Before the last race (the last two in Budapest and Lisbon being cancelled), it was time for our team to evaluate the season and start discussing the next steps of our strategy.

According to our pilot, this season was full of surprises (sometimes bad ones). But he assumes: for him, this sport is spectacular, but risks are analysed and the races controlled. His limits, he knows them, it is the flying experience which makes the difference.

Nicolas knows he will not be champion this year, but he has the objective to finish in the first five ranks. The differentiation factor this year was the new engine, which is not yet performing as expected, but also the fact he had a new plane designed, much faster - which means taking more risks and unfortunately each mistake on the path or the positioning of the plane costs a lot.

The major challenge for the team this year was to create a new plane with very good aerodynamics in only three months. A united team, under pressure, who realised miracles. Nicolas always speaks about his plane with pride and passion: “ I am unable to fly in a plane I do not like. The aesthetics of flying is also the one of the curves and lines of a plane. Mine was realised by a designer, just as a concept car would be thought: beauty, performance and the flow”.  He also looks for this aesthetic when flying. With a powerful energy, sometimes difficult to control, Nicolas always has new ideas and could modify the look of the plane at any time.

We all needed a break after the race in New York. What an amazing race, suspense until the last second. Whether it was the race or the training sessions, that week was incredible. FANTASTIC!

We will not make any change on the engine for the last race and, to reach our objective, we count on Nicolas’ concentration skills and expertise.

As you could guess, the team is not resting and Nicolas participates to numerous air shows:

-2 July, with Hannes Arch, he went to the big celebration of Züri Fäscht 2010, fantastic landscape above the Zurich lake where he flew with 2 helicopters shooting fireworks. 

-Sunday 4 July, he came back to his native country to be present at the 100th anniversary of the Niort air show where he contributed to the new « Free Flight World Master », gathering the best aerobatics French pilots.

-At the end of the month, he will spend some time training with Mike Goulian, one of the American pilots of the Red Bull Air Race, before flying to Wisconsin and participating to the biggest air show, the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, gathering over 2500 race planes!

And all this without forgetting the race in Lautsizt in Germany on 7 – 8 August!

Join us to live the end of the season with the Ivanoff team!