 Precision Flying in Canada 
by: Peter Pasieka
Here is my personal version and explanation about
precision flying:
The Canadian
Precision Flying Association and precision flying
has nothing to do with formation aerobatics. Even though we call our Snow
Birds the Canadian Precision Aerobatics Team, it has no relation what-so-ever
to flying precision competition on the national or world level.
Precision flying competition is about being as
accurate as possible on a specified route. While navigating using only
a map, the pilots have time check-points to follow, have to
look and identify photos, look
for secret
symbols
or letters
laid out on the ground while flying no higher then 1000'AGL. When you fly
in this competition, you are assigned a take off time as well as a time
over starting gate. From there you have to fly to be be over all assigned
check-points within ?2 seconds of your assigned time. Question: when was
the last time you flew cross-country and ware within 2 seconds of your
calculated time??? Not only that, if you arrive at your check points early,
you get penalty points. If you arrive late, you get penalty points. Mind
you, you are calculating your airspeed for about 65 KT for a C-152. You
will average about 60 KT to 75 KT depending on the wind. When was the last
time you tried to fly cross-country at 60 KT??? It's not easy. There is
a lot of S-turns which cannot exceed 60° or you will get circling penalty
points. Remember, you can't fly away from your assigned route to cover
more distance in order to keep your speed down because you can miss the
secret time check points or symbols enrute. Of course if you are not on
time over the secret check-points or miss secret symbols, you get penalty
points. And don't forget the pictures that you have to identify. Have you
ever seen a farm building from the air? Did you notice that all of them
look very very much alike? How about identifying locations of five or six
farm buildings and placing their location on your map within 0.5 mm of
the exact location?
That is not all yet. When you get back to the
airport there is more to come, precision landings. A two meters thick line
is made across the runway and you have to land right on it. There is four
landing that you have to do. First: normal landing, flaps and power at
pilots discretion. Second: simulated forced, flaps allowed. Third: simulated
forced, no flaps allowed. Forth: regular over a barrier located 50 meters
from the zero line , power and flaps allowed. If you land long, you get
penalty points, if you land short you get higher penalty points as it is
seem to be more dangerous to land short of your target. Next time you go
and do circuits, see how many times you can land on the same spot. It's
not easy but it's lots of fun and it really reenforces your very basic
flying skills.
The 1st National Canadian Precision Competition
was held on Saturday the 18th of September 1999. Me together with my navigator
Kris Karpiński flew a 71.3 NM course. My hobbs time in the aircraft showed
1.8. Almost two hours of extremely intensive high-stress lots-of-talking
tremendous-amounts-of-looking fun cross county I've ever flown. With my
minute flying experience, that was the second most stressful (but fun)
flying - (the first was towing gliders at the 1997 Canadian National Soaring
Championships. We lunched 38 gliders in approximately 55 minutes using
four tow planes on seven separate days).
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