiring to see the
commitment and skill level of all the advanced pilots during the
training camp. A special thanks to Stu Davidson for giving his time and
money to coaching 6 of the squad members and later many of the other
pilots as they charged into the box for some coaching. If we can’t do a
¾ vertical roll by now, we never will! Also thanks to Valentina Drokina
for coaching the remainder of the squad. The biggest words of thanks go
to the organizers of the event. In most part the entire committee was
involved but I need to single out a few people that put in the extra
effort. Firstly Kevin Woolacott who did all the hard work of arranging
the venue and the dealings with the Ladysmith flying club to get all the
logistics arranged. Two big jobs were the box markers and fuel. Thanks
Kevin for your many hours spent on the road, the phone and in meetings
to get this all arranged. Many Pilots and Judges also felt the wrath of
Kevin that we Airshow Pilots know too well. You certainly kept another
precision time schedule. Well done Kev we now have the ultimate Contest
Director! With regards to Fuel we are forever indebted to Johnnie Smith
for allowing us to deplete his stock of fuel and to all the drivers in
Johnnie’s wife Teria, My Dad, Derek, Ian Billing, Stan Oliver and
Charles Urban. To the Harvard Club, Johnnie and Arnie Menegellie for the
use of your fuel Bowsers. To Annie Boon for many hours helping Kevin,
the accommodation logistics and arranging a wonderfully entertaining
awards dinner, as well as a super job managing the AWAC training camp.
To Quintin for handling the finance issues and the scoring software
issues all the while managing to spend your days on the judging line. To
our ever efficient Kathy for all your hard work behind the computer.
It’s amazing that you can get the scores to the pilots before they even
climb out of the plane! If there is one chap that deserves a round of
applause it is young Richard Woolacott. He ran continuously between the
line and the scoring table and spent each morning and evening helping
with fuel and pushing planes. Dare I say we have another Woolacott
precision time manager in the making! To all our Judges and volunteers
for putting in another huge effort out in the sun. Losing a day to
weather really made you all work extra hard. A special thanks to Helm
for the humorous awards presentation. On the organization front a big
Thanks to the Ladysmith flying club for your assistance, the venue is
ideal for aerobatics. All we need are some features on the horizon so
get building for next time! To the media, Athol Franz and Frans Dely. To
you and your teams for your continued support of Sport Aerobatics. To
the Ladysmith motel for the food and hospitality and also to
Cornell and
Leonie who supplied the pastries at the Nationals, as a donation to the
SAC, his father and mother supplied the soup. They own the Wimpy and a
bakery and his mom and dad the Engen Garage in Ladysmith.
To all the Pilots for
making a huge effort to participate and for flying safely. This was one
of the closest contests in a long time with all the classes being
decided by less than 0.5%. Congratulations to our National Champion
Patrick Davidson and to all the Pilots on your results. The best is
saved for last. To our sponsors AOG! What more can I say except a huge
thank you for your continued support in hosting us in your magnificent
Gig Rig, for sponsoring the entry fees for each Pilot, sponsoring the
judges expenses and the awards dinner and to you together with Suzuki
for sponsoring R1000 per pilot for fuel! |
