On Friday, February 7th in the afternoon, the announcement of the aviation athletes for LA 2024 season took place. The announcement was co-organized by the Amateur Aviation Association of the Czech Republic, the Aviation Modellers Club of the Czech Modellers' Association and the Aviation Journalists' Club. This year, for the first time, the announcement was held in the congress hall at Václav Havel Airport in Prague and a big thank you goes to Ing. Jiří Pos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prague Airport, for providing representative premises at the airport. The afternoon was directed and produced by Miroslav Oros, who invited artificial intelligence (AI) to help and the most qualified moderator, Michal Dusík, who moderated the event with his own insight and wit.
The first block of announcements belonged to the Model Aircraft Club of the Model Aircraft Association of the Czech Republic. Because the train with part of the team of the European Paragliding Precision Landing Champions 2024 was delayed by a railway accident and because it was the first award for most of the talents, the Aleš He adjusted the direction so that the handover was well-timed.
First, MP Stanislav Berkovec presented the awards to the junior teams and model-making teams:
F5J – thermal electric glider (ME Romania, 2nd place)
Vitezslav Štěrba, Jan Kulich, Mikulas Vostrěl, Martin Rajšner
F1A – free-flying gliders (Macedonia World Championship, 2nd place)
Jan Zajic, Vojtech Kornhofer, Anna Kornhoferova, Frantisek Zajic
F4C – aircraft models (Romania World Championship, 2nd place)
Jan Doubrava, David Kopal, Frantisek Frana
F4H – semi-scale aircraft models (Romania World Championship, 2nd place)
Vladimir Ryneš, Vladimir Ryneš Jr., Jiří Brand, David Kopal
The following categories of awardees were female fashion designers, the awards were presented by Jan Vachek (chairman of the Czech Parliament's commission for awarding awards to aviation personalities, who started flying as a parachutist in the Karlovy Vary Aeroclub. In the military air force - a total of 25 years as a pilot, air traffic controller, commander of the air base in Náměšť, commander of the Air Force. In civil aviation - a total of 24 years in the positions of director of Vodochody Airport, specialist for assessing the causes of air accidents and advisor to the director of LOM Prague for aviation issues. As a hobby, he enjoys flying with ULL).
Jana Štěrbová – 1st place, European Champion (F5J, European Championship Romania) – her brother accepted the award
Tereza Vosejpkova – 2nd place (F1A, European Championship Romania)
Tereza Vosejpková emphasized in her interview with the moderator how important it is to step out of your bubble and meet people across aviation specialties.
The awards for the men's categories were presented by Vlastimil Dvořák (president of the Aeroclub of the Czech Republic).
Patrik Krautschneider – 1st place, European Champion (F3A, European Championship Belgium)
Vladimir Rynes – 3rd place (F4H, World Championship Romania)
The awards ceremony for aircraft modelers was followed by the awards ceremony for LAA Czech Republic pilots.
The first to arrive were the motor paragliders, who were presented with awards by Zuzana Ožanová, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
1. Milan Klement – 1st place in the PL1 category at the World Slalom Pre-Championship in Bornos, Spain, 1st place at the Czech Championship in slalom, 1st place at the Czech Championship in classic
disciplines
2. Luboš Halama – 4th place in the PF1 category at the FAI World Slalom Championships in Qatar, 1st place at the Czech Championship in classic disciplines (Martin Šmolík accepted the award for him)
3. Vaclav Prochazka – 5th place in the PL1 category at the World Slalom Pre-Championship in Bornos, Spain 2nd place
Summary of the achievements of Motra paragliders:
Czech powered paragliding experienced another successful season in 2024. The national team won four bronze medals at the World Slalom Championships in Qatar.
Milan Klement won the PL1 category at the Slalom World Cup in Spain, Luboš Halama finished just short of the podium in the heavily populated PF1 category.
The Czech team also traveled to England for the World Championships in classical disciplines, but this time there was no medal placement.
Milan Klement and Luboš Halama proved their current dominance by winning the titles of national champions in slalom and classic disciplines.
The announcement of the ultralight aircraft category followed. The awards were presented by Vladimír Handlík – head of the Aviation Museum in Mladá Boleslav and, as he himself added, primarily an aviation enthusiast.
1. Marek Velat – 1st place at the World Championship in England (RAL1), 1st place at the Czech Championship, 1st place in the Petr Tuček Navigation Cup
2. Matouš Adam & Ladislav Teplý (crew RWL2) – 2nd place at the World Championship in
England, 1st place at the Czech Championship, 1st place in the Petr Tuček Navigation Cup
3. Vaclav Puza – 2nd place at the World Championship (RAL2), 2nd place at the Czech Championship (RAL2)
Suddenly it was time to award the paragliding pilots. The team members were approaching in a shared taxi that had picked them up from trains delayed by the accident and there were 8 minutes left until arrival. There was some hope that the hang gliding pilots would still announce themselves, but the management had already prepared and lined up medallions and announcement blocks in advance. Therefore, the announcement of the paragliding category was a bit of an improvisation. The moderator called the third Ondra Pohořelský and the second Radek Václavik. Instead of Ondra, Aleš Trtil and Radek Václavik entertained the audience for 8 minutes with details about the accuracy of paragliding landings. Everything was successful and the young talents – Ondřej Pohořelský and Lucie Martínková – received their cut trophies from the Glass Academy in Světlá nad Sázavou. The awards to the best paragliders were presented by Col. Pavel Štrůbl, Head of the Flight Safety Department of the Ministry of Defence.
1. Team of European champions in landing accuracy at the European Championships in Albania 2024 – Vlastimil Kricnar, Vlastimil Vachtl, Radek Václavik, Petr Garbier, Kvido Hadas,
Ivana Feraric, Lucie Martinkova
2. Radek Vaclavik – Member of the winning team of the European Championship in Albania, 1st place at the Czech Championship in the Beskydy Mountains, 1st place in the overall ranking of the landing accuracy league.
3. Ondřej Pohořelský – 6st place in the cross-country skiing at the Czech Championships in Bischling, Austria, XNUMXth place at the Junior World Cross-Country Ski Championships in Tolmin, Slovenia.
The hall also featured a hang glider by Robert Kulhánek, which was assembled and displayed. The best hang gliders were awarded by Vladimír Plos, director of the Institute for Professional Investigation of the Causes of Air Accidents.
1. Robert Kulhanek – 2nd place Pre-Worlds in Ager, Spain, 1st place in the ranking of Czech pilots, 12th place in
world FAI ranking, long-term excellent performances in the Czech national team
2. Jiří Gut – 1st place at the Czech Championship Emberger Alm Open (Austria), 3rd place in the ZL Cup, 9th place at the Hang gliding Pre-Worlds in Ager, Spain.
3. Luboš German – winner of XContest, successes in competitions in Class 5 (rigid), 2nd place at Czech Highlands Raná.
The announcement block concluded with the awards of personalities from the Aviation Journalists' Club of the Journalists' Syndicates of the Czech Republic, which were presented by František Kučera, Chairman of the Aviation Journalists' Club, and the awards were presented by Miloš Šenkýř, Vice-Chairman of the Journalists' Syndicate of the Czech Republic, and Michaela Banda, member of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Aviation and Cosmonautics.
Michal Orlita – Michal Orlita is an experienced pilot and flight instructor. He started flying in 1989 at Kunovice Airport. He gradually became an instructor, instrument pilot and aviation journalist. He is actively involved in pilot education, popularization of aviation and publishing activities. He received awards for popularization of aviation and pilot education.
Jan Simunek – Jan Šimůnek is an aircraft designer and the successor to the family tradition of aeronautical engineering. He became famous especially for the design of the ultralight aircraft Trempík, which he flies even at an advanced age at air shows and exhibitions at home and abroad. He received the award for his successful lifetime work for Czechoslovak aviation.
Karel Jares – Karel Jareš is a significant figure in Czech aviation. A glider pilot, record holder in speed and altitude flying, a sports flying instructor and a long-time active member of the Aviation Journalists Club. He receives the award on his ninety-fourth birthday for his lifelong work in favor of Czechoslovak sports aviation.
At the end of the afternoon, all that remained was to present the largest cup, for the most successful LAA Czech pilot of LA 2024 season, which went to Marek Velát and he was the first to defend this title, as he won it for the first time in LA 2023 season. The award was presented to Marek by Zdeněk Jelínek - Director of the Civil Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transport, David Jágr - Director of the Civil Aviation Office and Aleš Trtil – President of the LAA of the Czech Republic.
It was a beautiful afternoon, which was carried out in the spirit of "FLYING IS FUN" and will bring the titles of World or European Champion here and there.
The event was held under the auspices of the Subcommittee on Aviation and Cosmonautics of the Economic Committee of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. We would also like to thank the National Sports Agency for its support.
The three most successful LAA Czech athletes – Marek Velát, the European Paragliding Precision Landing Champions Team and Milan Klement will fight for the highest possible places at the Gala Evening of the Best Czech Aviation Athlete 2024