Aresti Catalog

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Aresti Catalog is the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale standards document outlining the aerobatic manoeuvers permitted in aerobatic competition. Designed by Spanish aviator Jose Louis de Aresti Aguirre, each figure in the catalog is represented by lines, arrows, shapes and numbers representing the ideal form of the manoeuver.

Solid lines represent "upright" or "positive-g" manoeuvers. Dashed lines represent "inverted" or "negative-g" manoeuvers and are usually colored red. Stalled wing manoeuvers such as spins and snap (flick) rolls are represented by triangles. Arrows represent "rolling" manoeuvers (with numbers representing the extent/segments of the roll).

Each manoeuver is also assigned a "K" or difficulty factor. During aerobatics competition, the judges mark the execution of each manoeuver out of a possible score of 10. These marks are then multiplied by the "K" factor of each figure to give a total score for the flight.

The Aresti catalog has been in official use since 1964.

Due to a court fight between Aresti's family and the FAI, who used to provide a free copy of the catalog available online, it is now only available in printed format. There is still a big argument regarding what part of the aerobatic notation was/is copyrighted by Aresti himself. The original catalog seems to have carried only a compilation copyright of figures collected by Aresti. The drawing of lines arrows and triangles (for snaps) is even older.

Free software is now available for the design and display of aerobatic sequences called Olan - one Letter Aerobatic Notation