But at least it's a biplane. My Advanced Known flight from a September contest, warts and all.

East Coast Aerobatic Contest, Pitts N100MP, 20130907105647 2 1 (4 min 14 sec)

I rather enjoyed that!!

thanks for sharing!!

just curious.. you prefer inside rollers or outside rollers?

That was some nice flying! Thanks for posting!

FB

Originally Posted by Mithrandir

just curious.. you prefer inside rollers or outside rollers?

Hmm, never thought about it. I guess I've done more inside rollers than outside. Not too much difference between the two when it comes to flying them. Outside rollers just take a little more rudder at the critical points, and the timing is a little different between the push/pull and the rudder inputs. Either way, you're rolling the airplane while keeping the nose moving through the turn by whatever means necessary. Lots of folks think outside rollers are harder, but they're not - they're just a little different. Your body feels the same positive/negative G transitions either way, so it's not an entirely new maneuver to get accustomed to - unlike inside vs. outside snaps.

Way cool! I aspire to be able to compete in some IAC contests someday. Thanks for sharing!

Nice job! That's a snarly little S-1 you've got there. I'm assuming that was a break in there?

Originally Posted by Shaker

That's a snarly little S-1 you've got there. I'm assuming that was a break in there?

That Catto prop makes a distinct sound at 3000+ RPM. Very different from metal. Yep, I interrupted after the roller due to positioning issues.

You're making me want an S-1 again. Maybe I'll get a T this time There's a nice looking Ultimate 10-200 on Barnstormers right now.. Heh.

Looked pretty good...warts and all. Dont'cha just love 1/2 snaps! I fondly remember my first one of those, on a vertical up line in the unlimited unknown at the Michigan Open (1988). I did a perfect 3/4 and went from 1st place overall to 7th...BAM .

Ahhh. the memories

Originally Posted by Shaker

You're making me want an S-1 again.

My work here is done.

Originally Posted by Pistolera

Dont'cha just love 1/2 snaps!

Yeah, feels great to hit one clean, but they also cause a lot of annoyance when they don't go well. I suck at vertical up snaps since I don't do many of them. They don't show up in Advanced...yet. Although one of the '14 CIVA Advanced proposals had a 3/4 up snap in it. Will be very interesting if that one gets approved. Some mashed together snap clips...

Just Snaps (2 min 2 sec)

One of the more challenging things (among many) was learning to do vertical up snaps and rolls while looking back over my shoulder at box markers. When the visibility got down due to summer haze, the horizon was basically worthless for knowing when to stop. Once you got used to it the combination of feel/timing and being able to see a marker or other landmark down there helped quite a bit.

when you snap... do you reverse elevator once the snap is initiated?

Originally Posted by Mithrandir

when you snap... do you reverse elevator once the snap is initiated?

I'm unloading the elevator just a slight bit forward of neutral, though the amount of unload should really vary depending on the type of snap you're doing. I tend to unload a little too far forward during level flight full snaps, which causes the nose the end up a little low when it stops. It generally helps to unload half snaps further forward than full snaps in order to reduce the size of the "cone" area that the nose draws as the snap rotates. This minimizes your heading error after 1/2 snap rotation, though a little rudder is usually still needed as the snap stops to stay on heading. For example if you snap with left rudder, you recover by neutralizing the rudder (as opposed to applying full opposite rudder to recover a full snap), and then come back in with a little left rudder as the snap stops to correct the small heading error after a half snap. There's also a natural pitch error that results after a half snap. More forward unloading helps minimize that too. There are several technique tricks to help do more accurate half snaps.

This year's Intermediate Known had a 1/2 snap on a 45 upline, which was the first time in over 12 years that a snap fraction was included in an Intermediate Known. It was entertaining watching many Intermediate pilots who were newly forced to start doing half snaps - many would end up nearly 45 degrees off heading, and nearly vertical in pitch after stopping the snap. A perfect 45 up 1/2 snap is quite a challenge.

I wouldn't call it reverse, but you do "unload" the airframe by backing off the pitch quite a bit. Whether that's in a positive of negative load. Once you feel he stall break then you unload it. It keeps the plane from getting way deep into the stall and losing lots of energy during the rotation.

I think we were both typing at the same time!

In the Sukhoi I would aggressively unload it, but it took A LOT of practice to get it right. If you didn't it would bury a bit and rotation would be slow, but once you learned, and you hit the sweet spot, HOOO BOY did the snaps explode! I'd bet rotational speed went up by 90 deg/sec once I found the happy place. You also didn't bleed as much energy, which was the real objective in the 1st place.