KNOWNS, FREE KNOWNS, IAC, and CIVA

by Mike Heuer, IAC President

I have appreciated the discussion regarding the new Free Known flight programs CIVA will introduce at the World and European Championships in 2016, both in power and glider, and thank all of you who have provided feedback and opinions. My comments below are rather lengthy but bear with me as the issues are worthy of further discussion.

Just to provide some background, the idea of the “Free Known” has been around a couple of years. I can remember one of our Unlimited Team pilots discussing…

A video of the induction of Sean D. Tucker into the International Aerobatics Hall of Fame on November 5th is now available at the following link:

https://youtu.be/Stv4Gg1uGGU

The video includes Sean's inspiring acceptance speech, his tribute to IAC and EAA, and a brief presentation on his aviation, aerobatic, and airshow career.

The 2016 Known sequences are now available online, along with the Unknowns for the 2014 and 2015 contest seasons. (Member login required.)

The IAC Board has approved the appointment of three new people to our leadership team of volunteers:

• IAC Collegiate Program – this important program which brings college students into aerobatic flying will now be headed by Jordan Ashley of Marion, Indiana. A graduate of Purdue University, Jordan currently heads up accounting and finance for a church in his area. Well versed in collegiate aviation, he headed up Purdue’s aviation student organization roundtable and is an active flight instructor. He holds a commercial license, has…

The IAC Board of Directors approved the Known sequences which will be in use for the 2016 contest season when it met in Oshkosh on 4-5 November. These sequences are included in one document which is downloadable below in PDF.

There are 9 sequences in all for both power and glider aerobatics. The Primary sequence remains unchanged from 2015.

For this coming year, IAC adopted its own sequences for Advanced and Unlimited categories. In the past, we have used the Known sequences approved by the FAI Aerobatics Commission (CIVA) each year but Knowns and Free Programs will no longer…