Irish,

Unless your someone who has flown pattern before very few of us are going to start out in a higher competition class. SPA has a "novice" class which gets new fliers going in the sport. Here is the link to the call cards http://www.seniorpattern.com/pdf/SPA...DS09-10pdf.pdf If you will notice there are no 8 point rolls in novice. Each class of flying is a building block for the next class. Once your proficient in a class and have won or placed well in competition its time to move up starting to practice at the next skill level. There is a description of the maneuvers in "improve your flying" in the blue area of the SPA home page.

Most folks stay in a class for a year or more before moving up depending upon how much time and effort you put into practicing.

The key to it is to practice one maneuver at a time and when you have a number of them somewhat down start putting them together into the flying sequence. For the most part we all have to crawl before we can run so this all takes time and practice. The fun is in the journey. You'll be shocked in how much your flying will improve.

Steve