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Aerobatic Lesson

"He’s a great stick n rudder instructor but has never flown aerobatics himself. My thinking is that while he’s not going to teach me, he’ll be my backup, having a good chance at fixing something if I get myself in trouble."

In my strong opinion, there is NOT a good chance a CFI who has never flown aerobatics will get you out of trouble during a botched maneuver. This requires the ability to both anticipate and see in real time errors that new pilots make with difference kinds of maneuvers, and to intervene with the proper inputs before things become dangerous. This takes experience. The non-aerobatic CFI is essentially dead weight up there. Either you are good to practice the basics on your own, or more practice with an aerobatic instructor is needed. This video shows very basic positive G stuff. I don't see any red flags in the pilot's performance.
 
In my strong opinion, there is NOT a good chance a CFI who has never flown aerobatics will get you out of trouble during a botched maneuver.

I completely agree with this. As a specific example, I'd be concerned about someone who's never been inverted trying to split-S out rather than push and roll to recover to an upright position.

It's interesting that someone who isn't ready to fly acro solo would bring along someone other than an aerobatics instructor. It's kind of like someone with a tailwheel endorsement who doesn't feel confident about their tailwheel abilities bringing along a pilot without any tailwheel experience. The benefit is unclear to me.
 
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I hate to pile on but I also completely agree with the previous posts...and he has one heckuva good friend to agree to that ride along. :) On the other hand, great job getting yourself ready for solo acro. I think too many RV pilots teach themselves, which is never a good idea.
 
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I also question the responsibility of that non-acro CFI if he presumed he could act in the capacity expected by the new acro pilot here...or if his expectation was to simply be along for the ride.
 
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