Pattern in my neck of the woods has grown since I started. This will be my fourth year flying the AMA sequences. I toyed with the idea of flying pattern for a couple of years, but it took another club member to literally threaten me (in a good way) before I entered a contest. The rest is history. Point being, I believe it takes a one-on-one grass roots movement at the local level to build interest. All of us who fly pattern are ambassadors to the sport. How we behave and interact with other pilots at the field reflects on the sport and our ability to recruit new pilots.

I know a lot of us pattern folk, probably myself included, are a slightly odd group. As we all know, a $3K plane and $2K radio is nice, but not required to be competitive. When pumping up other pilots to try pattern, I feel it is important to explain that they can enjoy, participate and even be competitive in the lower classes with their existing gear (generally.) Locally, we use a SPA contest to give new pilots a taste of pattern. It's not an official SPA contest; we just use their sequences. Very laid back, any plane welcome in any class, be it a trainer, giant scale, or 2M ship. We work hard to be sure the new pilots have good callers, are relaxed, and have fun.

What I enjoy most about pattern is it gives my flying a purpose and it improves my overall skills. Not that I exactly need a reason to fly, but having a reason pushes me to try to better myself, which ultimately feels good when you finally nail something. I strongly believe that just practicing sequences has greatly improved my flying. Even my goof off flights are more fun because they are more precise and controlled.

I do wish the patterns were a bit more exciting, such as the IMAC sequences. But the difficulty is there in the AMA sequences. Not so much any one component, but the sequence as a whole. As for the SPA patterns… I hate them in general. That Figure "M" thing can bite me and what's up with three outside loops? But I still enjoy a good SPA contest. The competition, lunch, meeting friends from other fields, maybe lunch again.

Pattern is Dead? Not to me. I know it isn't as popular as the glory days, but that was well before my time (I'm 39, started flying in '98.)

I considered IMAC, and had a 35% Carden. But the contests are far away for me last time I looked into it. One in Kansas City (4 hours away), the next closest in Aurora, Colorado (8 hours away.) I gave up on IMAC due to no local interest and far away contests. Sold both my 35% ships.

With pattern, until this year, there were two AMA contests within 45 minutes of my house (Omaha contest was canceled this year, but not due to lack of interest.) For SPA, there are another 4 contests all within 90 minutes of my house. This is six pattern contests all within 90 minutes of my house… and this is BFE Nebraska! Not picking on Denver as I love the city and my mother lived in the area for years; but the Denver metro area has MORE population than my entire state. Where are your pattern pilots? They have to be there somewhere… maybe they just don't know yet that they are a pattern pilot so someone needs to enlighten them.