Artistic Aerobatics

[Bob Kane]

My opinion, and it is just that, is precision aerobatics is a sport for the competitor, not the spectator. To the uninitiated, it has all the excitement of watching paint dry. If we don't do something to spice it up a bit, it will go the way of Olympic Figure Skating.
 
I organized a pattern contest at a local municipal airport (former Naval Air Station) a few years ago. They closed a runway for the weekend for our use. After two years the airport board was unwilling to give up the weekend because we did not "draw a crowd". My competition was a Jet Rally started by Michigan Jets that same year. They generated enough revenue from paid parking to donate a few thousand dollars to Ronald McDonald House. That event is still going strong.
 
I believe we need to introduce something "watchable". Not so much change what we do during a regular contest, but add a special event at the end where music, smoke, and ooh-ahh manuevers would entertain a crowd. A club could advertise it as an airshow and maybe generate some revenue.


"Henderson,Eric" <Eric.Henderson at gartner.com> wrote:

As some of you may know I ran an FAI-FG1 event a couple of years ago at the Nat's after the finals. Quique, Troy and Chad Northeast put on a really great show for us while we waited for the Masters and FAI results.
 
I have not heard much about this event type since then. I was wondering if the FAI adopted it or not.
 
Flying a pattern type plane to music is very attractive. It is one of the few times where the plane does not drown-out the music! More correctly said, the planes have to comply with size weight and sound FAI regulations. They do not actually have to be what we fly in a pattern contest. Some guys use the same planes and swap-in 3-D wings and stabs. They often change their props.
 
It is, of course, the rest-of-the-world's version of IMAC freestyle.
 
I have written, not without a shot or two across my bows, that the delineator between precision aerobatics and scale aerobatics is that pattern is based on practicing the routine, a lot! 
I see IMAC pilots practicing tailslides and Harriers and torque rolls, but rarely the routines they fly. In particular, wannabe IMAC pilots fly the hover stuff for most of their flights. Once in a while I "push my luck" and I ask them why they practice most, the thing that they will do least, in a contest. (Maybe once in a freestyle routine at the end of an event). 
 
The answer always is, "Because I want to get better at it and it is fun".  Are they having more fun than us? I know that watching a loud plane hover over the runway is fun for a while but it gets old pretty quick and even becomes annoying. A bit like when we played our 45's on repeat. We coul listen to the same song, that we had just purchased, but our allegedly tone-deaf fathers were soon motivated to become "discus" throwers!!!!
 
The question is still out there however, "Are we boring?" and "Do we, (pattern pilots), need be more watchable"???
 
Regards, it is still winter - Eric.
 


Bob Kane
getterflash at yahoo.com

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