Aaron McCartan, of Algona, has been named captain of the U.S Aerobatic Team after taking first place in the Advanced category at the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

His training partner, Brent Smith, of St. Louis, Missouri, won eighth place in Advanced and will also join the U.S. team. McCartan and Smith could be seen training over Pocahontas a few weeks ago with Cory Johnson, of Wisconsin, and Justin Hickson, from the Twin Cities, who grew up in Sioux City. Hickson won eighth place in the Intermediate category, while Johnson got fourth place in that category and was gold medalist on the ‘Unknown’ Program.

Along with his first place, McCartan won one bronze, three gold medals, and the MT Propeller Master Trophy.

“Not a bad way to spend a week,” McCartan said.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter
Aaron McCartan practices over the skies of Pocahontas a few days before competing in the U.S. National Aerobatic Championship Sept. 23-29.

Now it’s time to put in the hours and hours of training so they’ll be ready to soar over Romania at next year’s world championship.

The competition requires pilots to fly precise maneuvers with dozens of different elements in order. The plane must stay above a minimum height and within a “box” at all times, as judges give points for how well each move is carried out.

When coming to the ‘unknown’ portion of the challenge, pilots were told to fly routines they hadn’t seen before, and the top 10 pilots in the standing got to submit figures. McCartan and Smith were in the top eight.

“On round one I was sitting in second place and Brent in eight so we were able to both submit. Per our discussion I leveraged my standings to submit a ‘prime’ choice of ours that would help both Brent and myself into the final round,” McCartan said. “Round two of the figure submission was for the second unknown; final of the contest. In this standing I found myself in first place with not only Brent Smith but another teammate named Michael Lents, who could not make our training camp in Pocahontas, well inside the top 10.”

McCartan put in a “sleeper” maneuver that appeared innocuous on paper, but was very difficult to fly.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter
Cory Johnson prepares to take off in a Pitts biplane on Sept. 20. Johnson won fourth place overall in the Intermediate category, and a gold medal in the “unknown” program at the Aerobatics National Championship at Oskosh, Wisconsin.

“For the record this proved to be a major challenge for every pilot in the field outside of our group,” he said.

“Brent and Mike were able to cement their position on the team, I was able to maintain my slot on top which makes me the captain of the U.S. Aerobatic Team, and we are pleased to announce four returning members of the prior U.S. Aerobatic Team mixed about the leaderboard,” McCartan said.

“In summary we have three world-class aerobatic pilots in the fray, all from a synergized training system. We also have four experienced members that returned from a silver medal performance at the prior Championships.”

-Messenger file photo by Joe Sutter
Brent Smith comes down from a practice flight in his Pitts S-1S in Pocahontas last month before the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships. Smith took eighth place in the Advanced category, earning a spot on the U.S. Aerobatic Team going to the world championships next year.