WAC Day 0

Wended my way down to Foligno Aeroporto this morning to catch up with the guys. Both Rich and Paul flew early in the box - the first time they had while still cool. Both looked comfortable and flew well. The 300S with 4-blade prop isn't as fast as Paul's but seems to hang on and accelerate from slow speeds better. The different spades means aileron feel is different also - a case of adapting it seems. The South African's said the same regarding flying Rob Holland's MXS vs. their MX2's.
Needless to say there is an enviable collection of hardware parked about: several 330SC, an LT, a couple of CAPs and a surprising number of Sbach, as well as the Sukhoi variations.
Watched a little flying apart from our guys, and the difference from the top to the rest is apparent. Very interesting to see how some do their thing.
Lodged the Free and registered. Met quite a few people, most very friendly, all focussed on getting organised and enjoying the event. Pilot briefing at 1630 and then opening ceremony at 2000 tonight.

WAC 2011 Foligno, Italy

I ducked down to Tocumwal, the training site for our Team, last Tuesday. It is a great flying location with Lee Gordon-Brown's beaut hangar made available, a box marked on the airfield, and little traffic. The crossed runways, 09/27 and 18/36, might be taking it too far in the easy direction though!

Paul's Asset Insure Extra 300S hasn't missed a beat during training and was neat and shiny. Coincidentally, the 300S the boys are using in Italy is only one serial number different, so hopefully it will fly the same.
As it was the first day back after a few days off, Paul and Richard began by flying the Q. Certainly both looked sharp and the intensive training with critique and video assistance has paid dividends. After lunch at the local bakery it was Free time, with some further tweaks to the sequence being tried out.

An unfortunate occurrrence due to the regular training at Toc were a couple of noise complaints - considering most days were ony 4 flights of 15 minutes each or so, everyone was a little surprised! Most satisfying was that many other locals came out in strong support for us. In fact, one lady started a petition and walked the streets doorknocking for signatures! Thanks Tracy. We handed the petition to the Berrigan Shire Councillors the next day as part of our, or more correctly Paul's, address to them on the activities. We showed them a cockpit video and explained some of what we are about, and they expressed support provided there weren't any legal ramifications from the EPA.

Rain moved in on Tuesday night, and Wednesday was unflyable. After the obligatory several coffee's, council meeting and visit to the bakery, Paul departed for Melbourne to fly out on Friday. Rich and I held until 1430, and when there was no chance of me flying out for home he offerred to drive via my place to Sydney. Thanks a lot Rich.

So now we soon depart for the 26th WAC at Foligno, keen to experience this great sport at the highest level. It will be a great learning experience to see the best aerobatic pilots doing their thing!


Check out the boys on the WIN news WIN, and Paul pushing his way around an Unknown UNK .

Make this your homepage for the duration of the Championships, and follow the action.

Where to Begin Part III - Intermediate

Intermediate

Life starts to become a lot more interesting in Intermediate. You will need a more capable aircraft than what you may have learnt in, unless you really like to punish your mount or are already suitably equipped! You will also need to get a Low Level Permission to 1000ft AGL as the lower level for Intermediate is 1200ft.

Intermediate is a big step and should be approached methodically considering all the changes: possible new aircraft, new lower limit, new figures and coping with an Unknown sequence as well! You don’t want to max yourself out to the point safety is compromised.

Specific new figures you will have to fly are positive flicks on horizontal and +/-45 degree lines, and sustained inverted flight including inverted steep turns, and even a rolling turn on occasion. Your training sessions will have to include the Known (as it is scored in competiton, unlike in Advanced and Unlimited) and your Free sequence, as well as the permitted Unknown figures in Appendix 3 of the AAC Rule book. This is a high workload after the relative ease of Sportsman.

Once you have your head, hands and feet around most of the Intermediate stuff, it is a good time to get some extra aerobatic tuition and get signed up for inverted spinning, if you haven't already. This will give you more confidence inverted and allow you to safely start practice on some Advanced manoeuvres, lessening the step when/if you decide to move up a grade. About now you also want to start playing around with those dastardly rolling turns....

Advanced next week.

Cowra 9th August.

Beautiful weather, again, at Cowra. The aeroclub had a flying day on as well, so there were aircraft coming and going all day. Colin and I both got good training flights in, with Reggae on the radio. Some more locals also had joyflights with Colin. The BBQ was on max burner for lunch with some excellent egg and bacon rolls served up. One chap thought they were so good he had a second chew on one in the front of Colin's Extra.....

The flight home was memorable with smooth air and the low sun casting our shadows onto the wing, which Langdon used to advantage by making a dog, chicken and waterhorse silhouettes!! Excellent.

Our next weekend is the 12-13th September. We'll be having a judging seminar Saturday evening over pizza and beer (or wine, your choice).

NSW Training Weekend at Cowra

Well, here it is, the inaugaural blog! We'll try and give regular updates and keep you informd of what is going on in the (small) world of aerobatics in NSW and Australia.

While we advertised this training weekend at Cowra, in the end only Colin Appleton (club Treasurer) and myself (President) and Scott (student from Red Baron) made it. Colin busied himself with practising Advanced figures in the Extra 300, and exposing Scott and some of the locals to high performance aerobatics. Needles to say, all were amazed at what a specialist aerobatic aircraft can do! I arrived on Sunday morning and took the RV back up for some gentleman aeros as I surveyed potential box positioning. Much different to acro in the Giles, it is incredible what you get used to. Then I gave critique for Colin as he worked on the recalcitrant rolling circle manoeuvre. I think we made good progress. Outside rollers next time Colin.....I also took the Extra up for a run, and struggled through the Advanced Q. Again, it wasn't quite like the Giles - I've been spoilt I fear.

The locals made us very welcome. Glen from the aero club was most helpful, as was Paul Goard. We also met Bernie, the local CFI and still actively instructing at 83!! We look forward to working closely with them in the future.

The next training weekend is scheduled for 11-12 July. That's two months away, due to the Queensland Championships being held over the June long weekend. We intend having some box markers out then and minibus transport available. Check back for more info closer to the date.