Manuevers

[stuckinGFK]

I've been flying the Super D for a year now and have been doing the basics. Loops, rolls, hammerheads, cuban 8's, spins, sharkstooth, goldfish, and throwing rolls in everywhere for variations.

Anybody have anything different they do with their Decathalon/Citabria that I can try? I'd really appreciate it.


Thanks

 

[Ken Ibold]

1) Learn a competition sequence and compete.
2) Avoid snap rolls in that airplane, POH notwithstanding.

 

[stuckinGFK]

1) Learn a competition sequence and compete.
2) Avoid snap rolls in that airplane, POH notwithstanding.

I did sportsman last year in 3 events.

Hopefully this year I can do sportsman in the same 3 events.

About the snaps, I have tried them but don't do them anymore. They tend to tear the baffles inside the fuel tank and cause fuel leakage.

 

[Diana]

Re: Maneuvers

Anybody have anything different they do with their Decathalon/Citabria that I can try? I'd really appreciate it.

Well, since you have competed, it sounds like you've done most of what the Decathlon can do. I've run into the same problem with the Citabria, and can't do nearly what you can do, especially the inverted stuff (like maneuvering during inverted flight, inverted spins, etc.)

Soooo, what I have done is make what I CAN do more interesting or fun, like taking passengers for acro rides, making videos and putting them to music shooting from inside the airplane and from the ground. Another thing that was kind of a new experience was flying acro from the back seat, which offered a new perspective and even a new feel. Although I still haven't figured out where to look for cues when inverted during a loop while sitting in the back seat.

I don't know if this helped or not. Perhaps someone else has more to offer in the way of suggestions.

 

[Scott 'Gunny' Perdue]

-Where to look during inverted in the back seat of a Citabria/D.... if you have skylights maybe there... but the wing blocks your sideways vision for the most part... right?

-Ya'll need to come fly with me and add a little energy into your routines<g>.

 

[tonycondon]

Most exciting aerobatics to me is the low energy stuff, at least to watch. Have to say I loved the Extra 300 ride chip. But best guys I saw at Oshkosh in 05 were John Moore in Stock Stearman and the guy doing flying farmer routine in Champ. Those guys could make an airplane do what they wanted. Strapping 400 HP to a 500 lb airframe and doing 30 snap rolls in a row does not impress me, sorry.

 

[Henning]

Re: Maneuvers

Well, since you have competed, it sounds like you've done most of what the Decathlon can do. I've run into the same problem with the Citabria, and can't do nearly what you can do, especially the inverted stuff (like maneuvering during inverted flight, inverted spins, etc.)

You've barely begun to scratch the surface of what the plane can do. That's one thing that's dissapointed me with the advent of the Extras and SUs, the grace has gone out of aerobatics. Everything I see these days is just smack on brutal manuvering. When I was a kid the old men used to make the planes lazily dance through the sky. Forms beautiful and lines well placed and transitioned. If you'd look at the smoke you would see graceful French curves crossing three planes. Now you see straight lines with sharp turns, lumps, knots, blobs and corkscrews in them. The only manuver I like doing that I wouldn't do in a Citabria or a Decathalon is a stick forward tail slide.

Want a challenge to work towards with the plane you own and be able to do airshow work? Pick a nice piece of music and make the plane dance through the sky. Choreograph an aerial ballet, if you will, and watch a good production of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, they should be readily available on DVD. Aerobatics isn't necessarily about impressing pilots and judges, it is about pleasing an audience many of who's only contact with small planes is the annual airshow. Duane Cole and Bob Hoover, to name a couple, they made it look gracefull and elegent. They take their ladies to the dance and guide them around floating effortlessly. Ol Duane did it in a clip wing T-Craft IIRC. Airshows is what aerobatics is about anyway. Competetive aerobatics was invented by geeks with no grace or rhythm, just good technical ability so they take that and a bunch of horsepower and muscle the plane around torturously even with great precision in attituded and positions you wouldn't think possible in a plane; They make it walk and talk, what they don't do is make it sing and dance, and I miss that. The only really good ones you get anymore are from the glider guys. because they have to make it gracefull because they have to manage energy. That gives you a clue as to how to measure how well you are doing, because it only looks effortless if it is. Practice flyig a routine at 65% power. Convert altitude to airspeed and keep the energy as best you can, learn to stretch it. Work at making everything smooth.

 

[Henning]

Most exciting aerobatics to me is the low energy stuff, at least to watch. Have to say I loved the Extra 300 ride chip. But best guys I saw at Oshkosh in 05 were John Moore in Stock Stearman and the guy doing flying farmer routine in Champ. Those guys could make an airplane do what they wanted. Strapping 400 HP to a 500 lb airframe and doing 30 snap rolls in a row does not impress me, sorry.

Agree completely. To me though it's not that you can make the plane do what you want it too, but that you guide the plane through what it wants to do, trick to that is, you gotta know what she likes. That's why the femenine still stands for aircraft and boats. When you know what they like you can get them to do anything for you, even die for you and they'll look good doing it. Conversly, if you try to put the stick in the wrong place at the wrong time, she may turn around and kill you.

 

[Bill]

Conversly, if you try to put the stick in the wrong place at the wrong time, she may turn around and kill you.

Context, man, context

 

[Henning]

Context, man, context

I cannot be held responsible for any images your sick mind may draw from that perfectly innocent statement.

 

[Scott 'Gunny' Perdue]

John Moore in Stock Stearman and the guy doing flying farmer routine in Champ.

Best aerobatic routine at an airshow I've ever seen is John Mohr in a stock Stearman.... WOW!

 

[Scott 'Gunny' Perdue]

Re: Maneuvers

the grace has gone out of aerobatics. Everything I see these days is just smack on brutal manuvering.

I absolutely agree... don't care much to do airshows in the Extra.. but the grace of a Stearman.... now that's flying!

But the Extra is a fantastic machine in it's own right!

 

[gonvrtd]

I have to agree with both sides of this one. I like watching the guys twist around the sky in an extra or an edge but I LOVE watching the skill and grace of the pilots in the citabrias, stearmans, and like aircraft.

 

[Steve]

Re: Maneuvers

"Roll Around a Point" and "Conquest of Lines and Symmetry" are good books by Duane Cole about the "art" of aerobatics, written before the era of "muscle plane" airshows.