The death-defying and dramatic events of the 1970 World Aerobatics Championships — history’s forgotten sporting spectacle
*The following extracts are from ‘Decision at Hullavington’ by Don Berliner, originally published in National Aeronautics, Official Publication of the National Aeronautic Association, Spring 1971. Photography by Mark Kinnaman*
Stunt Flying? Not on your life! It’s no more like the old fashioned stunt flying than Olympic gymnastics is like the wild tricks done by Hollywood stunt men. Better call it by its proper name: “Aerobatics.”
Some of the 60 pilots gathered for the Sixth World Aerobatics Championships may occasionally do some stunt flying — like picking up a ribbon strung between two poles, just a few feet above the ground. But they were in Hullavington, England, in mid-July, for two weeks of the most intricate, demanding flying known to man.
Each pilot would get at least three flights in which he would have to squeeze 20 or 25 perfectly performed maneuvers into a few minutes. All of it performed directly in front of the International Panel of Judges, who knew exactly what maneuvers are supposed to be flown, and just what perfect maneuvers look like.
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This is what makes some people winners and others also-rans.
Yet, everyone at Hullavington is some sort of champion or winner. Each was chosen to represent his country, either in a team-selection or by a committee of experts. While national prestige is certainly involved, the intensity of the competition goes far beyond any possible significance. When you get the top pilots from 11 different countries together for such an event, their natural spirit takes over. It’s a friendly meeting, with advice and strong friendships created. But the titles of “Individual World Champion,” and “World Team Champion” are highly prized, and the hard work that goes into winning them is not taken lightly.
The meet actually starts with a formal practice session to give all the pilots a chance to familiarize themselves with the airfield and to acquaint themselves with landmarks they will soon have to use when maneuvering at strange altitudes. While doing a roll in a vertical dive, there isn’t much time to look around for a familiar landmark on which to line up.
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After each pilot had made his (or her) two practise flights, the meet began in earnest. On a pleasant, cool, clear English evening, the first pilot took off. Next was the man who was expected to win the meet: Neil Williams, the Welsh leader of the British Team, was expected to carry on the tradition of home-team victories which had persisted through all five previous World Meets.
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At the end of the First Group of maneuvers, the U.S. was in an excellent position. National Champ [Bob] Herendeen was in second place (out of 50), trailing the Russian, Igor Egorov, by 3,747 to 3,711.
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The team that leads in this monstrous part of the competition must be composed of the best pilots, for the regimentation practiced so successfully by many of the Soviet bloc nations simply doesn’t work in this group. The superiority shown by the American Team was overwhelming; while Egorov again was the leader, he was followed closely by Herendeen, with all the others far behind! This brought the accumulative standings to show Herendeen and the American Team leading by more than 500 points.
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But as the Second Group ended, and the team title headed bnack across the Atlantic, tremendous attention focues on the battle between Herendeen and Egorov for individual honors. At the end of the second round, Egorov led 6,670 to 6,556, but the two Free Groups to follow were Herendeen’s speciality, and his chances of moving into the lead looked excellent.
Until his propeller stopped! Just as he was going into a tail spin, the powerful engine in his red-and-white Pitts Special just quit! He recovered smoothly and made an expert emergency landing, but the team and its growing body of followers held their collective breath.
Through two careful inspections of the engine and two lengthy meetings of the International Jury, they held their breath. Finally and not without the unfortunate sight of the Russian Juror stamping out in a fit of temper, Herendeen was absolved of responsibility and permitted to fly his Third Group maneuvers again. He went out and got the highest score in that group and was headed for the lead, until and odd technicality cost him 196 points for the spin maneuver, and he slipped back into second place by just 123 ½ points.
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[Spoken by the American competitor and Bob Herendeen’s team-mate, Art Scholl] “Now, here we are, waiting for the top Russian to make his flight, and you’d better believe he’s nervous! We watched him this morning — he was sitting in the cockpit of his airplane, studying the sequence, all by himself out there. This is the most exciting World Championship I have ever seen … all these people standing out there are watching to see what the Russian’s going to do. The weather forecast is bad for the next two days, so they’ve gotta fly it now if they’re gonna get it over with. I’ve never seen such tension and suspense built up at any world competition.
“Everyone has been watching the battel between Bob and Egorov. The weather has been just marginal. The judges would go out, the X-Y axis would be put in place, everyone’s ready to go, the Russians gladly put their planes away again. This went on for three days. And finally, the last chance to fly, and there were only 13 flights left. Saturday morning, naturally everyone watched the weather…all over the base, individuals are going to their windows at one and two in the morning to see if the wind was blowing. I was completely out of the competition and yet I couldn’t sleep!
“It started getting light about three in the morning…you could seesun starting to come up. I remember at four: nice sun out, no clouds and only a little wind. And then as morning progressed, we found the wind picked up to about 12 meters per second, and it persisted like this all morning. By noon, the Championships was called.”
The Russian, Egorov, became World Champion and Herendeen was “only” runner up. It was all over and it was a relief. There had been enough pressure to last through a couple of World Championships, and everyone was tired. And disappointed, too. But winning the Team Championship was what they had worked for, ever since the last meet, a full two years ago.
And so there was a little time to relax. And to fly other people’s planes. British Champ Neil Williams took Herendeen’s Pitts Special up for a 10 minute flight that lasted a half hour. Herendeen flew the big, bulky-looking Russian Yak-18 which had beaten him, and was surprised by its lightness on the controls, but felt it would take a lot of getting used to. Several pilots flew the radical little Swiss-German “Acrostar” and were as impressed with its flying characteristics as they has been by Arnold Wagner’s fourth-place finish in the barely-tested machine.
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A few minutes later, the [American Team’s] four little Pitts Specials, the Akromaster and the Super Chipmunk taxied out, took off and disappeared quickly into the greyness, on the first leg of their long trip back home. They took back everything they had brought with them, plus the Nesterov Cup for the Team Championship, a gold medal for Mary Gaffaney’s First Group victorym, and a lifetime’s worth of memories.
Calendar of Events, as printed in the official event programme
Letter of results, 1970
The hidden beauty of Aerobatic sequence notes
The World Aerobatic Championships were judged during four programmes of aerobatic flying. The official rules and regulations were published by the competition’s governing body, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), and distributed to the competitors and press. As the competition programme explained, “the first three programmes are concerned with selecting the final number to go forward to fly the fourth programme which decides the ultimate winner.”
The first programme consisted of a ‘Compulsory Known Sequence’ which was “a series of individual aerobatic manoeuvres strung together and flown as a whole.” It was distributed months before the event so as to give pilots “a chance to practise it.”
The second programme was a ‘Compulsory Unknown Sequence” which was “put together by the organisers 24 hours before it [was] flown and [came] as a complete surprise to the competing pilots.” The third, was a ‘Free Programme’ which was selected by the pilot.
Finalists then took part in a further free programme to determine an overall winner.
The Aresti Catalog of Aerobatic Marking
The system judges use to mark the quality of the competitor’s aerobatic manoeuvres was invented by Colonel José Luis Aresti Aguirre (1917–2003).
The FIA describe the Spanish pilot Aresti as “a true legend in the world of aerobatics”. He is credited with inventing the aerocrytographic System which is still used to judge aerobatic competitions today. The Aresti Catalog organises manoeuvres and combinations into a dictionary, giving each corresponding move “coefficients of difficulty (K factors)”. Each manoeuvre is scored from 0–10 with differences of 0.5 for steps between grades. This mark is then multiplied by the K factor to take into account the manoeuvre’s difficulty.
For example:
A pilot executes a manoeuvre that one judge decides is worth 7 marks out of 10. The K factor for this particular manoeuvre is 8. Therefore, the total number of points given for the manoeuvre is 56.
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