Golden Broom sweeps Team GB to medal swoop
KAWA AND NORWEGIAN PAIR IMPRESS AS 2015 FAI WAG ENTERS FINAL STRETCH
Teams from Europe continued their dominance as the 2015 FAI World Air Games (WAG) approached the final stretch at various drop zones in Dubai.
Leading the lot was Team GB as they scooped the top four places in the Weight-Shift Controlled Microlighting event with David Broom helping himself to the gold medal. Broom was followed by countrymen Paul Dewhurst and Rees Keene in second and third, respectively, while Mark Fowler fell just short of the podium and Spain’s Manuel Rey came in fifth.
In fact, it was the French team that had been heavily favoured to win as their aircraft was tuned for shorter take-offs. But a couple of mistakes did not help as the French dropped valuable points, and an engine-out in one of their planes meant it landed in the surf and had to be retired. The course was tightened for the final race, forcing the pilots to fly their crafts right to the edge of their capabilities and this eventually led the British quartet to take the top four spots in the competition.
Meanwhile, Polish multiple world champion Sebastian Kawa claimed the gold medal in the Glider Match Racing category after a thrilling finale against Werner Amann of Austria. Tilo Holighaus took the bronze medal.
Another three gold medals were decided in the General Aviation disciplines of Landing Accuracy, Air Navigation and Top Air Navigation. In these disciplines, the scores of the two other events are combined for a cumulative total to decide the best three.
Leading from the front was the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Cally Eckard from South Africa as they took home the gold in the Landing Accuracy, while the Air Navigation gold was won by the Norwegian duo of Kurt Norevik and Petter Strømme and the overall Top Air Navigation honours went to a second couple, Germans Marcus and Astrid Ciesielski.
Commendable feat
The Norwegians’ feat in winning the Air Navigation Race was a commendable one considering that this is a new race that is designed to test piloting skills. The race that attracted a total of 14 teams was held at the desert drop zone and Norevik and his navigator Stromme flew their way along an unmarked corridor in the desert using only a compass, a stop watch and their own eyes in the Air Navigation Race. The final task required the pilots to fly maintaining an average speed of 80 knots along a zigzag flight corridor marked on their paper maps and without using a GPS to find their location.