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Birthday celebration

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saber25

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Rather than huffing and puffing blowing out 71 birthday candles, I chose to start my next year huffing and puffing in the Pitts this morning.

The DA was already at 7200 ft as I rolled for my first flight, nevertheless the air was smooth and relatively cool compared to what we'll have as the day wears on. I practiced the Intermediate Free several times adjacent to our runway and kept the waiting tandem divers entertained as they were getting briefed on their jump. I reviewed some of the maneuvers individually hoping somewhere in my old body, muscle memory would get re-engaged somehow. Heck, this being my 4th season attempting IAC quality acro I'm not really competing against the old sticks in this sport but am competing against myself. I've concluded that as long as I was having fun, scores really don't mean much at this end of the spectrum. Since I did not have an observer for my flight, I concluded that I ended with a good score and felt satisfied with that ;)

The second flight began two hours later and our field elevation of 5400 ft now had a DA of 9000. I put my imaginary top of the box at 8500 msl and I envy all you guys flying in fat air but not the humidity and bugs. The air was no longer smooth and puffy cummies made for turbulence along with decreased performance. Rather than practice a whole sequence I chose a couple of road intersections to practice the 90 turn with roll which is part of the known Intermediate. The guys that do this with a 9.0 score must have done hundreds if not thousands of this maneuver to make it look good. One of my chapter members does them this good with an S1T and he's practiced them the past 30 years.

I know I'd run out of time before I ever got as good as Mike but I'm pretty sure that adding the Pitts to my RV4 has slowed the aging process. I'll skip the birthday cake and candles next year as long as my Pitts is willing.

Cheers, Hans
 

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