Walker on Stunt
The 2026 U.S. Control-Line Precision
Aerobatics Team. They will be headed to Perth, Australia,
in May 2026. Left to right: David Fitzgerald, Gabriel
Alimov (Jr.) Paul Walker, Orestes Hernandez. Jim
Hoffman photo.
The 2025 U.S. World Championship Team
Trials
By Paul
Walker
November 2025
The 2025 U.S. Team Trials were held at
Folsom Lake near Sacramento, Calif. There was an
original plan to hold them in Tulsa, and the Houston
crew had started to build a bid, but decided to have the
Tulsa crew run it. Unfortunately, the Tulsa group could
not find enough manpower to run it, and withdrew. By
then the Houston group had scheduled another event and
could not do the Team Trials. An emergency meeting was
held at the U.S. National Championships to try to work
something out. It was mentioned that the Golden State
Stunt Championships event was being held, and the field
was likely available the day after on Monday. Long story
short, Dennis Nunes agreed to be the contest director
for the Team Trials. That bid was submitted to AMA and
approved. Thanks to all that made that happen.
I decided to attend and pulled my trusty "Anteater" off the wall and started practicing in September. The weather in September was generally still, with occasional thermals. Not ideal to train for the TT's. I did get one or two good days, and those confirmed that all was well. Then it was off to the GSSC.
Thursday air was great. Put in as many practice flights as I could. Friday the wind direction changed and came over a group of trees before going over the parking lot we were flying on. Friday had some good and some bad air, but was flyable.
Saturday I was judging Profile and right behind me I heard a terrible scraping sound. As soon as I could look it was a surprise to see that Orestes Hernandez pancaked into the asphalt doing outside loops. The plane simply dropped five feet instantly. He retired back to the hotel to repair it. As the day progressed, the biscuits (as Randy Smith calls it) got worse and worse. The forecast for Sunday was much of the same.
Sunday became a day where your score was very dependent on what amount of bad biscuits you ran into. There were numerous passes on the second round. Dave Fitzgerald won and I was second.
The TT's were the next day, and the weather forecast was for stronger winds and rain after lunch. There were 11 entrants for the Trials. When some arrived in the morning and saw the wind, they withdrew and left. When it was time to start, we were down to two Junior and five senior pilots. The wind was strong, with numerous biscuits. Sunday was good practice for this test!
The juniors led off and both charged fearlessly into the air. They both showed the passers how to do it! The seniors all flew next, and all survived. As a pilot, it is hard to tell how you scored as the plane was moving around so much. I left the circle chuckling as I thought I didn't do very well. To my surprise, I was in first.
Before the second round started, Jose Modesto passed as he found some cracks in his plane that weren't there before his first flight. We were down to four senior pilots. The second round changed the ranking to David first, Paul second and Orestes third. Joe Daly was in fourth, but a ways back.
Before the third round, we were deciding if we were going to fly again. It was fairly certain that Joe was not going to really smoke a flight in to knock any of the top three out. David then informed me that he was NOT going to fly again as his plane was at its absolute limit, and he didn't want to damage it as it would be going to Australia. Orestes wasn't sure.
After Joe Daly flew, it was my turn. I had flown in worse before, so I was not intimidated. I did my best. However in the horizontal eight, on the second outside loop, my plane instantly dropped 4.99 feet at the bottom. Good thing I was going to be at 5.0 feet. The VT might have had a paper thickness of clearance. It just didn't phase me. I trudged on and did fairly well in the high K maneuvers. Then the landing worked fine, smooth descent, nice touchdown, and it rolled to a stop. David "ran" over to pick it up, and the very second he got there, a gust passed and lifted the tail up, and it was on its way over. He caught it mid air thank goodness! I walked off the circle laughing. After seeing this, Orestes walked over to the judges and passed!
Then the scores came up. That was the high score of the TT's, and I ended up first!
The juniors had a tough battle also. Angstrom Eberenz forgot his horizontal eights, and this cost him a trip to Australia. Tough way to lose but we are not through seeing him compete!
After the awards were handed out, and pictures taken, the field was disassembled. As we drove off, it started to rain! Finished just in time!
Our senior team going to Perth,have all been world championships. I trust we will do our country proud!
I decided to attend and pulled my trusty "Anteater" off the wall and started practicing in September. The weather in September was generally still, with occasional thermals. Not ideal to train for the TT's. I did get one or two good days, and those confirmed that all was well. Then it was off to the GSSC.
Thursday air was great. Put in as many practice flights as I could. Friday the wind direction changed and came over a group of trees before going over the parking lot we were flying on. Friday had some good and some bad air, but was flyable.
Saturday I was judging Profile and right behind me I heard a terrible scraping sound. As soon as I could look it was a surprise to see that Orestes Hernandez pancaked into the asphalt doing outside loops. The plane simply dropped five feet instantly. He retired back to the hotel to repair it. As the day progressed, the biscuits (as Randy Smith calls it) got worse and worse. The forecast for Sunday was much of the same.
Sunday became a day where your score was very dependent on what amount of bad biscuits you ran into. There were numerous passes on the second round. Dave Fitzgerald won and I was second.
The TT's were the next day, and the weather forecast was for stronger winds and rain after lunch. There were 11 entrants for the Trials. When some arrived in the morning and saw the wind, they withdrew and left. When it was time to start, we were down to two Junior and five senior pilots. The wind was strong, with numerous biscuits. Sunday was good practice for this test!
The juniors led off and both charged fearlessly into the air. They both showed the passers how to do it! The seniors all flew next, and all survived. As a pilot, it is hard to tell how you scored as the plane was moving around so much. I left the circle chuckling as I thought I didn't do very well. To my surprise, I was in first.
Before the second round started, Jose Modesto passed as he found some cracks in his plane that weren't there before his first flight. We were down to four senior pilots. The second round changed the ranking to David first, Paul second and Orestes third. Joe Daly was in fourth, but a ways back.
Before the third round, we were deciding if we were going to fly again. It was fairly certain that Joe was not going to really smoke a flight in to knock any of the top three out. David then informed me that he was NOT going to fly again as his plane was at its absolute limit, and he didn't want to damage it as it would be going to Australia. Orestes wasn't sure.
After Joe Daly flew, it was my turn. I had flown in worse before, so I was not intimidated. I did my best. However in the horizontal eight, on the second outside loop, my plane instantly dropped 4.99 feet at the bottom. Good thing I was going to be at 5.0 feet. The VT might have had a paper thickness of clearance. It just didn't phase me. I trudged on and did fairly well in the high K maneuvers. Then the landing worked fine, smooth descent, nice touchdown, and it rolled to a stop. David "ran" over to pick it up, and the very second he got there, a gust passed and lifted the tail up, and it was on its way over. He caught it mid air thank goodness! I walked off the circle laughing. After seeing this, Orestes walked over to the judges and passed!
Then the scores came up. That was the high score of the TT's, and I ended up first!
The juniors had a tough battle also. Angstrom Eberenz forgot his horizontal eights, and this cost him a trip to Australia. Tough way to lose but we are not through seeing him compete!
After the awards were handed out, and pictures taken, the field was disassembled. As we drove off, it started to rain! Finished just in time!
Our senior team going to Perth,have all been world championships. I trust we will do our country proud!
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was updated Nov. 2, 2025