Sometimes It Just Doesn’t Work – A Nice Lazy Start

So I figured; after a nice long mornings sleep and arriving at the field just before noon, rather then the usual 8 in the morning for brief and practice, due to the morning rain, I would be ready to go. We’ll… have you ever had one of those days where you were a little off? And I don’t mean off in an unsafe way. Hell, we are flying aerobatics, this is a great day. But when it comes to flying precisely, a sequence of 10 to 15 figures, for people that are looking for five degrees of error in all three planes and deducting 1 point for every five degrees, not being “on” is usually not great for well scored competition runs. LOL. But hey it’s the first contest of the year and it is May. How much practice have we gotten in, right? So I am approaching this one as the warm up, but seriously none the less.

I saddle up for my practice flight of the “Known” sequence. Launch off for the last flight in the box before pilot brief and the start of the contest. So it’s kind of a weird spot but no big deal, I get to fly.

By the time I get to altitude things are feeling better and I get about 30 seconds to think while the guy before me is called, “times up, clear the box” then I am called in for my ten minutes. Ron and Steve are on the ground and are kind enough to take an interest and add some great critique.

“Ok guys, I’m on base about to dive into the box”

“Gotch you, insight”, they reply.

As I am diving in everything seems ok and I start the sequence. I get through the first half of it and miss a roll, zero the figure, it’s practice, I have 10 minutes, so I climb back up start over. Toward the end I miss something else, not a good practice run. I ask how much time is left?

“They aren’t ready down here so you have time.” Ron says.

“Huh”, I figure “wow, lucky me”, I am thinking.

“Let’s do it again” I radio down. Thinking to myself, “I’ll get it this time.”

As I dive in for my third attempt, I get through figure one and they call me off, times up…

Knowing I was pushing it anyway, I break off and land. As I am taxing up everyone is already waiting for the brief to start. So I get 98R shut down, double check mags and master, make sure she is parked then get my ass to the brief.