By Brian Howard
Before beginning to learn how to read and write the Aresti language, we need to examine the structure of the Catalogue itself. The Aresti Catalogue can be thought of as a parts cabinet containing all the parts necessary to construct any aerobatic figure. For an aerobatic figure to be legally used in competition, it must be constructed using only the component parts found in the Catalogue and those parts may only be assembled and drawn in accordance with the instructions contained within the Catalogue.
To make it easier to find any of the over 1200 ‘parts’ contained in the Aresti Catalogue, it is divided into eight “Families” numbered 1 through 9 (Family 4 is currently not in use). Families 1 – 8 are referred to as the ‘Basic Figures’ and contain complete figures like loops and hammerheads. Each family contains figures with similar characteristics. For example, all figures composed solely from lines and angles are in Family 1. All hammerheads are in Family 5 and so on. Family 9 is referred to as the ‘Complementary Elements’ and contains the rotational elements: rolls and spins. This family is ‘complementary’ because each of these elements must be used with, or complement, one of the basic figures found in Families 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Now, of course, even divided between eight different parts drawers, it would still be hard to find a specific part among the 1200 we have available for our use. Giving a different name to each part really isn’t an option either, so instead, a Catalogue number is assigned to each part which uniquely identifies that part from all others. We will discuss the numbering system in a bit more detail later in this tutorial, but for now know that it follows a consistent and logical system throughout the Catalogue.
For any given basic figure or complementary rotational element, the assigned Catalogue number consists of four sections in this form: Family.Subfamily.Row.Column. We’ve just talked about how the Aresti families are divided into groups of figures with similar characteristics, and within each of those families, there are logical subdivisions, or subfamilies. For exmple, in Family 2, the turns, Subfamily 2.1 is the 90° turns, 2.2 is the 180° turns, 2.3 is the 270° turns, and 2.4 is the 360° turns.
Taking a moment to look inside your Catalogue, you will see that all figures are laid out in a matrix of rows and columns, which are numbered down the side and across the bottom of each page. There are always just four columns, but the number of rows depends on the size of the family. Thus, any given figure or rotational element in the Catalogue can be uniquely identified by the Family and Subfamily to which it belongs, and the row and column number within that Family where it can be found. Taking a plain loop as an example, you will find it in Row 1 and Column 1 of Subfamily 7.4. Thus, the Catalogue Number for a plain loop is 7.4.1.1. No other figure in the entire Catalogue shares this number.
As with a spoken language, learning Aresti involves both a vocabulary of words (symbols) and grammar (drawing conventions), or the rules governing how those symbols can be combined to make figures. Fortunately, unlike a spoken language, Aresti has a vocabulary of only twenty unique symbols.
