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Acro Mom
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Know what the difference is between an acro mom and a pit-bull? Lipstick. Ok, bad joke, I know. But hey, it worked for Sarah Palin. And speaking of Sarah Palin, I’ve had just about enough of her! She’s stealing my thunder.
First she was a PTA mom. So was I. I was a soccer mom, too. Then I was a karate mom. Then I was a rugby mom. Do you know how many female rugby teams there are in this neck of the woods? There were none when Fifinella was bitten by the rugby bug, so she started one of her own. I notice that the crowds are getting smaller at each of Fifinella’s events as we go along.
And now here comes Ms. Smarty Pants Sarah Palin from Alaska; hockey mom, able to field dress a moose, and Vice Presidential candidate to boot!
Could the crowd at the latest aerobatic contest get any smaller?
I’m pretty sure it’s all Sarah Palin’s fault. I’ll bet before she was in the running there were a lot more people flocking to acro contests instead of political functions. Or not.
I’m not quite sure I agree with this poster. Both Electric Horseman and I came away from Delano with food poisoning. But you don’t need the details about that. And what’s with the vultures on the poster, anyway? I heard mutterings about just how boring a spectator sport this was, so perhaps they were an indication of that. If you are not a diehard flier, or do not have a family member competing, there is no reason you would not run screaming from an acro contest after the first half hour.
At any given time there is one – count ‘em – one plane in the air going through its sequence. And it’s up there quite a ways, where you need to look hard to keep your eye on it. It’s not like at the air shows, where the cowboys are flying about two feet above the tarmac, right in your face.
The sun also adds a nice touch. For a good part of any sequence, it seems the pilot is right in the middle of the sun, so you go half blind trying to spot the plane. Everyone’s arms got very tired by the end of the weekend.
All of that said, I do have a vested interest in this sport, since our daughter has chosen to purse aerobatic flying. When she’s competing, I’m there, if at all possible. So I’m poking fun at this sport, but truly I hold these pilots in very high esteem. This is a very physically and mentally challenging sport, requiring precise planning on the part of the pilot.
Fifinella’s planning started earlier in the week and fell apart as plans sometimes do. She had intended to fly her plane, the Ballistic Butterfly, in the competition, but had engine trouble when it came time to depart her home airport.
Back in the hangar, people started trying to diagnose the problem.
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Maverick likes all parts of the plane
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Maverick prefers to be in the cockpit, but he also enjoys working on planes – especially his own!
It quickly became clear that the Ballistic Butterfly was not going to be flown anywhere any time soon. Fifinella, however, had other options up her sleeve.
Soon she was winging her way with a friend to the plane that she would use in the competition (a resourceful pilot always has a back-up plan). She spent the next afternoon and morning getting a few practice flights in this plane, a very different plane than the Ballistic Butterfly. It was a monoplane called an Extra, for starters, whereas BB is a Pitts biplane.
The flying is done in what is called an aerobatic “box”. Imagine a block of air that is 1,000 meters long by 1,000 meters wide (3,300’ x 3,300’). The top is at 3,500’ above the ground. The height of the bottom of the box varies depending upon the class being flown. The classes are Primary, Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced, and Unlimited. Pilots in less complex classes (i.e., pilots with less experience flying aerobatics) are required to stay higher. The bottom of the box ranges from 328’ to 1,500’.
Each pilot flies 3 times over two days. Fifinella was competing in the Sportsman class. This was only her second contest and she told me she would be happy to not finish last.
Each class is given a known sequence to practice prior to the contest. There is a lot more that goes on than I’m telling you here, of course, but you get the general idea. The more advanced classes must, in addition to flying the known sequence that is distributed long before the contest, also fly an unknown sequence.
This was the unknown sequence for the advanced class. They’re given this information on Saturday night, but they are not allowed to practice flying it. They can only study it and “walk it” (more on this later) on the ground.
Everyone pitches in to help. When pilots aren’t flying, they are volunteering to help the judges, or the starters, or someone else. Each judge has two assistants to help capture all his or her comments so that the pilot gets plenty of important feedback.
These hearty folks are loaded up and headed out to the judging area. It’s only 106 (41C) degrees. The sunscreen was flowing freely.
The judges sit right at the middle of the “box”, along one boundary, in order to have the best view of the plane above.
While one plane is in the box performing, another is in the hold position, and another is being launched to get ready to go into the hold position. That means there are plenty of pilots wandering around the tarmac, thinking about their sequences, helping their fellow pilots, or harassing each other.
Fifinella was happy to have us there, but she made it clear that she would not be bopping around with me.
“I have to get in my zone, Mom, so don’t bother me,” she told me.
Only my daughter picks a spot next to thousands of gallons of AV gas to get in her zone.
Good thing she didn’t see her father goofing off while she was getting in her zone.
Here’s the plane she would be flying, along with 2 other pilots. It was going to be one busy plane!
When Fifinella wasn’t fulfilling her volunteer duties, she was mentally preparing for her flight. Part of that preparation includes “walking” through the sequence. Here's a video clip that shows what that's all about:
When total isolation was needed, the “office” came into play.
Fifinella and Maverick’s car came in handy. They left it running, with the air conditioner on max, so that whichever pilot needed a break from the heat and noise could escape for a few minutes. In this shot you can see Ben deep in thought, working through his unknown sequence. He cleaned everyone’s clock, by the way.
Their license plate is fitting. It was a gift from me. Are you surprised?
Since Fifinella was tense and focused, I tried to stay out of her way while getting as many photos as I could.
Soccer was one thing. Karate, ok. Rugby … I did worry about her, being the smallest member on her team. Now I watch her strap on a parachute, grab her helmet and walk to this airplane that she’s going to make do things that are entirely unnatural to most of us. When she started down this path years ago, I thought this would bother me, but it doesn’t. I’ve been with her every step of the way as she has trained and studied and practiced, and now instructs others. She has sought out the best mentors in the business and has gone the extra mile to be as safe a pilot as she can be. Now all I feel is confidence that she will make the right decisions and happiness that she is pursuing her passion.
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short people require cushions
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pushing the plane into position
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Fifinella was much more relaxed after she had flown her sequence.
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satisfied with her performance
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She even smiled!
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one flight down, two to go
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Maverick was right there to help her get her gear out of the plane.
Ben was sporting one of the shirts that Fifinella and Maverick will be selling soon at www.goinverted.com.
If you think you’re paying a lot for gas these days, look at what the pilots have to put up with!
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Electric Horseman's little buddy
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Planes weren’t the only thing flying at Delano. This little guy visited Electric Horseman both days, landing on his arm. I was ready for him the second time.
Do you think this guy likes planes?
Fifinella didn’t finish last, so she was pleased with that outcome, but she also didn’t finish in the top ten. She took some solace in the fact that her scores improved tremendously over her first contest and now is getting busy putting BB back together so she can once again chase the clouds … upside down.
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