After thoughts…

More Thoughts on Elements

We (ATF) already have quite a few elements ready, “Small Boxes”, “Diagonal R/L 1 by 2 by 1”, “Pumping Star”, Snake Up”, “Double V”, etc. 

We need to stick to these elements, and perhaps 10 more. …and fly them over and over again until they become muscle memory.

With a base of 15(ish) elements, we definitely can fly a three, four minutes routine without repeating any element. With practice comes improvement and it will start to look good.

More Thoughts on Commands

Keeping an “unchangeable” library of elements will also make commanding easier and reducing misunderstandings.

Like when Kjetil, Anders and Sven flew a lot together, our elements became muscle memory and almost no commanding was actually required.

Why did that happen? Continuity! We worked out a number of elements and kept flying them over and over and over again. 

More Thoughts on Solo practice

How can we practice … solo?

• The never-ending story
  • Preparations don’t start 14 days before we meet
  • They are a never ending story
• Key elements
  • Find the key elements (skills) all pilots must be able to perform in order to build the elements.
  • Practice these skills/key elements. (See ‘Specific Flying Skills’ below.)
  • Examples duallies
    • Two point landings
    • Half axels
    • Cascades
    • Pushing out the figure of 8
    • etc.
  • Examples quads
    • Hover anywhere in the WW
    • Reversed flying
    • Speed control
    • Crisp turning
    • etc.
• Quantity flying
  • Fly as much as your schedule allows. Quantity flying builds skills
  • If you can, fill in with a bit of Quality flying too, intentional flying!
• General flying skills
  • The more hours you can fly your overall skills improve. Make a plan for your flying, ie. what should I practice today … and have fun!
• Specific flying skills
  • Find your weaknesses and practice to improve them (like 2pt landings, inverted hovers 8 o’clock etc.)
  • Repeat five times before adjusting
  • Always include practice one specific weakness when flying.
• Bits and pieces of the routine elements (visualising)
  • You can visualise your flying in the team … and practice it solo – it’s will give you bang for the buck!
• In theory (memorize routine elements)
  • Go through the elements in your mind and it will help to memorize them.
  • Use the Element Sheets for this

Thank you, Anders Matson and John Barresi, for your thoughts and comments to this article. I really appreciate your input! 

Sven A.