Pilots and judges from China, Hong Kong, Austria, Belorus, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Ukraine and Switzerland got together at the airfield of Chinese capital, where they were warmly welcomed by the organizers and guests of the China international helicopter Open 2018.
October 20, on the first day of the championship there was festive atmosphere at the airfield: after the opening ceremony, guests were greeted with traditional Chinese dances with colored ribbons and dragons, balloons floated up into the sky, and demonstration flights ended with a roar of firecrackers and a cloud of colored smoke floating skyward. On the day of the competition 3 events were held: «Precision Flight», «Fender Rigging» and «Slalom». The live broadcast of flights on huge screens near the audience stands, as well as comments by the sportscaster added some entertainment to the competition.
The Russian pilots won the absolute championship in the first China Open, but they shared the podium in separate events with their very strong rivals from Austria, Germany and Poland. So, in Precision Flight gold was won by the Polish crew, in Fender Rigging the silver was taken by the Germans, who only lost half a second to gold medalists from Russia, the Austrians won the bronze medal in Slalom.
The results of all-around competition at 2018 China international Helicopter were as follows:
1st place – Russian crew Alexander Sotnikov and Evgenia Zamula; 2nd place – Polish crew Marcin Szamborski and Michal Szamborski; 3rd place – Russian crew Irina Didenko and Svetlana Gumbatova.
Chinese crews are not yet ready to fight for first places, but they showed their skills in demonstration flights at the end of the competition. With the help of a bottle opener attached to the ski of the helicopter, Chinese pilots accurately removed caps from the bottles, helicopter skis blew up balloons, raised and transferred to the table baskets of flowers.
All competitors have a lot of impressions – everyone noted the high level of organization of the championship, an entertaining excursion program that allowed them to join the history and culture of the country. The guests were especially touched by organizers’ warm welcome.
The first ever China International Helicopter Open brought together pilots and officials from twelve countries. It was held in warm and friendly atmosphere and showed great possibility to compete in China and to prepare the highest level helicopter pilots in any countries.
