|
 I
met Steve Andelin in 1999 at the Delano regional contest in
California. Steve was flying in the Unlimited category. The
contest was my third and, like most newcomers to this sport, I
quickly became aware of who the top competitors were in the
Unlimited class. I had a lot of questions about the monoplanes
that were dominating the sport and Steve was kind enough to
spend time answering my questions. When he won the Unlimited
National Championship in 2000, our Sport Aerobatics magazine
was in trouble. It wasn’t being published in a timely
fashion and Steve was left without a cover shot and an
article. As a champion, Steve was deserving of both. I
decided to track down Steve and get his story into print. So,
one more time, on a Saturday night between two long days of
judge’s school, I sat down with Steve and asked him a lot of
questions.
KL: You won the Unlimited National Championship flying
Kirby Chambliss’ Zivko Edge 540. It’s not often that a
competitor shows up for a national competition in the
unlimited category to compete in someone else’s airplane.
How many hours did you have in Kirby’s Edge prior to the
contest?
ANDELIN:
I had about four days of practice in it and each day I flew
three flights. Each flight was about twenty minutes, so I’d
say I had about for hours.
KL:
How did it come about that you would fly Kirby’s plane? Did
you have any other offers?
ANDELIN:
My airplane started exhibiting problems about three weeks
before Nationals, so I decided to pull the engine to work on
it. I had offers right away from Mike Mangold, Kirby Chambliss,
and Tom Wade to use their Edge 540s. Bill Zivko also offered
his two-place Edge. I had flown Kirby’s airplane a couple
years prior, and realized at that time that it was very
similar to mine.
KL:
You must have thought, "Great, I’ve put in all this
work, for all these years and now I can’t go." It had
to cross your mind, right?
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Steve
shortly after winning the 2000 Nationals
in Kirby Chambliss'
Edge 540.
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ANDELIN:
Yes, it crossed my mind, but luckily this wasn’t my
first time going to Nationals. Had it been my first time, it
would have been real hard to accept the fact that I couldn’t
go. But later, when I realized that there would be another
airplane available, I started looking forward to the
camaraderie and the whole experience of Nationals again.
KL:
So did you think you had a chance of winning, flying an
airplane that was similar to yours?
ANDELIN:
I didn’t think I had a chance flying my own airplane.
KL:
It’s not common for a competitor, and in Kirby’s case one
could argue that he was a favorite since he had won in the
past, to lend another competitor his equipment. What do you
think that says about Kirby, as well as Mike Mangold, Tom Wade
and others in this sport who were willing to let you use their
aircraft to try to beat them?
ANDELIN:
Well, first of all, once you get to the point where you’re
flying Unlimited, you normally have a support group of people
you train with. I do the majority of my training with Mike
Mangold, Julie Sandman, Kirby Chambliss and at times with
David Martin and Debbie Rihn-Harvey when I can get to Texas.
When you get to a contest like the Nationals, of course each
one of us would like to win, but if we can't we want to see
one of our friends win. The fact that other pilots offered me
the use of their airplanes shows what a great group of people
there are in this sport.
KL:
You must get more satisfaction from beating a full field
rather than having Kirby or Debbie home sick, right?
ANDELIN:
Yeah, you want everyone there.
KL:
You frequently train with your toughest competitors. In
doing so, each of you critiques the other’s flights. A
healthy amount of trust has to exist in order to honestly
critique each other. What is that like, critiquing and being
critiqued by pilots you’re hoping to beat at the next
contest?
ANDELIN:
Well, you need someone on the ground watching you that
flies the same airplane, and who can explain what you need to
do to make specific figures look right. If I train with Mike
or Kirby, they are very quick to tell me what to fix. As far
as the potential for wanting to hold back information from
someone that is being critiqued, it just doesn’t happen.
KL:
Tell me about your training regimen. How often do you fly,
especially when you’re approaching a contest?
ANDELIN:
I try to fly every day I’m home. Most of my trips with
American Airlines last about three days, so I usually get four
days of training per week. When I’m preparing for a contest,
I get together with friends, and try to schedule a few days of
coaching with Sergei Boriak. Each day we fly three flights.
Before a major contest like the Nationals we’ll try to
schedule at least a week with somebody like Sergei.
KL:
Does the time away from flying hurt you?
ANDELIN:
The G tolerance comes back quickly, but the
awareness of the box and working with the wind takes a few
days for me. It usually takes me two or three flights just to
remember my sequence and think of how I want it to be flown.
After a few days the wind and my position in the box become
second nature, and the presentation is back where I want it to
be.
KL:
In 2000, you began flying the Four-Minute Free. You didn’t
fly it before 2000. Why do you fly it now and why didn’t you
fly it before?
ANDELIN:
I started hearing rumors that the Four-Minute Free was going
to be a requirement for team selection. If it becomes a team
selection requirement, I don't want to go into it never
having flown one. I never used to fly them because I have
limited time to practice, and I didn’t want to waste any
time on something that wasn’t required for team selection.
KL:
Why did you choose to fly the Zivko Edge 540?
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Steve
flying the Pitts S-1E that he built
and competed in through
1997.
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ANDELIN:
Like everyone else when they’re looking for a new
airplane, I flew all the different types of Unlimited class aerobatic airplanes: the Extra 300, the Sukhoi 26 and the Edge
540. Those were the planes I considered. I didn’t know of
anyone with a CAP at the time. They are all very good
airplanes, but I knew the Edge shows very well, is built in
the U.S. and parts are readily available. I started talking to
Bill Zivko about the airplane, and after meeting with him in
Oklahoma, I quickly realized what wonderful people the Zivkos
are to work with and how dedicated they are to the sport.
KL:
How long have you been flying the Edge 540?
ANDELIN:
About four years.
KL:
How many hours did it take before you felt competitive in your
airplane?
ANDELIN:
I’d like to say ten to twenty hours, but I think it’s
closer to a hundred hours.
KL:
When did you start competing?
ANDELIN:
In 1982, I was a flight instructor at Long Beach Flyers. I
flew my first contest that same year in Delano, California.
One of the other competitors, Jim Rossi, pulled me aside one
night and told me that if this was what I wanted to do, I had
better find a better job. So after just two contests, I
basically dropped out of the sport. The following week I left
for Alaska and I worked for a commuter airline up there. I
never had the goal of becoming an airline pilot, but I liked
aerobatics and I definitely wanted to find a way to afford it.
The airlines at that time just weren’t hiring, so I went to
Alaska figuring that if I could get a commuter job up there, I
could probably return to Southern California later, and fly
some type of commuter job that would provide me with
enough money to fly aerobatics.
KL:
That’s interesting. Many competitors discover aerobatics as
a result of being involved in aviation. Are you telling me
that you actually got involved in aviation as a career in
order to finance the aerobatics?
ANDELIN:
Yes.
KL:
Okay, so you took a break in 1983 and you didn't fly another
contest until when?
ANDELIN:
I was hired by American Airlines in 1985. It was then that
I started building my Pitts Special (S-1E) and it took me
seven years to complete. I got back into competition in 1992.
I remember visiting my mom in Phoenix, Arizona, and taking my
nephews over to Goodyear Airport where they were having an
aerobatic contest. I saw a black Pitts S-1T there, but I
couldn’t stay long enough to talk with any of the pilots
because I had to work the all-fighter back in L.A. When I got
to work that night, I told the copilot, Mike Mangold, about
the contest I had been to that day, and he said, "Oh,
yeah, I was out there." Well, it turned out to be Mike
Mangold and Julie Sandman’s black Pitts that I had seen
earlier that day. I told him that I had just finished building
my Pitts, so he invited me to practice with him in Apple
Valley. At the time, he was two categories above me. We have
been training together ever since.
KL:
In 1993 you moved up to Intermediate?
ANDELIN:
Yes. I stayed in Intermediate through 1995. The following
two years, I competed in the Advanced category, and then I
moved up to Unlimited in 1997.
KL:
Your first Unlimited contest, do you remember it pretty
well?
ANDELIN:
Sure, I remember pushing my little Pitts up behind Kirby’s,
Diane’s (Hakala) and all these other airplanes and thinking,
"What am I doing here?" I remember thinking, "I’m
just going to try to survive."
KL:
How long did it take before you felt that you could go to an
Unlimited competition and feel like you had a shot at placing
in the top three?
ANDELIN:
Well, I think I finished in first place, probably near the end
of that first year.
KL:
You actually won an Unlimited contest in the Pitts S-1E that
you built?
ANDELIN:
I did! Luckily, Everybody else at that contest was also flying
Pitts Specials. As long as a bunch of monoplanes didn't show
up, I could usually stay up in the top three.
KL:
By the time you win a National Championship, you’ve spent a
lot of money. Do you have any sponsors?
ANDELIN:
It’s difficult for most of us to get sponsors unless we want
to do air shows, but I think we all have people who help us
with our airplanes. The manufacturer of my airplane, Bill
Zivko, has definitely always been there to help me out. One
year, I lost my canopy about three weeks before Nationals, and
they had a new canopy out within three days. Lycon has also
been a good supporter by making sure that my engine is in good
shape. So, I would say those two companies are my major
"sponsors," and of course, there’s my wife.
KL:
How were you introduced to aviation?
ANDELIN:
My first airplane ride was in my dad’s Aeronca Champ. We
would fly over the hills of Corona, California, and do loops
and rolls.
KL:
Was your father a pilot from an early age?
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Foreground
to background: David Martin (CAP 232, Steve (Edge 540), Sergei
Boriak (Velox) and Mike Mangold (Edge 540) in formation en
route
to the U.S. National Championships.
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ANDELIN:
My dad tried to get his pilot’s license when he was sixteen,
but my grandmother didn’t want him flying. In high school he
took a job working for a local crop duster, running a fuel
truck, and doing other odd jobs in order to pay for flying
lessons. When he turned seventeen he joined the Marine Corps,
and the moment he left home, my grandmother threw away his
logbooks in an attempt to keep him from flying. Eventually
though, he became a commercial pilot. As I was growing up he
always had some type of airplane in the garage. He would
normally buy them from junkyards and put them back together.
Since he could build anything, and he encouraged my siblings
and I to try anything, it just seemed normal for me to
eventually build my own airplane.
KL:
Because of your experience helping your dad?
ANDELIN:
Well, I just knew that it could be done. From the time I was
in third grade, I remember seeing the EAA magazine laying
around the house, and all of his friends coming over talking
about flying. I knew someday I’d probably get my pilot’s
license, but in terms of a career, I thought I was going to be
an engineer or an architect. So, when I started building the
Pitts, it was great having somebody looking over my shoulder.
A lot of my dad’s old friends would stop by to give me
advice. Unfortunately my father never got to see the airplane
fly.
KL:
What advice do you give to newcomers to the sport, hoping
to work their way up to Unlimited level?
ANDELIN:
Well, it’s a lonely sport at times. We spend the
majority of our time in the air all by ourselves. A lot of
practicing is required if you want make it to the Unlimited
level. If you live in a populated area, critiquing is hard to
get. If you truly want to do this, you’ve got to establish a
group of friends who have the same desire and goals that you
have, and work with them.
KL:
You’ve been in this sport for eighteen years minus a few
years when you took time off. What kind of advice would you
give to the IAC, and is there anything you would like to
change?
ANDELD:
I would personally like to see us adopt more of the CIVA
rules.
KL:
In what aspects? Not all of the readers are that familiar with
the CWA rules.
ANDELIN:
Well, maybe it’s more self-serving because of my goals in
the sport at this time, but I believe that if we’re going to
send a qualified team to compete at the world level, we need
to be practicing and competing under the same rules. If CIVA
is going to use a bonus point system, we need to adopt the
same system to encourage pilots to fly a six or seven figure
Free.
KL:
At the Nationals in 2000, there were several Unlimited
competitors who had just returned from the World Aerobatic
Championships who felt they had to revert to a 15-figure
freestyle in order to score well. Would you like to see
Nationals later in the year, so the people who compete on the
world level have more time to prepare?
ANDELLN:
No. I don’t think it has anything to do with changing
the date of the Nationals. It all comes down to who is flying
the best, or who makes the fewest mistakes, on that particular
day. This question relates to what I was saying about adopting
the CIVA rules. If we were competing under the same rules,
these competitors wouldn’t have to worry about switching
their Free programs.
KL:
You’ve won a National title. You’ve reached the pinnacle
of success in the United States. Where do you go from here?
ANDELIN:
My goal was never to win Nationals. If someone told me
that I was going to win Nationals, I would have said,
"Yeah, right, when everyone else retires, I’ll have a
shot at it." I think it’s great to have won, and to be
able to say that I was once the national champion, but my goal
has always been to make the U.S. Team.
KL:
Is there still a desire to compete at the regional level?
ANDELIN:
Yes, I’ll
still attend every contest I can.
KL: Air shows—have
you flown any and do you plan on flying any now that you’re
a national champion?
ANDELIN:
I don’t plan on doing any air shows. My interest has
always been in discipline of competition aerobatics.
KL: I
understand that we have a high rate of turnover in the JAC.
How do you think we can keep those already in the sport from
leaving?
ANDELIN:
I don’t know that we have any control of that. The main
reasons people leave our sport are simply life events. If you
look at the people on top, the majority of them are either
unmarried, or have a very supportive spouse. Most of them do
not have kids at that point in their lives. They have chosen
that lifestyle, but at some point, those choices usually
change.
KL: In
closing, what keeps you in this sport?
ANDELIN:
I would say the main reason that I have continued in this
sport is the friends that I have made. I mean, regional
contests are fun, but what I enjoy most is the practice week
before Nationals. Training with David Martin in Texas, for
example, and the hospitality extended by his wife Martha and
his family. David didn’t even know who I was when I
originally called him and said, "Hey, I’ve got Sergei
reserved this week, would you like to join us?" David
immediately invited us to practice at his place in Texas and
everyone had a great time. The year before that, the practice
was down in Hondo, Texas, with Kirby. It was like the old
college days, full of pranks and having a great time. We would
each fly three or four flights a day, and it’s all in
preparation for Nationals, but you could almost take the
contest away from me. When we get to the contest, each of us
would like to win but if we can’t, we want to see one of our
friends win because we know the kind of work they put in and
the kind of people they are. It’s this kind of camaraderie
that has kept me in the sport. | 
