WAG World Air Games 2009
The Olympics of the Air: the World Air Games 2009 (WAG)
n the autumn of 2006, the FAI (International Aeronautical Federation headquartered in Lausanne with membership in 102 countries), requested bids for the "World Air Games" (WAG), to be held in June 2009.
The World Air Games are the most important event in the world for sport aviation, being a sort of "Olympics of the Air", with races and competitions covering the following disciplines: Aerobatics (powered and glider), Helicopters (turbine and piston), Gliders (Grand Prix), Parachuting (speed, distance, accuracy, canopy piloting), Hang Gliding, Micro lights, Paragliding, Ballooning, Model Aircraft and Experimental (fly-in and home-built).
The Promotional Committee – Turin's steps towards success
Considering this as a stimulating challenge, the President of the Turin Aero Club, Angelo Moriondo, set up a "Promotional Committee" which sought out a number of suitable people and found the necessary funds (mainly provided by the Piedmont Region) to formally propose Turin as the organizer of the Games.
Fifteen cities initially proposed themselves as candidates, and Turin passed the first "screening" along with London, Moscow and the Danish city of Odense.
Following a further round of screening, three "finalists" remained – Turin, Moscow and Odense.
On the 1th of June 2007, in the International Olympic Committee Museum in Lausanne, in a packed congress hall, Pierre Portman, the President of the FAI, declared Turin to be the winner and the seat of the World Air Games 2009. It was a tremendous triumph!
The preceding editions of the WAG (1997 and 2001) took place in Turkey and Spain respectively, while the 2005 Games, assigned to Poland, were unfortunately abandoned for organisational and public security reasons.
The Local Organizing Committee of the WAG 2009
On the 24th of July 2007, in the offices of Finpiemonte S.p.A, witnessed by the Public Notary Dr Cilluffo, the company to be known as the "Local Organising Committee of the World Air Games, Turin 2009" was formally constituted.
In the early stages, Dr. Bruno Rambaudi was the President of the LOC. This position was later (10th July 2008) taken up by engineer Giuseppe Virigilio. Sponsorship was promised by all the main public bodies interested in the event (Region, Province and Comunes) and the most important associations of the sector (CCIAA, Industrial Union, API, ASCOM Aero Club of Italy etc) as well as the members of the now-disbanded "Promotional Committee".
In August 2007, the President, Bruno Rambaudi, signed an "organizational contract" in Paris with the President of the FAI, Pierre Portman. This contemplated a fee of US$ 500.000 by the organization and an initial budget of 6,9 millioni Euro. The budget had to be reduced to around 4,3 million Euro due to the crisis which was hitting the world economy. The resulting cuts mainly affected the promotional budget and media communications.
Following the constitution of the LOC, a huge amount of work was necessary to create an operational structure and locate the skills necessary to organize an International event like this. Fortunately, having recently organised the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Turin has quite a number of people with experience of how to successfully organise a world ranking competition involving thousands of competitors and officials, operating from different sites, each with its own logistic peculiarities.
The World Air Games was formally illustrated to the Mayor of Turin, Sergio Chiamparino, during an official visit by M. Pierre Portman, President of the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) on the 23rd of October 2007.
On the 19th of April 2008, with a jubilant aeronautical-flavoured street party in Turin's Piazza Castello, the event itself was presented before a large festive crowd as part of the publicity build-up.
To focus the attention of the world's aeronautical fraternity on the coming event, the Aero Club of Turin, working together with the World Air Games Organising Committee and the Aero Club of Italy, proposed and promoted the candidature of St. Vincent, in the nearby Aosta Valley as the site of the 2008 "FAI General Conference" (the previous three had been held in Santiago (Chile), Rhodes and Seul).
This candidature, supported by the Regional authority of the Aosta Valley and the Casino of St. Vincent won approval, and the Conference took place in the first week of October 2008 at the Grand Hotel Billa in St. Vincent with the participation of delegates from 87 different countries. Following the conclusion of the Conference business, the delegates were brought to Turin to visit the sites proposed for the World Air Games 2009.
Also in 2008, a competition had been set up among the schools in Turin for the design of the World Air Games medals . During the course of the award ceremony held in the council chamber in Rivoli, the jury, presided by the painter Ugo Nespolo, awarded the prize of 1000 Euro to Fiodor Fogliato of I.T.I.S. Bodoni.
The inaugural ceremony took place on Saturday 6th of June 2009 in the central square of Turin, Piazza San Carlo, where in the presence of all the city officials and a crowd of about 15,000 people. Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turin, officially declared open the "Olympic Games of the Air", Turin 2009.
The Olympic flame, brought to Italy by the President of the Aero Club of Greece, Mr. Antonis Papadopoulos, was consigned to the final torch-bearer Sergio Dallan, (the world-renowned and Number 1 Italian aerobatic pilot) who lit the Olympic brazier to the sound of the Italian Anthem.
Inaugural ceremony photogallery
The competitions took place from Sunday 7th until Saturday 13th of June, articulated at 4 main sites:
- The Torino Aeritalia airfield (LIMA), for the majority of the sports, viz: Aerobatics, Helicopters, Gliders, Parachuting, Micro lights, Experimental and outdoor Aero modelling competitions.
- The City of Turin, for the Opening Ceremony and at the PalaRuffini for the indoor electrically-powered Aero modelling competitions.
- Avigliana, with its lakes, for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding competitions (aerobatics, slalom and precision landing). The landing area was a raft moored out on the lake.
- Mondovì, hosted the hot air balloon competitions.
The competition was a real success for the italian team that was the top scorer as to the number of olimpic medals, where our athletes obtained 10 in the following races:
| 4 gold medals | |
| Pietro Filippini | Glider Aerobatics |
| Andrea Iemma | Hang-glider Aerobatics |
| Sandro Pagliarini | Experimental: cat. Restored & Reconstructed Aircraft |
| Massimiliano Sacchi | Model aircraft: Hand-launched Gliders |
| 3 silver medals | |
| Giorgio Galetto | Glider racing |
| Filippo Materazzi | Model aircraft: Radio-controlled aerobatics |
| Andrea Rossetto | Experimental: cat. Restored & Reconstructed Aircraft |
| 3 bronze medals | |
| Pierluigi Barbero/Luigi Marocco | Heli copters: Parallel Slalom e Fender Rigging |
| Paolo Rossi Soavi/Maurizio Vanzini | Ultralight: Pilon Race |
| Francesco Menozzi | Model aircraft: Hand-launched Gliders |
| Aerobatic - Glider | ||
| 1 | Pietro Filippini |  ITA |
| 2 | Georgy Kaminskiy |  RUS |
| 3 | Erik Piriou |  FRA |
| Aerobatics -Power | ||
| 1 | Renaud Ecalle | FRA |
| 2 | Mikhail Mamistov | RUS |
| 3 | Gerald Cooper |  UK |
| Aeromodelling - Indoor Aeromusicals | ||
| 1 | Fabien Turpaud | FRA |
| 2 | Martin Müller |  GER |
| 3 | Donatas Pauzuolis |  LTU |
| Aeromodelling - Artistic Aerobatics | ||
| 1 | Donatas Pauzuolis | LTU |
| 2 | Filippo Materazzi | ITA |
| 3 | Massimo Selva |  SMR |
| Aeromodelling - Hand Thrown Gliders | ||
| 1 | Massimiliano Sacchi | ITA |
| 2 | Alan Bernard Smith |  RSA |
| 3 | Francesco Menozzi | ITA |
| Ballooning | ||
| 1 | Sven Goehler | GER |
| 2 | Uwe Schneider | GER |
| 3 | Joe Heartsill |  USA |
| Glider Racing | ||
| 1 | Sabastian Kawa |  POL |
| 2 | Giorgio Galetto | ITA |
| 3 | Ronald Termaat |  NED |
| Hang Gliding - Aerobatics | ||
| 1 | Andrea Iemma | ITA |
| 2 | Guido Gehrmann | GER |
| 3 | Rafael Lacerda Watson |  BRA |
| Hang Gliding - Speed Run | ||
| 1 | Wolfgang Siess |  AUT |
| 2 | Seppi Salvenmoser | AUT |
| 3 | Roberto Nichelle |  SWI |
| Helicopters | ||
| 1 | Nikolai Burov / Viktor Korotaev | RUS |
| 2 | Georgy Arbuzov / Elena Zhuperina | RUS |
| 3 | Pierluigi Barbero / Luigi Marocco | ITA |
| Microlight - Pylon Race | ||
| 1 | Robert Grimwood / Chris Saysell | UK |
| 2 | Robert Keene / Rees Keene | UK |
| 3 | Paolo Rossi Soavi / Maurizio Vanzini | ITA |
| Microlight - Paramotor Precision | ||
| 1 | Mathieu Rouanet | FRA |
| 2 | Laurent Salinas |  CAN |
| 3 | Alexandre Mateos | FRA |
| Parachuting Canopy Formation | ||
| 1 | Russia | |
| 2 | France | |
| 3 | Sweden |  |
| Parachuting Canopy Piloting | ||
| 1 | Jason Moledzki | CAN |
| 2 | Ian Bobo | USA |
| 3 | Francisco Neri |  VEN |
| Parachuting Landing Accuracy | ||
| 1 | Istvan Asztalos |  HUN |
| 2 | Dimitri Maximov | RUS |
| 3 | Jindrich Vedmoch |  CZE |
| Paragliding Accuracy | ||
| 1 | Goran Djurkovic |  SER |
| 2 | Guangqiang Sheng |  CHI |
| 3 | Matjas Feraric |  SLO |
| Paragliding Aerobatics Solo | ||
| 1 | Haracio Llorens Fernandez |  SPA |
| 2 | Antoine Montant | FRA |
| 3 | Pal Takats | HUN |
| Paragliding Aerobatics Synchro | ||
| 1 | Raul Ivan Rodriguez Fernandez / Felix Rodriguez | SPA |
| 2 | Pal Takats / Gabor Kezi | HUN |
| 3 | Alexander Meschuh / Bernd Hornboeck | AUT |
| Experimental Aircraft | ||
| 1 | Eric Raymond | USA |
| 2 | Christian Guilie | FRA |
| 3 | Hossein Fakour Moghadam | CZE |
| Restored Aircraft | ||
| 1 | Sandro Pagliarin | ITA |
| 2 | Andrea Rossetto | ITA |
| 3 | Marinel Cheveresan |  ROM |
Medal list by nations
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Italy |
4 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| France |
3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| Russia |
2 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| Spain |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Germany |
1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Austria |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Hungary |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| United Kingdom |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| United States of America |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Canada |
1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Lithuania |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Poland |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Serbia |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| China |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| South Africa |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Czech Republic |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Brazil |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Netherlands |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Romania |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| San Marino |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Slovenia |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Sweden |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Switzerland |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Venezuela |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
On Sunday the 14th of June, the WAG came to an end with a huge Air Show. In the course of this, all the medal winners and many of the other participants took the opportunity to demonstrate their skills before some 40,000 spectators, honouring the event which had received plaudits for both its organisation and the quality of the sport.
Conclusion Air Show Photogallery
The effect of the World Air Games was to galvanise and accelerate a series of important investments, both in terms of economic investments and the equally important promotional aspects.
In October 2008, at the north side of the airfield, at a cost of a little under 300,000 Euro, a new hangar was built and the adjacent single-storey clubhouse-type structure completely refurbished. This became the headquarters for a permanent team of WAG admin staff. At the end of the Games, the hangar and the building became the new operational base for the civil SAR helicopter.
In April-May 2009, the garden area in front of the Aero Club premises was completely replanted, the parking area, access road and internal roads resurfaced and the Club restaurant enlarged and repainted – all for a sum of around 250,000 Euro.
A few days before the start of the WAG, thanks to an initiative between Alenia Aeronautica and the City of Collegno, an inauguration ceremony took place at the roundabout at the corner of the airfield. The roundabout was dedicated to the memory of test pilot Manlio Quarantelli, with the installation of AM-X prototype aircraft number 002. The commemorative stone was offered by the Aero Club of Turin. (Quarantelli lost his life in the first prototype AM-X (001) while preventing the aircraft from crashing into a residential area after an engine flame-out.)
