Remembering Nikolai Timofeev and Working Within Limits

Saying Goodbye to Nikolai Timofeev

I can’t begin this article without communicating a heartfelt thanks and a sad goodbye to Nikolai Timofeev, who passed away in July. Nikolai was a fierce competitor during his competition days, but is best known now as a coach.

I never had the pleasure of working with Nikolai as a student, but I did coach a few camps alongside him. He was a hard-working person who built strong relationships with his students. He was a coach with a method, not just someone who offered simple ground critique. Nikolai came out of the Russian system when it was at its peak. He had amazing eyes and good mechanics. He could tell his students exactly what they needed to do as he perceived every error. He had a great wit that he employed to calm students when they felt overwhelmed. I really enjoyed knowing him and I loved watching him work.

Nikolai touched the lives of more pilots than I can count, and since his passing I’ve heard from many of them about what they learned from him and what they miss about him.

The loss is deeply felt by everyone on the US Advanced Aerobatic Team, many of whom remember his coaching style and companionship when he coached the team in 2018. Our thanks to him and our condolences to his family. I have no doubt that some of our team members will be thinking of him and dedicating their flights to him at this year’s World Advanced Aerobatic Championships.

Work Within Your Limits

Since I’ve spent more time coaching than flying this year, I’ve learned quite a bit about how other pilots think, especially new pilots. We are all different and we all put things together in different ways. Learning everyone else’s internal processes is one of the challenges and joys of teaching.

One thing that we all seem to have in common, though, is that we all seem to think we can beat the clock and find a way to learn faster than everyone else. We like to think that it just might be true that we have an innate gift and a challenging sport like aerobatics might be easier for us than for others. We imagine that we will be able to fly at the highest levels in no time at all, as long as we burn enough fuel.

The reality is that the longer you are in the sport of aerobatics, the more you learn about the challenges, and the more you can see just how much practice and feedback it takes to fly the best. This sport is hard. It takes time.

Last year I wrote an article for Sport Aerobatics about Roll Drills. I’ve referred to this article literally dozens of times this year. It’s my belief that if a pilot has really mastered rolls that the sport becomes much easier. There are too many people trying to cover up roll errors, even in the Advanced or Unlimited categories. Get these fundamentals in order. The best way to do this is to build up aerobatic time in a plane like a Super Decathlon or Great Lakes.

Also, while you are building up skills, be compassionate with yourself. If you have trouble doing a figure, find a way to make it as easy as possible. Having a problem with rollers? You aren’t alone! So do them big and smooth for a while. Make them smaller as you build up skill. With pretty much every figure, you can find ways to make it easier on your body and mind, and probably easier on the airplane as well. There is a time and place for flying hard, but it makes no sense to add athleticism to poor technique. Guitarists do not learn to play blistering solos by jumping on stage, plugging in, and playing furiously with no technique whatsoever. They build up speed slowly by playing scales and arpeggios until they can do these things blindfolded.

Not just in aerobatics, but in everything in life, take care of yourself.

IAC Website

I’m really excited that our long-awaited new web site is almost ready, and I’m hopeful it will be in place and running smoothly by the time you read this. I’m thankful to our volunteers in the IT Team for their leadership on this challenging project, and I’d like to especially thank DJ Molny and Brennon York for their hard work.

The IAC web site is more complicated than most because it archives so much information. During this project I dug through our archives and found a lot of interesting information in documents like the IAC Tech Tips. The sport has changed a lot since the early 70s, but many things will never change and we owe it to future generations of aerobatic pilots to preserve our history.

Contest Season

As I type this, we are about halfway through our contest season. We have a lot of great engagement this year. It’s a bit too early to say but I think we’ve fully recovered now from the COVID period as it looks like our participation is back to its pre-COVID levels. Membership is staying strong at about 4,000 members. I look forward to seeing many of you at the IAC Nationals in Salina in September and I’m always available for you at president@iac.org!