Swiss Akro Connection en Marche

In May, organizers and participants arrived at the CAS grounds in Chézard-St-Martin. After coffee and croissants and the usual greetings, the pilots set up their models. The competition was held in two categories: Rookie and Regio.

Six pilots competed in the Rookie category; the youngest was Gabriel Brun. Our club fielded five pilots: Justin Crevoiserat and Jérôme Richard in the Rookie category, and Michel Guye, Samuel Rouiller, and the club’s rising star, young Timéo Richard, in the Regio category. The judges didn’t have an easy task, as the differences in performance were often barely noticeable. Andreas Schaerer, the 2022 Swiss Champion, dominated throughout the day. As always, the freestyle routine was a wonderful spectacle with smoke and music! →

This year’s “Euro Contest Tour Austria” took place at the MFC Jungschlag in Lower Austria (between Linz and Vienna).

On Thursday, with great weather and plenty of wind, some pilots took the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the airfield and complete a few practice flights. The MFC Jungschlag airfield is very spacious and offers excellent facilities. Thanks to the orientation of the runway, pilots can usually fly with the sun at their backs. Despite uncertain weather forecasts, a total of 25 aerobatic pilots, 3 tow pilots, and 5 male judges and 1 female judge from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland participated. The Swiss Akro Connection was represented by six glider pilots, one tow pilot, and one female judge. On Friday morning, the top pilots attempted to perform a few tows under extreme wind conditions. However, it became clear that a regular competition could not take place under these weather conditions. Competition director Martin Knasmillner used this time to once again discuss the scoring of flight maneuvers and entire flight programs with his fellow judges and to coordinate their assessments as closely as possible.

Since it unfortunately rained on Saturday morning, we were unable to begin the scoring flights until the afternoon. By dusk, we had flown three Advanced rounds and two Unlimited rounds under quite decent wind conditions. On Sunday, we were able to fly the third Unlimited round and the freestyle rounds for both classes under optimal conditions. The awards ceremony took place at 2:00 p.m. (rankings are available on the swissakro.ch website). We’d like to thank the organizers for the superbly run competition and the wonderful catering. This is what makes our great hobby—RC glider aerobatics—so much fun!

Andy Minnig

The performance of young Timéo Richard was particularly noteworthy. He ultimately finished in 5th place in the Regio category. In the Rookies class, Justin Crevoiserat improved with each lap and ended up at the top of the podium. Congratulations to both of them. The detailed report by Jean-Michel Baertschi and the results are available on the website.

Jean-Michel Baertschi, Translation: Hans Gratwohl