Recent content by PittsDriver

The thing that helped me work through this tendency was to practice falling-leaf stalls. With plenty of altitude, you've got a lot of time to practice your footwork to keep the wings level and over controlling it exaggerates any oscillations back and forth. Once you get the quick little jabs...

I'm galavanting all summer long through mid-Septemer but have every intention of coming to the Mason-Dixon Clash in October and embarrassing myself. Next year I plan to be back in the saddle for the whole season. I really miss coming to contests.

The canopy may have been completely covered in oil with no outside viz. I know if at least one unlimited pilot that's blown a couple of engines and landed his Edge 540 by looking through the clear panels at his feet.

You been forcing your spin entries again? :D:D That's a good quote on the 172 - I'm gonna use that.

In an open cockpit, of course. An open cockpit airplane at anything more than about 100 mph is miserable. Not too much need for googles in an enclosed canopy. A lot of helmets have a sun shield that can flip down or retract. That's not going to be much protection though.

No pyrotechnics on GA aerobatic planes generally speaking. Aircraft like Pitts, Extras, et. al. have canopies with quick release mechanisms and they're designed to depart the airplane from the force of the air as soon as they're cracked open. Ask any aerobatic pilot who's failed to properly...

And yet, in a car even when it's someone else's "fault" you can still manage risks by driving more defensively. Risk management is very apropos to both activities and the belt and suspenders approach of which you speak is a time tested valid approach. Where I thought this thread was going...

I can't stop watching the video looking for something conclusive. I didn't know Jane but Charlie was one of my best buds in the sport and I've spent countless hours watching him fly at contests and hanging out together. This was something he'd done with Jane a lot and I just don't see him...

Right, and what Bob said - good luck getting the doors open on any aircraft to bail out. If it's not a door that is designed to depart the airplane when you want, you're probably not getting out anyway. Aerobatic aircraft have canopies that eject and depart the airframe to make a way to...

I can't imagine too many likely scenarios where I'd rather resign my fate to a parachute over putting the airplane down under control just about anywhere. But there are certainly a few. For all those people that said you'd rather spend the money on lessons or more airplane over a 'chute -...

Does anyone know what the Young Eagles organization is named as a corporation? I've checked Guidestar and there's a bunch of EAA corporations (mostly chapters) but only two that I find that are the main EAA Association with revenues of about $35M and the EAA Foundation with revenues of around...

On the EAA Forum, the number quoted was about $12M raised over the last decade. That didn't all go to insurance and marketing and if it did it would be interesting to know who the insurer and marketing firms were that benefited from all that. One interesting comment was made that the Gathering...

Do the ground crews and organizers get compensated?

Maybe but I wouldn't think so. Another EAA subsidiary, the IAC insures aerobatic costests, dozens of them, every year, has a magazine, and supports a staff and I'm pretty sure they don't spend anything close to hat. And I didn't see any young eagles Super Bowl ads either. I'm not accusing...

Most of us know of, and many have participated in the great experience of Young Eagles flights to introduce the joy of aviation to our youth. I've never had a bad experience and it's one of the most worthwhile things I'd spent my time and money on in aviation. To see kids get that experience...