Sebring Aerobatic Championships: Most RV entries ever!

Kathy and I just returned from Sebring; 3.1 hours and over 2 hours IMC. The Sebring IAC Chapter 23 put on yet another outstanding event and four RV pilots competed. I recall that there was a "one design" contest in Giddings,Texas in 2008 but even after re-designing the Primary sequence to eliminate the spin only three RV's showed. I think we have proven that the RV is perfectly capable of flying the Primary and Sportsman IAC sequences without modification (spins included) and the four attending the Sebring event are proof of that. Bill McLean and I flew the Sportsman category and first timers Curt Sullivant and Mark Wesson flew in the Primary category. Curt flies a very nice RV-6 and Mark flies a very aerobatic RV-9 (yes, RV-9!). Both had a great time and promised to continue competing and hopefully bring a few buddies along to share the fun. Bill McLean took home a couple of third place medals for the first two flights and the rest of us had a good time too . I make no excuses but I will mention that I found that some highly qualified national IAC judges will not recognize a RV snap roll unless they see a definite positive pitch change prior to the roll. After getting a few "hard zeros" for my avalanche (loop with a snap roll on top) I was told by the contest director Marcus Cade that high performance monoplanes (Extras, MXs, etc) with full-span ailerons can do an aileron roll as quickly as a snap roll so to determine that a snap is not just an aileron roll the judges need to see a positive pitch change just prior to the rotation. Of course the RV with it's little ailerons can't possibly do an aileron roll as quickly as it can snap but most judges don't know that so I need to insure that the pitch up prior to my roll is more recognizable. I'll work on that.
Sebring is the final contest of the season so you aerobatic aspirants have a few months to prepare for 2016. The proposed "known" sequences for Primary and Sportsman categories are posted on the IAC web site. Start practicing!

best RV show yet

I also had a grand time, and sorry I missed the last flight yesterday, but needed to get back to Alabama before the front blocked my exit to Alabama. There were also two other RVers there in the contest. Dan Caldwell who has an RV-7A was flying a YAK 55, and Scott Farnsworth, who previously had an RV-8, raced at Reno, was flying a Xtreme Sbach in his first contest. I might add that not only did Ron fly well except for a couple of boo boos, he also flew down with his wife, plenty of luggage, and a couple of cute dogs. Now how many other aerobatic pilots can do that?
Lets get ready for next time, which will probably start in March.
Bill McLean
RV-4 slider
lower AL

Gonna have to leave the cookies and milk at home next time...focus!

Sebring IAC

What a great event.
Good weather, extremely helpful folks, better competition, and good participation. I believe I heard there were a total of 28 planes. 5 in Primary and 10 in Sportsman.

ronschreck said:

I make no excuses but I will mention that I found that some highly qualified national IAC judges will not recognize a RV snap roll unless they see a definite positive pitch change prior to the roll.

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Those judges are correct. As you're probably aware, the criteria for a snap roll call for just that: pg 8-26 of the rule book states: "At the start of a positive snap roll, the aircraft must clearly and unambiguously pitch in the nose up / tail down sense to put the wings near the critical AOA"

When I'm judging, I give a Hard Zero to snaps which do not display clear pitch prior to the start of the autorotation. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what the competitor is actually doing -- it only matters what the judges are able to discern from the judging line.

It's awesome to see RVs finally starting to make a larger footprint on the IAC competition scene! I've been advocating and waiting for this for a long time. It's incredible how small the flying base of Decathlons, Pitts, and Extras are -- especially when compared to the ~9200 RVs which have been completed. RVs should be the rule rather than the exception in the lower categories.

--Ron