OK folks! "Primary" category is the introductory level of competitive aerobatics so let's take this one step at a time. I'm open to sharing everything I've figured out so far so that all y'all will go out and first, be safe, and second, be awesome! A lot of you have way more experience than I do so that's where we'll round the curve and get everyone doing the best they can do.
ABOVE ALL ELSE, if you have any doubts about a particular maneuver or how to get started, ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS but also FIND A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR to help you and to keep you safe while you learn. Please don't hurt yourself by rushing into this unprepared.
The organization in the United States that organizes competitive aerobatic clubs and contests is the International Aerobatic Club, or IAC. Yes I said "competitive" but the reality is you compete mostly against yourself. In each flight you strive to better your performance from the last flight and with each flight/contest/year you see yourself improving in your scores. If you're moving up in the standings after each contest or moving up to more difficult categories, that is all secondary to what you are doing to make yourself better. It's an important point to make, you are your most important competition.
IAC's homepage
www.iac.org
As for instructors, the IAC maintains a list of schools around the world. You can find it here;
In "competitive" (maybe "organized" would be a better word?) aerobatics there are figures which are the maneuvers and there are sequences which are the combinations of figures that make up the routine you'll fly. When you join IAC and can get behind their paywall (
) you'll see the sequences that have been published for the different levels of difficulty, Primary, Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced, Unlimited. We're talking about the Primary sequence here which is perfectly doable in our 115 hp Citabria 7ECA's even without inverted systems.
There are sequences that are published in advance, they're called the "Knowns". There are sequences that are dropped on the competitors the weekend of the contests and that have to be flown that weekend, they're called the "Unknowns". Lastly, there are sequences that the competitors design themselves and they are called the "Free". Primary only uses a known sequence and it's mostly the same each year.
Here is the current Known sequence.
Every sequence actually includes three pages, the A page, the B page, and the C page. The A page is used for scoring, the B page shows the sequence with the wind coming from the right, the C page shows the sequence with the wind coming from the left. There are some differences as to how the sequence should be flown depending on the winds so the Chief Judge at each contest on each day will declare if page B or page C is to be used and you'll have to make some minor adjustments to how you fly the maneuvers based on that. But we're here to decode the perfect loop, roll, etc so let's not worry about the subtleties of nailing the perfect sequence just yet.
In the next post we'll go through the sequence and look at each maneuver. Once we've done that all y'all can start in with the comments and questions at which point I'll be learning with the rest of you!
ABOVE ALL ELSE, if you have any doubts about a particular maneuver or how to get started, ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS but also FIND A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR to help you and to keep you safe while you learn. Please don't hurt yourself by rushing into this unprepared.
The organization in the United States that organizes competitive aerobatic clubs and contests is the International Aerobatic Club, or IAC. Yes I said "competitive" but the reality is you compete mostly against yourself. In each flight you strive to better your performance from the last flight and with each flight/contest/year you see yourself improving in your scores. If you're moving up in the standings after each contest or moving up to more difficult categories, that is all secondary to what you are doing to make yourself better. It's an important point to make, you are your most important competition.
IAC's homepage
Latest News | International Aerobatic Club
www.iac.org
As for instructors, the IAC maintains a list of schools around the world. You can find it here;
In "competitive" (maybe "organized" would be a better word?) aerobatics there are figures which are the maneuvers and there are sequences which are the combinations of figures that make up the routine you'll fly. When you join IAC and can get behind their paywall (
) you'll see the sequences that have been published for the different levels of difficulty, Primary, Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced, Unlimited. We're talking about the Primary sequence here which is perfectly doable in our 115 hp Citabria 7ECA's even without inverted systems.There are sequences that are published in advance, they're called the "Knowns". There are sequences that are dropped on the competitors the weekend of the contests and that have to be flown that weekend, they're called the "Unknowns". Lastly, there are sequences that the competitors design themselves and they are called the "Free". Primary only uses a known sequence and it's mostly the same each year.
Here is the current Known sequence.
Every sequence actually includes three pages, the A page, the B page, and the C page. The A page is used for scoring, the B page shows the sequence with the wind coming from the right, the C page shows the sequence with the wind coming from the left. There are some differences as to how the sequence should be flown depending on the winds so the Chief Judge at each contest on each day will declare if page B or page C is to be used and you'll have to make some minor adjustments to how you fly the maneuvers based on that. But we're here to decode the perfect loop, roll, etc so let's not worry about the subtleties of nailing the perfect sequence just yet.
In the next post we'll go through the sequence and look at each maneuver. Once we've done that all y'all can start in with the comments and questions at which point I'll be learning with the rest of you!
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