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Rides
If you want to experience something special, treat yourself to a flight in our high-performance Extra 330 LX aerobatic aircraft.
If you think a roller coaster ride is the ultimate thrill for adrenaline junkies, then you haven't experienced a flight like this!!!
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Loops, rolls, spins or tumbling: Everything is possible - nothing is mandatory. Decide for yourself how much thrill you want the flight to give you. Before the flight you will receive an introduction to the technology of the aerobatic aircraft, and the flight program will also be explained.
Custom rides available upon request
Aerobatic Training:
WHAT EXACTLY IS AEROBATICS?
To put it simply, aerobatic flight consists of a sequence of flight figures that are flown as precisely as possible in a given space (the so-called box) in a defined time according to fixed rules. Information on this, as is so often the case, on Wikipedia .
Aerobatics
What we fly: the note, the figures or fly by numbers:
Aerobatics means flying lines! A succession of vertical, horizontal and 45 degree inclined lines connected by scrolls and circles (horizontal and vertical). The aerobatic pilot flies the rolls whole, half or quartered. A distinction is made between controlled, snapped and pushed rolls. Rolls and circles are flown on the lines. They ultimately enable three-dimensional movement in the box. Circles must be flown round. A loop (vertical full circle) quickly degenerates into an Easter egg or a spiral in strong winds. The “art” consists in taking all possible influences into account and flying the program in the box as it was drawn up and following the lines. Sounds easy, but it is not.
In the beginner classes you usually fly standard figures such as rolls, loops, up-lines and down-lines, turns and spins. Rule of thumb: Many combinations result in high scores. Or the other way around, the high scores of the high classes lead to the marveled and complicated characters that make the viewer astonished to doubt gravity.
In addition, a distinction is made between positive and negative figures. With positive figures, gravity acts from top to bottom in relation to the pilot's head, ie you are pressed into the seat and the blood rushes to your legs. In the case of negative figures such as circles on the back or so-called outside loops, the belts prevent the pilot from shooting out of the plane. The blood flows to the head. Only the higher competition classes fly negative figures. The strain involved and the rapid changes in direction simply overwhelm beginners.
Describing each character in detail would go beyond the scope. Everyone will recognize the basic figures described above: lines, vertical, horizontal, at 45 degrees, connected by semi-circles or full circles. The arrows on the semicircles or on the lines describe what to fly on the line. (More information on aerobatic figures can be found here )
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WHERE WE FLY: LIFE IN THE BOX
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Ultimately, it is a question of flying a number of figures as precisely as possible in a cube with an edge length of 3280 feet in a given time. The height of the box above the floor depends on the class. For the beginners, the minimum safe altitude is about 1200 ft above the ground, the higher classes are allowed to descend lower in staggered levels. Anyone who flies too low in their class will be disqualified. As always with flying, the same applies here: Safety first!
This so-called aerobatic box is the place of action. During training flights, the trainer usually stands at the edge of the box with a radio to comment directly on errors in figures, the program or the positioning. (You can find more information about the aerobatic box here )
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LET'S DANCE: RATINGS AND JUDGES
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Anyone who has ever watched an aerobatic competition is faced with the question: "How can you even judge something that looks beautiful and complicated"? Very briefly, it's almost like dancing.
Divided into classes, the participants in competitions fly their programs and present themselves to the jury. A little distance from the box, 5 referees (Jugdes) sit in a line with their assistants. They observe the flight movements from different angles with eagle eyes. Each referee has the program on evaluation sheets. Each character has a maximum number of points. Each judge evaluates each figure individually. At the end, the judge issues a kind of attitude mark for the positioning of the program in the box.
At the end of the day, internationally recognized software equalizes the ratings of the individual referees. This helps to obtain the most objective possible result of the ultimately subjectively determined impressions. The software ensures that no individual influences or preferences for "nice" pilots falsify the result. An intentional good or very bad rating will be recognized and compensated.
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WHAT IS FLOWN IN A COMPETITION?
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An aerobatics competition is usually scheduled for a period of one week. The pilots fly on a maximum of four evaluation days. The first day begins with a familiar program. All participants can train and rehearse this program in advance.
Depending on the weather, "unknown programs" will follow on the following days. The pilots receive the new program in the afternoon or in the evening of the 1st day of evaluation for the following day. The aerobatic pilot now learns the new, unknown program by heart. He has to study it mentally. Training flights are not allowed. The "art" now consists in flying an unknown combination of figures off the sheet. The whole thing as perfect as possible, without mistakes and also neatly positioned in the box. Whoever does it best and makes the fewest mistakes will be the winner of the day.
Adding results from the "Known" and "Unknown" programs results in a list of results. Whoever is “on top” has earned the most points and is the champion of the class.
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IN WHICH CLASSES CAN YOU COMPETE?
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You can currently fly in four classes: Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited.
The Sportsman and Intermediate classes are reserved for beginners and advanced beginners and are intended as entry-level and junior classes.
The figures to be flown in the classes themselves are basic figures. The combination, the sequence and partly the positioning of reels on the lines complicate matters.
The Advance class contains significantly more figures and the figures themselves usually consist of a large number of individual elements. Up to 14 complex figures are flown in one program. In contrast to the lower classes, negative figures are also flown. The combination of negative and positive forces, as well as the more complex character sequences, challenge pilot and plane alike.
The Unlimited Class is reserved for only a very small group of very experienced pilots, as it really makes the highest physical and technical demands.
The Aerobatic Figures
So that aerobatic maneuvers can always be clearly defined, each flight maneuver is drawn schematically according to a standardized procedure and summarized in a catalogue. These drawings have their origins in 1961, when the aerobatic commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), at the suggestion of the Spanish delegate Count José Luis de Aresti, provided all figures with a level of difficulty and summarized them in a catalogue. Even today, this catalog is often referred to as the "Aresti catalogue" and the drawings as "Aresti symbols". Basically, the following representation applies to the drawing of figures
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Solid lines indicate upright maneuvers or positive G-forces.
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Dashed lines indicate inverted maneuvers or negative G-forces.
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Triangles indicate stalling maneuvers (such as spins , snapped rolls , snapped rolls, etc.).
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Arrows indicate roll maneuvers (possibly with numbers representing extent/segments of a roll)
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The beginning of a maneuver is marked with a dot and the end with a dash
The following are some examples of aerobatic figures from the catalogue
Lines:
Horizontal Line
Horizontal line In Inverted Flight
Half Roll To Inverted
Half Roll From Inverted
Rolls And "Opposite" Rolls
Roll And A Half
Roll And A Quarter And Then A Quarter Roll In The Opposite Direction.
Four Point Roll
Two Point Out Of Four In One Direction And Then Four Points Out Of Eight In The Opposite Direction
Vertical Lines
Two Rolls On The Upline
One And A Half Rolls On The Down-Line
One And A Quarter Spin
Three Quarter Snap Roll On The Up-Line
Loops
Loop
Outside Loop
Loop With Half Roll At The Top
Loop From Inverted With Half Roll At The Bottom
The Aerobatic Box
An essential part of the aerobatic competition is maintaining a given airspace. The so-called "box" is a cube with an edge length of 3280 feet. The amount of the lower limit depends on the category in which you compete at the competition. The lower limit of the box for beginners, the so-called "Sportsman", is 1200 feet, for example - that is 300 feet lower than the normal minimum flight altitude for aerobatics. The masters, the so-called "Unlimited", are allowed to fly the program down to a height of 600 feet.
The box is marked at competitions by cloths laid out on the floor. In large competitions, line judges are also used, who penalize every crossing of the outer borders with penalty points.
The actual judges sit outside the box so that they can judge the flights better; mostly at a distance of about 400 feet. In addition to point deductions for inaccurate execution of the flight maneuvers, they also evaluate the positioning of the aerobatic program within the box. The program should be flown as compactly as possible in the middle of the box. If you are very high during the program, it is best to fly on the opposite side of the box from the judges. If you are very low, it is best to fly directly in front of the judges.
An aerobatic box is unfortunately subject to some unsightly features:
1. The box is always much smaller in competition than in training
2. The center cross is always crooked
3. The wind in the box always comes vertically from above and flows out of the box evenly in all directions. This is the only way to explain why you always get too deep and leave the pits faster than expected.
The Different Classes
Aerobatic competitions are held in four classes:
The Beginners (Sportsman)
Only positive figures are flown in this class. Also, no cracked rolls have to be flown. Vertical rolls up are limited to a 90° rotation. Vertical rolls down on one
90° rotation or 2 times 45°. The program is still quite simple and the degree of difficulty is only slightly higher than the program in aerobatic training.
Intermediate
The level of difficulty is much higher here. The aircraft must also be more efficient. In the beginner class you could still participate with an airplane that is not suitable for inverted flight. This is no longer possible in the intermediate class. Here even negative upswings are required of the participants. Also, positive, snap rolls must be flown in the same way as half roll circles. Likewise, rolls must be flown in opposite directions. That means, for example, a quarter roll must be flown to one side and then a three-quarter roll to the other side.
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Advanced
National and world championships are already being flown in the advanced category. The average K-factor per figure flown increases significantly. As a result, the strain on the pilot and the machine is significantly higher. In this class you will also find mostly powerful aircraft. You rarely see a Pitts anymore. The main difference from the unlimited class is that you don't have to fly pushed rolls.
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Unlimited
In this class you will only find high-performance aerobatic aircraft. The average K - factor per figure is so high that you have to build a lot of individual elements into a figure. You can only do that with the extreme roll rate that today's aerobatic aircraft have. The term "Unlimited" already means that these pilots have to fly everything and no exceptions are made. It doesn't matter whether it's pushed rolls or counter-rotating roll circles the pilot has to fly the figure when it is given.
The Program
Flying an aerobatic program is one thing, dreaming up a program is another. Basically, the program should be designed in such a way that the aircraft's energy is maintained as far as possible throughout the program. For example, it makes more sense to fly a spin after a figure that will gain altitude and slowly come out of the figure anyway than try a spin after a downswing, for example.
In the aerobatic competition, up to 4 programs are flown in all categories:
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First the so-called Freeknown and then up to three unknown programs are flown.
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Freeknown:
The Freeknown is a mixture of pre-determined, known mandatory figures and a complement of figures from the Aresti catalogue. In the Sportsman class, a Freeknown is given at the beginning of the year. For the Intermediate, Advanced and the Unlimited class, 4 different mandatory figures are published by the CIVA at the beginning of the year. These must be supplemented in each class with further figures up to the maximum number of figures allowed. It should be noted that the figures must be selected from given families of figures and the maximum level of difficulty must not be exceeded. A family of figures are, for example, the full loops. Likewise, no figure may be flown twice.
In the past, aerobatic programs had to be drawn up by hand in a very laborious process. Today there is very good, freely available software with which you can not only draw the programs, but also check immediately whether the program complies with the set of rules.
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Unknown
The "unknown duty" is published 24 hours before the start of the program and cannot be trained by the participants; ie the program must practically be flown off the page. In these 24 hours, each participant has time to memorize the sequence of figures. In order to practice positioning in the box, correct rolling directions and timing, you can see the participants "dancing" their program on the floor. Sometimes that looks very funny and at the beginning of your aerobatic career you might feel a bit silly. But you learn to dance the program, at the latest when you have flown the first "zeros" because you turned in the wrong direction.
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In the Sportsman and Intermediate category, the Unknown is drawn by the organizer. In the Advanced and Unlimited class, the participants each suggest a figure, from which 8 pieces are then chosen. Each participant can then draw a program containing these characters. In order for the program to be "flyable", up to 4 additional figures may have to be installed. This may be necessary, for example, if 7 figures end up in the lower part of the box at high speed and the 8th figure is a spin. Then a figure must be drawn with which one gains height and slowly comes out. This would be the case, for example, with a simple vertical line. Or out of the 8 figures, 3 end in inverted flight but 5 start in normal flight. Then at least half a roll from the normal to the supine position must be installed in between. All other program
Building A Known Free
A few specifications are made for setting up a Knownfree program. A certain number of figures must be flown, no figure may be flown twice and predetermined figures must be built into the program. In order to clarify the structure, the requirements for the year 2016 in Advanced are shown here:
Maximum K-factor = 150
Number of figures: at least 10
at least 2 cracked rolls
at least 1 figure with eighth rolls
at least 1 character from the family (spins)
at least 1 character from family 1 (Lines)
at least 1 character from Family 2 (Horizontal Turns)
at least 1 character from family 5 (stall turns)
at least 1 character from family 7 (Half Loops)
at least 1 character from family 8 (Humpty Bumps)
at least 1 figure from the family 9.1 (Rolls)
at least 1 figure from the family 9.2 (half roll hesitation)
at least 1 figure from the family 9.4 (quarter roll hesitation)
at least 1 role circle from the family 2.1.2 to 2.1.3,
2.2.2 to 2.2.6, 2.3.2 to 2.3.5, 2.4.2 to 2.4.8
at least 1 figure with opposing roles
The figures given by the CIVA for 2016 are as follows:
Figure 1:
And here is a program that meets all the requirements:
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Upset Prevention and Recovery Training
As part of the training of commercial and private pilots, you usually learn how to safely control an aircraft within a wide operating range. Flights in the border area are only trained to a very limited extent or not at all. One reason for this is that most flight schools do not have a corresponding training aircraft. Accordingly, many flight instructors are not able to impart such knowledge. But it is precisely this ability that is important to safely and quickly return an aircraft to a normal and safe trajectory from an unwanted attitude. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recognized this deficit in pilot training and issued new training regulations. This training is known as "Upset Prevention and Recovery Training" (UPRT) and will in the future be mandatory in the training of commercial and corporate pilots. However, the FAA also made concrete suggestions for the introduction of this training content in the PPL training courses. With this "Upset Prevention and Recovery Training" pilots will be able to:
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to avoid unusual flight conditions
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to bring the aircraft back out of an unusual attitude if it does happen
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distinguish a spiral dive from a spin
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to recover from a steep spiraling decent
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to recover from a spin condition
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to better control the aircraft in all phases of flight
UPRT has nothing in common with classic aerobatics, but it makes sense to use a thoroughbred aerobatic aircraft. For example, exiting from a spin, returning from inverted flight or full stall exercises can be practiced in such a way that there is no need to worry about operating the aircraft beyond its limits. Dynamic Flight Training ensures its customers to be in the hands of well trained, experienced and professional pilots. Every flight instructor used in Upset Recovery Training has extensive experience and this makes DFT an ideal training provider. All instructors are familiar with both general aviation aircraft and high performance aircraft.
Because safety is the top priority, we only use the German-built Extra-330LX for the UPRT, which is a perfect training platform for all training programs. The Extra is certified up to +/- 10 G, all maneuvers may be flown, it has a climb rate of more than 3200 feet per minute, making it one of the safest aircraft in the sky.
As part of the course, the performance and special features of the specific aircraft of the course participants are discussed. Despite the superior performance and capabilities of the extras, all maneuvers are taught in a manner such that each student is able to master recovery techniques within the capability of their specific aircraft.
The UPRT course is a combination of 5 hours of classroom instruction and 3 hours of flight training with the aim of equipping flight crews with the skills needed to avoid unusual attitudes and, should they occur, to fly aircraft out of them. Each flight takes about 30 minutes. Of course, there will be an extensive preliminary and follow-up discussion. Videos with different camera angles help to improve the student's skills in the debriefing and are also a great reminder of this interesting course