Changes, Curiosity, and National Aerobatics Day

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the aerobatic contest calendar and all the other aviation events this year. Of course by the time you read this what I speculate now could be outdated, but I want to relay that the EAA fully expects that Airventure 2021 will happen. For that reason alone, I think we should be able to have a nearly complete contest calendar including the IAC US National Aerobatic Championship. Cross your fingers. Hopefully, you have been practicing!

Changes to the Judge and Rules Programs

We’ve recently had a change in our Judge and Rules programs. Doug Sowder has stepped down from the Rules program to take on other things. Doug is a good friend, an IAC President Emeritus, and a fantastic volunteer who will continue to serve the IAC in other areas. I’m sad to see him leave this position but very happy to announce that I’ve appointed Barrett Hines to take on the Rules program on an interim basis. Barrett is frequently called on to be a juror in contests in the Southwest region because of his calm demeanor, intellect, and his prodigious understanding of the subject matter.

Meanwhile, our Judge Chair, Wes Liu, has moved on after many years of faithful service. Wes put in an uncountable number of hours training judges. His attention to the problem of “Santa Claus” judges, as he likes to jokingly call them, was tireless and produced results. Wes made himself available throughout the contest season, never a phone call away when a judge candidate was ready to be certified and put on the judges line at the last moment. Wes’s attention to detail and dry humor added substance and personality to the program. He will be ably replaced on an interim basis with DJ Molny. DJ, who hails from Colorado, is familiar to many of you as a judge instructor and as a longstanding member of our IT Team.

These interim appointments will be put before the IAC Board of Directors at the Spring meeting in late March, where they may become official. Please reach out to all four of these exceptional volunteers to share your gratitude.

Aerobatic Fitness

This month we present an article from World Champion Francois LeVot. I first saw this information in a social media post and I knew we just had to have it more accessible to IAC members. Regardless of what category you participate in, aerobatics is an athletic activity. We don’t think of it that way in the US often enough. We could learn a lot from Francois.

The Importance of Curiosity

Aerobatics is not just an athletic activity, it’s also an intellectual one. For some unknown reason I was thinking a couple of days ago about how important curiosity is to becoming a great aerobatic pilot. A curious person does not repeat the same mistake over and over. A curious person tries new things. I remember when I was first learning snap rolls and I thought I had it down. I was doing it wrong again and again. Finally I just got in the airplane and started really playing with the timing, with how hard I pushed the rudder pedal, with the speed and force with which I unloaded the elevator input. An instructor a long time ago told me whenever I get stuck with something try “bracketing”. Bracketing is when you try things one way, then another way that is wildly different. When you practice “bracketing” you find lots of bad ways to do things, but you also get to narrow in and find out exactly what works the best. When you get stuck, get curious.

Curiosity is also an asset when it comes to solving big problems. I know the IAC is vibrant and alive, as is the sport of aerobatics, but like any sport it has problems. Some of them go way back. But there is no problem we can’t solve without working together in a curious manner. When we lose our curiosity we become like me when I was learning snaps: we do the same wrong thing over and over. If you feel like your local aerobatic community is stuck, get curious. Experiment.

Get Your Start and National Aerobatics Day

The IAC has rolled out its 2021 marketing initiative, which is called “Get Your Start”. The focus this year is on first-time competitors. There are a lot of barriers to getting started in aerobatics so we want to encourage everyone who is brave enough to take on the risk and dedicated enough to expend their time and money on flying acro. What you can do to help is invite people to come out and join in on the fun. You don’t have to do anything fancy, just tell them about what you do and how great it is. If everyone in the IAC spreads that message to a couple dozen people in 2021 we will be overflowing with members in 2022. I know you can do it!

The last item I get to share is that I hereby proclaim that the third Saturday in June is now “National Aerobatics Day”! We will be promoting this on social media and we ask that you do the same. National Aerobatics Day is the perfect day to host an aerobatic camp, a bbq, a practice session, or to share videos of your aerobatic activity online. We hope that National Aerobatics Day will become as famous as National Podiatry Day (October 8th) and National Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19). Yar!

I am always available for you at president@iac.org.