Yesterday, we joined Chris and Andy at the Green Mountains Aerobatics Competition in Springfield, Vermont. Andy’s brother was the Chief Judge, and that meant that we got to sit out at the flightline instead of being back with the general public. That was very cool!

Aerobatic flying is a world that I didn’t know anything about until yesterday, but it’s a very fun world: Humpty bumps and hammerheads, Immelmans and 45° downward exits. The difference between a point roll and a spot roll…

The planes are beautiful, workhorse Decathlons, cartoonish Pitts, growly Sukhois, and the svelte Extras.

They were short of volunteers, so I even got to be a scoring recorder during the Sportsman class. That gave me an up close understanding of exactly what goes into judging the different maneuvers, even if I could never see the flaws that the judge pointed out for me to write down.