22nd Hot-Air Balloon European Cup + 27th Ladies‘ World Cup

Dear friends and pilot-friends,

The 22nd Coupe d’Europe and the 27th Women’s World Cup will take place from Thursday 4th August to Sunday 7th August 2022 in accordance with the traditional dates for this event since its creation 27 years ago. As in past years, the competition will close with the fantastic aerial display on the Sunday evening.

The event takes place in the South Charentes area of the Cognac region, amidst rolling countryside so suited to flying balloons in mid summer. The warm welcome offered by the local community organisation called the Foyer Rural de Mainfonds-Aubeville is essentially at the heart of the attraction for this event.  The competition was originally created to allow French pilots to test their flying skills against the some of the best international pilots. It also allowed us to see proof of the fact that competitive ballooning can offer an extraordinary spectacle for the public and an exceptional attraction for the media. The flights are followed by thousands of enthusiastic spectators.

The first edition of the Coupe d’Europe brought together around 30 pilots in 1993, amongst whom were a world champion in Peter Vizzard, and two European champions in Mathijs de Bruijn and Claude Sauber.

In 1997, the Coupe d’Europe in Mainfonds welcomed the addition of the Women’s World Cup, invented in Japan by Masashi Kakuda. As the first and highest level competition for women, the Women’s World Cup inspired the Commission for International competition (the CIA, a sub-section of the FAI) to create other world level events and indeed the European Women’s Championship.

The Coupe d’Europe also became the innovator in the establishment of a competition without observers, which has become the model for regulations used across wider international competition.

We would like to invite you to take part in this event which we have been preparing for over several months now. We would be delighted to be able to count on you, as much as you can count on us!

In 2022, as we have always done, we shall welcome 45 pilots for the combined entry to the Coupe d’Europe and the Women’s World Cup, plus around 20 fiesta pilots. The two competitions will take place alongside each other, using the same tasks.  The women pilots will benefit from a double classification as they score in each of the two competitions.

Please follow this link to fill-in your registration form:

Inscriptions pilotes – Pilots inscriptions

We urge you to reply by returning your entry as soon as possible in order to guarantee your place.

We wish you a Very Happy New Year 2022, hoping that the current conditions improve to allow us to come together next summer in Mainfonds.

Thierry Slawy                   Rose Anne Achard                           Jacques Bernardin

Generální informace: 2022 Compet Informations générales UK-converted