European champion Castor Fantoba admits the pressure is on his team to not only impress the judges but also the spectators if they want to triumph at the Al Ain Air Championship.

The three-day event, which begins on Thursday at Al Ain International Airport, will see eight civilian teams, including UAE’s Al Fursan, Breitling Wingwalkers and Fantoba’s Bravo3 Repsol battle for the top honours.

All teams will showcase their aerobatic skills in the quarter-finals before the top four advance to the semi-finals.

– On the Radar: Federer in Dubai for IPTL event

Besides four judges awarding points based on four style categories – power, grace, national pride and the ‘wow’ factor – fans at the venue can cast their votes through the tournament’s mobile phone app which will count for 35 per cent of the team’s score.

It’s a new concept for the 11th edition of the tournament and six-time Spanish aerobatic champion Fantoba insists his team must be on top of their game if they want to prevail.

“I do feel a little bit of pressure,” said the 49-year-old, who will be sharing flying duties with team-mates Anselmo Gámez and Juan Velarde.

“The fact that I’m a European champion shows that I’ll need to do performances of the highest level. But now the public can also vote and that makes things very different for me and my team bec-ause we need to do things that will impress them. 

“The judges are just looking for the technical elements but the public is looking for new and exciting moves that will give them the wow factor. 

“It’s new for us and it makes the event very exciting. We are not used to that and it’s not easy. We need to impress the public. 

“It’s a new concept so we will need to arrange a sequence that will help us and we are working very hard to come up with something creative.”

He added: “With this being our last tournament of the year we want to end 2015 on a high but it’s not going to be easy. There are seven other strong sides and we will need to work hard.”

Hoping to do the UAE proud will be Al Fursan and Lieutenant Colonel Nasser Al Obaidli is confident his seven-pilot team can put on a good show.

“I hope we can perform well on the stage in front of our home crowd and do them proud. We all love flying and we will give it our best shot,” said the 43-year-old, who has been flying for five years. 

Amanda Scheffler, co-owner of American outfit Misty Blues, said: “We were here in 2007 and a lot has changed since then. This will be a show of a different kind and we have the opportunity of demonstrating our routines to people in the UAE.”