You quickly remind yourself of a golden rule in competition aerobatics – forget about the other guy. The competition is always with yourself. You are striving for perfection. You will never achieve it, but you just have to be better than you were last time.
Anyone who’s been to an airshow or aerobatic competition, may have seen participating pilots do what is called “the dance” before strapping into their airplane. There are several objectives when mentally preparing for a flight. The first is to ensure that you know the sequence perfectly. A pilot needs to be able to rattle off all the figures very quickly without a second’s hesitation. If you can’t get it right on the ground, there’s little chance you’ll know what to do in the air.
A good tailslide begins with as much speed as possible and the aircraft pitched as close to a perfect vertical as you can get it. Achieve this with a sight gauge or by looking at the angle between the wing tip and the horizon.