First place!

For the better part of last week I was up in Northern California preparing for and ultimately flying in the annual Paso Robles aerobatic contest. Paso Robles hosts the largest competition of the year for the west coast. On Wednesday morning I flew up to King City California where I worked with Ben Freelove at the Sean D. Tucker school of aviation safety to help me prepare a little bit before the contest. Ben is one of the schools head instructors and a member of the USA Advanced Aerobatic Team. He is an awesome stick.

I stayed the night in King City and had the pleasure of sleeping at the school, which is kind of like being at airplane camp for grown ups. I slept on a futon in the hangar surrounded by beautiful aerobatic airplanes. The next morning the whole group from the school got up, prepped the planes and headed south 40 miles to Paso Robles for the official contest practice day. With the number of competitors (60 overall) flying in the contest, I was only able to get 10 minutes of flying in the contest aerobatic box. Practicing in the contest box is always helpful as each venue has different sight cues that are used throughout one's routine to help orient properly during the contest flights.





On Friday morning, I got my first official contest turn in the box. I ended up having my best contest flight of my short aerobatic career, putting me solidly in first place. That evening, Ben Marcus from jetAVIVA showed up with his girl friend Jessica in a Phenom 100 to show support for my final two flights.







My second flight went OK... I got 2nd place, however, I still had first place overall due to the total points scored between the two flights.






Time finally came for my third and final flight. I felt like my third flight was not my best flight of the series, and it showed in my scores. I got 4th place on the the third flight. However, due to my very strong first flight and relative high placement on the second two flights(out of 20 competitors) combined with a little bit of luck, I managed to squeeze a first place overall finish with only a 2 point advantage over second place (out of a 4000 total points!).





The next contest I'll be competing at will be the USA Nationals Contest in Texas. The best aerobatic pilots in the country will be flying at the national contest and ultimately the champion for each category will be named after the completion of the contest.

Until next time...