Aerobatic competitions don’t have to be hotly contested battles to see who the most precise pilot is or who has the best G tolerance, as Martin Needham discovered at the Real Aeroplane Company’s Breighton headquarters
During the second half of August, a gaggle of historic aircraft descended on the Real Aeroplane Company’s Breighton, North Yorkshire base. Among them, a pair of Bücker Jungmeisters which had made a mammoth, eight-hour trip from Landshut in southern Germany supported by a Cessna 195 Businessliner.
However, it wasn’t just a collection of Bölkows, Bückers and Zlins arriving on UK shores, but the Vintage Aerobatic World Championship (VAWC). Founded in 2015 by Søren Dolriis, a Danish private pilot and aerobatics aficionado, the event first took place in Stauning, Denmark – Søren’s home airfield – in 2016 and again in 2017 before moving the short distance to Skive, 60 miles northeast of Stauning, for a 2018 event. In 2019, the VAWC strayed beyond Danish borders for the first time, holding the event at Gera, Germany.
Søren explains: “I had participated in aerobatic competitions for many years and felt that the atmosphere was a little harsh. I wanted something social but still competitive …
