Newsletter - May 2014

I thought I would take a minute to send out a few words about the club and my background so you all have an idea who I am since I'm new to Colorado and haven't met most of you.

I was born in Canada and moved to Southern California in 1963, I grew up near the El Toro air station watching different aircraft over the years and attending the annual airshow. I always thought being a pilot was beyond my means but discovered hang gliding in 1979 and instantly knew that flying was going to be a big part of my life. The next few years were spent between California in our summer and the winter months in New Zealand and Australia, realizing flying takes money I earned a general contractors license and began a framing construction company. The next year I took an introductory flight and was hooked, I earned my private and took a few people flying, I met Janet Helton who talked about the Pitts and showed me one at Flabob airport, I had never seen an aerobatic plane up close and couldn't stop thinking it. On my 25th birthday I bought myself a ride in a open cockpit Pitts S2A and realized this is what I've been looking for and started looking for a fuselage and I would buy the wings from John Helton as he had bought a ultimate wing. I went to Compton airport to look at a fuselage I heard about, I met Sid Golden who had the fuselage and he took me down to meet Dan Rihn who was very supportive of me building an S1S. He let me sit in his plane and it was life changing, I never wanted to get out but I had real motivation knowing it was possible. I went to the 1984 Borrego acrofest and thought I had hit the gold mine with all the acro planes, I volunteered to be a boundary judge where I had a good look at the different categories and how the difficulty increased with each category.

My test flight was in July 1987 at Santa Paula airport, I didn't have enough money as I was building to fly and build so I had less than 100hrs tt and a few hours in the front seat of an S2B with Dan when I performed the test flight. It went well and it is one of the milestones in my life. The next big thing was meeting my wife Dana and marrying her 10 weeks later our honeymoon was put off a bit till the WAC in Red Deer Canada which we shared with Unlimited pilots Dan, Rory Moore and Chip Beck. I began practicing but didn't feel as comfortable as I wanted, after a few hours I went to Florida and flew with Bill Thomas and his 10 hour spin training course, I came back with the confidence to begin to practice for competition. I heard about a new airport in murrieta that would be a legal practice area so Dana our daughter and I moved there and I had the sky to myself and could practice everyday after work if I wanted.

My first competition was in 1990 at Paso Robles, I went with Dan and he won unlimited and I got the Earnst belt for the worst fist time competitor. I was a little upset about it but was relived when I heard many successful pilots had earned one as well. I was busy with work and practicing so my next contest was 1992 where I was center box judge (another different vantage site) my first two flights weren't good but my third flight was 6th out of 18 which gave me hope. I met Ken Erickson (now chief pilot at the Tutima acro school) there and we agreed to practice together as we lived near each other, we would practice at F70 across the street and critique each other, we went to the next competition and I flew in the intermediate catagory the practice paid off as I won the first flight and finished 2nd overall. I had a incredible sense of accomplishment and it gave me the desire to do better and push my envelope to the next level. I met Clyde Cable and Gerry Zimmerman at the competitions in California and Arizona the next few years and looked up to them and their professionalism. I flew the 95 Nationals in the one design prototype and met Dick Bevington when he was one of the many pilots to try the 1D, I went on to compete at the 97 AWAC in Kansas as the Canadian team. I bought my Sukhoi 26 in 2000 and moved to the unlimited catagory, I've gone on to compete at the 2003 WAC, 2008 European championships and my last contest was the 2009 WAC. Since then I've been flying airshows in the Sukhoi and my current plane the Sbach 342. I've had critiquing from Sergei B, Russian team coaches, Dan and countless other peers,it has always been a learning experience and have always come away with a feeling of confidence, safety and the desire to try new maneuvers.

Going forward I hope to contribute as much as possible (I have 7 children) and offer my experience to whoever would benefit from it. I'm excited about the future of our chapter, we had a great turnout at Tom's with a lot of acro planes and interesting people from Jim Mcintry to new members at their first meeting. We have events planned for this year both competition and social. My fondest memories were the years I was coming up through the catagories and the camaraderie of other pilots, I would encourage everyone to participate in any capacity whether it's judging, flying or just hanging around like minded people.

Sincerely,
Doug Jardine, President
IAC Chapter 12