Yes, it’s really nice to have some good news to share! Our good news is that the International Aerobatic Club’s total membership is once again enjoying steady growth! Here’s hoping that we all go out of our way to offer a big welcome to these new members and to help guide them into the many IAC chapter activities and special events planned for 2015! It’s going to be a great year!

This year’s Sportsman Known sequence has decent flow and energy, without too many of the elements that would punish low-horsepower/high-drag aerobats. So let’s break this sequence down, with the newer aerobatic pilot in mind, and see what we find.

Nationals data is now integrated into the IAC contest database. (See Integrating Nationals for the ugly details. This was a big job this year.)

The primary impact for now is an update to the Regional Series Results. We'll soon complete computations for the L. Paul Soucy and Collegiate Series, that also depend on results from the Nationals.

The Nationals had an impact on Regional Series results in several places:

Visit: https://nationals.iac.org, and click on any of the Results links in the left-hand sidebar.

It might be interesting to see which Regional Series titles are in play at the Nationals. Recall that the Nationals is a wild card contest that counts for every one of the regional series contests. 

In Unlimited, there are not many there. Tim Just could improve his already leading position in the Southwest regional.

In Advanced:

We've seen Ephrata Washington earlier this year, when we wrote about the Apple Cup. It's a contest location about as far north and west as you can get in the lower forty-eight. The Fall contest at Ephrata, the Apple Turnover, had reported awesome weather. Says Contest Director Peggy Reidinger, "Not a cloud to be found the entire weekend, and the temperature was perfect."

On the first weekend in September, the IAC Chapter 126 Buffalo Wings hosted their contest at Olean, NY. Winners were:

• Sportsman, Dimitri Cuesta, Pitts S1S
• Intermediate, Chuck Cohen, Extra 300LC
• Advanced, Mark Stewart, Panzl S-330

The following report comes to us from Hella Comat, who competed Advanced at the contest. Take it away, Hella!

Congratulations to the 2014 IAC Open West Champions Jake Carter, Beth Stanton, Cameron Jaxheimer, Sam Mason, and Tim Just.

Reports from the Rebel Regional at Union City, Tennessee are that it was one of the more fun and pleasurable contests in recent experience. Weather was favorable. Lots of great people showed up. There was a whole lot of flying. Food was delicious and abundant. Attitudes were upbeat, moods happy, dispositions positive.