Twenty-six pilots from around the country competed over the weekend during a precision aeronautics competition at the Albert Lea Airport.

Performing loops, spins and rolls, the participants represented cities as far away as Chicago, St. Louis and Denver — ranging in experience from trained students to professionals.

“Many of our competitors are longtime competitors, and it’s kind of what we do in the summertime,” said Joe Wakely, vice president of the International Aerobatic Club, Minnesota Cloud Dancers Chapter 78. He was one of the judges at the Doug Yost Challenge.

This particular competition has been held in Albert Lea for the past 17 years, with the last few years on an alternating basis with Cumberland, Wis., he said. The aerobatic club has been in existence since 1971.

Throughout the day on Saturday and into Sunday, competitors flew a series of flights that were graded by a team of judges. The judges graded each individual figure flown, as well as how well the sequence was positioned within the aerobatic box.

The figures were graded on factors such as precision of lines and angles, symmetry of figures, and other club contest rules.

Participants were divided into five classes based on skill level: primary, sportsman, intermediate, advanced or unlimited.

Primary includes beginning aerobatic pilots who perform six basic maneuvers in a sequence.

The sportsman class includes pilots who are able to perform a little more difficult maneuvers, with 10 figures in the sequence.

The intermediate class includes even more difficult maneuvers — with some introductory inverted figures — and 13 total figures in the sequence.

The advanced class includes more complicated figures and takes a more powerful airplane.

The unlimited class is the most difficult of all the categories and takes the most powerful airplane. The figures performed in the unlimited category would be comparable to what people would see at air shows.

David Briggs, a pilot and member of Chapter 78, said everybody flies three times, with the bottom two classes performing the same sequence each time. The top three classes perform one known sequence, one freestyle sequence and one unknown sequence.

The known sequence is given to the pilots ahead of time, the freestyle sequence is designed by the pilots and approved by the judges, and the unknown sequence is given to the pilots the night before the competition.

The pilots fly at various heights depending on their class.

“You learn a lot at the competitions,” Briggs said. “There’s a lot of nice people.”

To learn how to perform the figures correctly, pilots have to be critiqued by someone who’s on the ground, he said. Everybody roots for each other.

Briggs said the biggest challenge with flying on Saturday was the wind.

After the competition was finished — and as a result of a sponsorship by Jack Links Beef Jerky — all net proceeds from the event went to the Doug Yost Memorial Scholarship Fund, a scholarship fund created to advance aviation safety through aerobatic training.

From the fund, a scholarship is awarded to one pilot-in-training each year.

The International Aerobatic Club, which put on the weekend’s event, is a subdivision of the Experimental Aircraft Association and the National Aeronautics Association.