Bill
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2005
- Messages
- 15,105
- Location
- Southeast Tennessee
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Lesson #7 left us at the de-brief, so we walked and talked back to the hangar party, and we each snarfed another brat before the second lesson. I guess I must be getting used to unusual attitudes if I can snarf bratwurst and then go fly aerobatics.
We head out (oh, and on the last few takeoffs, we've been adding full power from the get go, and flying the tail early) and do our warm ups again.
We then start off with two circuits of the loop, barrel left/rignt, cuban 8. the first one is ok, but I nail the second one, and John is very happy. We then do a few Emmelman turns, and these are a bit spooky. I feel a bit vulnerable rolling at the top of the loop, when you don't have much airspeed. After the Emmelmans, we do two cloverleafs, again the first one good, but the second one was GREAT!!! After the last loop and rolling out on our initial heading, I look and find I only lost 150ft for the whole four loop maneuver. Not too shabby.
This being the last lesson, John wants me to do two spins in a row, so we climb much higer, and I to a 3 turn spin to the right, and immediately after recovery, pitch up and then enter a 3 turn left spin. Our spins done, we again oblique spit-S back towards the field, and I put a nice 3 pointer down on the grass. I swear I felt the tailwheel come down first, then the mains settled gently onto the grass.
And with that, my brief tango with aerobatics is over. After the de-brief, John autographs my logbook. Two new endorsements, tailwheel airplane and spin training! John says my flying has improved at least 10 fold over the 8 lessons, and I can feel it.
My initial reasons for taking the class were to get unusual attitude training. I didn't know if I would like it (I do), but figured it would be "good medicine" regardless. I felt that this training could someday save my bacon.
Sadly, I'll now be leaving aerobatics for a while as I chase my IR ticket, but as MacArther said, "I shall return".
I feel almost 100% that there is a Citabria in my future, and when that time comes, I'll once again ride along at 1000agl with the windows open, and moo at the cows. I'll once again loop and roll and spin. I can't wait!!!
For those of you who haven't taken any aerobatic/unusual attitude training, get out there! Find a good instructor and learn some of this stuff!!! Not only is it good medicine, its a REAL GOOD TIME.
We head out (oh, and on the last few takeoffs, we've been adding full power from the get go, and flying the tail early) and do our warm ups again.
We then start off with two circuits of the loop, barrel left/rignt, cuban 8. the first one is ok, but I nail the second one, and John is very happy. We then do a few Emmelman turns, and these are a bit spooky. I feel a bit vulnerable rolling at the top of the loop, when you don't have much airspeed. After the Emmelmans, we do two cloverleafs, again the first one good, but the second one was GREAT!!! After the last loop and rolling out on our initial heading, I look and find I only lost 150ft for the whole four loop maneuver. Not too shabby.
This being the last lesson, John wants me to do two spins in a row, so we climb much higer, and I to a 3 turn spin to the right, and immediately after recovery, pitch up and then enter a 3 turn left spin. Our spins done, we again oblique spit-S back towards the field, and I put a nice 3 pointer down on the grass. I swear I felt the tailwheel come down first, then the mains settled gently onto the grass.
And with that, my brief tango with aerobatics is over. After the de-brief, John autographs my logbook. Two new endorsements, tailwheel airplane and spin training! John says my flying has improved at least 10 fold over the 8 lessons, and I can feel it.
My initial reasons for taking the class were to get unusual attitude training. I didn't know if I would like it (I do), but figured it would be "good medicine" regardless. I felt that this training could someday save my bacon.
Sadly, I'll now be leaving aerobatics for a while as I chase my IR ticket, but as MacArther said, "I shall return".
I feel almost 100% that there is a Citabria in my future, and when that time comes, I'll once again ride along at 1000agl with the windows open, and moo at the cows. I'll once again loop and roll and spin. I can't wait!!!
For those of you who haven't taken any aerobatic/unusual attitude training, get out there! Find a good instructor and learn some of this stuff!!! Not only is it good medicine, its a REAL GOOD TIME.
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