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This past week there was much discussion online regarding the surprising decision that the Riverside, California FSDO personnel would be performing ramp checks for inspector training during the Redlands Aerobatic Contest, hosted by IAC chapter 26. The FSDO also interpreted verbiage in the Certificate of Waiver to include verifying Flight Review currency at the contest. 

The IAC Government Relations Chair John Smutny had numerous discussions with the Riverside FSDO and the regional representative of the FAA's National Aviation Events Program prior to the contest to clarify the…

BOUNDARY JUDGES AT THE 2022 U.S. NATIONALS

In a revision to our earlier announcement to not have boundary judges in place at the 2022 U.S. National Aerobatic Championships, we will now plan to have the equipment, communications, and transportation available to have the boundaries judged and guarded. The influx of pre-registrations in recent days has caused me and our key officials to re-evaluate the situation and to put what we will need in place for the competition.

However, the use of boundary judges will still depend on adequate volunteers for our week-long event with…

Maurice Hunter “Pappy” Spinks has been selected by the IAC Hall of Fame committee and approved by the IAC board of directors to be inducted into the International Aerobatic Hall of Fame for 2022. The official ceremonies will take place at the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on November 10, 2022.

Pappy was the president of the Aerobatic Club of America, an active competitor and the sponsor of the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships in 1967-71 at the Oak Grove Airport in Texas. The move from Reno, Nevada to Oak Grove, helped increase the participation of the national…

On August 15, Jason Stephens (Unlimited), Shad Coulson, Mallory Lynch and Joe Gerner (Advanced) took the long journey to Issoudin, France for the 2022 World Glider Aerobatic Championships. The first couple of days were spent acclimating to the new time zone and enjoying some of the rich history and cuisine that France has to offer. They spent the next couple of days in practice. The first official day was August 18.

Jason flew 7th out of 17 Unlimited competitors in an MDM-1 Fox. The Free Known program was flown in the morning and when the category finished he landed in 11th place.…

Congratulations to the U.S. Unlimited Aerobatic Team on earning a third-place bronze overall at WAC 2022. Rob Holland, Jeff Boerboon and Craig Gifford’s scores were added up for Team USA to land them on the podium.

I am very sorry to tell you that our friend and colleague John Gaillard passed away peacefully at home yesterday afternoon. John had been strongly involved in the aerobatic sports movement in South Africa for a great many years, where his passing will be deeply mourned. He was also currently a CIVA Vice President, had previously chaired our Judging Committee for some years, was Chief Judge at a good number of CIVA aerobatic championships at all levels, and without doubt has been instrumental in guiding a wide…

The 2022 World Aerobatic Championships opened in Leszno, Poland on Wednesday, August 3.

43 competitors from 14 countries are vying for the title of World Aerobatic Champion. The first flight, Programme P1, was flown by about half the competitors on opening day and the remainder finished up on August 4. Rob Holland currently sits in second place with a score of 83.017% behind the leader Florent Oddon of France with a score of 84.169%. 

In the team results, the French team is in the lead, followed by the U.S. and in third is the team from Spain.

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Voting for the 2022 Officer/Director candidates for this year’s election closed on July 26, 2022, at 6:00pm CST.

The election ballots will be tabulated by the IAC Ballot Certification Committee Chair. The results will be announced at the IAC annual meeting of members on July 29, 2022. The meeting will be held in the Vicki Cruse Educational Pavilion at the IAC Aerobatic Center at 8:30am during EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.…