Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
How it started... How it's going...
After a few years of training, practice and coaching, 2024 was my second season competing in the Van's Aircraft RV-14 - I'd worked through most of the compromises in terms of limitations of the airframe at the Sportsman level. It's a GREAT gentleman's aerobatic airplane, but can be a bit of a handful to throw around at this level.
(It is not an airplane I'd take to the Intermediate class.)
Lacking aileron spades, it is very heavy in the roll axis, and although I upgraded to a Half Raven air oil separator, I still lack an inverted fuel system, and do not have ratchet straps, so even if I could do sustained or high negative Gs, I'd not be tight enough in the seat; so I'm sticking with going inverted momentarily, and keeping it less than -1.5G.
Regarding that bad practice Immelmann, I started too slow (should have been 150 KIAS or faster) did not pull hard enough, (it was 3Gs when I should have been at least 5) and thus, had way too little energy at the top so it was a completely ugly roll where I lost heading, pitch control and even had yaw issues … so I don’t think that one would’ve scored. 😂
The Split-S was new to me in 2024 (it is widely known as a less forgiving figure for several reasons.)
Most aerobatic figures that put you on a downline, start with an upline so that you can safely scrub energy before pointing the nose at the ground.
The RV-14 is a fast airplane and it accelerates quickly when going downhill.
I was nervous about the Spilt-S because to cleanly execute the 2 of 4 rolls, I need a pretty good amount of speed (about 110 KIAS)... BUT to commit to the inverted dive into the half loop down, I don't want to be too fast (not more than 120 KIAS) or I risk over Ging the airplane and/or exceeding VNE; So, my "gate" for initiating that figure is narrow.
It's been a wild ride learning about this stuff over the past few years. I highly recommend every pilot get some exposure to #aerobatics - It helps improve all aspects of #flying!
Huge thanks to Luke Penner, Ryan Chapman and Aaron McCartan for coaching, the awesome B-Roll footage from Leigh at hangar145, and of course IAC!
How it started... How it's going...
After a few years of training, practice and coaching, 2024 was my second season competing in the Van's Aircraft RV-14 - I'd worked through most of the compromises in terms of limitations of the airframe at the Sportsman level. It's a GREAT gentleman's aerobatic airplane, but can be a bit of a handful to throw around at this level.
(It is not an airplane I'd take to the Intermediate class.)
Lacking aileron spades, it is very heavy in the roll axis, and although I upgraded to a Half Raven air oil separator, I still lack an inverted fuel system, and do not have ratchet straps, so even if I could do sustained or high negative Gs, I'd not be tight enough in the seat; so I'm sticking with going inverted momentarily, and keeping it less than -1.5G.
Regarding that bad practice Immelmann, I started too slow (should have been 150 KIAS or faster) did not pull hard enough, (it was 3Gs when I should have been at least 5) and thus, had way too little energy at the top so it was a completely ugly roll where I lost heading, pitch control and even had yaw issues … so I don’t think that one would’ve scored. 😂
The Split-S was new to me in 2024 (it is widely known as a less forgiving figure for several reasons.)
Most aerobatic figures that put you on a downline, start with an upline so that you can safely scrub energy before pointing the nose at the ground.
The RV-14 is a fast airplane and it accelerates quickly when going downhill.
I was nervous about the Spilt-S because to cleanly execute the 2 of 4 rolls, I need a pretty good amount of speed (about 110 KIAS)... BUT to commit to the inverted dive into the half loop down, I don't want to be too fast (not more than 120 KIAS) or I risk over Ging the airplane and/or exceeding VNE; So, my "gate" for initiating that figure is narrow.
It's been a wild ride learning about this stuff over the past few years. I highly recommend every pilot get some exposure to #aerobatics - It helps improve all aspects of #flying!
Huge thanks to Luke Penner, Ryan Chapman and Aaron McCartan for coaching, the awesome B-Roll footage from Leigh at hangar145, and of course IAC!
