BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—The Ocala chapter of the International Aerobatics Club held its Snowbird Classic Aerobatics competition at the Keystone Heights Airport over the weekend.
Five categories of difficulty, from Primary through Unlimited, were flown.
The contest culminated on Saturday with unknown sequences and the unlimited four-minute freestyle flight. No Lake Region residents competed in the event. However, pilots from Gainesville and St. Augustine did.
Chapter President Hector Ramirez said his group had produced seven of the events over the last 10 years at area airports like Dunnellon and Williston. This was the first time the competition was held in Keystone Heights.
Resembles figure skating rather than an air show
“Aerobatics is not like an air show where you’re out to thrill the crowd,” he said, and it’s very strictly regimented.”
Ramirez said the format of the competition resembles that of competitive figure skating, adding that pilots are first judged on a series of compulsory maneuvers.
“There are usually five to seven judges on the line with their assistants that are scoring them,” Ramirez said, “and if they make a certain percentage, they can continue on to fly the rest of the venue.”
Pilots who make it through the approximately 12 compulsory maneuvers, labeled as the known sequence, then move on to a freestyle competition.
Finally, pilots are presented with a previously unknown sequence of maneuvers that they are required to fly.
Ramirez said that for the unknown sequence, pilots have flown all the figures, but they have likely yet to fly them in the same arrangement prescribed by event organizers.
“And so, there are a lot of things they need to think about,” he added, “such as how to structure their flying, what speeds to go into the figures, what altitudes.”
The event organizer said pilots have around 12 hours to prepare for the unknown sequence.
“They’re given the sequence one day, and they’re expected to fly it the next day,” he said. “Of course, there’s no practicing. All they can do is practice it in their mind. So, a lot of times, you’ll see the pilots out on the ramp doing this funny walk, which is basically going through a mental exercise of going through their sequence in their minds and using their bodies to mimic the airplane’s movements. We call that the ramp dance.”
Ramirez said the aerobatics box that pilots may perform maneuvers in roughly aligns with the airport’s three runways.
He said pilots competing in the lower-difficulty categories may fly as low as 1,500 feet, with the unlimited pilots allowed to descend to 326 feet.
Like the upper black belt in karate
Ramirez said the Keystone Heights competition attracted 25 competitors, two in the unlimited division, which is the most difficult. He added that there are only around 20 unlimited pilots in the U.S., and around 12 compete in national competitions.
“It’s kind of like the upper black belt in karate,” he said.
One of the Snowbird Classic unlimited competitors was Jim Burke, coach of the U.S. advanced team, which competes internationally.
Ramirez said the sport attracts a wide range of pilots.
“We have flight instructors, we have airline pilots, we have crop dusters, we have the whole spectrum of pilots in our group,” he said, “but this is the only time that they can compete by going upside down and knife edge and spinning the airplane and that sort of thing.”
Ramirez said competing in the sport is expensive, but some competitors combine resources to purchase and maintain a plane, making the cost to each individual around the cost of buying a car.
