The Winner Of FAI Mamaia World Elite Aerobatic Formula Is Spaniard Castor Fantoba 

By Jurgis Kairys

July 14, 2009, the winner of FAI Mamaia – World Elite Aerobatic Formula competition held at the coastal resort of Mamaia (Romania) on July 10-11 is Spaniard Castor Fantoba. The 43-year-old Spaniard is a captain of Boeing 757, acrobatic flight instructor pilot and has been participating in various competitions as a member of the Spanish aerobatic flying team for 10 years already.

Not only Mr. Fantoba received the highest evaluation of the FAI Mamaia – World Elite Aerobatic Formula contest referees, he also won a 10 000 Euro cash prize. The Russian pilot Svetlana Kapanina was second and the Hungarian pilot Zoltan Veres was third.

The first FAI – World Elite Aerobatic Formula competition was organized by the famous Lithuanian pilot Jurgis Kairys and private Romanian company Regional Air Services – Tuzla Airfield.

The event was supported by the Constanta City Municipality and other state organizations as well as by the private companies and media. The event took place under the guidance of the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI). The JK Formula rules were approved by the International Aerobatics Commission (CIVA).   

According to Jurgis Kairys, the FAI Mamaia - Elite World Aerobatic Formula competition progressed smoothly and satisfied expectations of sportsmen, organizers, and audience.

Last weekend the Mamaia beach saw thousands of resort visitors, aerobatic flying fans and the ones curious to see this unconventional event. They watched the competition programs performed oversea and feasted their eyes on the aerobatic show flights. The experienced Unilimited category pilots from eight countries ferociously competed for the right to be called a champion. 

“Taking into consideration the unfavourable Sunday weather forecasts, the flights were performed within two instead of three days, as was planned, but on Sunday weather turned out to be excellent, so the spectators could observe even more show flights and, we believe, definitely remained pleased,” said Jurgis Kairys.

The pilots demonstrated their abilities by performing 6 aerobatic figures designated by the competition organizers (Aerobatic against Time) as well as performing a freestyle program (Aerobatic Freestyle). In addition, the pilots had to strictly keep to the time limits as the jury consisting of the four best aviation referees mercilessly appointed penalty seconds for each mistake or failure to perform a figure.

Already during the qualification flights Castor Fantoba, Svetlana Kapanina and Zoltan Veres appeared to be the best; however, after the competition started it did not seem that the Spaniard will win after all – on the first competition day he gathered the highest number of seconds and ended up the last. On Friday the best results were the ones of Svetlana Kapanina, Renoud Escalle and Hubie Tolson. On Saturday Castor Fantoba’s performance was more than excellent, thus making him the winner and leaving Svetlana Kapanina and Zoltan Veres second and third respectively.

The final results were as follows: Castor Fantoba (Spain) – 39,97 sec, Svetlana Kapanina (Russia) – 42,94 sec, Zoltan Veres (Hungary) – 50,37 sec, Renoud Escalle (France) – 57,11 sec, Pierre Marmy (Switzerland) – 86,24 sec, Hubie Tolson (USA) – 88 sec, Philipp Steinbach (Germany) – 94,54 sec, and Tom Cassels (USA) – 154,85 sec.

“I hope that applying the new aerobatic competition model will make this sport more attractive to both competitors and wide audience”, told Jurgis Kairys. In the future he plans to organize several stages of FAI – World Elite Aerobatic Formula during the year. They could take place in various countries around the world and a champion of the year could be announced upon summing up the results. More information about FAI Mamaia – World Elite Aerobatic Formula