#IAmIMAC
Our club had an aerobatics primer today, and Ray, the Unlimited IMAC pilot who put it on, challenged me to try a 360 degree turn with four rolls to the inside. I usually decline the challenge to try something new with my plane, saying I'd like to try it on the simulator first. For some reason today I simply said, "OK."
This isn't the first time Ray nudged me out of my comfort zone. Just when I get comfortable with my current aerobatic skills he asks me to try something different: a slower aileron roll, or opposite aileron rolls back to back, or a snap roll in the opposite direction from how I normally do them, or a tailslide.
I've been flying scale aerobatics for almost three years now, and Ray has been a great mentor. He has given me the confidence to move up to a more difficult class every year, from Basic to Sportsman, and now Intermediate. The Intermediate class introduces the roller, but it's only a 90 degree turn with one roll to the inside. I practiced it many times on the simulator before I ever attempted one with my plane. Today, having flown the 90 degree roller more than a hundred times with my 95" EF Extra 330, I was finally getting comfortable with the maneuver. When I executed a near perfect roller on the first flight today (after three attempts), Ray must have been thinking of a new challenge for me.
After landing, replacing batteries, and pushing my plane back to the runway, he said, in his usual direct and nonchalant
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