I fly out of Dallas and have about 20-30 hours of acro in a Super Decathlon under my belt. My latest instructor is a very experienced pilot and also an airshow veteran, his name is Charlie Jirik (maybe some of you here are familiar with him). I feel like I have learned a tremedous amount from this guy, however he has a very low tolerance for mistakes. Lately I have been soloing alot of the manuevers he has showed me and I feel like I can perform the maneuvers much better without him in the back seat. This leads into my question, namely how much can the extra weight of a passenger effect the ability to perform certain aerobatic manuevers well? I especially have difficulty with hammerheads when he is in the backseat. I should also note, that he is not exactly a featherweight, he probably weighs around 250lbs. I weigh around 225lbs myself, and with both tanks 3/4 full, we are probably almost exceeding the envelope. Anyways, just wanted to here it from the pros out there and get a better understanding too what extent weight can adversely impact the ability to perform good manuevers.
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Is weight a significant factor?
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