Tethered Flight: New Approaches to Technical Training for Judges and Pilots

Twelve tethered flight judges and pilots gathered on March 3, 2018, for a training session in Breitenbach, SO. The goal of the event was to refresh the judges’ theoretical knowledge in the aerobatics category while also providing aerobatics pilots with tools to improve their flying technique. Peter Germann had put a great deal of effort into preparing this innovative training session. He had spent countless hours searching for videos demonstrating and analyzing aerobatic flights of varying quality. The videos

served as a successful start to the training and were impressive to watch.

Following that, each of the 15 flight maneuvers—which together make up the aerobatics competition—

The competition program is covered using technical sketches prepared specifically for this purpose:

• In the first step, we demonstrated how the figure should be flown strictly according to the rules.
• In the second step, common mistakes encountered in practice were gradually illustrated.

- Finally, in the third step, the scoring of the incorrectly flown figure was discussed.

Peter put in a great deal of effort in organizing this

training program. But it was well worth it. All participants in the training agreed: the topic had never before been covered in such a clear, understandable, and systematic way. And the best part

is: Not only the judges, but above all the active competition pilots can learn a great deal from it—which will

will hopefully prove useful. The training materials are available at www.fesselflug.ch.

*Ursi Borer*