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Experienced Competition Director Filippo Papale is excited to bring the FAI World Rally Flying Championships back to Italy after it last hosted the event in Ravenna, 26 years ago in 1999.
The 24th edition of the championships is being organised by the Aero Club d’Italia and the Aero Club Ferrara and will showcase the strategic skills of the pilot-navigator crews during a world class event in which sixteen nations will battle it out to reach the podium.
From 30th August to 5th September 2025, teams from Austria, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom will compete against reigning champions from Czechia who will hope to defend their titles in Individual and Teams podiums.
In 2023, it was France who claimed the team champion title on their home turf in Mâcon. Will the Italians manage to achieve the team title, proudly flying over the historic Po Valley, a UNESCO heritage site? Competition Director Filippo Papale hopes so, given that the area around Ferrara airport is, “tailor-made for a world rally flying competition,” due to its barycentric position in Europe.
Rally flying is not simply a race against time. Success lies in expert cartography, navigational accuracy, aerial proficiency and split-second timing.
After practice sessions and the opening ceremony, the competition tasks commence on 1 September. Each day, the two-person crews will be given an envelope just minutes before the allocated take-off time. The clues and photographs revealed upon opening the envelope will suggest turning points; the navigator will plot a track and declare a finish time, which the pilot will endeavour to meet by accurately following the flight path, whilst also taking aerial photos to show progress. There is also a landing task during each flight.
Crew member plots a route at the 18th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Spain [Credit: Katarzyna Osowska]
GPS trackers in each aircraft will enable judges to rank the crews and determine the champions in Individual and Team categories. To enable Rally Flying fans to follow the race, the teams’ positions will be livetracked and available online, and Papale plans to display the tracking for spectators at the airfield.
With 20 years of experience in organising the Italian Air Rally Championships in Catania, Sicily, Papale has the knowledge and contacts to run a smooth operation at this year’s world championships, and he hopes that the event will encourage newcomers to follow the sport, saying, “we would like to have as large a flow of guests as possible.” He will also be using the event as an opportunity to showcase the manageable process of hosting a Rally Flying event to visiting nations, and bolster the sport’s development in the future.
Papale has a long history with Rally Flying, having participated in “six or seven” Italian national championships as a competitor. After the national championships in Catania came to an end due to excessively heavy air traffic in the area, he remained responsible for the Air Rally classification centre on behalf of the Aero Club of Catania. As an international judge and team manager he has participated in three World Championships (Ravenna in Italy in 1999, then Santa Cruz in Portugal and Mâcon, France).
Judging an Rally Flying landing. [Image and Header credit: Tadeusz Misiasek from the 19th WRFC in 2014, Torun, Poland]
Our annual FAI GAC Plenary Conference was held over the weekend of the 28th February 2025 in the beautiful city of Catania, Sicilia Island, ITALY.
Some teams arrived early and took the opportunity to tour Mt Etna.
The subcommittees met on Friday to conduct their business, and then a combined meeting was held on Saturday.
Our President Hans Schwebel has stood down after serving for many years. He received a standing ovation for his years of service and was elected President of Honour.
Ralf Grunwald was unanimously elected as President.
Dr Philippe Muller was elected as vice president – finance.
The Aero Club of East Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, has a long history of promoting aviation. The club was founded in 1927.
After a long break from their last rally, they decided to “Rekindle the Spirit of Classic Aviation” with an up to date NAVEX AIR RALLY.
With a little help from the GAC, they arranged a Navex Rally from the Amboseli National Park Airfield which sits at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. An amazing backdrop for the rally.
Look out for next years rally!