A Short Take Off & Landing (STOL) competition on sand is set to take place in Belgium in the summer.
The VintageAirRally International STOL Competition will take place June 14-17, 2018, on the beach of the spa town of Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Pilots will engage in precision landing and takeoff maneuvers with the shortest distance the winner.
The ultimate goal is to establish some new world records at this new aviation event, according to organizers.
The competition is not only for modern specialized bush planes, it also for vintage biplanes, organizers note.
Throughout the event there will be exhibitors on the beachfront at Knokke-Heist for competitors and the thousands of spectators expected to attend the event.
VintageAirRally will also establish a temporary exclusive Pilot’s Club on the sand. The Pilots’ Club will be holding a series of events during the day and the evenings with guest speakers from the world of aviation in Belgium and around the world.
There will be numerous categories for entries from vintage biplanes last seen in action in the 1920s and 1930s to up-to-date aircraft. The winner of each category will be awarded a prize.
Competition categories
- Vintage Biplane (pre-1959)
- Vintage Monoplane (pre-1959)
- Biplane >750KG
- Monoplane >750KG
- Aeroplane >500KG <751KG
- 3-Axis Aeroplane <501KG
- Turbine
- Electric
- Overall Winner (combined with another category)
Additional prize categories
- Youngest pilot
- Oldest pilot
- Oldest plane (date of first registration)
- Biggest plane (Maximum Take Off Weight)
- Furthest travelled (state of residence of pilot)
- Most Facebook likes (on the post about their team on the VintageAirRally Facebook page)