Bill McLean cleans up at aerobatic competition

[ronschreck]

Against a field of twelve competitors, Bill McLean easily took home first place in the Sportsman category at the Bear Creek Bash IAC competition in Rome, Georgia this past weekend. The field included several Extras and Pitts flown by some of the best aerobatic pilots in the region and Bill easily topped them all in his RV-4 with an overall score of over 84%. Well done, Bill. Congratulations!

[Bob Martin]

Wow......glad to hear that. Impressive for sure.
Congrats to Bill McLean.

[N941WR]

Great job Bill!

So, RV's are competitive after all. Well, not my -9 and not any RV piloted by me anyway.

[f14av8r]

Simply an amazing performance by a great competitor! Way to go Bill!

[flyr747]

Congratulations Bill, wish I could have been there to fly and watch you fly.

Way to go !!!

[sandifer]

Originally Posted by N941WR

So, RV's are competitive after all.

Unfortunately most of the resistance to this notion originated within the RV community itself. I hope this discussion is now for the archives. Bill never had an agenda- he evolved into a top level Sportsman pilot in the country who just happened to fly an RV. He put in the work and gained the experience and skill, pure and simple. Bill's flying is a pleasure to watch. It's an exercise in calm, smooth mastery of the airplane. He does not fly with lots of speed, RPM, G's or intense flailing of the hands and feet. He just casually puts the airplane through its paces with cool precision and efficiency. It never even sounds like his 160 hp motor with FP prop is working very hard. And he did it all in 95 degree Georgia heat.

Congratulations Bill!

BTW, Ron in his RV-8 placed second in the Known flight behind Bill, among a field of (12) Sportsman pilots. But by choice he flies a virtual Intermediate level Freestyle sequence for the 2nd and 3rd flights, which even when flown very well makes it hard to edge the pilots flying regular Sportsman Free sequences. But he really shows the airplane off. Well done fellas!

[WillyEyeBall]

After our first flight, which is called the Known, and everyone flies the same sequence, I was in first and Ron was slightly behind in second for the two RVs. We already starting hearing the ?metal mafia? sarcasm in a friendly way, because everyone in IAC has been trying to encourage the RVs to compete and enjoy the fun with a very capable aircraft. If Ron had flown the same sequence for the next two flights without any improvement in his scores, which most of the participants did, then Ron would have been 3rd. Eric in his IO-360 S1S Pitts was competing against several current or former members of the US Advanced World Team flying MXs, Panzls, and Extras with hoped up IO-540s. He hadn?t been flying for several months while his Pitts was being repair, but he still placed 3rd in his Free Style. We owe a lot of our improvement to Eric, who is the one that has helped Ron and I both, critiquing our sequences from the ground and our proposed free style designs.
Bill McLean
RV-4 slider
lower AL