Free Flight World Championships

In 1967 the grass airfield of Sazena, about 20 miles north of Prague, was the venue for 34 national teams competing at the World Free Flight Championships; this August, 30 years later, 37 nations took part at in one of the best-ever Championships at the same site, with fliers who could only compete as part of the Soviet team at that earlier event now flying for their own countries. With the breakup of the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia itself, new countries have joined the FAI and now compete at the highest level in classes FIA (A/2 glider), F1B (Wakefield rubber) and F1C (power). The Czech organizers, led by Indoor flier Jiri Kalina and frequent team member Ivan Horejsi, arranged a three-class World Cup contest as a warmup on the same site, and 325 persons competed-surely some sort of record. It gave a good opportunity for teams to find just how treacherous the air could be - especially around midday.

Junior World Championships

Dracula country was the venue for the 1998 World Junior Free Flight Championships. In August, 17 nations sent teams of under-18s to Sibiu, Romania to compete in F1A (glider), F1B (Wakefield) and F1J (gas) on an airfield in the foothills of the dramatic Carpathian Mountains, about 50 miles from the former castle home of that other enthusiastic flier.