Day 5

Hop 1

 

Well today is Friday, and is soon to be hour 11 of my training.  It's been a long haul to this point, but it's been a kick in the pants the whole way.  Budd was right, learning to fly the Pitts in a short amount of time is very intense.  It's a lot of work and I am very tired, but I'm having the time of my life.

Same drill as before, taxing, check, take off, check,..  Budd has worked me into a machine.  I've got the basics down again, and have learned to really FLY again.  In a lot of ways it's like I'm learning to fly for the first time.  The plane requires such precision that you really have to learn what the airplane is doing and why it is doing it so you can correct it.  Or .. A better way to put it is one of Budd's bumper stickers:  The airplane will only do what you tell it to do until you tell it to do something else. 

I had some much better approaches this time, and I think at least 2 really decent landings.  There was a lot of traffic when we were out there so we spent a lot of time waiting at the end of the runway.  None the less, sitting in a Pitts waiting for traffic to clear sure beats the hell out of sitting behind a desk any day.

 

Hop 2

Budd and I got back from a nice lunch at our favorite place called the Fitness Café.  Really good healthy food.  Budd always gets the same thing. I guess you can see he's a bit of a creature of habit.  He's got a routine for just about everything he does.  I think that's part of the reason why he's so good at what he does.  He's honed in his skills on the same thing over and over to the point where it's hard to see the flaws.  It's this thinking that he is trying to impress upon me.  Get the same thing going each time as much as possible and life will be a lot easier when you get close to the ground.  He also makes sure that I sort things out in the air before I get too close.  It's always better to figure everything out when you have altitude and time than to try and get it all sorted after the plane touches down crooked or off center.

On this flight we had some light and variable winds, and some pretty good thermals.  I got a good grasp on how to handle both.  Though Budd did have to coach me through them, which is great because that's how I learn.  On every single landing he's always pointing out something that could be better, or that I should have done a little differently, or that I should have noticed earlier.  I came in a bit crooked and touched down slightly off center and got the Pitts into a crazy little hop.  Budd told me to just keep with it and to get it straight.  I fought with it for about 200 feet before it stopped hoping around.  Once it did calm down I got it straight and applied break.  Budd told me that when those hops happen, unless you catch it on the first bounce, you have to just ride it out.  If you can catch it on the first bounce, you can give it full power and get out of it.  It was an eye opener for  sure, not that I was scared or felt out of control, but it was something to be very aware of.

 

Hop 3

The end of the day, and Hour 13.  It was kind of hot, and the sun was beating down.  The wind was up around 11 and jumping all over the place.  Finally I'm getting something other than perfectly calm wind.  With this little cross wind, it was just enough to blow me around and force me to hold a tiny little bit of aileron in to hold the Pitts straight.  Of course I didn't realize I was even drifting until Budd told me I was.  It's still amazes me how much I'm NOT seeing.  Just when I think I'm on top of it, there's something else I missed.  It's very frustrating, but very rewarding when you get it right. 

Several more landings, and a few rougher than needed roll outs, and it was about time to call it a day.  The last landing was by far the best of the day which was summed up with just one word from Budd….  "NICE!"  That made my day.  When Budd says nice job, you know you did something good.  It was a perfect end to a perfect day!   I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.    Tomorrow I go up 2 times with Budd, and once with Sonny.  Sonny will be working on an hour of spin training with me.  That should be a Blast and a half!   I seriously can't wait!    And all this time I didn't think I was going to get to go upside down… Ha!   Now I hope I don't get sick.