Between October 28 and November 4, WAAC2023 took place - the World Aerobatics Championship, Advanced class, in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Romania's acrobatic team placed 2nd, bringing home a silver medal. At the same time, Dan Ștefănescu took third place in the individual class and brings home a bronze medal.
Also, the director of the Romanian Aeroclub, George Rotaru, won the 7th Team Manager medal in these championships.
After the tests, the ranking looks like this:
- Test no. 1 - Vlad Popescu - 3rd place, returning home with a bronze medal
- Test no. 2 - Dan Stefanescu - 3rd place, returning home with a bronze medal
- Test no. 3 - Dan Stefanescu - 2nd place, returning home with a silver medal
- The final ranking showing as follows for the individual class:
- Dan Stefanescu - 3rd place
- Vlad Popescu - 6th place
- George Rotaru - 11th place
- Teodor Munteanu - 13th place
- Valentin Caval - 14th place
- Alex Eparu - 15th place
- Petre Glontaru - 26th place
- Ioan Ursu - 30th place
The championship was a difficult one, full of challenges, both for the pilots, but also for the technical team of the Aeroclub. Romania participated with 2 Extra 330Sc model aircraft, which were disassembled in Romania, sent by ship to the United States and assembled at the destination.
"The World Acrobatics Championship, Advanced class, represented a great challenge for the Romanian team because we had to dismantle two planes, assemble them in the USA, test them, train. The competition was very intense because any movement of our planes that rotate 420 degrees per second means plus or minus points, the 8 international judges keeping an eye on the competitors within the evolution program. The results will be part of the history of our aviation and will be an inspiration for the future, Dan Stefanescu is the 3rd place in the world, the Romanian team is the world vice-champion.
The whole team, which means all the colleagues from Romania's club si Romanian Aeronautical Federation who worked on this project, thanks all those who support us and enjoy our achievements because we promote the tradition of Romanian wings through what we do.
It seems that the project we started in 2009 to bring performance acrobatics back to life has yielded results and we have just obtained the 7th team manager medal, that is, we have brought our team to the international podium 7 times"- George Rotaru- Director General Aeroclub Romania.