"A good number of members have been great. But I have also run into the ones talk down to me....."

Well, you run into this in any sport. I have competed in fencing, skydiving, and aerobatics. I hang out with the "good" guys and ignore the jerks.

My experience is that there are a LOT of accomplished competitors who will answer questions and offer encouragement. My personal list of pilots who have offered advice and encouragement include Mike Goulian (Unlimited National Champion), Rob Holland (Unlimited National Champion), John Morrissey (US Team Trainer and coach, IAC Advanced National Champion), Nikolai Timofeev (coach and unlimited competitor), Linda-Meyers Morrissey (unlimited competitor), Dennis Sawyer (IAC Advanced National Champion) just to start the list. All I did was ask politely and listen and I received a huge amount of help. All for free. I hope that my flying reflects the good advice that I have been given.

So ignore the jerks and hang out with the good guys.

And if you have not gone to an IAC Judges School, do so. You can't post a good score unless you know how and why the judges are grading your figures. And then find an IAC chapter and go to practice days. Leo Loudenslager famously said that if you are not getting critiqued you are just burning gas and having fun. And if your local IAC chapter isn't organizing acro practice days, do it yourself. I did. So now I have my own FAA waivered box and I can fly acro at contest altitudes with a critiquer any weekend I want to. Oh course since I made that stuff happen they made me be an IAC chapter president for 5 1/2 years, but that is another story.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS