The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) has organized the first World Air Games in September, 1997. Turkey hosted the games, and all recreational flight disciplines were represented, from ultralights and hot air ballooning to precision flying. As a key component of this major event, the FAI General Aviation Commission planned a race from Iceland to Turkey. Arc en Ciel provided organizational and technical support.
Reykjavik, 9
September : Things are hotting up even two days before commencement of the
World Air Games Long Range Air Race.
Aircraft arriving from the United
States had the advantage of strong tailwinds, whilst poor Erik and Ingrid Bancks, the
Swedish team Go Johny go, battled fierce headwinds and turbulence enroute
from Scotland. An unserviceable autopilot made hard work of the six hour flight for him
and his copilot - wife (Erik won the Round the World Air Race in 1994). Even the
race director and his technical team battled winds arriving in heavy rain and turbulence,
only to fly a localizer approach to a visual landing, a demanding exercise in such a
miserable weather.
The Greek crew Ikaros
in their Socata TB-20, the slowest aircraft to join the race, were forced to divert back
to Stornoway, Scotland, because of strong headwinds which reduced their groundspeed to a
mere 60 knots...
Strasbourg, 12 September
: "Women Fly"…Karole Jensen and Jeanne Cook, Carolina Belle
crew, can tell, as they go on with the race despite a facetious engine which quitted five
times—because of poor tuning—over the North Atlantic and, eventually, an
unserviceable propeller they had to replace on the run.
Only 17 out of 19 competing
aircraft landed in Strasbourg yesterday. Canuk, the Canadian team, had to
land in the UK because of an engine oil pressure problem. They expect to reach Strasbourg
once the problem corrected by local engineers—but it is likely that the race is over
for them and morale does not appear to be on the bright side today.
Carolina Belle
had their propeller damaged yesterday while taxiing at night on an unlighted apron in
Reykjavik.They were able to find a replacement overnight, and they hope to have the Mooney
fixed in time to make it to Strasbourg. Late last night Karole called the Race Director
from Reykjavik to announce that Carolina Belle was still in, and will
make it by Friday evening. As of right now, it looks like they will actually make it,
which is a tremendous achievement by any standard. Bravo...
For this very reason, announcement
of results have been delayed, as both organizers and competing crews want to include Carolina
Belle in the first leg standings. Carolina Belle is the sole all
women crew, although four others female pilots are engaged in the race: Swedish Ingrid
Banck flies the Cessna 210 Go Johny Go with husband Erik, Dawn Bartsch is
Kona Wind's skipper, a Canadian Cessna 421, Merce Marti, from Spain, is
in command of Spirit of Freixenet, a Piper Commanche, and Cathy Lee is
copiloting Rambling Wreck (we didn't choose the name, they did.
And the aircraft is not a wreck, far from that), a Piper Malibu Mirage. Cathy's
embroidered cap reads : "Women Fly".
The results of the first leg
– Reykjavik to Strasbourg – show that crews do take things seriously and clearly
intend to fight for first place. In Group One (piston engines) Mathias Stinness and
Gérard Guillaumaud take the lead on their Little Speedy Glasair II, but
only eight minutes ahead of Dietrich Bauer and Jurgen Blasius flying Rectimo,
the beautiful and highly tuned Beechcraft V-tail Bonanza. Merce Marti and David Flitterman
come third, 36 minutes behind, on their Spirit of Freixenet Piper Twin
Commanche. Overall, the performances of Group One competitors were all very good, as their
aspirated piston engines allowed them to fly low, below the strong headwinds turbocharged
aircraft had to face unless they got down and get a murderous fuel burn that would call
for additional pit stops.
In Group Three, (turbines) the
battle is fierce between the US Dash Ten crew who comes first with a 93%
ratio on a 4 hours 45 minutes flight, with French/American TBM Knight Flight
only 20 minutes behind, and Maya One from Guatemala, only 6 minutes back.
The next leg should turn out to be an interesting one, because of its shorter length that
will allow pilots in this category to fly at maximum power without too much concern over
fuel burn.
Group Four (jets) has only two
competitors, Jim Knuppe's Dream Machine and Turkish Young Turks
but both fly the same model Cessna Citation Jet, which means that pilots skills only will
make a difference. Dream machine has the lead so far, but only 7 minutes
ahead of Young Turks.
Sevilla, 13 September : Carolina
Belle arrived last night. Karole Jensen and Jeanne Cook were greeted as heroes in
Strasbourg, their new propeller appearing to be working properly (it was actually
"borrowed" from another aircraft, and the owner doesn't know yet...) They didn't
fared very well as far as the results go, but teamwork and tenacity allowed them to catch
up with the race. According to the race rules, their propeller incident does not call for
disqualification as it occurred before their departure from Reykjavik. They're still in ! Carolina
Belle departed last to Sevilla this morning, as both women deserved some extra
rest.
Canuk was not so
lucky, as the crew were not able to overcome their engine problems in time to reach
Strasbourg. They have therefore withdrawn from the race, and Jean Delangis is so upset
about it that he has already decided to sell the aircraft, the very same one that has
already failed him last year in the Race of the Americas. For the others, the leg
from Strasbourg to Sevilla was fought well despite bad weather. The
results of this leg please the majority for it's now proven that the reference speeds of
each aircraft were accurate and the jostling of places proves it could be anybody's race.
The British team, Wellesbourne
House, have now scrambled back to 2nd position in Group 2 (turbocharged). A
feather in their cap in view of the fact that they had little support from the British
Royal Aero Club.
TBM Knight Flight
(Group 3 : turbines) have climbed up to the first place--a team used to holding this
position in past races.
The Young Turks
beat Dream Machine to attain 1st place in the Jet category for this leg,
although they remain second in the overall standings. Dream Machine was
reputed to thinking of offloading the crew spouses, who are boarded as passengers, to save
weight and improve performances. The Young Turks gallantly offered to
carry the ladies !
Rectimo, the
highly efficient and trained German team, have without surprise battled into first place
in their Bonanza piston engine aircraft (Group 1). This aircraft is highly refined, with
almost all speed options available on the market installed. These include a low drag
engine cowling, sealed flaps, control surfaces and gear doors, low drag antennae, door
steps and door handles, etc. Its venerable age doesn't show in its pristine, glossy...
low-drag paint scheme.
All in all, this is still
anybody's race--The jostling of positions putting pressure and negating any complacency.
The crews are all now fine tuned with visions of that elusive gold medal.
Roma, 15 September : All aircraft arrived safely in Roma, where rain and low clouds greeted them. Carolina Belle did suffer additional technical difficulties in Sevilla, with a leaking filter O-ring seal. They therefore came in last--again--, but certainly deserve the Marion Jayne trophy for tenacity.
Tel Aviv, 16 September : As
aircraft were beginning to land one after the other on a small military airfield outside
Tel Aviv came the bad news : Carolina Belle suffered another setback, and
had to make a emergency landing in Greece because of engine problems (probably due to fuel
contamination). This time, they have decided to call it quit and to withdraw from the
race. Everybody, competitors and staff alike, is going to miss them. An Arc en Ciel
aircraft will leave Paris Tuesday with an engineer to fix their engine before they live
Kerkira to return home.
The gap between crews is narrowing
as the race goes on. In Group One, German Rectimo won the sector only one
minute ahead of Canadian/French Little Speedy. The Spanish Spirit
of Freixenet is 20 minutes behind. Manoirs de France could not
leave Sevilla with the others because of mechanical troubles, and is expected tomorrow in
Tel Aviv. But this is nothing compared to what's happening in Group two : Rambling
Wreck (not so rambling, after all) is only 3 minutes behind Kona Wind
overall, Wellesbourne House is in trail, 6 minutes behind. Go
Johny Go lost five minutes on that leg, but is still leading overall.
The situation is the same in Group
Three, where the difference between the first, Dash Ten, from the US, and
the last, Maya One, from Guatemala, is only 10 minutes. A quite
incredible situation occurred in group 4 (jets), where the two Citation Jets had a 9
minute difference on the sector, but exactly the same rating overall, down to the minute
after more than 15 hours of flight ! The race is wide open, to say the least.
Crews were exhausted yesterday
afternoon in Rome's Ciampino airport, where they had to wait for fuel for four to five
hours on the apron after landing. And they woke up at five this morning for an early
take-off to Tel Aviv, only to find out that the firm contracted to deliver the lunch boxes
refused to deliver the 100 or so meals ordered because they were charged on a single bill,
and therefore were to be delivered to a single airplane. It took so long for them to admit
that the race aircraft were not big airliners that Little Speedy and Ikarios
had to take off for a 5:30 flight without food in order to respect their Air Traffic
Control assigned take-off times.
The race is landing in Dov
airport, the military and general aviation airfield of Tel Aviv. Airport people were very
efficient and helpful, same for the ATC: the air space of Israel was closed today before 3
PM, for military matters, but the Air Force nevertheless let our planes in.
We are staying at hotel Radisson
Moriah, on the sea shore, which is great because we could see some aircraft doing their
approach above the sea through the room windows, and we were greeted by very friendly and
helpful people, which is giving us a change compared to what we had in Italy.
Amman, 18 September : All the teams flew
"off-race" between Tel Aviv and Amman today. It was a great feeling to enjoy the
flight over Jerusalem, the Jordan river valley and Amman, and to relax without the
pressure of racing. On arrival in Marka Airport, His Royal Highness Prince Faycal, King
Hussein's son, personally greeted the pilots, giving much credence to the event of the
Long Range Air Race. The organizers have officially decided to dedicate tomorrow's leg to
Sherif Rakan Gazi, the Jordanian pilot who won the "Malaysia International Air
Race" in 1990 together with Captain Eric Ledger, and was killed while flying
aerobatics two years later.
The pilots are now preparing
themselves for the final two sectors : Amman – Trabzon and Trabzon – Izmir. The Young
Turks feel quite confident in their Cessna Citation Jet. Coming first—a tie
with the Dream Team—they know that the race ahead is over their
country and will give them the edge. The Americans in the Dream Team will
not concede easily.
Meanwhile, in group one, the
efficient German flying machine of Rectimo forges ahead slowly. Quite the
opposite is the Italian team who slowly but constantly fall further behind. The British on
Wellesbourne House clocked a really fast time on the leg inbound to
Israel, but need to improve further to be able to beat Go Johny Go and Kona
Wind in group two.
To summarize, the four favorites
so far are : Rectimo, Go Johny Go, Dash Ten
and Young Turks in their respective classes. There is always a chance of
an "upset" in this kind of race however.
Trabzon, 19 September : What a day
! The relatively short sector between Amman and Trabzon turned out to be the most grueling
of all so far for competitors and organizers alike.
Flights went on smoothly until the
arrival over Trabzon airport, where all hell broke loose. Trabzon control tower was manned
by a single controller in charge of approach and airport control, and commercial as well
as race traffic. Although the competence and willingness of the controller cannot be
questionned, the heavy traffic load was simply too much to handle for a single operator.
Things began to deteriorate when Wellesbourne
House missed his approach and had to circle before attempting a second one.
Unable to talk to the tower because of the saturated single frequency in use, Wellesbourne
House let no option to the controller other than blocking the other comptetitors
at altitude other the airport. Loosing precious time in orbit, those crews soon started
complaining loudly, thus contributing to the general turmoil.
The situation reached its climax
when Go Johny Go declared itself in a critical fuel state, which soon
turned out to be a genuine emergency when its engine quit because of fuel exhaustion.
Erick Banck had to perform an extremely difficult dead-stick landing. He succeeded, but he
and wife Ingrid stepped out of the airplane badly shaken.
Those hitches certainly
contributed to strain the nerves of remaining racers who, like Rectimo or
Ikaros, sometimes flew most unacademic approaches.
The FAI International jury voted
to inflict penalties to undisciplined competitors involved in the events : Go
Johny Go was set back one hour for taking-off without adequate fuel reserves. Rectimo
got 35 minutes for unruly behavior and TBM Knight Flight 3 minutes for
departing ahead of its allocated take-off time, thus contributing to the traffic
congestion over Trabzon. A penalty inflicted to Wellesbourne House was
later lifted when the track data stored in the aircraft satellite navigation receiver was
retrieved and proved their good faith. The results below take those penalties into
account.
Izmir, 21 September : This sector
was actually made up of two legs rolled into one, with a Turkish Aéro-club sponsored
lunch in Adana.
While the flights proved
uneventful at high altitude, low fliers like the competitors in group one had to face
turbulent weather with huge cumulous clouds activated by the high terrain, and significant
headwinds between Adana and Izmir. Decided to make up for the 35 minute penalty inflicted
yesterday, Rectimo pushed on unabated and took the sector as well as the
overall first place.
In group two, Rambling
Wreck achieved a tremendous performance, and jumped from third to first place,
nosing Hope of Italy out by a hairline--16 seconds overall, after 30
hours of flight ! The quiet and smiling Cathy and Larry Lee clearly are pilots to be
reckoned with... Go Johny Go was involved in yet another incident in
Adana, and Erick Banck has been excluded from the final results by the FAI Jury.
In group three, the Turkish team Sabiha Gokcen, now flying in its own
backyard, sailed ahead to first place, while yesterday's penalties cost TBM Knight
Flight the silver medal.
Also very at ease flying in the
Turkish Airspace, the group four Young Turks increased their lead over
the Dream Machine and comforted their first place overall.
Karole Jensen, whose Carolina
Belle had to withdraw after an engine failure, was able to join Izmir after the
Arc en Ciel engineer dispatched from France was able to fix the airplane in
Kerkira,
Greece. That was a very nice surprise for everybody.
positions Reykjavik => Izmir
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
sector
overall
ADA=>ADB REK=>ADB
460 mi 6600 mi
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Results
group 1 (non-turbocharged pistons)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rectimo
position 1
1
flight time 2:19 h:m
32:57 h:m
Bonanza
V35
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Little
Speedy
position
3 2
Glasair
II
time behind best 0:12:27 0:27:19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spirit of Freixenet
position
2
3
Twin
Comanche
time behind best 0:10:36 1:57:11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manoirs de
France
position 4
4
Twin
Comanche
time behind best 0:24:05 3:08:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finn
Viking
position
6 5
Twin
Comanche
time behind best 0:42:12 5:18:16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ikaros
position
5 6
Trinidad
time behind best 0:35:17 7:39:31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Results
group 2 (turbocharged pistons)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rambling
Wreck
position
1
1
flight time 2:07 h:m
29:48 h:m
Malibu-Mirage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope of
Italy
position 2
2
Mooney
252
time behind best 0:01:30 0:00:16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kona
Wind
position 3
3
Cessna
421
time behind best 0:02:33 0:11:45
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wellesbourne
House
position 4
4
Mooney
252
time behind best 0:17:51 0:20:48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Results
group 3 (turboprops)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sabiha Gokcen
position
1
1
flight time 1:35 h:m 21:59 h:m
Cheyenne
III
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash
Ten
position 2
2
Turbo-Commander
time behind best 0:01:21 0:11:02
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TBM Knight
Flight
position
3
3
TBM
700
time behind best 0:04:36 0:13:14
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maya
One
position 4
4
Cheyenne
III
time behind best 0:12:09 1:08:40
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Results
group 4 (jets)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Young
Turks
position 1
1
flight time
1:21 h:m 17:33 h:m
CitationJet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dream
Machine
position 2
2
CitationJet
time behind best 0:02:17 0:40:42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------