Sanford, ME – October 17, 2009

Executive Flyers’ aerobatic pilots joined other members of IAC Chapter 35 to practice aerobatics and to receive critiques at the Sanford Maine airport in mid-October.

Thanks to our chapter president, Wes Liu, for spearheading all of the practices and our contest in Vermont. He truly loves aerobatics and ensures we all have a chance to participate. A truly Herculean task that he does so well. Thanks to Jay Hewett who also set up several practices. All of them have run smoothly. Thanks to Jay, everyone who wanted to fly, flew at least once – some twice.

Special thanks to Dana Parry, the airport manager, who made certain the folks flying into Sanford were made aware of our activities. I did not see one aircraft fly into the box. Dana even drove us across the field to the restaurant for lunch. Thanks to the folks at the restaurant for staying open for lunch. If you want to experience delicious food, the Sanford restaurant is excellent-worth flying or even driving to for a meal. As the starter Mark Libby did a fantastic job getting us into the air on time.

Bob Farquharson practiced the Primary sequence in the EFA Super Decathlon. Bob won the recent competition in Georgia, at the Primary level – congratulations! Bob has won so many medals that we will have to send another airplane to the next contest just to carry them. Bob may move up to Sportsman next year to make room for the new folks in Primary and I suspect he will win at this level as well.

John Perkins took a new approach to the practice by combining maneuver elements of the Primary sequence to help him fly the lines and perfect the 45° up and down lines with rolls. He also practiced the difficult Hammerhead maneuver. The Hammerhead is flown by pulling the aircraft into a vertical climb then rotating about the vertical axis with rudder at the slowest possible airspeed ending in a vertical dive and pullout to level-not as easy as it looks. John won third place at Kathy Jaffe and we hope to see him compete in his One Design next year.

Our newest member of the EFA team, Henry Livingston, joined us. Henry flew the F-8 Crusader as a Naval pilot off of aircraft carriers. I had the pleasure of flying with Henry in our Super Decathlon. You can imagine the fun an Air Force and Navy pilot had-we did land after our flights with “no charges pending” at least as far as you know. We look forward to seeing Henry compete next year.

Ira Keiter practiced the Primary sequence and did a very nice job of keeping the aircraft in the acro box. Although this is not required at the Primary stage, Ira’s presentation by staying within the boundaries of the box was excellent.

Ed Bookwalter is another new member of the EFA team and practiced the Primary sequence. He did a very good job considering he has had only a few lessons in preparation for flying in the acro box. Nice maneuvers and I expect to see him do well in competition next year.

We enjoyed watching our friends Ray Moorman (Pitts S2B), Sheldon Apsell (Extra 300L), Jay Hewett (Pitts S1), and Rob Holland (MX2) fly their beautiful aircraft.

All in all, it was another great practice and critique session. We look forward to next year’s practices and competitions. As of now, EFA is planning to attend all local practices as well as the Vermont Chapter 35 and Kathy Jaffe Challenge in New Jersey. If enough people are interested, we will consider flying in the Warrenton, VA contest.

Thanks to all who pitched in to help their fellow acro pilots.

On one last note, EFA will be starting up the formation program soon. I will send word out on the acro or formation exploder.

Marc Nathanson