Between 23-25 August, the city of Thalgau, Austria, is gearing up to host the 2024 Skydive World Cup Series Austria, welcoming the global Skydiving Accuracy Landing community. Top-tier skydivers will aim to hit a target the size of a coin, from nearly one thousand metres above ground.
A buzz is building in the paramotor community ahead of the upcoming 1st FAI World Paramotor Endurance Championships in Kent, Great Britain. The brand-new format contest runs from 3-10 August 2024 and will see over 80 paramotor pilots from 17 countries embark on a week-long test of strategic decision-making and pilot skill.
By: Katharina Lothspieler, PR Officer Wieselburg (Austria) Organising Committee
From 14 to 18 August 2024, the sky over Wieselburg (Lower Austria) will be filled with colourful Hot Air Balloons. Thirty-four pilots from around the world will participate in the 42nd FAl Open Austrian Dopgas Nationals and Lower Austrian Hot Air Balloon Championship. Brazil and the USA will also be represented.
The 2024 Phoenix Diploma, an esteemed FAI Award recognising the best reconstruction or restoration of a vintage (more than 30-year-old) aircraft achieved by an individual amateur, has found its deserving recipient in Benvenutas Ivanauskas from Lithuania.
This prestigious honour, bestowed by the FAI Amateur-Build and Experimental Aircraft Commission (CIACA), acknowledges Ivanauskas' unwavering commitment to the preservation of gliding’s rich heritage.
Despite the tough competition, a spirit of friendship is woven into the fabric of the CISM World Military Parachuting Championships. Now on his eighth CISM championships, Austria's Sebastian Graser shares his love of the sport, saying in an interview from Solznok, Hungary, "What I love about parachuting, is that it is like one big family with other nations, we are all friends."
Young people are enthusiastic about the immense range of virtual games on offer. Games that do not function in the real world, but in the processors of smartphones, tablets or PCs. These games can be played anytime and anywhere. Many young people spend hours and days playing games in a quiet room and are often isolated. Drone racing is a wonderful alternative to the well-known games. It is practiced in sports fields, stadiums and halls.
The spirit of teamwork lies at the heart of the 46th CISM World Military Parachuting Championships: the same five team members must achieve the best scores across the three disciplines of Accuracy Landing, Style and Formation Skydiving to win the team overall classification. As of Saturday afternoon, 6 July, the CISM overall women’s team results are showing China in the lead. Elbowing one another in joint second place are the Republic of Korea and Brazil.
Skydiving soared into The World Games in 1997, and air sports have remained firmly on the programme of the multi-sport event ever since. Across seven host cities in four continents, tens of thousands of spectators have witnessed stunning displays of technical skill and showmanship by skydivers, as well as paragliding, glider aerobatics, paramotor and drone racing pilots.
Clad from top to toe in white, Máté Feith steps into the wind tunnel. He rises, spins, floats and twists, light as a feather caught in a breeze. This fluid display of aerobatic prowess has taken seven months of intense training: fifty hours of meticulous practise, repeating moves over and over, and adjusting the smallest details to reach perfection.
- The best event ever! - said pilots at the closing ceremony of the 2nd FAI Asian-Oceanic Paragliding Championships in Mungyeong, South Korea. And the satisfaction was not overrated: 7 compelling tasks of various routes and degrees of trickiness, 110 pilots from 9 nations, excellent organization, fast retrieve, outstanding culinary lunch packs, gala shows on opening and closing ceremonies - this is just a short list of merits mentioned by the participants in their reviews.
