Champions! Aerobatics success for Italy and France

Huge cheers went up at Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach Hotel last night (December 5), as the new FAI World Air Games aerobatics champions - France's Olivier Masurel and Italian gliding ace Luca Bertossio - received their gold medals.

The two pilots grinned in delight as they showed off their cherished new jewellery to the crowd.

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Glider aerobatics: Bertossio takes gold for Italy

"You're part of the aircraft, you feel it in your skin." Italian Luca Bertossio, 25, is talking about why he swapped motorised aerobatics for gliders after his win in the aerobatic gliding competition.

"With a motor you always have an excuse, but you don't need it. Two wings are all you need to fly in four dimensions. You have to get it right first time. Even your landing. You can't go around for a second try," he explained.

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An unforgettable start to the FAI World Air Games

The FAI World Air Games officially kicked off with a bang last night, as the 3,000-strong audience at the Opening Ceremony were wowed with an extravaganza of dancing, zip-line performances and fireworks.

Dropping in on the open-air stage, performers dressed as skydivers and paramotor pilots flew over the crowd suspended on wires, taking the astounded audience on a theatrical flight over glorious Dubai.

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Heat one of the Aerobatics contest kicks off the Airshow

The screaming roar of 330-horsepower Lycoming engines filled the skies above the Palm shorefront in Dubai today (December 2), as the first round of the Aerobatic competition got underway.

Eight so-called “unlimited pilots”, the creme de la creme of the aerobatics scene, have been selected from around the world to compete at the FAI World Air Games. Their planes, which cost around €400,000 each, were shipped here specially for the event, and their aerial battle could be seen and heard echoing all along the coast.

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Five minutes with Breitling pilot Aude Lemordant

If you're boarding an Air France Boeing 777 and there is a pretty, blond pilot called Aude Lemordant in the cockpit, you can relax in the knowledge that you're in safe hands.

The petite Frenchwoman is the reigning World Aerobatics Champion, and spends her spare time looping crazily around the sky and flying upside down for fun.

She is delighted to be here in Dubai to compete in the Aerobatics event, flying for official FAI sponsor Breitling.

"This is such a fantastic place to fly," she said. "Out in the desert all you can see is camels and sand dunes. And here at the Palm, you are flying amidst all these incredible buildings."

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Ready for take off

Good morning from Dubai, where the skies are clear and the temperature is warm – it’s a beautiful place to be in December.

Today, Tuesday December 1, 2015, we’ve got a whole host of athletes, competitors and pilots setting up and getting to grips with what is to come: two weeks of the best air sports event in the world. 

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Lift off for the 2015 World Air Games!

Excitement is mounting in Dubai, where the stars of the air sports world have touched down for the 2015 FAI World Air Games (WAG).

With 854 competitors from 55 countries competing in more than 20 different disciplines, this year’s WAG is set to be the best yet. "This is the biggest World Air Games ever," said Susanne Schödel, the secretary general of the World Air Sports Federation (FAI). "In the 110-year history of the FAI, it's the first time we have had an event like this."

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Air Sports Personalities Distinguished at the 2015 FAI Awards Ceremony

The 2015 FAI Awards Ceremony tonight celebrated the achievements of air sports men and women through the prestigious FAI Medals and Diploma, and the FAI-Breitling Awards. The event took place aboard the ship SS Rotterdam, docked in the harbour of her namesake city in The Netherlands, as part of the 109th FAI General Conference, which starts tomorrow.

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Enter the 2016 FAI Young Artists Contest and Show the World How Talented You Are!

Are you keen on painting or drawing? Have air sports always made you dream? Are you concerned about environmental issues? If so, then pick up your pens, pencils or brushes and enter the 2016 FAI Young Artists Contest. The aim is to create a picture that illustrates this years’ theme “Air Sports in Harmony with Nature”, and to show the world just how talented you are.

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France Holds On to its FAI Aerobatic World Championships Titles - Rob Holland Freestyle World Champion for the Third Consecutive Time

France takes home all gold medals at the 28th FAI World Aerobatics Championships: general rankings, team ranking, individual male and individual female.

After ten days of a particularly challenging competition French pilot Capitaine Alexandre Orlowski (France - left) is the new World Champion.

The French female pilot Aude Lemordant (left) also takes gold at the women’s competition. She finishes sixth in general rankings, just behind Orlowski, Mikhail Mamistov (Russia) Castor Fantoba (Spain), Gerald Cooper (Great Britain) and Capitaine François Rallet (France).

For the first time in the history of the FAI World Aerobatic Championships, Rob Holland from USA has won the Final Freestyle three times in a row (2011, 2013, 2015).

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