Kathy Jaffe Challenge Aerobatic Contest.

The weather was perfect, the food delicious, the aircraft were beautiful, and the flying exhilarating.  That is the only way to describe the Kathy Jaffe Challenge this past weekend.  It was a pleasure to fly a contest out of The Flying W, a beautiful airport that has everything; from a swimming pool to a restaurant, and a flight school.  The New Jersey countryside made for a picturesque background while airborne.  The folks who run the airport and the contest were most accomodating and sensitive to the needs of the contestants.

The following aerobatic pilots represented Executive Flyers in the contest:

Tony Catanese:  Tony won the First Time competitor award for posting the highest scores for a first time competitor.  Congratulations Tony!  Tony competed in both the Primary and Sportsman categories.  Tony will soon be on board as one of our aerobatic instructors.

John Perkins:  This was John’s second contest, and he flew a very impressive first flight in the Primary category scoring high points with the judges.  John is in the process of building a One Design aerobatic airplane, and we all look forward to seeing him fly her in a contest in 2009.

Jim Kurian:  This was Jim’s second contest, and he flew 2 very nice flights.  He and John Perkins ferried our Decathlon to the contest so that all could fly.

Dr. Chuck Cohen:  This was Chuck’s second contest as well, and his performance has improved since the Vermont Chapter 35 contest.  He flew an almost flawless practice flight before the contest in his beautiful Extra 300L aircraft.

Nick Stolley:  Nick is an instructor at the Flying W airport where the contest was held.  He is also a USAF boom operator on the KC-10 aircraft at McGuire AFB.  He flew 2 very nice sequences, considering he had not practiced for almost a year.

The aerobatic box markings were not what is normally seen, as the end box marker was based on the center of the airport, rather than aligned with, and abeam the airport, making alignment and orientation very difficult.  Nonetheless, our pilots remained oriented and flew within the aerobatic box parameters.

Marc Nathanson flew as Safety Pilot for, and was gratified to the see the improvemnt of our competitors.  All flew safe, controlled, and impressive sequences considering the stress of competition and the hectic schedule.

The folks who ran the contest recognized Executive Flyers fo making the effort to fly the long distance to New Jersey to compete.  They appreciate all that Executive Flyers does for recreational aerobatics, and consider us among the very best aerobatic schools in the nation.  We would like to thank all of our aerobatic pilots, and look forward to adding more names to the list of pilots who fly aerobatics with us.  We firmly believe that aerobatic training makes for safer pilots, and helps them to realize their dream of “passion found”!

Marc Nathanson