Troy,

I'll stick my neck out and throw in an opinion. I am a fairly new pattern pilot, with just a few Intermediate contests under my belt. I am working on the Advanced schedule this spring, and plan to compete at possibly three contests in Advanced this summer. I think Advanced is a big step up in difficulty. I had my planes trimmed with very little control surface throw, and find myself increasing it to accomplish the snaps.

The first thing that I noticed was that the snaps are inverted snaps. It seemed odd to me that, at first introduction in the sequences, snaps would be negative. After reading this thread I think maybe the old intermediate schedule had positive snaps? That would make more sense to me. However, as it stands, Intermediate doesn't have a snap. It seems more logical to challenge the pilot with positive snaps, then progress to negative snaps.

The second thing I noticed was the inverted flight segments. There seem to be a lot of them. The inverted segments seem appropriate to me, since sportsman and intermediate prepare a pilot for inverted flight.

I think the best way to define the sequences would be to look at each one and attempt to make relatively equal steps up in difficulty between them. I think this would be best accomplished by breaking down the sequences into parts and comparing them part by part. Then, it would become clearer where additions and subtractions could be made to "equalize" the differences.

Really, I understand that not everyone will be happy, no matter what changes are made. Change always brings out opposing opinions. Those that have practiced Advanced probably don't want a change. If you can change the sequence to make equal differences in difficulty between Intermediate and Masters, then I say go for it. The result will be contests with a more even distribution of pilots in the classes. I think that is good for pattern.

Lem