Hi Jon,
I agree that the difficulty level in Advanced as well as all the other levels is about as close to perfect as you can get it without adding another class.
When you watch someone flying Masters from the Advanced perspective, I can't imagine that it looks all that bad because there are so many similar maneuvers/elements common to both classes. For sure, the reverse rolling stuff might look challenging and it still is for those of us that have been in Masters for years, but that's the single biggest maneuver-related challenge someone moving up from Advanced is going to face.
It may appear daunting at first to add negative snaps and/or snap and half's to the mix, but those won't be nearly as challenging as the reverse rolling stuff. And no, reverse rolls and multiple snaps aren't appropriate for Advanced because the Intermediate pilot coming up already has more than enough on their plate. Reverse rolls, multiple snaps both positive and negative, and complex K5 maneuvers are the new challenges coming into Masters. For the occasional phenom like Brett, that isn't enough and skipping Masters altogether was the right choice. For the rest of us, it's plenty and continues to be year after year. Some go on to FAI for the added challenges there, many don't.
What I'd guess probably isn't realized from the Advanced perspective is how critical it is to hold your line in Masters. Not that it's not important in Advanced and lower, but there's almost no wiggle room in Masters for errant lines because of the more complex maneuvers there. Subtle rudder corrections both upright and inverted are paramount. An Advanced pilot should be doing those but can probably get away with not doing it a lot of the time. In Masters, you have to do it all time and that may be the biggest challenge of all.
Verne
ORIGINAL: jonlowe
ORIGINAL: VerneK
Unless I missed it, I haven't seen a single post in this thread expressing concern for an Intermediate pilot transitioning into Advanced. Let's see, in Intermediate, you learn how to keep a fairly basic set of maneuvers in the box. That's what Intermediate is, learning to fly in the box and at that level, it's a huge step.
Now from there, we go to Advanced where you have to learn how to do a slow roll, 4-point roll, snap, and spin. Do you really think Advanced should be more difficult, or Masters for that matter? If we don't keep the steps reasonable for pilots on their way up, nothing else will matter. You won't have enough contestants at a local contest to fill a country bar on a Tuesday afternoon. That's what the sequence building guidelines are all about. You can't ever build a new schedule simply looking forward to the next higher step. You always have to have your eye in the rear view mirror. If you don't, the next look you get will be an empty mirror.
Verne Koester
Verne,
I moved from intermediate to advanced and from advanced to masters not all that long ago. At the time, intermediate to advanced was easy, advanced to masters was extremely difficult for me. The advanced sequence at the time had been dumbed down so much (zero inverted entrances and exits) that it did not do a good job of preparing me for masters, and wasn't that much harder than intermediate. I went thru advanced in two years, went to masters because of peer pressure and pointing out. In hindsight I wish I had stayed there for another year or so to fly the current advanced pattern so I would have been better prepared for masters. In contrast, I've heard from some (by no means all) current intermediate pilots that the sequence is too easy, and they like the challenge of advanced. And the good news is that advanced is now challenging enough to keep them there a few years, so I think the sequence needs to change occasionally because of that.
We also have to remember that advanced has some required manuevers by the sequence guide, like the 4 point and the slow roll, so the rest of the pattern is built around those manuevers. I had all of those, but the rest of the sequence was not challenging enough. The current 2012 advanced sequence is challenging, and I'm seeing it at the contests I've judged.
Jon