The 10th FAI World Advanced Aerobatic Championships opened yesterday, the 26th of July, in Nyíregyháza, Hungary with an opening briefing by Contest Director Pavol Kavka (see left) and a formal ceremony at the town square in the city.

WAAC has become one of FAI’s most popular Aerobatic Championships and this year, 82 pilots are listed to compete though at the time of this writing, one German pilot appears to have withdrawn. There is also one “hors concours” pilot flying. Nineteen countries have entered pilots in the competition from the following countries:

Hungary, USA, Russian, Great Britain, Germany, Lithuania, France, South Africa, Ukraine, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, Romania, Austria, Japan, Czech Republic, Belarus, and Belgium.

Though bad weather delayed the flying, Programme Q (the Known compulsory) is now in full swing with resultsposted at CIVA’s results website, www.civa-results.com. The website is updated throughout the day.

A full board of ten judges is being employed to evaluate the flying with Chief Judge John Gaillard (South Africa) supervising their work. CIVA selects the best judges possible for its competitions using a rigorous selection process which takes into account past performance.

The competition will continue through Saturday, August 4th, with updates posted here.