I don't know if I will ever attempt competition aerobatics, but it is tempting. As I understand it, in the progression through the five categories -- Primary, Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced, Unlimited -- inverted maneuvers only start at the Intermediate category.
Looking through a few competition results I see a lot of Decathlons in the first two categories before dedicated aerobats, mostly Pitts biplanes Extra monoplanes, start to dominate from the Intermediate level and up. I was also surprised to realize that some aircraft touted as capable of aerobatics (RVs, T-18, Sonerai, etc.) are actually very challenging to use because they are too fast, so staying within the aerobatic box becomes very hard.
So, with that in mind, what homebuilt designs would make good mounts for budding aerobatic competitors to take them at least through Primary and Sportsman categories and maybe even Intermediate? Fairly low cost and reasonable building time and difficulty would be a plus as would, presumably, docile but exciting and precise handling.
If anyone has any experience flying competitive aerobatics in homebuilt, I'd love to hear more.
Cheers,
Matthew
Looking through a few competition results I see a lot of Decathlons in the first two categories before dedicated aerobats, mostly Pitts biplanes Extra monoplanes, start to dominate from the Intermediate level and up. I was also surprised to realize that some aircraft touted as capable of aerobatics (RVs, T-18, Sonerai, etc.) are actually very challenging to use because they are too fast, so staying within the aerobatic box becomes very hard.
So, with that in mind, what homebuilt designs would make good mounts for budding aerobatic competitors to take them at least through Primary and Sportsman categories and maybe even Intermediate? Fairly low cost and reasonable building time and difficulty would be a plus as would, presumably, docile but exciting and precise handling.
If anyone has any experience flying competitive aerobatics in homebuilt, I'd love to hear more.
Cheers,
Matthew
