U.S. Aerobatic Team goes for Gold in world contest

Flight Journal, Oct 1998 by Gustafson, David A

With their aircraft crowded into an Air Force transport like so many minnows in the belly of a whale, the eight-member 1998 U.S. Aerobatic Team is again crossing oceans to do battle on the world aerobatic stage, this time in the Republic of Slovakia. If all goes according to plan, as you are reading this, they will have unloaded their planes in Germany and flown them to Trencin, Slovakia, where they will spend two weeks practicing before the contest actually begins.

This year's World Aerobatic Championships marks the 28th year in which the world's top aerobatic pilots have gone head to head in the bi-annual shootout to determine which are actually the best. At the last Championships (Oklahoma City, 1996), the U.S. men's team came in third and the women's team took second. This year's Championships will run from August 14 to 24.

Eighty pilots from around the globe will battle for the gold, and aerobatic aficonados say this year's U.S. team is the best ever. The team includes Kirby Chambliss, Matt Chapman, Ellen Dean, Mike Goulian, Diane Hakala, Phil Knight, David Martin and Debbie Rihn-Harvey and is sponsored entirely by private and corporate sources with no governmental backing, as is the case with some foreign teams. This year's numerous corporate sponsors include Aeroshell, Hartzell Propeller, Champion Aviation Products, Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, EAA and Lycoming, to name just a few. David A Gustafson