This is such a fun niche of the aviation world that I have only begun to discover.
I completed my 1st year of aerobatic competition in my Citabria flying at the contests in Hondo and Edna TX in the primary division. I was the only pilot in primary in those two contests and won by default, but the trophies are nice. My scores improved each time and I learned a lot more in the process of being apart of these events. My goal for the first year was to win the Texas series championship in Primary which I was glad to receive a trophy at the following year's Lone Star Aerobatic Championship.
After having a lot of fun the first year, I set my 2nd year goal of being able to fly in the Sportsman division. This division is more challenging for pilots flying high performance airplanes and the sequence is basically the most I can do with the 118hp Citabria. I spent the spring practicing the more difficult sequence and got relatively comfortable with the figures I would have to fly. Each practice run would leave me out of breath and exhausted. I never got the chance to have another pilot judge my flying so I had no idea of how good or bad I was flying.
Finally May rolled around and I was happy to be a part of the 2024 Lone Star Aerobatic Championship and compete in the higher division. I enjoyed meeting the other pilots and flying the more exciting sequence. My main goal was to fly three clean runs and let the scores fall where they may. My scores weren't high, but I was happy with them considering the equipment I was working with. At the end of the weekend I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had placed 8th out of 13 pilots.
Unfortunately the next competition in Kansas City was canceled due to weather and I suffered from maintenance issues over the summer so I didn't get to practice as much as I would have liked. However with the slow schedule at work I made the decision to enter the two remaining Texas competitions and sign up for the IAC Nationals in September. I knew I was hopelessly outclassed in airplane, but I just wanted to go an enjoy the experience and learn from the other pilots competing at that level.
In September the contest at Hondo was a great warm up for the Nationals. I got to fly against several pilots and really work on improving my scores. I got some good advice on how to fly the more difficult figures so they would look better to the judges. When I got back I immediately got to work cleaning up the airplane as much as I could. I knew I would have top scores, but at least I could have a nice looking aircraft. I was able to get my parents to come down to Ft Worth to help watch the kids for the week and Saturday morning I was heading North before the sun was even up.
Once I arrived in Salina KS I went through the usual paperwork and inspections that I had done before at every contest. The only difference was the scale, Nationals had ninety pilots competing this year. Just like any big operation it was a lot of hurry up and wait. I was excited to meet the younger kids on the college teams. I managed to fly the last practice session before a heavy storm rolled in. Once I landed I discovered I couldn't make the turn off the runway with the strong winds pushing my tail around. I had to shut down, jump out, physically push my plane off the runway, realign it into the wind, and then hop back in to taxi to the hangar. Once I got to the hangar doors, about ten kids from the college team grabbed the wings and tail to push it into the hangar.
The rest of the contest flew by. I was assigned to help judges who were scoring the intermediate and primary divisions. I had never seen the gliders fly competition aerobatics before so that was a new experience. My first two flights went ok, but the judges were strict and I didn't score as high as I would have liked, but my third flight scored about as well as I could expect. One thing that was really nice about the nationals was that every flight was videoed and live-streamed on Youtube. I actually got to watch myself fly the sequence right after landing which was great for learning from my mistakes. Most importantly my boys got to watch me fly from home.
At the end of the week I was ready to fly home. I had met my goal of three clean runs, and finished 2nd to last. I had approached this event as one where I would be competing against myself and was generally happy with my scores and what I had accomplished. Three weeks later I flew again at the Texas 2 Step in Edna which should be N86594's last contest. Earlier this summer I had purchased a Pitts S1C and next year I won't be limited by the airplane I am flying, I'll only have myself to blame.
Flying aerobatics has been so much fun and has made me a much better and confident pilot.
