NAA Newsletter - Fall 2020 - IAC article featured

by Steve Kurtzahn
IAC Executive Director

2020 has been quite the year for the International Aerobatic Club (IAC). The two main annual events we are involved with were cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the EAA's AirVenture this year, the IAC was planning on celebrating its 50th Anniversary with special displays and archival photos telling our story. We were also planning on a number of forums and presentations that focused on aerobatics, not to mention the sale of new 50th anniversary merchandise in our IAC pavilion on the EAA grounds.

Since AirVenture couldn't be held, the EAA conducted a virtual form of the celebration with Spirit of Aviation Week, which was a huge success. The IAC played a role in Spirit of Aviation Week with a number of presentations and forums in digital format. All of these IAC aerobatic presentations are still available to enjoy on both EAA.org and IAC.org.

The second event that had to be cancelled because of the virus was our September U.S. National Aerobatic Championships, "Nationals" for short. This would have been Nationals' second year at Salina, Kansas (KSLN).

Although we couldn't experience these two wonderful events in 2020, we are already planning for 2021. We hope that Covid-19 will be far enough behind us that AirVenture will be held in Oshkosh again, bigger and better than ever. We also hope that we will be back with the wonderful folks in Salina in September 2021. If you join us at AirVenture, be sure to stop in and say "hi" at the IAC pavilion. In the meantime, the IAC continues to sponsor aerobatic contests across the country and advocate for the enjoyment and safety of aerobatic aviation.