Aerobatic Freestyle to Music at the F3P World Championship for Indoor Aerobatic Model Aircraft
Ten pilots in the Aerobatics Freestyle to Music (AFM) category at the 2025 FAI F3P World Championship for Indoor Aerobatic Model Aircraft are through to the finals after an intense competition in which pilots showcased their creative flair.
What is Aerobatics Freestyle to Music?
In the AFM category, pilots have the opportunity showcase their skills and artistic imaginations with a choreographed flight synchronised with their own choice of music.
Preparation for the pilots' artistic interpretation takes weeks and weeks, as the pilots seek to develop aerobatic sequences which complement the music they have chosen, and learn them by heart ready for the competition.
Getting so close to the ground without touching takes incredible concentration and training
In accordance with the rules of the FAI sporting code, their choreography may be different for each round and even within each flight. Indeed, the music chosen usually varies in tempo and style in order to gain maximum points by showing judges their manoeuvring ability in different styles.
The judges are looking for: Precision and Accuracy, Complexity, Harmony of Flight to Music, Utilisation of the Manoeuvring Area and Special Effects. A variable thrust of engine is permitted in this class to aid pilots in their manoeuvres. Special effects deployed to impressive the judges could include streamers, lights or confetti.
Pilots choose lights, confetti or streamers as extra visual effects to enhance their freestyle flights
The top ten AFM
France's Maxime Schmitt wowed the judges with all four of his flights, which each gained 1000 points and earned him the highest score of the preliminary rounds. Some pilots scored a zero in one of their rounds, which means that they unfortunately touched the ceiling, floor or walls of the sports hall, and their flight could not be scored.
Rounds 1 and 2 of the AFM category
Rounds 3 and 4 of the AFM category
These top ten pilots will compete in the finals for the AFM on Saturday morning, and will demonstrate their skills with two different musical sequences of two minutes.
follow the competition
The championships will be covered via livestream:
- See youtube channel livestreams
- View results and rankings
- Follow on instagram
- Follow on facebook
- See pictures via FAI Airsports Flickr channel
- More images from organisers
More articles on this competition
Image credits: Antonis Papadopoulos
