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).

So, you want to be an aerobatic pilot....,

Over the next few weeks I'll be adding information relevant to aerobatics pilots, judges, and others interested in the sport. The best place to start is usually at the beginning, so off we go!

The Beginning

Like many other beginners, you probably aren’t quite sure how to go about getting involved in competition aerobatics. But, like most sports, the first thing to do is join your local club ( nsw.aerobatics.asn.au ) where you will find many like-minded people who can point you in the right direction.

The first step, if you already have a pilot licence, is to get an aerobatic endorsement. Flying schools that can do this are listed on the contacts page of our website. The syllabus and aircraft type may vary between schools, but as a minimum you will need to be able to fly the basic aerobatic manoeuvres: barrel roll, loop, slow roll, roll of the top and stall turn. You will also need a spinning endorsement, which most schools should include in their aerobatic syllabus.

Some Furphy’s you may hear:

1. ‘You need a parachute to fly aerobatics.’ This furphy arose because in the USA the International Aerobatic Club requires a parachute to be worn in their competitions (IAC also require a secondary lap belt or restraint, which is the source of the double harnesses now commonplace), and the US FAA requires parachutes when doing aerobatics dual. In Australia it is not mandatory to wear a parachute while flying aerobatics. However, some aircraft flight manuals specify that a parachute is mandatory in the aircraft (eg. Extra), so check for your aircraft type. If you want to wear one, that’s fine, but it is a personal choice.

2. ‘You need a Low Level Waiver/Permission to compete.’ No, in the lower grades (up to Sportsman) you can come along and fly above 3000ft AGL without a problem. Once involved in the sport you can then decide if you wish to progress to lower altitudes and higher grades. CASA Delegates able to issue low level aerobatic permissions are listed on our website also.

3. ‘It costs a lot to join the AAC and there aren’t many competitions.’ This was true once, but now you can elect to join only your local State Club and only pay their membership fee ($38 p.a. in NSW). This will allow you to fly in all NSW Club Training Days, Club Competitions and the annual State Championship. Check the calendar on the website, but we have something on every month except Dec/Jan . So you can get value for money and not have to travel interstate.

4. ‘I need a specialist aerobatic aircraft.’ You will need an aircraft that is approved for aerobatics, true, but any aerobatic training aircraft can be flown competitively up to and including Sportsman category. Intermediate category is where basic aerobatic aircraft start to become limiting. You don’t even need inverted fuel and oil systems in the lower grades (Entry, Graduate, Sportsman). Victa, Citabria, Aerobat, Tiger Moth, Tipsy Nipper, Robin/Alpha, Stampe, Skybolt, RV-4/6/7/8, T-18, Cassutt, Corby Starlet, Sonerai – and many more, can get you into the sport at an affordable price.

So give it some thought and make some enquiries. Next time we'll look at the competition categories.

Don't forget our next training weekend is the 8-9th August at Cowra.