unfair

[WLIU]

Your observations are very good ones. Where it breaks down is that there are many times more participants in those sports than in competition aerobatics. That provides many more volunteers to run the events in those sports, the cost of participation is much lower, and the on site time required to compete is much smaller.

I can compete in IPSC with a $1000 pistol, $200 in other gear, I show up for a couple of hours to shoot my course of fire, and I go home. Entry level in aerobatic competition is a $35K ship, more $$ for support gear, $1K for 4 days of a contest to include hotel, rental car, etc.

When I was actively skydiving, I needed about $4K of gear and 3 like minded friends and I had a 4 way team. A regional type competition at a drop zone was a day. You made maybe as many as 3 jumps at $25 each and you could go home or camp on the field. Again relatively low budget.

I wish that we could have the tens of thousands of folks competing in aerobatics that IPSC has shooting every year. The problem of number of participants drives everything else.

I encourage you to get involved in setting up and running the contest hosted by your local IAC chapter. For someone who has not been a Contest Director, it is a very educational experience. Insurance, FAA paperwork, airport logistics, etc. are all more work than most competitors think. Thank you to every reader who has dedicated time to do this.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS