I woke up this morning feeling very tired, and a little under the weather. I felt a little nervous, and nauseous for some reason. I felt like canceling my flight. I didn't, I got up, took a shower, and then headed to the airport. Once I got there, I started to feel a little better, and I knew that once I got in the seat that I would be so focused on what I was doing that I'd feel better. It's kind of like going to the gym. You know how much work it's going to be, but you know once you're there, and get your body moving things will fell better. Then when you're all done, you are happy that you went, and you feel amazing! Well flying the Pitts is very similar. It's a lot of work, but every day you do a little better, it feels amazing, but it really is a ton of work!
Hop 1
First hop today was great. The air was smooth and cool. The traffic was light, and Budd and I were able bust out a ton of landings. Before we did any of that though, we headed out N. of the airport for some good old fashioned coordinated turns. I was in laser focus mode, and really paid attention to the timing of my inputs. One by one, I started to figure it out, and was ready to head back to the patter and give it a shot under pressure. We got back in the pattern, and did some pretty good work. Still no where near perfect, but better. I had a lot more confidence in this flight than I've had so far. I still had some rough landings, but my takeoffs were pretty darn good. I'm still catching the P-factor a little late, but it's my goal to catch that before the end of the day.
Hop 2.
Better Better Better… Well, to be honest that's kind of the only way for me to go. I've got it beaten into my head now PAAP. I'm constantly checking my airspeed, pattern altitude, and my ground track. It's pretty darn amazing how accurate you have to be all the time in this thing. For some reason, now I'm having trouble in my slips. I keep floating to the right of the line, and holding the slip a little long. However, I am seeing the sink rate, and able to start my flare at the right time, and am getting much better at knowing when I'm going to touch down. Still a little rough on the roll out. One thing I've finally started to do is to look out both sides of the airplane quickly. For so long I've been using my peripheral vision to see what's happening. Budd has repeatedly told me not to do that, but rather look with both eyes at each side. He said you get twice the information and it's much more accurate. So.. I think I've finally got that going on. There's so much to remember, that the only way to really remember it is to just keep practicing. I'm now 6 hours into flying this little plane, with one more to go today. I feel better than ever, but am keenly aware of where I need to get better.
Hop 3.
Well, by now you'd think I had this whole thing figured out. This will be my 7th hour of flying the Pitts. I'm feeling pretty good about things. I am very aware of the areas that I need to improve. PAAP is on the tip of my tongue and squarely planted in my brain. I climbed into the back seat and took a few deep breaths and thought long and hard about what I needed to work on. Budd was off to relieve himself while I sat there, practically meditating in the Pitts. I closed my eyes, and visualized how my flight was going to be. I kept thinking about my coordination errors and how I was going to focus on making my movements consistent. I thought about how I wasn't going to blow through my altitude on the patter, how I was going to keep the power in check and make sure that I was setting up my approach as well as I could so that I would reduce the workload getting close to the ground. I opened my eyes, and admired this little plane. I looked at all the instruments, and again, just couldn't help feeling overjoyed to be in the cockpit. Just then I realized that I just might be over the hump. Well, at least in my mind I felt that all I needed to do was work on the details. In some ways I feel like I'm a piece of clay waiting to be sculpted by Budd. First, he did all the massing in ground school and our first flight. Then the next day he adjusted the proportions by teaching and reinforcing the basics. Today, he's starting to chisel away at some of the details, but not cutting too deeply just yet. I think by tomorrow, I am going to start seeing the true form of Budd's creation. Well at least that's my hope.
All went well the first few landings, and takeoffs. I thought things were looking real good, all the way up to the point where Budd had to save our butt. I had set up an approach that was just wrong. I don't really know what happened. I remember being a little slow, and hearing Budd say, watch your nose attitude. To me this meant that my nose was too low so I pulled up, wish slowed the airplane down. Then, I realized that I was starting to drift past centerline, and before I knew it things were getting bad. I banked hard to get the airplane lined up again, and of course pulled up on the nose again to keep from losing altitude in the steeper bank angle. Well that just made things even worse. Slow, slow, slow.. Budd jammed the throttle forward to force us to go around. I caught the airplane, and pushed forward on the stick as his sudden thrust of the throttle forced the nose up. I pushed in the right rudder to compensate the p-factor and started flying the Pitts over the runway. Things happened so quick and got so out of hand I wasn't sure what the heck just happened. On the climb out, Budd was very articulate about what just happened, and made sure I understood how bad that could have been, and what I should have done. My fist instinct was to go around when I felt the approach was off. I think that because Budd was in the front seat, I felt like I was still in good hands, and he wouldn't let me get into trouble. I know now that if something like that happens again, I will follow my instincts and just go around. I was always taught that there is never a reason you have to land, unless you are in an emergency situation. If it's not right, or close to perfect, go around and make it so. After the go around, we did a few more landings all of which were much better. I'm getting a lot better at staying ahead of the airplane on roll out, but I'm still a little behind it. I'm pretty amazed at my progress, and how much more comfortable I feel now. I know I still have a lot to learn about finesse and making love to the airplane, but at least I'm aware of what needs work. I can at least "see" it now.
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