Jay Smith wrote:

Andrew, do you compensate for density altitude when you define your gates?

As a formation team, we are far more sensitive to density
altitude than solo performers, who are free to improvise
as they go along.

Some of our maneuvers - like our opening no-roll vertical eight,
which has an outside loop on the bottom and an inside loop on
the top - simply wouldn't be possible at say a 3,000 foot elevation
airport on a 100F day. We'd drop the top (slow, high AOA) inside
loop, and just do a vanilla outside loop instead, which is also
what we do for our low (not flat) show with low ceilings.

Frankly what bothers us mostly with higher density altitudes is
power loss. We try to deal with that by trading potential energy
for kinetic: for example, on a hot day we will plan to exit the
opening vertical eight at 400AGL instead of 250AGL and let the
nose drop to 250AGL before the push to the following outside cuban,
which I have to be very gentle over the top to avoid outside snapping
in close formation. Giving away the 150 feet of altitude also unloads
the wing and gives us another 10 mph entry speed for the outside
cuban, which is worth gold to me on wing over the top.

At higher density altitudes you will definitely see higher TAS
and larger radiuses, and if you're going to airshows under those
conditions, you will DEFINITELY want to pad your gate altitude.

I live way too far north, but can't stand to not fly during the
winter. When it's -20C (dunno what that is in F, probably below
zero) you wouldn't believe the aircraft performance: engine, prop
and wing all love that cold, thick air. I can get 2,000 feet of
vertical from the surface to the hhead kick in my stock S-2B, which
is simply not possible in summer.

P.S. Even though there's no heater, your toes don't get cold - just
pull some G, and they warm up just fine :-)

P.P.S. Apologies for being off-topic,

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ATP www.pittspecials.com/images/oz_inv.jpg