- Joined
- Oct 14, 2013
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Well, 88TF has been in the hangar for one week, and I still can't fly her. We are waiting for the greater Dallas Fort Worth area to thaw out so I can go back to Aerocountry and finish my S-2 checkout. That will please the insurance company and I can get into the air.
In the meantime, I read Better Aerobatics by Alan Cassidy. What a great book. Very easy to understand and he does a wonderful job of breaking down each maneuver in terms that will easily translate into the cockpit.
Initially I figured hey, how hard can this be? I have 30 years of military single seat jet fighter and trainer experience, well over 500 spins in the T-37 and lots of basic aerobatics in Citabrias and Cubs. I fully expected to finish my S-2 checkout - complete with basic acro, the full complement of spins and lots of landings - and then jump into the S-1 and pick up right where I left off. Heck, I horsed the S-2 through loops, hammerheads and spins with little trouble (it really does spin like the Cub).
Ha...maybe...not...so...fast...
I am confident that I will be able to take off, put the S-1S through the basics and get back on the ground without hurting myself or the airplane. I will likely manage to get through that first flight without an inadvertent spin. The last month reading this forum, watching the videos, and reading Cassidy, however, has been pretty humbling. It has become obvious to "the best pilot I know" that “he” has so much more to learn about flying a Pitts and flying it well.
I taught my USAF students to fly precisely. We would manage airspeed, power, energy, G and lift vector to the Nth degree to gain an advantage over our adversary. But that is much different than flying accurately. The subtle coordination of hands and feet required to keep the lines straight and the circles round is an aspect of flying that I have not yet explored. Up until now it has been get the turning room, pull lead, and squeeze the trigger. Then it did not matter how it looked. Now it does. The fundamentals are the same - manage your lift vector and your energy - but the desired results are much, much different.
So now there is a new plan. I am going to take Cassidy’s book and start at the beginning. The goal is to master all the basic exercises and primary maneuvers: stalls, spins, rolls, steep turns, 45 lines, loops, clovers, half rolls on the 45 and Cubans. I want to learn these the Pitts way, not the way I have flown them for the last three decades. I want these to be so second nature that the when it comes time to worry about such things as box orientation, entry and exit altitudes, energy management and incorporating more advanced maneuvers that the execution of the basics becomes an ally and not a hindrance.
Owning a true aerobatic airplane has been a dream for 40 years. As that dream comes to fruition, I realize that my perception of what is required to explore and exploit all the capabilities of the S-1S is a mere fraction of reality. There is so much to learn. There is so much to fly.
There is no schedule or deadline other than to fly as often as possible. The maneuvers and their conquest will come in their own time. I do not have a burning desire to compete. The quest is to master the airplane, not other pilots. I don’t want to be better than you. I only want to be better than me. Now begin the first steps of an indescribable journey.
In search of perfect lines and symmetry,
Bruce
In the meantime, I read Better Aerobatics by Alan Cassidy. What a great book. Very easy to understand and he does a wonderful job of breaking down each maneuver in terms that will easily translate into the cockpit.
Initially I figured hey, how hard can this be? I have 30 years of military single seat jet fighter and trainer experience, well over 500 spins in the T-37 and lots of basic aerobatics in Citabrias and Cubs. I fully expected to finish my S-2 checkout - complete with basic acro, the full complement of spins and lots of landings - and then jump into the S-1 and pick up right where I left off. Heck, I horsed the S-2 through loops, hammerheads and spins with little trouble (it really does spin like the Cub).
Ha...maybe...not...so...fast...
I am confident that I will be able to take off, put the S-1S through the basics and get back on the ground without hurting myself or the airplane. I will likely manage to get through that first flight without an inadvertent spin. The last month reading this forum, watching the videos, and reading Cassidy, however, has been pretty humbling. It has become obvious to "the best pilot I know" that “he” has so much more to learn about flying a Pitts and flying it well.
I taught my USAF students to fly precisely. We would manage airspeed, power, energy, G and lift vector to the Nth degree to gain an advantage over our adversary. But that is much different than flying accurately. The subtle coordination of hands and feet required to keep the lines straight and the circles round is an aspect of flying that I have not yet explored. Up until now it has been get the turning room, pull lead, and squeeze the trigger. Then it did not matter how it looked. Now it does. The fundamentals are the same - manage your lift vector and your energy - but the desired results are much, much different.
So now there is a new plan. I am going to take Cassidy’s book and start at the beginning. The goal is to master all the basic exercises and primary maneuvers: stalls, spins, rolls, steep turns, 45 lines, loops, clovers, half rolls on the 45 and Cubans. I want to learn these the Pitts way, not the way I have flown them for the last three decades. I want these to be so second nature that the when it comes time to worry about such things as box orientation, entry and exit altitudes, energy management and incorporating more advanced maneuvers that the execution of the basics becomes an ally and not a hindrance.
Owning a true aerobatic airplane has been a dream for 40 years. As that dream comes to fruition, I realize that my perception of what is required to explore and exploit all the capabilities of the S-1S is a mere fraction of reality. There is so much to learn. There is so much to fly.
There is no schedule or deadline other than to fly as often as possible. The maneuvers and their conquest will come in their own time. I do not have a burning desire to compete. The quest is to master the airplane, not other pilots. I don’t want to be better than you. I only want to be better than me. Now begin the first steps of an indescribable journey.
In search of perfect lines and symmetry,
Bruce
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