I guess it all started back in ’78 whilst watching a full size aerobatic competition at Old Warden. In those distant days, grace & precision was the attraction and, to some extent, remains an important part of the desire to fly an aircraft without any limitations to flight performance.

 FAI Competition aeros in those days, for models at least, consisted of single figures flown about a central point, but within the ‘box’. It was not until ’84 that common sense motivated the FAI into providing continuous, (Aresti based) programmes, more in keeping with full size practice. Although many pilots were a little apprehensive with this new format, my ‘attachment’ to full size gave me renewed enthusiasm. Even in those far off days I could visualise freestyle, albeit a more basic form, as the way forward.

 In the first year of the new ‘Turnaround’ schedules I managed to acquire my highest UK Nationals Championship position of 2-nd place, using not the best equipment available, (passion is a pilot’s best friend!) But it was not until ’87 that the most prestigious achievement in UK model flying was at last mine, that of UK National Champion, labelled ‘the premier event’ by the modelling press of the day. The model I used was ‘Akro Special’ designed specifically for the new F3A schedules. It was developed over a three-year period incorporating many features gleaned from various full size aerobatic aircraft that I’d studied up to that time.

 In  ’86, ’87 & ’88 I formed part of the UK F3A Aerobatic team, competing in Holland, France, Sweden & the USA. As a Team we managed to acquire a Bronze medal at the Euro Champs in both France (‘86), and Sweden (‘88).

 In 1990 I found myself taking a break from the rigors of competition flying. Some of this time was spent developing another new aerobatic design, Loaded Dice. The second ‘series’ of this prototype, Loaded Dice II, was seen on the F3A circuit in ’91, attracting comments such as ‘too scale’ & ‘not appropriate for the task’. I placed second at the UK Nationals that year. In ’92 I once more regained the title of National Champ. I retained that title for a further two years using improved examples of Loaded Dice before retiring from F3A competition at the end of ’94. The reasons for that retirement were various, but one of the major reasons, and one that motivated my desire to change aerobatics; tedious, unimaginative schedules. Not only were the schedules boring in my view, but also the modelling public were beginning to show a genuine disinterest in the once ‘premier discipline’. For me it had become inevitable that Change must occur, very soon!

 It became increasingly obvious that I alone could not change the ways of those who continued to believe that F3A was fine, and in ’96 I realised that the people who best knew how aerobatics should appear were the majority of modellers who attended the shows. The feedback I obtained following my displays at  these shows left me in no doubt what shape future aerobatics should take. Several years of show flying passed & more than two decades since I was first inspired by those full size aeros, I once again found myself at Old Warden. This time I was not watching aerobatics, but flying them for spectators who were as eager to see a new style of flying then, as was I all those years ago. Graham Ashby, (RCM&E Editor), was there to take notes of the latest Loaded Dice III, (the only 2 metre model to be available as a plan at that time), in readiness for a long awaited plan publication. Presumably as a result of the ‘acceptability’ of my style of flying Graham proved very receptive to my proposition for a new event, ‘Freestyle Aerobatics’. The race was on to get some kind of event ready for the following 2000 season, a very appropriate year in which to begin a   new type of aerobatics.