It's been a while since I've written in this blog. My flying time has been pretty limited as of late, but the desire to own my own Pitts, and fly more continues to increase. I've been looking to purchase a Pitts S-2B. At one point there were tons on the market, now it seems the market has dried up. However, there is one that is local to Austin that looks like it might be a good option. If all goes well I should be flipping around the sky in a month or so!Now, on to the latest adventure!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
At the recommendation of Budd Davisson I booked an hour of spin training with Sonny Weller. To give you an idea of Sonny's vast aviation experience, he started flying a Piper Cub in 1956, and has owned more than a dozen aircraft, including the beautiful yellow and blue Pitts S-2C. Sonny has flown everything from gliders to multiengine airplanes. He started flying air-shows in 1999. He’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and one heck of a guy to fly with!
0530, my alarm goes off. I wouldn’t say I jumped out of bed, but I certainly was excited to start the day. After a quick shower, and a short stop at Starbucks, I was on my way to Deer Valley
Airport. Sonny and I had scheduled one hour of spin training in his S-2C. I don’t think I have ever met Sonny before, but upon meeting him for the first time, I couldn’t help but think he looked familiar. We hopped in his truck and headed down to the hangar. I updated him on my flight experience and mentioned that Budd had spent a little over 18 hours with me making sure I knew how to feel my butt! That was enough for Sonny! I think just the saying that I was trained by Budd was enough for Sonny to feel confident I knew what I was doing! I strapped on the S-2C and after a quick brief on the canopy, radios, and instruments, we were taxing to the runway.Sonny’s S-2C is an amazing airplane. It has a little over 600 hours on it, but it feels like a brand new airplane. It taxied with the greatest of ease. After receiving clearance for takeoff, I taxied onto the runway and began to power up. Stick back, throttle coming up, and we were rolling. I couldn’t believe how quickly that C picked up speed. It was night and day compared to Budd’s S-2A. I raised the tail up and within a few seconds we were in the air. Just a minute or so later, we were at 3000 feet. Simply amazing! We headed to the west, and climbed to 4000 feet AGL.
Once in the practice area, Sonny had me do a power off stall, followed by a power on stall. Both of these maneuvers were pretty uneventful. The C handled like a dream! Next up, a 1 turn spin to the left. At 4000 feet, I pulled the power back to idle, held the nose up to bleed off speed and waited for the stall. Sonny had given me the acronym PARE to remember before our training began. PARE stands for POWER AILERONS RUDDER ELEVATOR. Here comes the stall… wait,.. now KICK! Full left Rudder, stick full aft, and here we go. The plane pivoted around to the left, and now I’m looking at the earth below starting to spin. Here comes ½ spin,. Now ¾ spin.. and… full right rudder to stop the spin, elevator to natural, and wait… airspeed coming up,.. now PULL!!!! Back to level flight, power coming up, airspeed good, engine instruments reading in the green, start climb back to 4000 feet. No problem. Now it’s time to do a 1 turn spin to the Right. Exactly the same procedure, as the left, only kick with the right foot. I found out that I am much more precise stopping a spin to the left. When doing the spin to the right, I over rotated about a ½ spin. I can clearly see that I’m going to need a lot more practice…We continued doing some simple spins, including two turn spins, accelerated spins, and even a flat spin. The flat spin was very interesting. It felt like I was pinned to the right side of the canopy every time we pushed the throttle forward. It was a very different sensation for sure.
Now for the really interesting stuff, inverted spins! By this time, I’m usually feeling a little sick from all this spinning. However, I felt great! I didn’t feel sick at all! I was so excited and soaking in as much info as I possibly could. Trying to memorize the experience so that if and or when I ever get into something like this, I’ll know what to do to get out of it. Ok.. back to the inverted spin. To enter an inverted spin, the technique is the same as a normal upright spin, except that you’re inverted upon the entry. So.. I rolled the plane upside down,… left aileron, a little left rudder, followed by right rudder, followed by a little forward pressure on the stick and we’re upside down. Well you’d think it was that easy.. In fact, I push way to hard on the stick which forced both Sonny and I up towards the canopy. My shoulder belts were not nearly tight enough I found out as my head was smashed up against the canopy. Not hard,.. but I felt it for sure! Ok.. now we’re upside down, hanging in our belts.. I felt the blood rushing to my head as I pulled the power back to idle and waited for the stall.. Here’s the stall.. and KICK. After the entry, it was pretty uneventful. The plane’s nose dropped through the horizon, and we started a nice 1 turn spin to the left. No biggie at all! I recovered and started a climb. We did one more inverted spin. This time I rolled to inverted with just the right amount of forward stick and avoided smashing my head into the canopy!
Now for a crossover spin. A crossover spin is when you start a normal spin, or inverted spin and then crossover to the opposite type of spin. For example, an upright spin that ends up into an inverted spin. This was very confusing the first time. It’s very hard to see what is happening, but you can certainly feel that something just happened. We entered the spin the same way.. stall, full kick and away we go. I held full aft stick, and left rudder in the first turn of the spin,.. followed my full forward stick to get the airplane to push forward into inverted. Once the crossover happens, you have to jump on the right rudder to continue the spin as now you’re going in the other direction. I can see I’m going to need some more exposure to this, as I don’t think I fully was able to comprehend what was happening. However, I was able to stop the spin, and come out of it without any problems.. I just want to be more comfortable with what’s going on.
That was pretty much it as far as the spin training goes. I think the most amazing thing was that I didn’t feel sick at all. I think it might be due to all the exercising I’ve been doing lately. I’m in a lot better shape now than I was even 4 months ago, and I think it really helps with G. tolerance.
With the training out of the way, now it’s on to the fun stuff! ACRO! Sonny said “Let’s do a loop!” Ok.. here we go. Dive for 165, set level flight,.. pull,…. Look left,.. check the sighting guide, and then head back, looking back over the earth,.. ease the pressure off the stick… float over the top,.. now PULL…. PULL… and back to level flight! “Not bad!” Sonny says! By this time I have a smile plastered on my face! Amazing! I cannot even begin to describe how incredible this plane is to fly! “Now let’s do a hammerhead!” Ok.. no problem.. here we go! 165, check… now pull ¼ loop to the vertical.. looking left at the sighting guide.. oops.. looks like I’m not quite vertical… a little more pull … there it is! Ooops….left wing low.. tad right rudder to bring it up… nice! Ok.. still going up… Wow, I cannot believe the upline on this plane! It felt like we were going to go into orbit. Well not really, but we did go up for some time! Speed is gone.. KICK LEFT! I pushed the left rudder all the way to the stop,.. added right aileron to keep the plane from torque-ing over onto it’s back and to keep it in the same plane. Looking out the left wing, I picked a point on the horizon and then watched as the nose of the plane swung through it on its way down. Now, looking straight down at the earth, I realized I held the left rudder way too long as the plane swung past vertical and yawed to the left. I had to step on the right rudder to straighten it out. Speeding towards the earth, I could hear the wind start to pick up as airspeed increased. I then pulled ¼ loop back to level flight. “Good job John!” I heard Sonny say! Considering I haven’t done any real aerobatics in over a year, I think I did pretty good! I was very happy! After another hammerhead, we did another loop, a slow roll, and a ½ Cuban eight! What a way to spend a Sunday morning! In my opinion, it’s as close to heaven as you can get!
Heading back to the airport, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad that the flight was over, but was overjoyed to have had the experience. I was excited about landing though, and was eager to see how well I’d do. The last time I flew a Pitts was back in March so I was anxious to see how much I remembered and whether or not I would still have the skills to land and keep this thing on the runway! Sonny talked me through the approach which helped out considerably. As we crossed the numbers, I was a little low so I added just a touch of power and then quickly pulled it out. Waited for the speed to bleed a little and then started the flare. Touchdown! All three wheels hit at the same time.. with a tiny tiny bounce, we were on the ground.. Having been used to Budd’s Pitts, I was over correcting with the rudders a bit. Sonny’s C requires a lot less effort to correct it’s movement. I calmed down my movements and we were tracking right down the center line. I applied brakes and slowed us to a crawl then exited the active. WOW. It all came back! Thanks to Budd’s superior training, and Sonny talking me through it, I made a pretty fair landing in a plane an amazing airplane!
I taxied back to the hangar with a huge smile and an undying desire to do this more often! I cannot wait to get a Pitts of my very own where I can share this experience with my family and close friends! There is nothing quite like watching the earth spin around below you, having complete and total freedom to go where you want when you want to! What an incredible day! Hopefully the next installment will be about my first flight in my new Pitts!
