I've tried the 2003 Sportsman routine a couple of times and I have a few questions:
1. Figure 6: Should the top altitude be the same at the top of the "looping" part as at the conclusion of the maneuver i.e. at the top of the 45 degree upline? In other words, is it flown as drawn? I have a heck of a time ensuring I am slow enough upon completion of Figure 6 to safely enter a Split S. I wouldn't mind climbing higher in order to bleed off more speed/energy.
2. Figure 8: Is it simply a reverse cuban eight, or is there some significance to the exaggerated manner in which the second half is drawn?
Any comments/suggestions greatly appreciated.
Cary Rodin
Victoria, B.C.

• RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,djpacro, 09:41z, 11-25-02
  • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,CRodin, 15:21z, 11-25-02
• RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,TomParsons, 19:50z, 11-25-02
  • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,CRodin, 02:37z, 11-26-02
    • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,TomParsons, 04:00z, 11-26-02
  • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,DaveSwartz, 02:52z, 11-26-02
    • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,TomParsons, 03:25z, 11-26-02
    • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,TomParsons, 15:30z, 11-26-02
      • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,Ben_Chiu, 18:43z, 11-26-02
  • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,aboyd, 18:12z, 12-01-02
    • RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,CRodin, 16:13z, 12-02-02
• RE: Sportsman 2003 comments,TomParsons, 20:04z, 12-17-02

The judging criteria are online at the CIVA website:
http://www.fai.org/aerobatics/documents/
Part 1 for Unlimited and the judging criteria.

Figure 6 is cat # 7.20 so you can finish higher than the top of the loop.

Figure 8 is indeed a half reverse cuban. I don't know why its drawn like that.

Regards,
Dave Pilkington

Thanks Dave !

Regards,
Cary Rodin

I'll try to remember back to the judges' school last March...

On figure 6- There's no requirement for the top of the second 45 upline to be at the same altitude as the top of the loop. If I remember right, both of the 45 lines need to be a wind-corrected 45 degrees, the half-roll needs to be centered on the first 45 upline, and the 3/4 loop needs to be round, but that's all! So I would think you can draw as long of a line as you need to in order to hit a good split-S airspeed.

I bet figure 8 is drawn like that only for Form B/C layout reasons. It's a regular ol' reverse half-Cuban.

About this sequence... Have you been practicing the proposed sequence, or the one that was adopted by the IAC a week or two ago? The approved sequence has a couple of changes from what was proposed. Here's an excerpt from the Nov. 12th announcement by the IAC Rules Committee chairman, Brian Howard:
2003 Sportsman Power Known
The proposed sequence (as currently posted on the IAC web site) was modified as follows:
Replace Fig. #1 with a vanilla loop (7.5.1)
Delete Fig. #9, the loop
Renumber the full slow roll (proposed Fig. #10) as Fig. #9
Add new Fig. #10, a 270-deg. turn (2.1.3)

So they decided to throw out the humpty (boo!), and put in a 270-degree turn (double boo!). I wonder why they decided to dumb-down the sequence?

Tom P.

Yuk on the changes to Sportsman. I really enjoy the humpty bump. And what is so exciting about a 270 degree bank and yank? Do you recall what the new overall K factor is?
Regards,
Cary Rodin

Cary-
>Yuk on the changes to Sportsman. I really enjoy the
>humpty bump.
I was looking forward to that as well.

> And what is so exciting about a 270 degree bank and
> yank?
Nothing.

> Do you recall what the new overall K factor is?
The net change in the sequence is the replacement of the humpty (k=13) with the 270-degree turn (k=5). So the total k is 8 lower than the originally-proposed sequence (k=136), or k=128. For comparison, the 2002 Sportsman's total k was 129.

Y'know, if we REALLY like the proposed sequence better than the approved one, we could always submit it as our free, instead of flying the known again!

Tom P.

Tom,

Your memory from judges school was good except for the 45 degree lines. While Loops must be wind corrected so they look circular to the judges, all lines are to be judged by attitude alone. Some years ago, lines were judged on track rather than attitude. When the wind is fairly strong some judges may error by letting the track of the line influence the score given. This is more likely to happen with a small aircraft flown high at the back of the box. Some experienced competitors will sometimes use a little wind bias on the 45 degree line to accommodate judges that mistake track for attitude.

Dave Swartz
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
http://www.FlightFantastic.US

Dave-
>Your memory from judges school was good except for the 45
>degree lines. While Loops must be wind corrected so they
>look circular to the judges, all lines are to be judged by
>attitude alone.
Thanks- I stand corrected. Now that I've had a chance to look in my Orange Book, I see that, as you say, 45-degree lines are judged by attitude, not flight path. The correct attitude is described as plus or minus 45 degrees from the "zero-lift" attitude. Only in horizontal flight are you judged on flight path.

Tom P.

Oops- I meant Red Book, of course. That's what I get for looking at the book's cover when I type.

Dang, Ben, I wish we could edit our posts!

Tom P.

Greetings Tom:

> Dang, Ben, I wish we could edit our posts!

Sorry about that.

Just FYI, if we allowed post edits, it'd wreak havoc with our OffLine Reader.

Ben

-= VPC OffLine Reader 2.1 =-
Registered to: Ben Chiu
-OLR.PL v1.80-

The reason the humpty was dropped in the 2003 Sportsman known is that people complained of "bracket creep", and that the sequence wasn't flyable in lower-powered aircraft, which were going to be forced back to Basic/Primary/whatever-they're-calling-it-this-week.

Bracket creep is present in all categories ... for years, people have been saying that a Pitts is no longer competitive in Unlimited - look at the contest results -and this year, I even heard from a big-engine Pitts driver that the proposed Advanced was too much for him.

I suppose I haven't been around aerobatics and the competition scene long enough to be overly critical.... BUT one of the greatest attractions of competitive aerobatics is that it forces me to advance my skills. Of course I take dual training when learning a new maneuver before attempting to practice and perfect it on my own. As for the humpty bump, I found that once I figured out the rudder useage to compensate for gyroscopic effect it is easier to fly than a hammerhead (and what a fabulous maneuver for clearly demonstrating gyroscopic effect). I'm not sure why an aircraft capable of a hammerhead wouldn't be capable of a positive humpty.
Hey, are you going to contribute any more aerobatic articles to COPA Flight?? Hope so !
Cheers,
Cary Rodin
Victoria, B.C.

FYI, the revised (approved, final) 2003 Sportsman sequence is available at http://members.iac.org/knowns/knowns2003/2003_sptp_known.pdf

Tom P.