ENVISIONING MANEUVERS: At the IMAC and NSRCA sites you can find many "sequence" maneuvers. ALL are a combination of straight lines, rolls, loops, snaps, circles, spins, and stall turns. They are drawn out very nicely on paper. When you are flying, envision the entire maneuver like you saw it drawn out on paper just before you enter that maneuver, then put the plane in the position you envision. No matter how awesomely accurate you can fly, if you don't know precisely where you are going to fly, your presentation won't be awesome. 
 

Know how large you can make the maneuver comfortably knowing intimately the performance of your aircraft. Most aircraft have limitations and you have to deal with them. If your aircraft has incredible power to weight so that the vertical speed after high energy maneuvers (like snaps) is still great enough to fly other high energy maneuvers (like half loops with 4 point rolls over the top), then you have it easy. Most planes don't have this power to weight ratio and you must learn the maximum size that you can easily and repeatedly make each maneuver. You learn this through trial and error.
 

HOW TO PRACTICE MANEUVERS:
Practice by repeating the same maneuver over and over and over and over. Use an entire tank of gas doing loop after loop after loop after loop. If your loops are still bad, spend the whole day, week or month doing nothing but loops. You will only learn through repetition of the same maneuver over and over. Going from one maneuver to another will not help much. Once you have mastered one maneuver, then go on to the next.  You may have to combine a couple of maneuvers like Immelman's and Spins, to be able to practice spins, but the main point is that you need to do the same maneuver OVER AND OVER. Sound boring but it really isn't. Try it. Do every maneuver from left to right, and right to left, going to the left, going to the right (like rolls and hammers) so you don't become dependent on one direction, and upwind and downwind so you practice throttle management. The key is repetition.

An awesome pilot will use the rudder early often. Set a distance away from you that you wish to fly, say 500 feet. Maintain that distance at all times. Adjust for the wind and for maneuvers which are flown incorrectly. If you find yourself too far in or out, or that you are not on the correct heading, don't bank and yank to move the plane back onto course. Use rudder to correct heading and BE SNEAKY about it. Slowly apply the rudder to get you on the heading you desire, then slowly get off the rudder. Don't bang the rudder correction. You can slip back into position completely unnoticed by the untrained eye.
Don't fly a racetrack pattern unless you are forced to by other airplane traffic. If you are forced to fly racetrack, practice center maneuvers only. At the ends, practice 180 degree rolling circles or 180 degree turns in the pattern.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR RUDDER SKILLS:

FIRST STEP: Practice knife edge flight. Fly at a speed where your plane has adequate rudder authority. If this is at full throttle, then so be it. If it's at 3/4 throttle, then that's better. Trim out your plane using the trim guide on the NSRCA site so that your plane flies knife edge by only managing rudder and throttle. If you use elevator or aileron correction use your computer radio to make corrections. Practice knife edge over and over, upwind and downwind, looking at the canopy and looking at the belly (this is much more difficult). Do not go onto the second step until you are very comfortable and your plane flies as it should. If you can't fly knife edge consistently, you won't be an awesome pilot. You may need a more powerful servo or a 6 volt battery or both to do knife edge. Practice knife edge along with straight and level flight maintaining a precise heading. Be sure to practice straight and level flight making heading corrections using the rudder. You're plane should be trimmed out now well enough that it won't dive to the ground when you are upright and want to yaw slightly by applying the rudder. Most planes dive to the ground when the rudder is applied. Make adjustments to this doesn't happen. Don't be a hero and try to compensate with the sticks. Let the computer radio do it for you. There is not a top pilot in the world who doesn't mix out his airplane's problems. You'll have enough to do flying the plane without compensating for your plane's inadequacies.
SECOND STEP: The first step is the most difficult. After that you have it easy (for awhile). Now we move on to 2 point rolls. The CG of the plane should be such that when inverted the plane should be close to hands off which means it's a little on the tail heavy side for the average pilot (but you're going to be an awesome pilot aren't you??? So make it a little tail heavy!!). When you roll to inverted you need to use, dare I say it? THE RUDDER! Yes! You said you don't need the rudder didn't you? SORRY, YOU NEED THE RUDDER!. As you roll to inverted, bump the rudder the exact same amount as you did during knife edge flight, but just when the plane is around knife edge position. Not too soon and not too long or you will veer off course. Just right. Hey, guess what? When you're inverted, you must use the rudder there too!! Aaaaghhh. Yes, now that you are inverted you are now going off heading and you must correct using the rudder. Wow, you just hit the rudder the wrong way didn't you?? Well roll back over to upright, turn around and try it again. Roll to inverted just before center so that you are inverted at center. It's hard to tell whether you're coming in or going out isn't it? You'll figure it out pretty quickly if the spectators start diving for cover. It's easier to see if you're high up, and you'll also avoid those Oooh's and Aaaah's from others as you pull instead of push and just barely miss the ground. When in doubt, roll to upright and pull! Don't half loop. Do that 500 to 1000 times (not kidding), and you'll have it down pat. You may even be down to less that 5000 feet when you're doing it! Roll slower and slower, and fly longer and longer inverted. When you can fly at 500 feet out and 100 feet high and can take 2 seconds to roll to inverted, then fly for 2 seconds inverted, then roll for 2 seconds back to upright, and do this at 3/4 throttle, and stay right on line, you'll be able to do what most people in the chairs behind you can only dream about. You are awesome! If you can do it at 1 second intervals, that's excellent. Now is the tough part. Do it rolling to the left, turn around and do it rolling to the right. Also do it from left to right and from right to left. HA! You can only do it in one direction! Practice another 500 - 1000 times flying from left to right and rolling left, then rolling right, and flying right to left, and rolling right and then rolling left. AND YOU'RE NOT DONE! While flying any maneuver which has you inverted (which is most of them), you need to use rudder when inverted. Practice all the time, you'll get it.
THIRD STEP: OK, it's been three years, but you're feeling cocky now, and want more. It's 4 point roll time. That means knife edge to the belly!! Very predictably you will do the first quarter roll to see the canopy, then the second roll is to go to inverted, and then you saved the worst for last hoping beyond hope that something will happen and you don't have to do the third point of the 4 point roll. Now matter how you try to delay it, it's coming, and so is the ground if you use the wrong rudder. Most planes do very nice cartwheels, right up until the wings and fuselage fly apart. Avoid that. Go back to step one and practice knife edge flight with the belly to you. You don't have the practice knife edge with the canopy to you, that's too easy now for Mr. Awesome. You've got to be able to hold it for 3 seconds. Also, watch your batteries when you're doing this. The rudder uses a lot of juice, and if you haven't used it before, you're in for a surprise. But you sensed something was up in step one didn't you? Yes, that's it. Using the rudder to only steer on the ground just didn't use up your battery much. A four point roll should be done in rhythm. Count one, two, three, four. Count evenly and slowly. Time it so that you are inverted just before center.  Again, learn this from left to right and right to left and rolling to the right and rolling to the left. Use rudder mainly when you are close to knife edge, not while rolling too much or you will veer off course. See you next summer.
FOURTH STEP: Rolls are next! They are called slow rolls which the 4 point roll is a hesitation roll. How slow is slow and how you hesitate is up to you, but generally the longer the harder/better. The slow roll is tough because now you are feeding the rudder in sooner and ending later and you can't stop to gather your thoughts in between. It's not much different, and after a few hundred times, you'll only need a few more hundred times to get it close to perfect.
FIFTH STEP: OK things are dragging on and on, you've spent $1000 in gas and that's just driving to the flying field. You've almost crashed too many times to count and your finger is sore from flipping the prop. Now it gets hard. Really hard. You may want to bail at this point, but hang in there. It's time for rolling circles. These babies are tough! We want to end up with 4 rolls in one circle, one roll each 90 degrees. Start with 90 degree one roll rollers. It's just like the slow roll from before just bent a little bit, kind of like when you were trying to fly it straight but weren't too good at it. To see how big to do it, try flying a circle without rolling and see what seems comfortable. Then do a flat circle using rudder only and staying upright. The radius is pretty big to do it smoothly. That's the radius to shoot for. Once you master the first 90 degrees, you must learn it from left to right, right to left, and rolling to the inside and to the outside of the circle. This will take awhile, a looooong while. But after that, it just gets harder. The worst is the final 90 degrees with the plane starting out heading towards you and the flightline. The key is to practice the 90 degree roller only, with the rest of the circle being flown banked without rolling BUT after you master the first 90 degrees, don't roll the first 90 degrees, roll the second 90 degrees only. Do the rest of the circle in a regular bank. Do it from left to right and right to left, starting upright and starting inverted, upwind and downwind, in a crosswind and in calm weather. Then do just the third 90 degrees and then the dreaded fourth 90 degrees. When you practice the fourth 90 degrees, try to do it with no one else around. It keeps down the shrieks and doesn't jeopardize too many cars in the parking lot.
SIXTH STEP: Well you got the 90 degree rollers down, no it's time for the 180 degree rollers and then the 270 degree rollers keeping in mind to stagger the starting and engine positions, which way you roll, and flying right to left and left to right, starting from inverted and starting from upright, and upwind and downwind. Keep mixing it up.
SEVENTH STEP: Rollers. Full blown you name it you have to fly it rollers. Now it's time to put it all together and do a 4 roll roller. Now it's tougher because you need good throttle management. You must be at full throttle into the wind, and part throttle when downwind. You must start and stop in exactly the same place. And now you must alternate the rolls too. Practice the first 90 rolling in and the second rolling out and keep changing. Then, just to make it more difficult, you must also do 3 roll rollers, 2 roll rollers, and 1 roll rollers upwind, downwind, from inverted or upright, alternating and with your eyes closed standing on one foot while singing Broadway show tunes.  Then you can be like Quique Somenzini and do a snap at each 90 while rolling the rest of the circle and do it to the beat of the music. (You can put him to shame by doing it with your eyes closed and the transmitter behind your back.)
Once you master rollers, you can easily fly many maneuvers with a minimal amount of practice because you will be good on the rudder. Rudder is the key to flying precisely and becoming an awesome pilot. The better on the rudder you are, the more awesome you are.

The left stick is the throttle. It can stop between the top and the bottom. Try it. Gas planes slow down very fast when the stick is at the bottom. Move it forward a little when you are landing. For loops, if you have a powerful plane, you should be at 3/4 throttle at the bottom while entering the loop, then at full throttle when perfectly vertical, then reducing the throttle to 1/2 at the top of the loop, then at idle just after the top and when pointing vertically down, then up to 1/4 through the bottom of the loop (especially if you are now headed into the wind), then back to 3/4 throttle. Throttle position changes with wind conditions. Fly in both directions and see what you need to do with the throttle.

HOW TO PRACTICE MANEUVERS:

Practice by repeating the same maneuver over and over and over and over. Use an entire tank of gas doing loop after loop after loop after loop. If your loops are still bad, spend the whole day, week or month doing nothing but loops. You will only learn through repetition of the same maneuver over and over. Going from one maneuver to another will not help much. Once you have mastered one maneuver, then go on to the next.  You may have to combine a couple of maneuvers like Immelman's and Spins, to be able to practice spins, but the main point is that you need to do the same maneuver OVER AND OVER. Sound boring but it really isn't. Try it. Do every maneuver from left to right, and right to left, going to the left, going to the right (like rolls and hammers) so you don't become dependent on one direction, and upwind and downwind so you practice throttle management. The key is repetition

If you enjoy boring holes in the sky without precision, you may enjoy boring holes in the sky with precision. You don't need to fly competition to have fun with some basic maneuvers. Maneuvers are explained as to how to use your brain to move the sticks to fly them. Planes are different. If I could fly your plane first, I could give you better tips on how exactly to position the sticks on your transmitter to obtain the desired effect in the air. Since I am not there to fly your plane, you must do this by trial and error, but that's fun too. After you have mastered it with one plane, the next plane will be different, but far easier to master.

ALL maneuvers begin from level flight and all maneuvers end in level flight.
Your plane must be trimmed out correctly to make flying the maneuvers easier to learn.

GENERAL WIND CORRECTION
Maneuvers need to stay on the ground heading that you have envisioned. As you see explanations on how to perform the various maneuvers, you will need to refer to this section for making wind corrections. Each maneuver has its own particular wind correction techniques, and they will be addressed individually as well.
- In any wind condition you want to be in a slow or stalled condition for as little time as possible.
- In verticals, for a headwind, pull less than vertical. As the plane slows, more correction is necessary. Straighten up just before the maneuver. After the maneuver, push down to fly away from you.
- In a cross wind where you are pulling to vertical, aileron roll just one or two degrees into the wind before pulling up. This will do two things, 1) it will yaw the plane unnoticeably and 2) it will yaw the plane when you have the greatest speed to somewhat overcorrect distance-wise at the bottom when you know that you will be blown uncontrollably downwind at the top when the aircraft is stalled when doing hammers, tailslides and spins.
- Throttle and Speed: Fly faster than usual in a crosswind to minimize seeing yaw. For vertical maneuvers, fly as fast as possible vertically upwards, then slow down as quickly as possible by chopping the throttle so that you are at low airspeed for a minimal amount of time because when you are stalled, the plane is going downwind and you cannot make corrections at that time.
- On vertical downlines, have the throttle at idle, but correct with yaw a lot if necessary. In 30 mph winds, the plane may be at a 30 degree angle into the wind in a descent. Hold the correction until just before pullout. If you pull out without straightening up first, you will actually point the wrong direction. Straighten out to a perfectly vertical descent while simultaneously rolling just 1 or 2 degrees into the wind before pulling out. This will keep you on track.
- In maneuvers which have portions which are both upwind and downwind like circles, loops and 8's, you may need a tremendous difference is airspeed (throttle). In a  15 mph wind, you will need full throttle into the wind, and be at 1/2 throttle when traveling downwind. Remember that your airplane's speed may be 105 mph at full throttle and 75 mph at 1/2 throttle. In a 15 mph wind, that's 75 + 15 = 90mph downwind and 105 - 15 = 90 mph upwind. At 90 degrees to dead upwind/downwind, there is a dead crosswind. This makes rolling circles much more difficult. At least with loops you don't have to deal with the crosswind component. In a loop you deal only with differing amounts of headwind/tailwind.

Explanation of the Hammer maneuver: Pull to vertical, slow down at the top of the maneuver to almost a stop, perform a 180 degree rotation in yaw (rudder), fly vertically down, then pull out to the horizontal. This is good to turn you around, so do it at the ends of the field to get you back to the center instead of a 1/2 loop or 1/2 circle. You get to use the throttle in the hammer.
Hammer Basics: Use full throttle in the upline. Use the throttle to slow the plane to almost a stop. The throttle position to do this depends on your plane. A powerful and fast plane may need the throttle to be at idle and the plane will gradually slow to a halt. Underpowered planes will stop on their own, even at full throttle. Once your plane is just about stopped, apply some throttle and give full rudder to bring the plane around so that it's pointing straight down. Adjust the plane using whatever controls are necessary to head the plane vertically down and put the throttle to idle. Fly vertically down, then pull out in time to be at the desired level altitude.
Techniques to master the Hammer:
- Wings are level before and after the maneuver.
- The radius of the pull up matches the radius of the pull out. 
- The length of the line up matches the length of the line down.
- The speed on the way up matches the speed on the way down.
- The plane pivots without pitching or rolling.
- The plane doesn't wag its tail after rotating.
Hammer flying tips:
- Don't slow down too much at the top, and apply plenty of power when the rudder is at full deflection. The worst that can happen is that the plane will flop over and head back down with the belly towards you. Just 1/2 roll and pull out and tell onlookers you did it on purpose and that they just witnessed a tailslide. :)
- Be sure to have a lot of rudder throw. The only force to yaw your plane when it is stopped is the air blast from the throttle being deflected by the rudder. You need quite a bit of force to get the plane to yaw 180 degrees. This force comes from the prop and the rudder. You need enough of both.
- To stop the wagging on the way down, gently start easing off the rudder after the plane gets to the 2 o'clock position and continue to ease off until the plane is just about vertically downward. Another technique to stop the wagging is to keep the rudder deflected slightly after the plane has rotated until there is enough forward speed to dampen things out.
- If your plane is yawing one way or the other at the top, you have to hammer with the yaw. Only the best can go against the yaw.

Wind correcting the Hammer:
CROSSWIND CORRECTION: Yaw into the wind both on the way up and on the way down to keep your track relative to the ground vertical. The yaw on the way up will be less noticeable than on the way down. Even though your aircraft will be blown downwind at the top of the maneuver when the speed is low, don't yaw enough to maintain the heading at the top because it will look bad, instead, straighten up before hammering for a better presentation. Knowing that you will be blown downwind at the top while hammering, over-correct slightly on the way up at the bottom on the initial pull up where it's less noticeable. On the way down, have the throttle at idle, but correct will yaw a lot if necessary. In 15 mph winds, the plane may be at a 30 degree angle into the wind in a descent. Hold the correction until just before pullout. If you pull out without straightening up first, you will actually point the wrong direction. Straighten out to a perfectly vertical descent while simultaneously rolling just 1 or 2 degrees into the wind before pulling out. This will keep you on track for a nice horizontal line.
HEADWIND/TAILWIND: In any wind condition you want to be in a slow or stalled condition for as little time as possible so you are blown off course as little as possible. For a headwind, pull less than vertical. As the plane slows, more correction is necessary. Straighten up just before the hammer. After the hammer, push down to fly away from you. On the exit in this case, you will be pulling out downwind, so your groundspeed will be very high even though your airspeed is low.

Explanation of the maneuver: Pull to vertical, slow down at the top of the maneuver to a stop, let the plane fall backwards vertically until it flops over,  fly vertically down, then pull out to the horizontal.  There are two types of tailslides, wheels down and wheels up. Wheels down means that when the plane flops over that when the plane is horizontal as it falls through the tailslide that the wheels are down. Wheels up means that the plane falls over backwards and the canopy is down (wheels up) as the plane is horizontal as it flops.
Tailslide Basics: Use full throttle in the upline. Use the throttle to slow the plane to almost a stop as if entering a hover or TR. 3D rates are best, but remember to turn them off before pulling out to horizontal! The idea is to almost hover at the top so that you can get the plane in the perfect position before reducing the throttle to idle and falling backwards. If you are pointed straight up, most planes will flop over forwards producing a wheels down tailslide. A wheels up tailslide usually requires the plane to be on its back several degrees so that it will flop correctly.
Techniques to master the Tailslide:
- Wings are level before and after the maneuver.
- The radius of the pull up matches the radius of the pull out. 
- The speed on the way up matches the speed on the way down.
- The plane flops without leaning to the side.
- The plane can wag once as it falls through.
Tailslide flying tips:
- Don't slow down too quickly at the top to maintain control to get into perfect position until you're ready to slide.
- Your tail surfaces may or may not reverse during the descent depending on your idle rpm and the speed that you are falling. As you fall the air will flow backwards over the tail if the speed you are falling backwards exceeds the speed of the air coming down from the prop. In some cases the tail surfaces may react backwards as they are now acting like canards. You can steer the plane on the way downwards if you are quick on the sticks BUT you must be sure you are falling backwards faster than the prop is pushing air over the tail!! 

Wind correcting the Tailslide:
- When possible, slide downwind instead of upwind because it looks like you are sliding more as you are moving away from yourself.
- With a crosswind, lean the nose of the plane slightly downwind because when the power is at zero the tail will be blown downwind and the plane will straighten out.

Explanation of the maneuver: Point rolls are also called hesitation rolls. These can be any part of a full roll or rolls. For instance a 4 of 4 (or a 4 point roll) means that you would do a full roll, hesitating at each 1/4 of the roll. A 14 of 8 means that you would do fourteen 1/8 rolls. If you started a 14 of 8 from upright, you would go all the way around one time, in 8 increments, then do another 6 increments, which is 3/4 of a roll, and end up on knife edge. Sure, it sounds easy... It does sound easy doesn't it? How about a 24 of 16 from knife edge to knife edge? Remember, that you must be 1/2 way finished when the plane is directly in front of you. So in the 24 of 16, you should be completing roll 12 of 16 in front of you. Also, all of the hesitations much be in perfect rhythm - no speeding up and slowing down. Of course they must be done on a perfectly straight line, and preferably just a few feet off of the deck. 
Point Roll Basics:
- You better have your plane trimmed out so that on knife edge it flies perfectly straight. Most planes need a computer mix to adjust this. Most planes pitch to the belly and roll in the direction of rudder deflection. Keep this mix on all the time. If you are fighting the plane on knife edge, you are in serious trouble.
- Set your rudder rate so that with the stick full over, the plane will climb just a little bit. When you are on knife edge then you can simply bang the stick to the stop and you know this is the correct amount. After awhile you can just leave the rudder on full rate all the time and you can just compensate.
- Of course you need to use the proper amount of throttle to maintain knife edge, hopefully it's not full throttle, but if you need full throttle for knife edge, you must fly your point rolls at full throttle.
- You must be good at making corrections on knife edge using elevator and rudder. 16 point rolls take time and put you on knife edge for a long time and require constant elevator corrections.

Techniques to master Point Rolls:
- Master knife edge flight. Practice horizontal figure 8's (if you can) or horizontal knife edge circles, or at least move in and out using the rudder while on knife edge.
- The slower you count when you do the point rolls the harder it is, though the better you look if you pull it off.
- Count to yourself at a steady pace. Keep the rhythm so you don't speed up or slow down. I count at about 1 partial roll per second. Try to maintain the 1 second interval whether it is a 4 point roll or a 16 point roll. Try not to speed up the 16 point roll too much, however in 16 seconds, you are going to travel a long distance, so start further away.
- If you find that you have over or under rotated, you must make it up quickly, definitely by the end of the maneuver! Visualizing each point is a must. If it is a 4 point roll, then it's easy. If you start upright then it's upright, knife edge, inverted, knife edge. While 16 point rolls are not IMAC maneuvers, you can still do them. 16 point rolls are difficult to do if you don't visualize them. You must break up each 1/4 roll into 4 parts. If you find yourself 1/4 of the way done and only counted to 3 instead of 4, then you should take 5 steps to go the next 1/4 roll rather than doing a 15 point roll, because they will always be counting along with you.
-  Don't always start from upright. Start from inverted or knife edge as well. Also, do them on 45 degree uplines and down lines, and on vertical lines.
- Be sure to pause long enough so that everyone knows that you've paused. If you are rolling slowly and it takes .95 of the 1 second to get to the next position, you will only hesitate for .05 seconds. If you can roll for 1/2 second and pause for 1/2 second, then it is obvious to everyone what you are doing.

Start with 2 point rolls, then move to 4 point rolls, then 8 point, then 16 point. Each time that you double the amount of hesitations per revolution, visualize the points from before. So when doing a 16 point roll, visualize the 45 degree mark of the 8 point roll, and when you count to 2, you should be at that point.

The real fun comes in to do wind correction during 16 point rolls. The easiest way to start is to correct only at the 90 degree points. After a while you can correct all the time as in a slow roll.

Another challenge is to be 1/2 way done directly in front of yourself. I don't have a recommendation on how to make this easier. If you keep this in mind as you are practicing, you will eventually get the hang of it.

I fly these at most any altitude. The lower you go, the more exciting it is! :)

Explanation of the maneuver: The slow roll can be any part of a full roll or several rolls. For instance a 3/4 roll means that you would start from some position, be it rightside up, upside down or knife edge and then do 3/4 of a full roll. You may have to roll to the left or to the right. Most people can roll one way but not the other. You must practice the other way!

It is important to learn these three maneuvers in order: Point Rolls are first, Slow Rolls are second and Rolling Circles are third.

Roll Basics:
- You better have your plane trimmed out so that on knife edge it flies perfectly straight. Most planes need a computer mix to adjust this. Most planes pitch to the belly and roll in the direction of rudder deflection. Keep this mix on all the time. If you are fighting the plane on knife edge, you are in serious trouble.
- Set your rudder rate so that with the stick full over, the plane will climb just a little bit. When you are on knife edge then you can simply bang the stick to the stop and you know this is the correct amount. After awhile you can just leave the rudder on full rate all the time and you can just compensate.
- Of course you need to use the proper amount of throttle to maintain knife edge, hopefully it's not full throttle, but if you need full throttle for knife edge, you must fly your rolls at full throttle.
- You must be good at making corrections on knife edge using elevator and rudder. Slow rolls should take time, they must not be too fast. You must show that you are in control of the airplane, and a 1/4 second roll won't cut it. The plane will be on knife edge for a long time and require constant elevator corrections.
- Again, you must learn to roll in both directions - no cheating.

Techniques to master Rolls:
- Master point rolls first. Then instead of rolling quickly from one point to the next, just roll slowly and feed in elevator and feed out rudder slowly (or vise versa). You will be making course adjustments along the way. Rolling circles are similar, but your adjustments are putting you into a circle instead. Rolling circles are much, much, much more difficult than rolls or point rolls because you will be rolling to the left for one part of the circle, then to the right then back to the left and going into the wind and downwind, and the plane is going far away, and such. You must become an excellent slow roller to be able to perform decent rolling circles.
- Shoot for taking 6 seconds to complete one complete roll.
-  Don't always start from upright. Start from inverted or knife edge as well. Also, do them on 45 degree uplines and down lines, and on vertical lines.
- Another challenge is to be 1/2 way done directly in front of yourself. 

I fly these at most any altitude. The lower you go, the more exciting it is! :)

Explanation of the maneuver: Though you make think of a loop as an inside loop starting from the bottom and going into the wind, keep in mind that there are inside and outside loops starting from the top or bottom and starting from upright or inverted and going upwind or downwind. You should practice all variations and note the different inputs required going into the wind versus downwind and so on. In IMAC competition, loops are actually thought of as four 1/4 loops. The first 1/4 of the loop determines the radius of the next three 1/4 loops performed. This is a very difficult maneuver to perform, especially if there are roll elements such as a snap at the top or at the bottom or a 2 or 4 or 2 of 4 point roll thrown in or worse.
Loop Basics: The power to weight ratio of your plane determines the size of the loop it can perform. It is best to perform the loop fairly large instead of fairly small. While a tight loop should be judged the same, a larger loop shows off your control. However, underpowered planes must make small loops because they will run out of energy in the second 1/4 of the loop (going up and into the wind) and thus have an ugly loop. This is even more important in the upper classes when you are performing point rolls or snaps while looping. Having an airplane with excess power is a must. Maintaining a constant speed is not part of the maneuver, though I feel that it is important to do so. It looks better. To have the same speed at the end of the top of the maneuver and at the bottom of the maneuver is accomplished with a powerful, yet light plane with good downline braking (use a large prop). You need power for upline speed and light weight and a large prop for slow downlines.
Where to start and how to progress: Start with performing an inside loop from the bottom and into the wind. This is the most natural. Once you have mastered this, then practice them downwind. Quite a difference right? Then do inside loops from the top from inverted. Then practice outside loops from the bottom while inverted. Then practice outside loops from the top while upright. Then practice inside loops with one positive snap at the top. Then inside loops with positive snaps at the top and the bottom. When doing inside loops, do positive snaps. When doing outside loops, do negative snaps.
Where to Look - is important. You need to find the center of the loop and then mentally picture 4 points in the air that you need to hit with your airplane. The airplane must fly equal distances to your left and your right if the loop is directly in front of you. This is difficult because as you are flying into the wind going up, you must drive the plane out, and not be in a rush. Many pilots cut off the loop. Then on the 1/4 loop down from the top, if you are going downwind, you must pull much harder than you were if the wind speed is significant. It is very, very important to end the loop exactly at the same place as you started. If you can choose a point, maybe a cloud, as to where you started, hitting that same exact point at exit will go a long way to giving you a good score.
How to Practice: I just keep flying loop after loop after loop for the entire tank of gas. I do not fly out and turn around and then fly back in until I have mastered the loops or I get dizzy. I choose an altitude at the top and the bottom, and just keep going around and around trying to get the plane to track the same path over and over. This is the only way to learn the exact throttle and elevator settings required. I will vary the loop by performing a snap and a half or a 2 of 4 point roll to change from inside to outside loops, and I will fly loops at the ends of the box instead of the center. But repetition is key.
Rudder: If the wind is blowing in or out, use rudder to correct your heading. Never use ailerons to bank to correct heading. It is important to have your plane trimmed properly. You should have exactly the correct amount of right thrust in your engine so that when you pull up you don't have to rudder correct other than for wind. You can point the plane into the wind and perform loops and use rudder trim to help an out of trim condition temporarily, though obtaining the correct amount of right thrust is mandatory.
Elevator end points and rates: It is important to have the same feel when pushing or pulling. I have my elevator trim set so that the plane drops slowly while upright with no elevator input, and drops at the same rate when inverted. I usually have less expo and more throw for down elevator than up elevator to make the feel the same. If I push or pull the elevator all the way, it will do the same size loop, be it an inside or an outside loop. So mess around with the rates and the endpoints so that you get the feel that helps you the most. Don't just live with what you put in initially.

Explanation of the maneuver: This is more or less a square with rounded corners. It is typically begun by first drawing a horizontal line as opposed to first drawing a vertical line.
Square Loop Basics: There are several ways to screw this up but I find the most common problem is that the vertical lines are not anywhere close to being the same length as the horizontal lines, especially if there is a roll or snap mixed in. I almost always see the lines with the roll or snap much longer than the other lines, especially if the roll or snap is on the horizontal line. All 4 corners must be the same radius, and unless you're really good, you will make the 1/4 loop from the vertical upline to horizontal really small and the radius from the vertical downline to horizontal really big. This is because the speed going up is much, much slower than the speed going down. Keep an eye out for that.

The size of the square loop is dependent upon how much vertical distance on the upline your plane has. If it doesn't have much vertical, you have to make the loop really small. Hopefully you have enough power to weight to keep chugging along going straight up as high as you want to, albeit slowly in some cases.

The radius of the square loop is dependent upon how much vertical speed on the downline your plane has. The faster it goes, the larger the radius. Too sharp of a radius pulling out of a dive will snap your wing or wingtube. You want to have a tight radius there, but not too tight. Then that is your radius for the 3 other corners. The other corners will take more time to complete, but that doesn't matter, just make the size of the radius the same. Really look at all 4 corners closely to get the same radius. Of course keeping the wings level and not drifting in or out and wind correcting in or out or left to right are further considerations, but those are the same for all maneuvers. Line Length and radius are the keys to this maneuver, and some are so bad I'm not sure that people are even looking at what they are doing. If you just look, you should be able to see quite easily what is going on. Ask someone to help you look if necessary.

Most loops and square loops are centered on the pilot, so perform 1/2 to the left and 1/2 to the right of you. The problem comes in when the wind is blowing from left to right and you must travel for a longer time to achieve the same distance, though compensation for this is similar for all maneuvers.

Start without any snaps or rolls at first, then throw in the snaps or rolls without making the line any longer in distance. A few dozen hours of practice and you'll be a pro! :)

Explanation of the maneuver: Snaps are one of the most difficult maneuvers to perform. If you are borrowing someone's plane in an IMAC contest, and you don't have a chance to practice with that plane before flying the sequence, you are just about dead. It's completely a touch maneuver that you must practice a lot. A snap is a stalled maneuver, so first the plane must be pitched (up or down), to be stalled. Then immediately the plane is rotated using aileron, rudder and elevator so that the plane rolls quickly (meaning violently). The plane will not rotate axially, it will roll in a skewed fashion. There are several types of snaps, positive and negative (also called inside and outside). Positive (inside) snaps use up elevator and are usually started when the plane is upright. Negative (outside) snaps use down elevator and are usually started when the plane is inverted. Snaps can be to the left or to the right. To the left or to the right is determined by the ailerons, not the rudder. Positive snaps are performed with the aileron and rudder in the same direction. Negative snaps are performed with the aileron and rudder in the opposite direction. For instance a negative right snap roll will start with a moment of down elevator (you must be able to see this break very obviously) followed by the aileron to the right and the rudder to the left. The snap must be stopped exactly on heading, or there is a deduction of 1 point per 10 degrees.
Snap Roll Basics: Air speed over the flight surfaces determines the speed of the snap. Full throttle on a 45 degree upline needs different control inputs than straight down. Snaps may be necessary at the top or bottom of loops, on uplines, downlines, horizontal lines, and all other lines. My favorite is doing snaps at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock on a knife edge loop, and each 90 degrees of a knife edge circle, but those are 3D maneuvers. The power to weight ratio of your plane determines the size of the loop it can perform and whether it can snap on an upline. Snaps knock a lot of speed from the airplane, so vertical snaps are best left for the big boys. When doing inside loops, do positive snaps. When doing outside loops, do negative snaps.
Pre-correction correction: The plane will drop its nose by the end of the maneuver. You must therefore put in enough elevator to counteract the drop so that you will exit the maneuver in a level attitude. I find it's better to put in too much elevator than too little. The plane normally needs to pitch up about ten degrees.
Speed: It would be great if you could always have your plane at the same speed with the same throttle position, because then the control movements would always be the same, unfortunately this is not the case. And unfortunately again, you must practice all the options. You want to be flying at about 1/2 throttle from straight and level. You need enough speed to snap under control, but not so much that the wings break off. Uplines are at full throttle and downlines are at no throttle. 45 degree uplines and downlines and horizontal lines should all be about the same speed so that your stick movements are fairly equivalent. Also, you will lose a significant amount of forward speed depending on how hard you snap (or how much elevator and rudder is used), so give it some throttle at the end of the snap to get your speed back.
Recovering your flight path: Snap rolls will throw you off course. A positive snap to the right will throw your heading off to the right. So you must compensate by applying left rudder at the end of the snap. If you time it right, no one will know you did so. Snaps rolls going straight down are the easiest to get back in line, just let gravity to the work, but your speed is very high and the snap will be very violent, so don't use much elevator or rudder...just enough so that the roll is not axial, but not so much that it whips around to quick to stop it. So, positive snap rolls using opposite rudder correction at the end, and negative snap rolls use the same rudder correction at the end.
Stopping the snap: Snap rolls don't like to stop all on their own exactly where you want time after time. You must fly them to a stop. I stop them by first getting off of the elevator, and then the rudder, and then the ailerons. Getting off all of them at once is a crap shoot. The key is the rudder. Stop using rudder about 90 degrees before the end of the snap so that the plane comes back into control. Then just getting off of the ailerons will stop it exactly where you want. Judges are looking for this since it is cheating, but it's not possible to catch it.
Where to start and how to progress: Start with performing a positive snap on a horizontal line going into the wind. Keep doing that until you can stop it perfectly every time after one snap. Adjust your throws so that it is as easy as possible to do repetitively. Use a lot of aileron, little rudder and little elevator. Doing slower rotations allows you more time to stop the snap correctly. Then progress by performing snaps on 45 degree uplines and downlines, and then vertical uplines and vertical downlines. Then repeat the process with negative snaps. As you perform the more advanced snaps, keep adjusting your end points of your control surfaces so that you can perform the hardest maneuver. After getting the full (one rotation) snap down, then go on to the 2 snaps. You might see that the second rotation is slower than the first, this is because the plane is using airspeed. To fix that, use less rudder. Rudder is the main culprit in knocking your airspeed down. Then try 1 1/2 snaps and then 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 snaps. Use as little rudder as possible, just enough to call it a snap.
How to Cheat your Snaps - or should I say finesse? First you must show a break by using elevator. After that, it depends on your plane's flying characteristics. Extra 260's snap cleanly and quickly with no elevator after the break. So use the elevator to make the break, then get off of the elevator and into the aileron and rudder simultaneously. By adjusting your throws on the ailerons and rudder, you should be able to simply bang the sticks to the stops and it will perform a nice snap. Then, about 90 degrees before the end of the snap, get off of the rudder. Then simply get off of the aileron to stop perfectly. At that point you get onto the rudder to adjust your heading, then very slowly get off of the rudder. You must get out of the rudder slowly so that it won't be noticed. Yaks are different in that they are so stable that they are difficult to snap. I must use elevator through the snap and then I release the elevator at the same time I release the rudder. With Yaks, I get out of the rudder and elevator only about 45 degrees before the end of the maneuver instead of 90 degrees. It cannot look obvious that you are getting out of the snap early and aileroning (is that a word?) to a stop. On vertical uplines, do not use any elevator to break, and use very, very little rudder. Use just enough rudder to make the plane wobble just enough to be called a snap. This keeps the speed up. If your plane has a low power to weight ratio, it is very difficult to perform 2 snaps on an upline which is so common in Unlimited routines.
How to Practice: I just keep flying snap after snap for the entire tank of gas. Repetition is key. The one thing that makes it difficult to do many snaps in a row is that the plane loses speed after a snap so you must wait for the plane to accelerate to the correct speed. If you don't wait long enough the plane is too slow and you much change your inputs to achieve the same result. You don't want to do this. You will probably fly 1,000 snaps before you're an expert, so keep at it!