Excellence, Masters and F3A(FAI)

[mike mueller]

 Very well stated. Thanks, Mike

"Henderson,Eric" <Eric.Henderson at gartner.com> wrote:There is a thing in life that we call "Leap of faith". For some of us it was that move from sport flying to actually entering a fun-fly or even a pattern contest. Once that leap has been taken it seems far easier than before the leap. Also the human mind minimizes and softens the pre-moment memory with the balm of progress or success.

What that means is that once someone like Troy, (Not picking on you - so hold off on the keyboard for a moment), someone like Troy has taken these leaps, has grown, and has had success, he naturally would like all of us to have the same joy of his experiences.

It is easy for the trepidations to be long forgotten and very hard to place yourself in a past position and fully recall what it felt like. 

When I was a kid I played in teams where everyone was always several years ahead of me and I became familiar with those pressures. When it came to flying I moved up as fast as I could and even jumped into FAI. The advice that you often hear is that you learn so much more by flying one class up is often heard. True, but not true for everyone. 

It takes a tremendous leap of faith to move into and try and compete in FAI. The class always seems to be two years ahead of me. Said another way I always seem to be able to fly the defunct schedule better than the new one. (Seems to take me three years to get it close to right)

Where this all takes me is that, although I too cannot fully recall the fears of pre-FAI, I still can have plenty of feedback and notes on the subject. 

The USA has a 100 plus pilots who fly Masters. The Masters schedules allow you to fly maneuvers that help you move to FAI, BUT only IF YOU WANT TO. The Master class schedules are currently designed to test you as a Masters pilot and not an FAI pilot. You only have to learn one schedule for three years and you don't have to have the latest, lightest and most powerful planes to fly them. (The last two were all originally tested with a 1.20 powered SEQUEL) 

FAI, on the other hand, does require top of-the-line equipment. P-05 has a vertical positive snap that requires a "Mungo-horse", or a 10 lb or less "ship", to get it to keep going high enough for the following mid-entry-vertical-8.

For those who want to make that leap-of-faith and also the leap-of-investment, more power to them and their wallet. For those of us who want a class that is in range and does not have rolling loop and circle finals, we basically have what we want and need. 

I do worry that Masters is harder to reach from Advanced than it use to be, but that's another tale....

Leapin' off...

Eric.
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