AeroU
“How to become a better Aerobatic pilot”
Instructor: Frank Noll Jr.


Due to the increase in IMAC membership and contests, I’ve decided to start an instructional aerobatic school here in Champaign, Illinois. You’ll be able to learn from over 30 years of aerobatic competition in pattern, the Masters, the TOC and the Tucson Shootouts.

The courses comprise of 2 days of instruction packed with flying so be prepared with a plane, a lot of fuel and chargers. The course is concentrated on IMAC style planes and flying, but not restricted to them. We will be flying at a private grass airstrip with no one else around but the students. No issues with finding air space, as the field is oriented to fly with the sun behind you all day long and you’ll be able to fly more than 1 at a time. If you wish to team up with a few of your buddies to feel more comfortable, then that’s fine as well.

The course fee is $400.00/person for the 2 days with a 50% deposit for reserving your spot. Class starts at 8:00 on Saturday morning, and will continue till you’re worn out, or out of gas and batteries!!! The classes will be limited to 4 people for the weekend, so you won’t have an issue with not getting a chance to fly and learn.

Here are the available dates, and are booked on a first come first served basis:\

April 11-12, 2009
April 25-26, 2009
May 23-24, 2009
May 30-31, 2009
July 11-12, 2009
July 25-26, 2009
(Additional later dates will be provided as needed)

Directions, hotel accommodations and other info will be provided upon reserving your spot.

Some of the topics to be covered:
- Aircraft set-up (controls, CG, equipment, linkages etc)
- Proper aircraft Trimming
- Presentation for better scoring (positioning/ distance etc.)
- Prop/engine combinations for flying styles
- Maneuver instruction (Geometry, spacing, distance etc.)
- How to execute the maneuvers correctly (spins, snaps, rollers etc)
- Learning Aresti and the latest updates ( if needed )
- How to get the best scores
- Contest preparation (practice)
- Overall Critiquing of flying and tips for improvement

If you’re interested in attending one of these weekend courses, send an email to: f.noll@comcast.net

Sounds like fun!

Wish I lived closer.........

Awesome. Please consider taking this show on the road ala Keith Code's Superbike School.

I sent you a e-mail let me know if you do not get it.

How far is that from Augusta GA. :>

Very good idea Frank!!! If I lived closer I would be more then willing to help out!

Rick

Frank I cannot get the e-mail to go through?
I want to come on April 11-12
I may have one other to go with me I will let you know
My e-mail is
mikechandley@aol.com

Yea, this would be a fun weekend !!!! Long Drive but it would be worth it to get that kind of help !

Posted By MartinTreat on 24 Mar 2009 17:26
Sounds like fun!

Wish I lived closer.........

Martin, I know you better than that!!! Time it with the Ohio race!! :-)

Posted By John Reichart on 24 Mar 2009 18:49
Awesome. Please consider taking this show on the road ala Keith Code's Superbike School.

Actually, I have considered a "traveling" school once we get through the first set of classes.

Posted By Wayne Dengel on 24 Mar 2009 22:10
How far is that from Augusta GA. :>

Atlanta is approx 9 hours from Champaign. I'm not sure what the distance is from Augusta.

Posted By Mike Chandley on 25 Mar 2009 8:31
Frank I cannot get the e-mail to go through?
I want to come on April 11-12
I may have one other to go with me I will let you know
My e-mail is
mikechandley@aol.com

Hi Mike,

I'm happy to hear that your interested! I'll go ahead and put you in one of the slots for April 11-12. If you can't get through on the other email, contact me at fnoll@hobbico.com You should be able to get through on that one.

Frank

Frank,
Reserve two spots for me let me know how you want the funds sent.
Fireball
mikechandley@aol.com

Yea I'm planning on going with Mike.

Wish I could.

Maybe we can hook-up when the road show is in my area?

How about around the Shootout?

Hey Frank,

do you think there's any help for me!!

Al

I've spent some time with Frank over the years. I would suggest that anyone who has the chance to fly with Frank take the opportunity. It will be well worth the drive and time!!. besides being a decent pilot (LOL) There is only a handful of world class pilots that are at his skill level and one of a few that makes the offer to teach.

He's also not a bad guy!! LOL I suspect he may even let you bring your JR radio!!

Al

Hey Martin,

Maybe Frank will let us fly his Carden and we can just fly out and not have to drag planes across the country. : )

Bill Adams

Frank just to be sure you understand what I was saying, Mike and I want come up for the April 11 - 12 go ahead and put us down for those dates, thanks Mark.

Posted By Al Young on 25 Mar 2009 20:50
Hey Frank,

do you think there's any help for me!!

Al

I'm not a miracle worker Al!!!

All kidding aside, everybody can use an extra set of eyes to perhaps catch little things that can go overlooked and bad habits that have developed. I'm the same way, and have to have some help at times. Especially before a major competition.

Posted By Bill Adams on 25 Mar 2009 22:37
Hey Martin,

Maybe Frank will let us fly his Carden and we can just fly out and not have to drag planes across the country. : )

Bill Adams

No problem Bill... The deposit just went up dramatically!!!

Posted By Mark Mcclellan on 26 Mar 2009 7:28
Frank just to be sure you understand what I was saying, Mike and I want come up for the April 11 - 12 go ahead and put us down for those dates, thanks Mark.

Hi Mark,

Yes, we've got you penciled in!

Sweeeetttt !!!! Mike and I are looking forward to it, we will be coming in a Motorhome with a trailer behind it, talk to you at the Toledo show.

Posted By Mark Mcclellan on 26 Mar 2009 10:21
Sweeeetttt !!!! Mike and I are looking forward to it, we will be coming in a Motorhome with a trailer behind it, talk to you at the Toledo show.

Frank,

You'll have to go on a diet after those two boys get done with you. Watch out for Mark's fried bread!!!

Oh, and by the way, I resemble that remark!!

Al

I'm sure I'll be frying some !!!! I may not fly all that great but I know how to eat !

Posted By Mark Mcclellan on 26 Mar 2009 10:21
Sweeeetttt !!!! Mike and I are looking forward to it, we will be coming in a Motorhome with a trailer behind it, talk to you at the Toledo show.

Mark,

You can camp at the school site, so you guys won't have to look for a campground anywhere. Will and Marian are regulars there!!

Great we are looking forward to it . I told Wayne Matthews that after this school I was going to kick his butt, and he said if I did you would be getting $400 from him !!!!

Frank.... I did say that if Mark comes back from your classes & kicks my butt...then I would be registering for the next class!!!
Wayne

Yea he is Skeeerrrrttttt !

Posted By Wayne Matthews on 27 Mar 2009 10:15
Frank.... I did say that if Mark comes back from your classes & kicks my butt...then I would be registering for the next class!!!
Wayne

Wayne,

Maybe you should come with Mark so that he doesn't get a head start!! LOL

Frank, as we spoke; this is an awsome i idea!! We appreciate your dedication to IMAC, and helping better our odds at "Throwing it down"!!! Do you think you can come up with a USB plug in fingers to fingers, maybe us old guys can get an edge up on these youngsters!
We can't wait for you to take the "Tune-up" on the road!! We can certainly boolk you down here as well! See you in Toledo!
Folks this is an awesome oppurtunity!!! :
Don

The weather for this weekend looks great... sunny and 60 both Sat. and Sun.
Mark and I will be rolling your way Friday morning early I guess.
I am looking forward to a great weekend.
Mike

Mike did you get an address ?

We will have to get the address from Frank.

Mike,and mark... awesome stuff there.... Mr Platinum Thunbs will have you both kicking butt on the SE circuit!!!
Don

Posted By Mike Chandley on 07 Apr 2009 5:55
The weather for this weekend looks great... sunny and 60 both Sat. and Sun.
Mark and I will be rolling your way Friday morning early I guess.
I am looking forward to a great weekend.
Mike

Yes Mike, I've been monitoring it here as well. Low 60's from what I've seen. Bring some warm clothes, just in case! :

Frank

I am bringing the heated sleeping quarters;-) Being a dang Yankee... I know a little about northern weather hehehe.
Mark doesn't though.

I'm ready !!!!! Looking forward to it !

Here's the forecast for this weekend guys!

http://www.weatherusa.net/forecasts/index.php?forecast=zandh&pands=61822

Frank

We are loaded and ready to pull out at 6am. If all goes well we will be there about 5 pm.
I test run the motor today...sounds awsome. I am hoping to get a flight in tomorrow eve.
Weather looks Great!

well its about 2pm and we are about to Indianpolis, we are rolling down the road about 65 to 75 most the way, hit rain a couple times changed drivers at 75mph a couple times should be there about 5pm

Very good Mark! Kinda chilly and ugly out now, but it's supposed to be nice tomorrow and Sunday.

Frank

We on our way !!!

Mark, Mike, study hard and do well on the test I think you guys are in for a great time. Roy and I are hoping to make one of Frank's AERO-U Schools.

Just loaded my plane in the trailer and it has started raining. My luck!! Drive carefully

Phil

No rain here !!!

We are here! Windy as heck. There will be no 170 maiden today.

This place is wide open and flat lots of room now if the wind would die down to something under 30mph I would start flying !

The wind is down to 13mph but its 34 degrees outside this morning. Frank stopped by last night and went over a few things and we decided to start around 9am this morning. It is going to 57 degrees today with winds around 10 mph so it should be a good day once it warms a little. We will keep you'all posted.
Wish I would have brought the camera.

well guys?! how goes it??? I can pretty much assume it was pretty sweet!

Posted By joe cutright on 11 Apr 2009 21:59
well guys?! how goes it??? I can pretty much assume it was pretty sweet!

Mr. Noll musta wore dem boy's out. It's 2210 and no update. I guess mike will chime in around 0330 when he awakes! Until then....

Kp

Tired and wore out but excited and pumped up all in one. We learned alot today and we still have tomorrow.
We are having a wonderful time here. The weather has cooperated with normal contest weather 12-16 mph cross winds all day but 56 degrees. I personally burned almost 5 gallons of fuel today, the 170 is a thirsty little jewel.
All went well with the new setup and nothing came loose today. I was a little worried about not flying the motor and tuned pipes before getting here but Frank has been alot of help dialing it in. The first flight I did not even think it was the same airplane, we spent most of the morning trimming and all afternoon flying.
I am sure Mark will post more I am wore out and heading for a nice warm bed.
Mike

We just got in 15 min ago.

Yea Frank had some glow wire and chem lights and would not ley us stop until we were ready for invetional class ! Flew all night, don't know how we are going to stay awake to drive home but we are having a lot of fun !

awesome guys!!!!Sounds like Framk, wore you out... bet that DA170 is broke in now!!!!

Yea it is running great ! 35# carden with DA 170 on RE3's all I can say is Wow ! Frank Flew his 43% Carden with the DA 200 that was cool also ! Jason was there also and flew his new areowork bipe's and he made them look good !

We tached the motor on the ground with the 29x12n and it was turning 6600 rpm with the 32 to 1 break in oil after 5 gallons of fuel through it.
Only problem I see is power management, You have to work at not making the manuevers to large and lose points on the acs scores.
Other than that it it has many advantages.

Dang Mike you out of bed already ? I got to try to go to sleep at 3am and I had to be up at 6am but you could have sleep latter !

I just wanted to post my thoughts about the weekend with Frank.
First of all Frank is a first class guy. We met years ago when I became the infamous "Fireball" the next year Frank was flying my 43% Geoff Combs airplane for the noontime demo at the Joe Nall at Pats house when the covering blew off the entire wing.
So when he flew my plane to see how it was trimmed I know he was thinking what will go wrong this time, but all went well.

Frank really worked hard with us on the individual things we needed. He showed us how to make it easier to fly the manouvers.
When we had trouble with a particular manouver Frank would take the plane and make sure it was pilot error not the airplane.
Everytime he took the plane it did exactly what he wanted.
It was a pleasurable experience that I will not soon forget and I will spend the rest of my flying days trying to implement what he has taught me.

I do not have any regrets for my decision to go and spend time with fine people like Frank and Jason.
If you are contemplating wether it is worth it or not I cannot answer that question for you.
I can say for me I would have been happy at twice the cost.

Thanks Frank, for the wonderful weekend, I will do my best to make you proud one day.
Your friend... Mike
aka "Fireball"

Posted By Mark Mcclellan on 13 Apr 2009 8:00
Dang Mike you out of bed already ? I got to try to go to sleep at 3am and I had to be up at 6am but you could have sleep latter !

2am to 7 am thats 5 hrs only one less than usual.

Well after I got home and got a shower it was still awhile after I got into bed before I even tried to go to sleep if you know what I mean !

As soon as I get the chance I'll do a write up and post it on the SE page but I agree with what Mike said I got a lot out of this weekend and I very happy I did so ! Thanks go out to Frank and Jason !

Posted By Mike Chandley on 13 Apr 2009 8:26
I just wanted to post my thoughts about the weekend with Frank.
First of all Frank is a first class guy. We met years ago when I became the infamous "Fireball" the next year Frank was flying my 43% Geoff Combs airplane for the noontime demo at the Joe Nall at Pats house when the covering blew off the entire wing.
So when he flew my plane to see how it was trimmed I know he was thinking what will go wrong this time, but all went well.

Frank really worked hard with us on the individual things we needed. He showed us how to make it easier to fly the manouvers.
When we had trouble with a particular manouver Frank would take the plane and make sure it was pilot error not the airplane.
Everytime he took the plane it did exactly what he wanted.
It was a pleasurable experience that I will not soon forget and I will spend the rest of my flying days trying to implement what he has taught me.

I do not have any regrets for my decision to go and spend time with fine people like Frank and Jason.
If you are contemplating wether it is worth it or not I cannot answer that question for you.
I can say for me I would have been happy at twice the cost.

Thanks Frank, for the wonderful weekend, I will do my best to make you proud one day.
Your friend... Mike
aka "Fireball"

Mike, Mark and Steve.. Thanks for attending the school this past weekend. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to spend time with all of you, and I hope you came away with something useful that can be applied to your flying. I could see a definite improvement from where we started to your final flights. Even though we didn't get to cover as much as I would have liked, I still think the groundwork is there and you can use the tips we worked on throughout any sequence or unknown that gets thrown at you. Good luck at the upcoming contests, and I'll be watching the scores!! :-) Look out Wayne!!

Frank

I'm looking forward to this weekends contest ! Wayne had better pray for rain that might be the only thing that can save him now !

Hi Folks,

I was also fortunate to get to participate in the first Aero U this past weekend. I would have posted this sooner but I was so wiped out that I don't think I could have typed.

A quick word about where I am in SA flying. While I've flown since the early 70's I'd never flown SA until last year. I flew three contests in basic last year. This year I made the move to Sportsman. So, Frank had a lot of work to do with me!

Mark and Mike met up with Frank on Saturday morning, about 9:00 Frank asked "who is first?" and it was on.

We each flew a flight in rotation, the first flight was working on trimming and mixing out bad tendancies. If the airplane looked like it was doing something odd, Frank would fly it to see if it was the airplane or the pilot.

The next flight we started into sequences. I think we all spent at least two flights on the first manuver.

The wind was challenging but good as we all got a lot of pratice learning how to properly wind correct.

Saturday ended with us each having flown eight flights. I have to tell you I was totaly wiped out at that point.

Sunday was a bit warmer, but just as windy out of a different location. The clear advantage to this flying site is that you can fly over wide open terrain in three different directions if you want to. The runway is a full size grass strip so you have a ton of space to land if you have a problem.

After it was all said and done I had gotten through 3 manuvers. That tells you two things. I needed (need) a lot of help, and how much Frank made us each work each manuver.

Frank is a super instructor, he talked me through each element of each manuver, helped me correct during the manuver by telling me the correct stick input and why.

I might also mention that I started Sunday with a brand new, never flown airplane and engine. Frank helped me get it set up properly and trimed, in a much shorter amount time than I could have done it myself.

This weekend is one that I will remember for a very long time. The amount of information that I learned is increadible. It will take this old 286 processor a while to get through all of the information, but I'll go into this contest season a lot better pilot than I would without Frank's class.

Guys, if you can attend one of Frank's sessions, do it! You won't be disappointed. I'd also recommend doing it in Champaign as the flying site is one that is perfect for this class.

Steve Kaluf

It was great to meet you this weekend Steve, I think you are going to really like that new Cap that you flew on Sunday,,,,,, just remember it will slow down on landing.

Mark,
It was great to meet and fly with you guys this weekend too. Man, that was a good lunch by the way!

I really like the CAP, I'll get it slowed down!

Steve

Steve, great report... man i'm encouraged by reading your posts. I guess the "Miracle" worker, can help this ole guy as well!!! Awesome stuff guys!!! Let me Yell across the roommmm.... Linda, Jordan, Stephen,, there's hope for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don

Don,
Just bring your clan, you'd have a class to yourself!

Steve

Just an FYI guys... there is still an opening for the weekend of April 25-26, if you want to get tuned up for the flying season.

Frank

Frank and everybody I wrote up something about this past weekend and sent it to Roy and he will post it soon.
Mark.

OK the article I wrote about this part weekend is posted on the SE home page, go check it out !

The second school is this weekend!!! Beautiful weather, low 80's expected and lots of flying. There is still an opening to get some work in before the IMAC season gets underway here in the midwest.

Frank

The last "Spring" school session was completed this past weekend! One of the most gorgeous flying days I've seen in my life. Sunny, high of 78 and gusts to 1-1/2 mph! Couldn't have had a better time.

The Fall sessions will be starting in September and there will two weekends scheduled. If you're interested, contact me and we'll reserve as spot for you.

Frank

Hey Frank , Last weekend Al from Radiowave came by and just gave me an airplane kit !!!! I thought that was really nice of him then he said I was supposed to bring it to you, dang !!!!! See ya at the XFC in a little over a week, Mark.
BTW, did the guys at the last school like the secret Box ?

I'm getting ready to schedule classes for this year. I'm currently looking at mid April to start. If you're interested in attending, contact me at f.noll@comcast.net so I'll have a better handle on dates to accomodate everybody.

There will be less classes this year, with more attendees. This way it will be cheaper for the entire group for the weekend.

Frank

I'm in... I hope a date works for me!!!