WUHAN FLY-IN EXPO,A Big Feast for World FLIERS

By Xu Kuang

Translation by Yu Lan

WUHAN FLY-IN EXPO,A Big Feast for World FLIERS

By Xu Kuang

Translation by Yu Lan

“The sky is blue, the Yangtze River is vast,and the citizens of Wuhan are cheering for the pilots. It is a magnificent aviation sports event,” said Frits Brink, president of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). The 2017 FAI World Fly-in Expo in Wuhan was an unforgettable event.

The four-day expo was held in Hannan Airport,Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. It was the only comprehensive aviation sports event in the Asia-Pacific area that was authorized by the FAI. Thousands of pilots and athletes from over 40 countries and regions initiated a grand “flight gala” here.

At 9 a.m., on November 4th, a white lightwinged aircraft flew over the expo and displayed a 500 meter poster, marking the opening ceremony.Elite pilots from America, Spain, and Latvia presented extraordinary performances. They skydived in many glittering patterns such as “the fireworks setting,” “the fairy dancing,” “the flag floating,” and “the air relay” one after another.At 4 p.m., over 100 paramotors took off, bringing the performance to a climax. There were 192 performances that day, in which 107 aircrafts participated.

“Aircrafts are soaring into the blue sky. City of the sky... In the night of a foreign land, I’m feeling the flicker of your lights.” At 8 p.m., the local folk singer Li Zhi highlighted the night by singing the song “City of the Sky.” Up till then, the highspirited atmosphere had lasted for 12 hours.

The second day, the weather was perfect for the performances. The blue sky and white clouds constituted the best background for the display.Paramotors, delta wing paragliders, rotorcraft,and aerobatic planes came to the stage one after another. The record-breaking performance of the paramotors team and the taking off of the experiential hot air balloon took this expo to a new level, igniting the audience’s passion and curiosity.

Boris, a French paramotor pilot, who was invited to perform at the expo, said that he had met a lot of flying experts in Wuhan. “I’ve never seen a night paramotors performance like what we did on the night of the 4th before. Just this one event alone was worth the trip.”

On the 6th, the hot air balloon weddings of 100 couples were held at the expo. The air was filled with romance.

“蓝色的天空，宽阔的长江。热情的武汉人为飞行员加油鼓掌，这是一次盛大精彩的航空体育盛会。”国际航联主席福瑞斯·布兰克声言，武汉世界飞行者大会是一届让人印象深刻的盛会。

2017国际航联世界飞行者大会为期四天，在武汉经济开发区汉南通用机场隆重举办。这是国际航联在亚太地区唯一授权的综合性航空体育活动。来自全球40多个国家和地区的千余名飞行员、运动员，开启一场盛大的“飞行狂欢”。

11月4日9时，一架白色轻型飞机拖拽500平方米的巨幅海报飞过会场，揭开此次盛会的神秘面纱。来自美国、西班牙、拉脱维亚等国家的表演队驾驶各自的滑翔机、动力伞、旋翼机，表演“礼花飞舞”“仙女下凡”“彩旗天降”和“空中造型”等项目，一拨接一拨，让观众目不睱接。16时许，近100架动力伞相继升空，将飞行表演推向高潮。当天的飞行表演共192架次，参加表演的飞行器107架。

“飞机飞过天空，天空之城……此刻我在异乡的夜里，感觉着你忽明忽暗……”晚8时许，当民谣歌手李志唱响《天空之城》，瞬间全场观众嗨翻，在世界飞行者大会，这种热度已经持续12个小时。

大会第二天，天气给力，蓝天白云成为飞行表演最好的背景。动力伞、三角翼滑翔伞、自旋翼飞机、特技飞机等表演，你方唱罢我登场，动力伞编队创纪录的表演，体验式的热气球升空，将盛会掀向新的高度，让观众直呼过瘾。

法国动力伞飞行员博瑞斯受邀参加此次表演，他兴奋表示，来到武汉后结识很多飞行高手。“4日晚我们进行动力伞夜航表演，这在法国还没见过，真是不虚此行。”

6日，大会举办100对新人的热气球婚礼，浪漫情调弥漫全场。

“太让人兴奋，这是我做的最率性的事，没有事先计划，真不可思议。两周前，尚恩在跳伞锦标赛中获得银牌，上周，我们在美国亚利桑那州参与创造217人同时跳伞的世界纪录，今天，我们就结婚了，一切都充满惊喜。”编号100的一对新人来自英国，他们相恋十年，新娘喜不自胜。

“It is so exciting. This is one of the most spontaneous things I’ve ever done. I had no plans beforehand. It is all so incredible. Two weeks ago, Shawn got the silver medal at the Skydiving Championship. Last week in Arizona, we took part in setting a new world record of 217 people skydiving. And today, we are married. Everything is full of surprises,”the bride of couple No. 100 said with joy. The couple was from Britain.

In this expo, Wuhan held the Third New Private Economy Investment Promotion Conference and General Aviation Industry Signing Ceremony. Wuhan Development Zone signed 19 projects and attracted investments totaling 1.45 billion yuan. The projects ranged from the fields of navigation manufacturing,assembling, maintaining, training, and operating to even satellite technology application.

Mr. Brink spoke highly of Wuhan’s efforts,applauding the expo as an event integrating sport, contest, and industry, which set a new modality for air sports and navigation industry. “I’ve seen a lot of contracts being signed here. Everything is very unusual here.Since there is such a platform, we’d love to participate and offer help.”

He also believes China, as one of the fastest developing countries, is going to play a more important role in air sports. “In my homeland in the Netherlands, air sports are developing very well. We are only a small country with ten million people. With China’s enormous population, the future of air sports in China is going to be even more wonderful.”♦

Journalist Li Yuan and pilots from Team AeroDynamix,who averaged about 60 years old记者李源与爷爷飞行队合影

Team AeroDynamix performing爷爷飞行队在表演

本次大会中，武汉市举行第三批新民营经济招商大会暨通用航空产业专场集中签约仪式。武汉开发区签下19个项目，揽下1450亿元投资。项目覆盖通航制造、组装、维修、培训、运营服务和卫星技术应用等领域。

布林克称赞武汉将运动、赛事和产业结合起来，为航空运动和通航产业树立新样式。“我看到此次大会上签订不少合同，这里发生的一切很不寻常。既然有这样的交流平台，我们也愿意参与进来，提供帮助。”

他还坚信，作为世界发展最快的国家之一，中国将在飞行运动中扮演更重要角色。“在我的祖国荷兰，航空运动一直发展得很好，但我们只有一千多万人，考虑到中国庞大的人口，未来将更加精彩。”♦

40国飞行者的盛宴

文/许旷 译/于兰