My day began at 6:30 a.m. I woke up super excited to start the day. I'm not a morning person by any means, but knowing that I was about to begin learning how to fly a Pitts was all I needed to spring out of bed. My dad made me some oatmeal, and poured me some Juice. I think in a way he was just as excited about me learning to fly a Pitts as me. So I ate my breakfast and headed out to Budd's place. I arrived about 30 minutes early for ground school. Like I said, I was just a little excited.
Upon entering Budd's house, I was greeted by a few cats, and a pomaranian dog. His house was decorated with a southwestern feel, and looked very much like what I remember Arizona homes to look like. We made our way back to his office. Around his office was many photographs of famous and renouned pilots, all of which he's either met, or has become friends with. Included in this collection was many pictures of Patty Wagstaff. Patty has long been an role model for me. She's a tremendously talented pilot that is truly inspiring to any pilot who seeks to master aerobatics.
Ground school begins. Budd had another student booked along side of me. Willy. Willy is from Minnesota, and has been flying for about 7 years. It seems that both Willy and I are at about the same level of ability. We both have about 200 hours of total time, and both have a strong desire to fly a Pitts.
Budd begins his ground school by dispelling all the wives tales about the little Pitts. He goes into tell you that a lot of those stories come about by pilot who don't really know the airplane. He also talked about how the plane is really good at showing you what you're doing wrong, as if you were under a giant magnifying glass. He said that the good thing about it is that it also shows you when you're doing something right. Budd uses a series of "Bumper stickers" as a way to remind you of some key things about the aircraft. For example, one bumper sticker says " The airplane will continue to do what you tell it to do until you tell it to do something else." May not seem like anything that important on the ground, but when you're in the air, it becomes very obvious why that's important.
A few hours pass, and many amazing stories are told, all of which are vitally important to teaching you the foundations of flying this airplane, as well as working out a lot of the bad habits that most GA pilots posses. He goes into great detail on how to use the rudders, and how important it is to learn to "FEEL YOUR BUTT!" Ill go into this later, as it kept me awake last night.
After Ground school we all headed out to Scottsdale Airport. After a few twists and turns, we arrived at the terminal and headed to the hanger. Budd has his routine down to a science. He's a master of efficiency. I guess when you've been doing the same thing for so long there's not really any other way to do it.
Once the doors were open, I got my first real look at Budd's Pitts S2A. It's all red with black stripes, and gold pin stripes. A nice looking bird to say the least. After a few personal questions about my height, and a few jokes, and 3-4 cushions later, I was in the front hole of the Pitts. It's called a hole because it's not much more than that. The seat is tiny and the hole you climb in is just wider that your shoulders. You really have to be careful getting in as there just isn't much room in any direction. I got the Hooker harness figured out and was strapped into this little machine. At this point, I was smiling ear to ear, having a pretty good idea of what I was about to be doing. Not to say that I wasn't a bit overwhelmed too, but I figure if so many other people out there were able to learn how to master this machine, then I should be able to too. It's this thoughts like this that kept me from getting too overloaded and stressed out about my training.
Budd climbed in the back and got the bird started. He then let me take the controls and begin taxing between the hangars on my way out to runway 21. When driving a car, the hangars seem very far apart.. But, when in the Pitts, and the fact that you can't see over the nose, and have to make a series of S turns to see what's in front of you, the space between the hangers quickly becomes very narrow. We got out onto Taxiway Alpha and my closterphobic feeling went away. But I had a lot of trouble taxing this silly little airplane down the taxiway I kept holding the rudder in too long causing the plane to swing from one side to the other and get very close to those darn little taxi lights. Bud grabbed the controls and said.. Here.. Do it like this… . And of course his movements were nothing short of controled and precise. Almost as if he's been doing this for 5000 hours. So.. Back to me and my 3 hours of total time in the Pitts, and you can see why I'm all over the place.
We got lined up on the runway and were ready to go. Stick back, count, 1, 2, 3, push stick forward… hold that right rudder in, keep it straight,..and soon enough we were up. We climbed out at 90kts. Lot's of right rudder… well right Pressure. This airplane is so sensitive that it just takes more pressure to hold the ball in the middle than it does a heavy foot. We headed north of Scottsdale and he began to show me all the things this airplane does with just the power, and ailerons. For example.. When you take your hands off the controls and give it full power the plane pitches up, and the nose swings to the left. When you pull the power off, the nose dives, and swings to the right. You can turn the airplane by doing either one of these two actions. All of which you need to bee keenly aware of anytime you change a power setting. Something that will come back to haunt you if you don't pay attention to it. By haunt, I mean you'll hear the words FEEL YOUR BUTT in your headset.
We then did a series of coordinated turns to further get the feel of the plane. Primary goal to keep the ball from sliding all over the place. VERY HARD to do… I can see this alone taking a few more hours to master. He had me learn to feel my butt by closing my eyes while he flew the airplane around with the stick and made me use the rudders to keep my CG centered. No more pressure on one cheek than the other.
We came back to the airport, and did a few touch and goes, or "low approaches" We must have done about 6-10.. To be honest, I lost count, and didn't care, I just wanted to get better at it. This is by far one of the most mentally and physically challenging thing I've done. We did a debrief, and with that, the first day was done. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
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