Well sorry to hear that you probably won't be making it. As far as your venus is concerned, it will fly the sportsman manuevers quite well. I watched scott macafee fly his at a few contests last year in sportsman and that kid did real well with it. I believe he won two or more contests with it. You are correct in my opinion about pattern making you a better pilot. It has showed me how to make all the corrections to hold decent lines... Inverted rudder corrections. I'm not a great pilot yet, but I still hear people every time I go flying talking about how smooth I fly. Well, I really don't though, but they think I do for some reason. Guess it's because I'm the only pattern flyer at my field. Everyone else is 3d and Imac basically. Hope you get your engine fixed and can get some flights in.. See ya at the contests in the future!!!!!!! Good luck to ya..

Krishlan