Author: Mike Riggs
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/09
Page Numbers: 100,101,102
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Are you "good enough?"

Mike Riggs <[email protected]>

Before my club hosted this year’s Treasure Valley Pattern Contest, I asked some fellow club members if they planned to enter. My sales pitch went something like, “Sportsman is free and you’ll get to fly on a day when the field will be closed to general flying.”

Surprisingly, some responded that they are “just not good enough” pilots to enter a Pattern contest. Maybe they didn’t want to enter or were just being polite. I don’t know. However, I do know that if you can take off, loop, roll, and land your airplane, you have the skills and equipment necessary to fly in a Pattern contest. I’d even bet many CDs, including me, would let people fly Sportsman on a buddy box.

Why pilots hesitate

Perhaps some of the “I’m not good enough” stems from Pattern maneuvers having unfamiliar names. I’ve often been asked the difference between a Half Reverse Cuban Eight and a Half Cuban Eight.

Within the Cuban family of maneuvers, the word “reverse” means pull up 45° first. A Half Reverse Cuban Eight means pull up 45°, perform a half roll, and then loop through with elevator to upright, level flight. In contrast, a Half Cuban Eight means pull through a loop until pointed 45° downward, roll upright, and pull to level flight. The same type of relationship exists between the Immelmann Turn and the Split S maneuver. Instead of the first or last segment being a 45° up or down line, these maneuvers start and end with level flight. An Immelmann Turn is a half loop and roll upright; Split S is the opposite: half roll to inverted and half loop to upright and level. In each maneuver, the half roll and half loop are a continuous motion without hesitation between them.

Sportsman center maneuvers explained

Adding to the confusion, the Sportsman sequence has a couple of oddly named center maneuvers.

  • Double Immelmann without rolls: It’s essentially a loop with a flat segment on top and bottom. Pull a half loop, fly straight and level inverted, then finish the back half of the loop to upright level flight. An excellent exercise is to stretch this maneuver to the box ends.
  • Cobra without rolls: It sounds daunting but is just the top of a triangle. Staying upright the entire maneuver, pull up to 45°, push down to 45°, and level out at the beginning altitude. Think of it as “straight and level flight” with a centered bump in the middle.

Many pilots routinely do Pattern maneuvers in their everyday flying. For pattern purposes they are given formal names or labels. Nothing in the Sportsman schedule requires a Pattern airplane or super flying skills. The maneuvers themselves are not hard. Stringing them together precisely is the challenge. If the opportunity arises, consider giving Pattern a try with whatever airplane and skills you have. If you don’t like it after a round or two, drop out of the contest. Nobody will think any less of you. Who knows, you may have fun, feel a sense of accomplishment, or become Sportsman of the Month. Pattern is flown outside; it’s an outdoor sport, hobby, activity—whatever label you choose to put on it.

Contest participation and hosting

As evidenced at the second Treasure Valley Pattern Contest, participants travel and come to fly, even in challenging weather conditions. With the exception of three local entrants, the minimum distance driven by any contestant was slightly more than 300 miles.

We had 11 contestants last May. It was a small contest, but it represents a 20% growth in the contest’s second year.

You do not have to be a Pattern club to hold a Pattern contest. The Pattern community will bring its show to you—in most cases, CD included. All you have to do is a little leg work to get approval from the club for use of the field. Here in NSRCA District 8, the hosting club keeps the proceeds after subtracting minimal expenses for things such as plaques and printer ink.

Boise is 300 miles from nowhere; if our club can draw contestants, yours can too. The U.S. national F3A champion, Andrew Jesky, and his friend Darin Peirce, showed how well Pattern people travel. They drove to Boise from the Salt Lake City area. Think that was far? In early April, Andrew drove 600-plus miles to attend the NSRCA District 7 contest in Victorville, California.

Boise was Darin’s first Pattern contest since 1997. Darin is no slouch at the sticks. He finished second in F3A behind Andrew. He tells me that he and Andrew both enjoyed themselves and will be back next year.

Are you interested in hosting a Pattern contest? Go to the NSRCA website, figure out what district you’re in, and contact your district’s vice president. If you need help contacting him, get in touch with me. I’ll be happy to help. This is what I did to get the Treasure Valley Pattern Contest started.

See my full 2011 Treasure Valley Pattern Contest report and pictures on the NSRCA District 8 website.

Andrew Jesky: dedication and practice

During the contest, I had the chance to talk to Andrew about his goals and expectations for the then-upcoming 2011 World Championship in Muncie, Indiana.

The first impression is a lasting impression. The U.S. could not hope for a better Pattern ambassador than Andrew. He is truly a remarkable person, with outstanding talent, and unsurpassed dedication.

I have remarked in a previous column about not having time to practice enough to become a world champion even if I had talent. I knew being a champion took a lot of time and effort, but I was shocked when Andrew told me he practices six flights per day at least six days a week.

In nearly all conditions, Andrew practices on an abandoned road to represent the U.S. at the 2011 F3A World Championship. He began his current practice regimen as soon as winter began releasing its icy grip on Utah.

Andrew explained his practice routine is what he feels is required to ensure he is as prepared as he can be for the 2011 World Championship. Did I mention he is a very dedicated person?

Andrew takes great pride in his first-place finish at the 2010 team selection. It gives him the additional title of United States F3A Team Captain and is the next step toward his ultimate goal of being F3A World Champion.

After winning Masters at the 2002 U.S. Nationals it took Andrew five long years of hard work to get back on the podium with a third-place finish in F3A at the 2007 Nationals, followed by second place in 2008, and first place in 2009.

Andrew’s 14-year modeling career began innocently enough with his brother asking their dad for a model airplane. Soon after learning to fly, he entered a Pattern contest and liked it. With his family’s full support, Andrew climbed through the ranks of Pattern.

While preparing to fly in Advanced at the Nationals he met Verne Koester. Since that time, Verne has been Andrew’s coach and caller.

A couple weeks before the World Championship begins, Andrew will be traveling back to the Midwest where Verne will help put the final polish on Andrew’s flying. Then Verne and Andrew will join the rest of our U.S. team to practice and compare notes before the contest begins. Go USA!

F3P and the Contra Drive

F3P is now an official world championship class. We can expect to have the first world championship in 2015. For those who are unfamiliar with F3P, it is Indoor Aerobatics.

Inspired by Silvestri Sabatini’s European Contra Drive, Brenner Sharp, an engineer for Whirlpool Corporation, and Mike Gaishin, owner of Gaishin Manufacturing, set out to design their own Contra Drive in the fall of 2009. Brenner and Mike successfully debuted their creation at the 2010 Nats.

In the next column we will take an in-depth look at the Contra Drive and how it fared at this year’s Nats and F3A World Championship. Is Contra Drive a game changer for Pattern?

After reading my May column about Pattern economics, Eric Runfeldt from Killeen, Texas, suggested looking at ARF parts for a source of cheaper parts. He went so far as to recommend carrying a tape measure to measure ARFs at the flying field. Thank you, Eric!

Flight complete. MR

Sources

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.