Congratulations to the French Aerobatic team on wheeling and tumbling their way to victory in both the team event and three of the other four programmes at the FAI World Aerobatic Championships, which took place from 22 to 31 August.

French pilot, Louis Vanel won the Mixed and Men’s events, with star female pilot Aude Lemordant – also on the French team – taking first place in the Women’s competition.

In the Freestyle programme, Robert Holland (USA) once again climbed to the top of the podium to continue his years-long run as FAI World Champion in that category.

President of the FAI Aerobatic Commission (CIVA) Nick Buckenham was there to witness his winning performance. “Rob is an extraordinarily good pilot who knows just how to make the best use of his plane,” he said.

Held at the Châteauroux-Déols airport in central France, this 30^th FAI “WAC” involved some 18 teams from countries including Australia, Switzerland, Russia, and the USA.

Split into five categories – Team, Men, Women, Mixed, and Freestyle – the event was blessed with dry and mostly very hot conditions, and attracted tens of thousands of spectators.

“This year’s event has been a huge affair involving more than 240 individual performances,” Nick said. “Sports aviation has a strong presence in France and the competition attracted spectators from a wide area, so it’s great to see the French team putting in such a fantastic performance.” 

Local organisers the Fédération Française Aéronautique (FFA) and Châteauroux Métropole also put on a spectacular entertainment programme, highlights of which included demonstrations of other air sports, test flights and, on the final day, an air show including a wing-walking display and a superb performance by the Patrouille de France national aerobatic team.