The World Championships for Precision  Aerobatics

The World Championships for Precision Aerobatics were held in the United States in 1999. The venue was a military training facility in Pensacola, Florida. Three members of the Trinidad & Tobago Model Aircraft Club represented this country. The team members were Mark Mendonca, David Stodart and Michael DeFreitas (team manager).

The Chance was flown by K. Suzuki of Japan.

  Countries from all over the world send teams to have their best pattern pilots compete and at the end of it  all a wining Team is crowned and an individual World Champion. In 1999 the individual World Champion was Christophe Pasant Leroux of France. The United States won the Team Championships.  

The Hydeout of Chip Hyde. He was 3rd.

  Flying styles and skill level vary immensely in this particular competition with over 90 r/c pilots being judged by a panel of seven on a prescribed set of maneuvers to be performed in an aerobatics zone known as “The Box”. All pilots are scored on for rounds of preliminary competition with the top final thirteen advancing to the finals.

Carrera 2000 from Australia and Peter Goldsmith.

This was the first time that Trinidad competed on the World stage in this particular event and although the placing of 70 and 76 out of a total of 96 pilots leaves a lot of room for improvement, the experience gained was invaluable.  The range of knowledge gained in the equipment used and types of set-ups to actual flying styles can only be gained from this type of exposure.

Typhoon 2000 of
Quique Somenzini, Argentina. He was 6th.

  There are several key people that made this particular venture possible and the team would like very much to  thank these people for their support.

Jason Schulman for the words of encouragement and the loan of a battery pack and RF module when the chips were down.

Gavin Oliverie for making the trip and giving all the help whenever needed.

Mr. Bob Skinner of the FAI for helping out some first time competitors and making the aircraft registration process not so intimidating.

Penelope Mendonca for her patience and understanding.

Captain Mike for making the equipment available, without him all this would not be possible.

One organization deserves special mention for this trip. BWIA West Indies made the trip to and the stay in Pensacola possible. The team and TTMAC wish to thank BWIA and Mr. Conrad Aleong in particular for his support.