THE AVERAGE STRENGTH OF THE G-FORCES IS AROUND 10

THE UPS AND DOWNS

Whether he’s doing competition aerobatics or air racing, Patrick enjoys both equally and each comes with its own set of challenges. He compares the Air Race to steeplechase in athletics – whoever has the best lap time wins – and aerobatics to ballet – ‘You’ve got a panel of judges and if you don’t point your toes, they’ll mark you down, and [in aerobatics] it’s exactly the same; every degree that you’re not vertical or you over-rotate, they mark you down.’ The benefit of air racing, he says, is that there’s no human factor involved, whereas in aerobatics you have to impress the judges with various sequences of aerobatics figures, which are categorised into three sections: known compulsories (a certain amount of figures that are given in advance and practised by the pilots), unknown compulsories (manoeuvres are pulled out of a hat on the day of a competition and the pilot has to fly three sequences without practise) and a four-minute freestyle sequence, designed by the pilot to show off his best moves. Some of the manoeuvres in aerobatics are tail slides, flick rolls, negative flick rolls, stall turns, and rolling circles. Patrick draws his sequences