Page 14 - World Airshow News Autumn 2024

...ROb HOLLAND...

Above: France’s Florent Oddon (Gold Medal, center) and Louis Vanel (Silver Medal,
left) with America’s Rob Holland (Bronze Medal, right) on the podium at the 2024
World Aerobatic Championships (CIVA photo).
Right: Rob Holland’s medal and trophy collection from the 2024 World Aerobatic
Championship in Poland (photo courtesy of Rob Holland). For the 2024 World Championship in Poland, Rob took his
airplane apart at a small airport on Long Island and trucked
absolute precision and presentation. Stop a four-point roll it to JFK to load onto a 747, which then flew to Luxembourg.
slightly past 90 degrees? That’s a point deduction. Pitch slightly There, he put the plane back together and flew 750 miles to
past 45 degrees on the downline? Deduction. You get the idea. Poland. Coming home, it was the same process in reverse. “The
Much like gymnastics or figure skating, a competition pilot starts European competitors can just jump in their airplane and fly to the
with a set number of potential points based on the sequence of competition like I fly from New Hampshire to Kansas for our U.S.
maneuvers and the judges chip away for each minor deviation. Nationals,” sighs Rob.
Perfection is all but impossible. Only a handful of pilots in the Despite these challenges, Rob’s record in international
world are even capable of putting up a score sufficient to stand competition is staggering: 37 total medals, 14 gold, 14 silver, and
on the podium in international competition. Rob Holland is 9 bronze. Those numbers include his individual Overall Bronze
one of them. medal at the 2024 World Aerobatic Championships in Poland. Rob
Alongside the classical aerobatic competition is another is, of course, also a 13-time consecutive U.S. National Aerobatic
aerobatic competition that does bear slightly greater kinship Champion.
with airshow flying: the Four-Minute Freestyle. There you can When you’re competing against the best and flying for judges
use smoke, fly to music, and largely do whatever you think will pouring over each maneuver with forensic scrutiny, even a minor
impress the judges. With his wildly innovative flair for aerobatics loss of focus could cost you points. Before Worlds a few years ago, I
and a keen understanding of how to pace a performance for asked him to handicap the field and rate his chances. He replied, “It
maximum dramatic effect, Rob has quite simply dominated really doesn’t matter, does it? I still have to fly as well as I possibly
freestyle competition worldwide, having won 14 consecutive can; the rest isn’t up to me.”
U.S. National Freestyle golds and six World Freestyle golds, five As intense as are the airshow sequences Rob flies, it might come
of which came consecutively. as a surprise to learn that competition aerobatics is, in some ways,
Despite all of his success in the Freestyle, up until this year, the more punishing of the two. “Airshows are exactly what the
Rob had yet to make the overall podium in international name says, they’re a show, and you’re trying to entertain a crowd by
aerobatic competition. Without making excuses, it’s a huge lift showing them things they haven’t seen before,” explains Rob. “It’s
for an American pilot to compete at the Worlds, most of which down to the surface and it’s only performed on one axis, parallel
are held in Europe. to the crowd. Airshow flying tends to be a little less G-force and
“It’s tough for an American competing overseas. As an more focus on gyroscopic maneuvers for the type of airplane that
airshow performer, I don’t have the luxury to put my plane in I fly. Competition tends to be a lot more Gs and significantly more
a shipping container,” explains Rob. “Shipping by boat can take negative-Gs.”
a month or more, so I would have to give up too many paying But all those years flying airshows in front of millions of fans
airshows before and after the competition. I have to airfreight must have had an impact on how he flies in competition, right?
my airplane, which takes a lot of logistics to make everything Not exactly, says Rob. “I always say that competition skills are
happen.” good for airshow flying, but airshow skills are not always good

www.airshowmag.com 14 Quarter 4, 2024