Rob Holland Wins Record-Setting 8th Consecutive National Championship

October 4, 2018 — The 2018 U.S. National Aerobatic Championships concluded with a familiar sight on September 28, as Rob Holland, EAA 555134 and IAC 27724, was named U.S. National Aerobatic Champion for the eighth consecutive year.

Rob’s eighth consecutive win breaks the tie he entered into last year with Leo Loudenslager for the most consecutive national champion titles, giving the Nashua, New Hampshire, native sole possession of the new all-time record. Just days after passing Leo’s record seven titles, Rob said the fact that he had the all-time record still hadn’t entirely set in.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Rob said. “I never really set out to do this, to break any records or anything like that. I just set out to keep trying to push myself to be the best that I could be compared to myself, not anybody else. It’s been a long road and I managed to do eight of them. Leo’s amazing. I only got to see him twice but I watched videos and studied him a lot. He was definitely a hero growing up and still a hero now. To surpass that, it’s incredible.”

In all, 12 pilots competed in the Unlimited category. Rob recorded the best score in all three of the Unlimited categories — Known, Unknown, and Free — to notch his eighth straight victory. Rob also had the best score in the 4-Minute Free.

Across the Unlimited, Advanced, Intermediate, Sportsman, and Primary categories, 76 pilots competed in this year’s Nationals, which took place in Oshkosh for the second consecutive year after calling Texas home for more than 40 years.