IAC Hall of Famer, Bill Finagin sent in a photo with Filip Enger IAC 440444 proudly displaying an award, "If any aerobatic pilot out there wonders what makes it worthwhile to become a CFI and teach aerobatics, this picture tells it all!"
Filip said, "It was my third contest. I’ve only competed in the Primary category. At my first contest, I was the one who arranged the competition so I hadn’t the time to prepare correctly and ended up at around 30 % score. At that time, I didn’t fly the Pitts, but rather a Robin 2160 which I had only flown a couple of times before the contest, so it probably helped lower my score. The second competition, I finished as number 2, and that was in my Pitts S-1. In that second contest I was beaten by a friend of mine, who is a fighter pilot flying a Saab Safir. Now - third time, victory, in the Pitts!"
Starting out in general aviation with his flight training in 2010, Filip received his private pilot certificate when he took his check ride in April 2013. He said, "It turned out that the theoretical part of earning your certificate here in Europe is kind of a big deal, and if you don't study for it, you won't pass the nine written exams and that's why it took me so long to get my license.
One of Filip's first taste of aerobatics came in 1997, back in the Windows 97-era when his dad showed him a short movie clip from EAA AirVenture. One of the performers in the video was Bob Hoover. Skip forward 17 years when Filip was visiting Pennsylvania relatives in 2014. One day during the visit he was browsing the internet and somehow made his way to the EAA website. It turned out that AirVenture was to beheld with the next four days, so he told his dad's Aunt that he was going to rent a car and drive to Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
"She must have thought I was crazy, because she didn't understand driving for 16 hours was worth it". He booked the cheapest hotel he could find in Green Bay. So off Filip went in his expensive rental car (he was only 24 at the time and not a U.S. Citizen; the rental price was astronomical.). The drive was a great adventure all by itself. "A 16 hour drive will take me almost from the north to the very south of Sweden and a 4 hour drive will take you from the most western to the most eastern boundaries of Sweden." Once Filip arrived at AirVenture 2014 it was fantastic! So many things to see and do. He returned again in 2016, 2018 and 2019. He had already made plans for 2020, but when AirVenture was canceled had rebooked his travel arrangements to 2021.
In 2015, Filip found himself involved in aerobatics when two of his friends bought a YAK 52. He thought the plane was cool and noted that his friends were made better pilots by the experience. They gave him the opportunity to fly with them and he was hooked. He was so hooked that he began looking at buying a Pitts. At the time of purchase Filip had not flown a Pitts, not even a two seater. The reason for buying the Pitts started when he was around five-years old. His father had gotten his private pilot certificate back around 1992 and was a member of a flying club close to where his family lived. The flying club was hosting activities and lotteries at an airshow around 1995 and that was the first time Filip saw a Pitts Special. The plane was owned by Michael Carlson, famous builder of WWI-era replica aircrafts, who flew his Pitts at the airshow. Filip remembered that moment when he realized that he wanted to fly one himself one day. So, when he finally had the opportunity to buy one in 2015, he just had to take it. He had done a lot of reading about the Pitts and in all his reading he found that no one ever said the Pitts was boring to fly. He thought, why not buy it first and then learn to fly it?
At AirVenture, Filip was introduced to Bill Finagin by Rob Holland. Rob had said that if Filip had a chance to own a Pitts he should go and get spin training with Bill; he is the man to go for that type of training. At the Aviat booth during AirVenture, Bill and Filip had a chance to chat and make plans. "The world is kind of a small place, I would say. The good thing about the aerobatics community is that everyone is taking care of everyone else and tries to help each other out."
In 2018 and 2019, Filip went to Bill's flight school in Annapolis, Maryland. "The training was absolutely amazing! Bill’s way to teach is really good and he is very calm in the aircraft. Letting his students take the time and also to do all the mistakes. The first time I got there. I wanted to do the whole “spin program” to at least have tried all different kinds of spins at least once. The problem for me was getting some motion sickness. Doing spins, not just 3-4 turns, but more like 10-15 turns, was a completely new thing to me. The worst was the accelerated spin. The rotation rate is just too high, but it is, unfortunately, possible to get into one when you’re flying aerobatics so I wanted to experience one and how to recover from it."
Bill also took Filip through a fair share of normal aerobatics and worked their way through different maneuvers. "He gave me some very useful tips and hints on how to do them in the proper way, but also what to do when you mess them up. The whole “messing it up and now you have to take care of the mess”-part was very important for me. Flying a single seater with not too many hours experience means that I have to take care of the mess that I might be able to create. In that case, knowing how to deal with it seemed just critical to me. The most difficult aerobatic maneuver for me to learn was the hammerhead. Finding the right time to kick the aircraft around and then not trying to over-correct it on the way down was not easy, at least for me."
For Filip, the biggest reason to fly with Bill was to have someone who could teach him all different kinds of spins and how to do the emergency recover procedure. The training was clearly an eye-opener to Filip and a big boost of self-confidence which he felt he needed. From Bill's point of view, "Filip was an excellent student who was eager to learn aerobatics and the how and why each maneuver could be directed into parts to better understand it. A delight to fly with."
As to future plans, Filip is expecting to move up to the Sportsman category. In the long run he wants to continue flying aerobatics, gaining experience to move up to Intermediate. If he gets comfortable enough, he might end up moving all the way to the Advanced category. He doesn't know for sure where his aerobatic journey will take him, but one thing he knows for sure, "It will be great!"
