John J
Line Up and Wait
In early 1963 I was working hard on getting my Commercial Rating. I was working the begining stages of the Instrument Rating as well when my duties at the airport allowed me the time and of course my instructor's time. He was one of the gentlelist pilot's I every flew with. He was fingertips and light feet He never put the plane under stress; He use to say "if you treat the plane right,it will get you home." He had given me spin training in the Champ when I was working on the Private. I enjoyed doing manuvers with him for he was smooth and taught me to listen and feel the plane as we flew manuvers.
Since I was getting close to the flight test, he wanted another instructor to go up with me to do an critique of my skills. It was a cool day in January with a nice hight overcast, smooth air and lots of visability. The instructor that day was a recent hire who had some time in the Navy in A4's. He seemed pleasent but uptight about life. I guessed that teaching GA pilots was not something that he wanted to do and was just waiting for the airlines to hire him.
It was early afternoon when we took off from the airport in the C-150. We climbed out and as we climbed he told me that we would do "unusual attitudes" and then do VOR tracking etc. under the hood. He had me put the hood on and I flew easly to the practice area. This C-150 had a cage knob for the DG but not for the old horizon which was one of those WWII models that was quite domenate in the panel. The panel was of a early C-150 this one was a 1960 and it was of the "Scatter Gun" variety. The Turn and Bank I always used was right in front of me and the Horizon was to the right The DG was off to my next to the Turn and Bank or Needle and Ball.
He told me that he would take the plane and get me set up for the "unusal Attitudes" At this point I caged the DG. He asked me why I did that I told him that was SOP when doing any potential manuver that could upset the gyro. He groned. Then with a quick movement I felt the plane roll to the right and nose down. The slipstream was a sound I had not really heard before. It was more like a scream and his control inputs were not pleasent very harsh to say the least. He yanked the controls back and I was slamed into the seat as the nose came up. He then rolled to the left. I heard him cut the power and said "Your plane" I looked at the Needle and Ball ,airspeed and altimeter. I saw that we were in a very steep bank nose high. I leveled the wings and eased the nose down just as the horn went off. Shortly we were back in level flight. I glanced at the horizon and it was now useless. It had tumbled.
The Instructor then said;"You did ok: lets do another" He took the controls again and I felt right away the nose drop and the engine began to wind up. I heard the scream again and it got even louder this time. I felt G's pushing me down in the seat again and this time the pull was stronger than before. I knew it was climbing and running out of speed. Then he said "Your plane" I saw right away the wings were level and I lowered the nose. He congratulated me again and he said, "Lets do one more."
This time he pushed the nose down violently with full power. Again the xream of the slipstream and next came a pull on the controls that I had never felt before. A loud crack sound came from behind me as he pulled back. I felt the plane climbing. Then some of my flight stuff fell out of the area behind the seats along with dust, old penciles, a protractor and gosh knows what else. He said "your airplane " I looked at the Needle and Ball and I knew we were in a spin. I could feel the rotation but relied on that Needle and Ball to help me get out. He had left the power in all the way so I pulled that back, gently eased the controls forward and very carefully eased in the rudder to step on the ball to get the rotation stopped. A voice came to me and said "level the wings, level the wings," The Needle and Ball showed that I was out of the spin and needed to get the nose up very carefully. The sound of the crack really frightened me for I had no ideal what damage there was if any to the plane. I knew the altimeter was unwinding so I very carefully eased back using slight back pressure. the elevator felt a little heavier. Once the plane was level I took off the hood and said " no more" I asked him if he heard the loud crack and he said "Oh it was just something bangiing around in the back" I turned the nose toward the airport and said" I think we need to land" I cleaned up the mess from being trashed and flew back and landed. The instructor never said a word to me after that. I remember getting out of the plane and feeling lousy not wanting to fly for a while.
Needless to say the instructor was let go and the poor plane did have some small wringles in the fuselage skin near the tail. My instructor and the chief pilot felt that the instructor tried to do a loop at much too high of an entry airspeed which caused the over stressing in the pull up. They thought he over controlled and it fell out at the top into a spin.
They got me back up in the air as soon as possible. They got most of the fear out of me by letting me fly under the hood and do some unusal attitudes that were normal with out stressing the plane. They also taught me ways to make rough air less harsh.
I could not do any aerobatic manuvers until the mid 1970's. A very nice pilot took me up in his Decathelon and had me do loops and gentle rolls. As he was helping me fly the various manuvers I found myself beginning to feel a fear that had been with me for a long time; leave me. I did not hear any strains or loud cracks that day or every since. It is amazing how in a very few moments a really bad experience can live with you for a long time.
Thank you for reading
John J
Since I was getting close to the flight test, he wanted another instructor to go up with me to do an critique of my skills. It was a cool day in January with a nice hight overcast, smooth air and lots of visability. The instructor that day was a recent hire who had some time in the Navy in A4's. He seemed pleasent but uptight about life. I guessed that teaching GA pilots was not something that he wanted to do and was just waiting for the airlines to hire him.
It was early afternoon when we took off from the airport in the C-150. We climbed out and as we climbed he told me that we would do "unusual attitudes" and then do VOR tracking etc. under the hood. He had me put the hood on and I flew easly to the practice area. This C-150 had a cage knob for the DG but not for the old horizon which was one of those WWII models that was quite domenate in the panel. The panel was of a early C-150 this one was a 1960 and it was of the "Scatter Gun" variety. The Turn and Bank I always used was right in front of me and the Horizon was to the right The DG was off to my next to the Turn and Bank or Needle and Ball.
He told me that he would take the plane and get me set up for the "unusal Attitudes" At this point I caged the DG. He asked me why I did that I told him that was SOP when doing any potential manuver that could upset the gyro. He groned. Then with a quick movement I felt the plane roll to the right and nose down. The slipstream was a sound I had not really heard before. It was more like a scream and his control inputs were not pleasent very harsh to say the least. He yanked the controls back and I was slamed into the seat as the nose came up. He then rolled to the left. I heard him cut the power and said "Your plane" I looked at the Needle and Ball ,airspeed and altimeter. I saw that we were in a very steep bank nose high. I leveled the wings and eased the nose down just as the horn went off. Shortly we were back in level flight. I glanced at the horizon and it was now useless. It had tumbled.
The Instructor then said;"You did ok: lets do another" He took the controls again and I felt right away the nose drop and the engine began to wind up. I heard the scream again and it got even louder this time. I felt G's pushing me down in the seat again and this time the pull was stronger than before. I knew it was climbing and running out of speed. Then he said "Your plane" I saw right away the wings were level and I lowered the nose. He congratulated me again and he said, "Lets do one more."
This time he pushed the nose down violently with full power. Again the xream of the slipstream and next came a pull on the controls that I had never felt before. A loud crack sound came from behind me as he pulled back. I felt the plane climbing. Then some of my flight stuff fell out of the area behind the seats along with dust, old penciles, a protractor and gosh knows what else. He said "your airplane " I looked at the Needle and Ball and I knew we were in a spin. I could feel the rotation but relied on that Needle and Ball to help me get out. He had left the power in all the way so I pulled that back, gently eased the controls forward and very carefully eased in the rudder to step on the ball to get the rotation stopped. A voice came to me and said "level the wings, level the wings," The Needle and Ball showed that I was out of the spin and needed to get the nose up very carefully. The sound of the crack really frightened me for I had no ideal what damage there was if any to the plane. I knew the altimeter was unwinding so I very carefully eased back using slight back pressure. the elevator felt a little heavier. Once the plane was level I took off the hood and said " no more" I asked him if he heard the loud crack and he said "Oh it was just something bangiing around in the back" I turned the nose toward the airport and said" I think we need to land" I cleaned up the mess from being trashed and flew back and landed. The instructor never said a word to me after that. I remember getting out of the plane and feeling lousy not wanting to fly for a while.
Needless to say the instructor was let go and the poor plane did have some small wringles in the fuselage skin near the tail. My instructor and the chief pilot felt that the instructor tried to do a loop at much too high of an entry airspeed which caused the over stressing in the pull up. They thought he over controlled and it fell out at the top into a spin.
They got me back up in the air as soon as possible. They got most of the fear out of me by letting me fly under the hood and do some unusal attitudes that were normal with out stressing the plane. They also taught me ways to make rough air less harsh.
I could not do any aerobatic manuvers until the mid 1970's. A very nice pilot took me up in his Decathelon and had me do loops and gentle rolls. As he was helping me fly the various manuvers I found myself beginning to feel a fear that had been with me for a long time; leave me. I did not hear any strains or loud cracks that day or every since. It is amazing how in a very few moments a really bad experience can live with you for a long time.
Thank you for reading
John J
