When Pete Zeliff’s team presented a plan to host the World Aerobatic Championships in rural Batavia, he was clinging to hope that something might sway the Commission Internationale de Voltage Aerienne (more commonly known as CIVA) delegates.
After all, the competition has been in places such as Las Vegas, and the last time it was in the United States, it was in 2013 in Sherman-Denison, Texas, a metropolitan area with a population of more than 137,000.
“I was really surprised, I thought it was a long shot,” Zeliff said to The Batavian Thursday. “When it’s been here in the U.S., it’s been in places like Las Vegas. So, to go from Las Vegas to Batavia, New York, is a long stretch.”
And surprised he was, along with planning team members Shad Coulson, John Smutny, Doreen Hillard-Zeliff, Jennifer Vukovic, Monique Hartmann, and Rob Holland, a past world participant. Now, there will be one right here from Aug. 22 through 31 in 2026. The last event was in 2024 in Poland, and they are held every two years.
The team flew to Greece to make its pitch for the international event to be held at Genesee County Airport. One major reason why this site was chosen, Zeliff believes, “had to do with how well the Air Show went the last two years,” and an important logistical detail that there’s no tower or commercial air traffic.
Add to those assets the number of hotels and restaurants in the surrounding area, and Batavia made the cut, Zeliff said.
“There’s normally anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 people over the 10 days that they compete that will attend the competition. And there will be 40 to 60 competitors from around the world,” he said. “There’s three to five Americans that will compete, and the rest of them will be from Europe and Australia and New Zealand. The competition goes for 10 days, and the competitors will get here four days early and practice before the competition starts.”
Part of the set-up includes nearby practice sites at Bethany Airpark (8NK4), Geneseo (D52), LeRoy (5G0) and Perry-Warsaw (01G). Part of practice means having an aerobatic box set up to line up the arena for competition. That block of airspace is approximately 3,300 feet long by 3,300 feet wide by 3,300 feet high, according to an “In The Loop” article on the CIVA website.
For safety, a minimum height above the ground is established, and severe penalty points are assigned if the pilot flies below the minimum height. The minimum height above the ground is 1,500 feet for the Primary and Sportsman categories, 1,200 feet for Intermediate, 800 feet for Advanced, and 328 feet for the Unlimited category, it states.
At the start of each category flight, the first pilot will fly past the judges at the minimum height to give them a visual reference for that height. When the pilot flies into the box, he looks down at a marked playing field. The aerobatic box markings are an L-shape in each of the 4 corners, a T-shape in the middle of each side, and an X-shape in the center of the playing field.
“When competitors compete, they have to stay within those guys; it protects the air space and the people on the ground,” he said. “They’ll fly three different routines in each category or class.
Given that this will be a first for Zeliff to actually watch a World Championship event himself, what prompted his interest in it for Batavia? He first mentioned Rob Holland, quite the skilled pilot from New Hampshire who has won the national competition 13 times in a row, he said.
“But he’s never won the overall world. And he’s one of the ones that came to us and asked what we thought about putting in an application to hold it in Batavia,” Zeliff said. “I thought it would be great to have a really world-class competition in Batavia.”
He described this competition as “the Olympics of aerobatics,” and medals are awarded to the winners in the end.
CIVA will be sending its own panel of judges for the event, and Zeliff said there are already various committees set up locally to handle the organization of the event. The proposed schedule begins with an unofficial practice day on Aug. 18, the Opening Ceremony on Aug. 22 and official contest flights to run through Aug. 31. It will end just five days before Wings Over Batavia 2026 is to begin on Sept. 5, which is the beginning of Labor Day weekend that year, he said. There has been talk about possible packages for attending both events, but no details have been finalized, and ticket sales will be announced closer to the end of 2025, he said.
In addition to the county airport being a non-towered airfield surrounded by mostly farmland, there are four hangars available for use with a total of 20,800 square feet to hangar aircraft, providing office space and a hospitality area.
The team’s presentation listed Batavia as being “blessed with an abundance of hotels within 1.5 miles of the contest site,” and being able to provide meals, transportation, shelter and dedicated team villages, Wi-Fi, judges’ stations at major points of the compass, portable restrooms, hydration and snacks for the event.
During late August, the weather has historically been “quite favorable for a successful contest,” with average temperatures at 70.3F, a wind speed of 7 mph and average precipitation of .13 inches.
The planning team has also proposed to Live Stream the contest, modeled after the U.S. Nationals experience for the last three years. The addition of the Live Stream has many benefits, the team said in a news release, including commercialization of the sport, benefits to the local economy, viewing access for friends and family of the competitors, additional sponsorship opportunities, and the video remains accessible online after the end of the event.
There was no application fee, however, the budget for this event is estimated at $400,000, Zeliff said. Competitors pay a fee to participate, and other revenue will be raised through sponsorships and ticket sales. Unlike the air show, there won’t be tents and concession stands on the airport grounds, so participants and visitors are likely to visit nearby restaurants and stores to buy food and other necessities.
“The big thing is, if you’ve got 3,000 people, you have to put them up in hotel rooms,” he said. “They’re gonna eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, and have rental cars and all that.”
