What got you into aerobatics?

I'd been flying my entire life, grew up with two Uncles that flew and I was in the air a lot. When I got old enough to get my license, I was scared to do stalls, even with the instructor in the plane. Once I was solo'd he told me to go out and practice stalls, and when I returned, I told him I had.... I hadn't! I was terrified of going into a spin.

One day a Decathlon taxiied by I was told it belonged to Chuck White (long-winded story here!). I got checked out in it and started an aerobatics course. I was not going to spend my life being afraid of an airplane. I was even surprised when I fell in love with flying upside-down.
 
Even before my first flight I knew aerobatics would be part of my flying. Of course I had already been doing acro throughout my teenage years with R/C models. Got a Stearman ride including acro when I was 15, two years later with a still wet PPL I took acro instruction in that same Stearman.
 
Dana said:
Even before my first flight I knew aerobatics would be part of my flying. Of course I had already been doing acro throughout my teenage years with R/C models. Got a Stearman ride including acro when I was 15, two years later with a still wet PPL I took acro instruction in that same Stearman.
Click to expand...
Actually that stirs my memory a bit. In the late 90's I got hooked on a few WWII online dogfighting sims. Only time I have ever been interested in video games. But that got me wondering if I could fly like that in real life.
 
Still want to try this one day!
 
Wanted to be a more accomplished pilot. First experience in a Great Lakes did not do much for me. After pursuing this more with a renowned aerobatic flight school, I got hooked. It is quite the addiction!
 
As an enlisted aircrew, I had to sit in the back through all kinds of pilot hijinks. Plus, I always got voluntold to help out at the annual base open house and airshow. So, when I got my ticket, of course I wanted to learn aerobatics (something other than just boring straight and level)!
 
So far, I have done Loops, Stall Turns, Split 'S'es, Immelmanns, Slow Rolls, Inverted Flight, Spins, Steep Climbing Turns, Lazy Eights, and Chandelles. I think that is everything that a glider I have flown has been approved for. I would like to do more.

Why? Because it is fun. My CFI-G was performing stalls and spins in the first half of our first lesson. I don't get student pilots who are afraid of learning where the edges of the envelope are.
 
I was planning on heading to USAF and hoped for fighters. So I wanted to get a taste of aerobatics. And I enjoyed it.
 
My first exposure to aerobatics was in 1989. Back then the Navy had T-34s (piston) at select recruiting areas and had Naval Aviators as recruiters. At the time I was thinking about going NAVCAD because “Top Gun” put crazy dreams in my head about flying fighters.

Anyway, I don’t recall being briefed for aerobatics but everything happened so fast I probably missed that part. Flew over JAX beach. Started off with a few rolls, hammerhead, loop. Wasn’t long before I started turning green and needed to grab the sic sac. Didn’t listen to that part of the brief either because instead of pulling the bag out, I spewed into the paper bag. Unfortunately it filled up quickly and I made a complete mess of the cockpit. What was left of the soaking wet bag disintegrated in my hands when we came back to do the overhead. After landing the recruiter apologized but politely told me I was cleaning the cockpit. After that flight I thought well, maybe helicopters are more my speed.
 
I bought a Grumman Traveler, AA5 and heard they would lock into a spin once one was fully developed. I decided some incipient spin recovery training was worthwhile, so I signed up. The plane for this training was a Decathlon. After the spin recovery training, the instructor asked if I'd like to try some aerobatics. We did a series of loops, rolls and combinations of the two (Immelmanns and split Ss). Shortly after that, I sold the Grumman and bought a Pitts S2A. Had a blast with that plane!
Biplane.jpg
 
I wouldn't say I'm "into" aerobatics, as I own a plain jane normal category airplane since my primary mission is travel.

But I sure wish for it, and I have @gibbons to thank for that. My first ever acro was in his old Extra, N69LW, at Gaston's in about 2006. Several times in subsequent years as I was passing through his area, I'd give him a call and he'd always take me up. The last time we flew the Extra together is still a very fond memory, as by then I was able to do loops, rolls, and hammerheads pretty decently and we started doing combinations of maneuvers - Pull it up vertical, hammerhead, roll it a couple of times on the downline, pull out of the dive right into a loop... What a hoot! :goofy: I was really sad when he sold that plane...

But, at this point in my life I can't afford another airplane; even if I did it probably wouldn't be anything more than a Citabria that my sons can learn to fly in when they get old enough. And when they're done with college, I'll be 70 and maybe no longer sharp enough for such pursuits. Sigh...
 
wannabepilot123 said:
What got you into aerobatics?
Click to expand...

I wanted to see exotic skies... the crown jewel of flying. I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture... and spin them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed hammerhead!
 
In getting my private pilots license we did spin training as part of the curriculum at West Valley Flying Club at KPAO. We did what the instructor called “over the top” and “under the bottom” spins in the Cessna 152. I liked it although at the time it felt a bit freaky. My recollection is that the 152 spins were pretty dramatic. I felt it increased my confidence and plane handling skills. I then took some lessons in a Decathlon at KPAO from Bill Hightower.

About that time my job was transferred to Salinas, CA. I later bought into a Great Lakes partnership in Salinas (KSNS) and the primary owner taught me additional aerobatic skills. Well, more specifically, he checked me out on our way to my first IAC contest. He did the Sportsman category and I did the Basic. Happily, I placed third against a couple of Pitts Specials and others. My sense of things was that one needed to be fully devoted to training to develop the skills for more advanced aerobatics and I was very busy with work. Building my g-tolerance wasn’t very successful but I’m not sure I tried hard enough. It was hard for me to go out and practice knowing I’d feel queasy for several hours after practice.

Side note: When I was transferred to Salinas, I thought “this sucks - for sure they don’t do aerobatics at that sleepy airport.” Turns out my hangar was next to Sean Tucker’s and we became friends. Sean, of course, is an extraordinarily talented aviator. What a lot of people don’t know is that Sean practiced twice a day, every day -totally dedicated to his art. We had a lot of fun!
 
Rich Stowell would host spin clinics in his home state of New Jersey for a few weeks in the fall. So, after completing my first spin lesson, he asked if I wanted to do some aerobatics and I agreed. In addition to the basics, we also did some upset recovery where he would have me close my eyes and he would put the plane into an upset, either a spin, snap roll, or some botched aerobatic maneuver. I enjoyed it enough that I flew two more times with Rich. I also flew with Greg Koontz on a trip home to Alabama where we did an entire lesson on inverted spins. I went on to do about 10 hours of aerobatics at with Ahzar Husain at Van Sant Airport in Pennsylvania, as well as completing the TW endorsement in the Super Decathlon. Once I moved to DC, I flew a few times with Adam Cope. After returning from a 13-year flying hiatus, the three flights after my first flight back were aerobatic, and I learned a few new maneuvers, including the Humpty Bump, Shark's Tooth, and the reverse Cuban 8. I was surprised that my endurance was still fairly high given that I was in my early 50's at that point. I could go for about an hour before calling it quits. Before I stopped flying, I was actually looking at buying an aerobatic plane.
 
Originally to get spin training, which was not part of my PPL, and we tried some other maneuvers in a Super Decathlon (my profile pic to the left). While I own a Diamond, I've taken several trainings in Decathlons, multiple Extra 330's, and a P-51.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top