INTERNATIONAL aerobatic SHOW Emirates Al Ain, held this year from 23 to JANUARY 27, was a major and successful their previous releases, as the next event the importance of public patronize HIMSELF Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces His Highness SHEIKH MUHAMMED BIN ZAED AL NAKHAYAN.
This year, the show was attended by over 110 different aircraft, including the Blerio XI airplane built in 1910. Competitions were held in two categories - among aerobatic teams and in singles. Traditionally spectacular was the block of the show, with smoke, explosions, amazing stunts and complex aerobatics.
Although this time our famous Swifts didn’t soar into the sky above the airport of the emirate garden city, last time they conquered everyone with stunts on the MiG-29, and the Russian delegation was not as large as last year, our famous pilot Svetlana Kapanina once again surprised everyone with her skill.
Ah, Sveta, Sveta, Svetlana ...
The program of aerobatics in singles included aerobatic races with the implementation of mandatory classical aerobatics and an arbitrary aerobatic freestyle, allowing the pilot to demonstrate not only skill but also artistry.
The goal of the pilot is to show the shortest time by the sum of the competitive days. For incorrect or incomplete maneuvers, the pilot is awarded penalty points. The time is counted from the moment the aircraft crosses the line of special "gates" located directly in front of the audience. The jury evaluates the performances according to the speed of passing the initial stage and the number of points received for freestyle.
It is simply impossible to stop singing praises to Svetlana Kapanina: we did this last year, and we will do it now. Not because she is ours, but because she is our pride in world air sports. And it doesn’t matter that this time Svetlana was not able to confirm her last year Al-Ain champion title in singles, taking second place. She was and remains the most titled woman pilot in the world, multiple absolute champion of the world, Europe and Russia, the owner of several dozen titles, and just an amazing, strong-willed man. It doesn’t fit my head how this beautiful, fragile woman with perky curls can masterfully control a powerful winged machine, stoically overcoming 10-fold overloads.
This year, our Svetlana once again had to compete with the best world pilots from eight countries. But the real struggle unfolded precisely between our aviator and Spaniard Ramon Alonso.
In the qualifying round, Svetlana was not equal: she earned 102.73 points. Ramon Alonso finished second with 110.44 points. On the first day of competition, the Spaniard, working as a commercial pilot for Iberian Airlines, managed to improve his score by 22 points, earning a total of amazingly little - only 88.73 points. Svetlana made a mistake and received a penalty from the judges in 20 seconds, taking only second place with 86.43 points. And although on the second day of the competition she was the best with 94.5 points, they were not enough to beat Alonso in the overall standings. The Spaniard won with a small advantage and took away to his native Madrid the champion title and a prize check for 50 thousand dollars. Third place went to the Frenchwoman Katel Boulanger.
To the credit of our aviation, it should be noted that all Al-Ain prize-winners performed on Su-26 and Su-31 sports planes, while Vitas Lapenas, a former member of the USSR national team, has been training the Spanish champion for many years.
Svetlana, the girl is not a weak dozen and is not afraid of defeat. She is only afraid of spiders. And we do not even doubt that next year it will again become the best.
Alone in the sky - not a group
In some sense, aerobatic groups have more difficulties than solo groups: when performing complex maneuvers, it is necessary to strictly observe the synchronism of movement. The performances of the groups always cause a lot of enthusiasm among the audience: the skill, multiplied by the power of several winged cars, is simply mesmerizing. And each of them is unique. And each group strives to introduce an element of the show into its performance, which sometimes overshadows the titanic efforts for its technical performance.
This year, eternal favorites again appeared in Al Ain - the Saudi Hawks and the Royal Jordanian Falcons. Both groups showed new programs, painting into the al-Ain sky along and across the "tails" of colorful smoke.
Each pilot of the Saudi Hawks group, created in 1999, has a working name - the Arabic equivalent of words like speed, power, and courage. Despite the fact that the Saudis again repeated the elements of their last year’s performance, drawing the emblem of their native kingdom in the sky - a palm tree and two swords crossing it under the crown, their program was one of the best.
Not without new arrivals. Debutants of the championship - the aerobatic team from South Africa fully corresponded to its name "The Wizards". She showed a series of maneuvers, in a combination of two different types of aircraft - the Pitts Special S2B of the 1960s and the Extra ES 300 of the late 1990s. The “highlight of the program” for South Africans was a group jump with two parachutists turning over, which no one else is performing in the world.
But, who certainly managed to tickle the nerves of an honest public, is Team Guinot from the UK. During her performance, the stands fell silent. Out of fear. Two Boing Stearman biplanes of the 1940s model showed aerobatics, while two gymnasts performed acrobatic stunts on their upper wings. And this despite the fact that the high-speed air pressure was more than 200 km / h (!). For the first time, they began to perform risky air stunts for public display in the early 20s of the last century, in the "golden age of aviation". The shows were very profitable and
"Wingwalkers" ("walkers on the wings") traveled on tour throughout the American continent. Their inhuman courage was also noted by Hollywood, where in 1975 the film "The Great Waldo Pepper" was born with Robert Redford in the title role. Team Guinot carefully preserves the traditions of desperate air gymnastics, striking and making the hearts of the audience beat at a faster pace for the short minutes of the show, ensuring a triumphant return to the emirate sky.
Another welcome guest was the Bleriot XI airplane, created back in 1910, which again found itself close to the Middle East, after 96 long years. His older brother the year before, on July 25, 1909, marked the beginning of practical aviation when the Frenchman Louis Bleriot flew between France and England, having flown across the English Channel for the first time in 36.5 minutes on his airplane. The instance, which appeared in Al Ain, first took to the wing in 1912 in Libya, and it was on it that the first aerobatics in the history of aviation was produced.
As in previous years, the Al-Ain International Aerobatic Show pleased both spectators and athletes, more than paying for their watches on the way to the emirate garden city. And next year we expect even more, because there is something to wait for a whole year.
