High-flying competition takes off in North Springfield

"We have a group of people who like to fly upside down, fly loops, fly rolls, but this is precision aerobatic flying," says Farrell Woods, the president of the New England Aerobatic Club.

www.wcax.com    

High-flying competition takes off in Springfield Posted: Jul 15, 2016 5:34 PM EDT Updated: Jul 15, 2016 7:09 PM EDT By Lynzi DeLucciaCONNECT SPRINGFIELD, Vt. - It's not every day that Amy Yu gets to show off her skills in the sky. "I'm a scientist at Tufts Medical Center," Yu said. But today, she's a pilot-- one of the three women competing among more than 30 men in the Green Mountain Aerobatics Contest. "Just remembering, OK, what am I supposed to be doing next, flying up, down, sideways, left, right? So there's a lot going on, but it's a lot of fun," Yu said. The competition kicked off Friday at Springfield's Hartness State Airport, hosted by the New England Aerobatic Club. "We have a group of people who like to fly upside down, fly loops, fly rolls, but this is precision aerobatic flying," said Farrell Woods, the president of the New England Aerobatic Club. Woods says it's a great hobby, but it also really improves any pilot's skills. They compete in five different categories based on skill and experience. "We have a judge's line out in the grass along the runway, and the deal is, is each competitor flies one at a time in the aerobatic box which is a 1-kilometer cube of air," Woods explained. Each pilot flies a predetermined set of aerobatic figures, like a loop or a hammerhead turn, and judges grade pilots based on the accuracy and execution. "Loops have to be round. If they're egg-shaped or shaped like a cursive I, they get points off for that," Woods said. But this weekend's high temperatures are one thing that could impact performance and the physical demands of flying these planes. "Dehydration, even a slight amount of dehydration, limits how much Gs you can pull in that airplane, and what that means is the amount of G-Forces," said Charles Schumacher, a pilot. Schumacher says heat exhaustion can limit that ability to perform maneuvers, but competition organizers are making sure pilots stay hydrated and healthy before taking off. Pilot experience in the contest ranges from a couple of years having a pilot license to war veterans who have flown jet fighters. Woods says this competition, in particular, is a great learning opportunity. "The folks who are less experienced can learn a heck of a lot from the more experienced folks," he said. "It's probably the most exciting sport you can imagine," Schumacher said. "The science of what you have to do, you're playing a game of chess in the sky." The judges' top three scorers at the end of the weekend will take home trophies and they'll leave flying high.