Come to Lakeland!
The 2003 World Aerobatic Championships By the time this reaches your homes, we will be three short months away from the 2003 World Aerobatic Championships (WAC). At the time of this writing, I have just returned from Lakeland, Florida, where we had meetings with Contest Director Phil Knight and Sun ’n Fun President John Burton and Sun ’n Fun Vice President Greg Harbaugh. I came away from that meeting energized and enthused as to the progress being made on the WAC. This event will be something that all IAC members and our country will be proud of.
Aside from a number of booths our vendors plan on setting up, we’ll have forums on aerobatics, forums on aerobatic aircraft construction, and forums on how to get started in aerobatics. There will be concession stands, merchandise sales, and an excellent viewing area for the competitive flights adjacent to an Anheuser- Busch beer garden. We’ll have some ancillary events such as auto shows, International Miniature Aerobatic Club radio-controlled competition, balloon launches, and more. It will be worth planning a visit to Lakeland to see some of the best aerobatic flying in the world.
This will be only the third time in history that the WAC will be held in the United States. The last WAC held in the United States in Oklahoma City was subcontracted out to a separate company, shifting the financial burden away from the IAC. Although it may be desirable to unload the financial liability, the downside of this is not being able to more carefully control how the event unfolds and operates. We took quite a hit in our international reputation because of this in 1996.
The following year our reputation was redeemed at the 1997 Advanced World Aerobatic Championship (AWAC) held in Lawrence, Kansas. Contest Director Boris Baird, with the help of Judy Billings of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, conducted a flawless event, which commenced on the Fourth of July in the heartland of America. They concentrated on doing the fundamentals very well, and what made it even better was that the U.S. Advanced Team took the gold medal at this championship. The WAC this year wraps up on the Fourth of July, so the two events have our nation’s birthday in common.
The one thing that will always be held dear to me as a participant at the Lawrence championship was the sense of international camaraderie within the sport of aerobatics. Among all the pilots of the world, we as an aerobatic group are very small and very specialized. My sincere hope is that you will come to Lakeland and take advantage of this conduit to get to know your counterparts from different countries. I think you will find that we have much more in common than you would ever realize. Come to Lakeland and be proactive in welcoming our international friends at a time when there is much going on in the world.
The WAC website is up and running at www.WAC2003.org. Check it out and be a part of our club’s history.
Another point we need to address as a group is that of insurance costs. We all realize that the events of 3 My sincere hope is that you will come to Lakeland and take advantage of this conduit to get to know your counterparts from different countries. September 11, 2001, have put pressure on insurance premiums. Whether warranted or not it is something we have to deal with, and the IAC office fights every increase in the cost of insurance. But aircraft accidents and, in particular, accidents involving our portfolio of coverage have an effect on our leverage. The underwriters will absorb some hits, but if we keep on proving that our group has a higher than normal rate of incidents, our rates, all of our rates, will go up. So, for safety’s sake and for our pocket books, we need to take a fresh look at how we operate.
I know that the overwhelming majority has never had a claim to insurance. I also know that those that have were in most cases victims of freak occurrences. But can we all just stop for a minute and consider how we might be able to work together in reducing even the freak occurrences? Can we pause and reconsider if we’ve done everything we can to properly maintain our machines, in training to do certain figures, or simply in our attitudes toward exposing ourselves to a technically and physically demanding activity? Everybody wins if we can do this better. We owe it to our families and our fellow aerobatic comrades to make the effort. Let’s work as a group and make an impact here.
Lastly, I would like to commend our staff at Oshkosh who I’ve come to know much better over the past several months. It’s been a pleasure to work with them, and it is heartwarming to routinely experience their enthusiasm in providing value to our membership. More than any other division in the EAA, the IAC is by far the most dynamic in both the number and type of activities we’re involved in. There are numerous deadlines to meet and major events to coordinate along with the day-today duties of running the club. I am grateful for the way our division consistently comes together to make things happen. Great job, Team IAC!
