Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: mechanic on September 25, 2010, 03:57:46 PM
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Been waiting all year since january to book a flight in a pitts at a local aerodrome. Today was the day! Perfect conditions although a little bumpy untill we got to 4k.
The pilot was called bruce and he was a diamond guy. He was quite senior and had retired from flying comercial airliners recently, but very much full of life still. He let me have at least 45 mins on a 30 min ticket. I had flown quite a few light planes before but nothing very aerobatic. This was unbelievable compared to gliders and cesnas or the odd RAF cadet trainer.
Bruce handed over the controls at 1k right after takeoff and told me to climb out to 2.2k and keep this heading. We cleared the restricted airpace by an airport and then continued up to 4k at a steady 100 on the airspeed indicator. The controls were so light and sensitive I kept hitting negative G instantly if I slipped the stick forward at all.
Once we hit 4k we leveled off and, still directed by my pilot, headed over Henly town and found a spot of air to play in over a motorway. Bruce talked me through the speed and angles of a few moves then let me have at it. Dive to 160, then crank it back gently at first then full stick pressure up to the top where I must ease off, making care to keep the wings level. I did a very sloppy loop first, releasing the stick too far on the top and dropping a wing. I tried again and pulled a slightly better loop but still went too flat over the top. Third one was perfect, right on the buffet edge he said. Then I did some slow and fast rolls, amazing how difficult it is to stay steady on the pedals when you throw a little plane about. I was in a daze of pure bliss.
Next we swapped control and Bruce showed me a stall turn. Just like i imagined, straight up, stall point, kick hard left and stick right. He was an excelent pilot. I tried and again it took me a few tries to get a clean one. Next he allowed me to try anything i wanted. So I went for a half cuban, one attempt and nailed it :D
Bruce was very kind and generous about my ameteur flying. But now was time to show me a thing or two. He hammered us round the sky pulling some crazy tight chandells and loops. Then he asked if I wanted to see a 'tumble'. Not being entirely sure what a tumble was I was not going to miss out and said yes please!
He asks me if I'm ready for it, then the next instant we are flying backwards and my legs and arms are bumping all over the canopy. I clearly wasnt ready but I was whooping with joy. I actualy have no idea what the tumble looked like, all i know is the world was a spinning blur and the switchees from neg to pos G were sickening. We lost 2,000ft before Bruce pulled out and started climbing again. Did I like that, he asked. Yes i liked that, very much.
So back at 3k he asked if I wanted to feel a bad spin. Of course I did. And I did feel a bad spin. My god....
Leveled off and heading back for home he handed em the control again and I flying slowly decending back into the restricted low alt zone and he says I can fly anywhere I want on the way back as long as i stay low. I reply that actualy he better fly home, as i think I need a sick bag. Still both of us laughing I honk a little bit of sick into the bag and instantly feel much better.
We check the gauges and the max G we pulled was +4/-3.
One final gem of joy on the way home. A small light aircraft came at us head on at under 1000 yards and passed just low off our right side. We had been talking about how fun a pitts armed with twin vickers would be not 15 mins before. So Bruce gets this mad tone to his voice and says 'We would be on them in half a second' and I replied 'They dont stand a chance'. Bruce then says, 'Let's get 'em'. Smiling from ear to ear I sit int he front seat as he banks round and in persuit of the enemy aircraft. Diving slightly Bruce closes to a range where we can clearly make out the tailwheel. He hold our nose on target for a few moments then banks sharply away and does a victory roll. I couldnt stop laughing and we kept chatting about it on the way home. We crusie back to White Waltham and land. Spent another hour chatting whith him over a hot drink in the bar there. He really made the experience for me, a great character.
Wow, long post! Though I would share for those who might enjoy that sort of thing. Pics to come later tonight, although I only have one of me on the ground just before take off. It was truly the most fun flying I have ever done, this game is so easy from a stationary chair, the stuff we do would splatter our heads against the canopy in real life...
batfink
S!
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Very cool, than you for sharing your experience. I'm sure you won't be forgetting that any time soon. :salute
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:aok
I'm envious.
Sounds like a blast, especially the attack on the bandit. :x I'm sure you would have hit your mark. :cheers:
Thanks for sharing.
:salute
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there's a couple around here in the south jersey area. they almost never fly alone.
i was up with an instuctor. just rolled, and was climbing out from 08. during one of my scans, i see a small fast moving bipe, my 2 low. i call it out, bob recognizes it as a pitts.
now since we only saw the one, he wouldn't answer any radio calls, we got worried, looking for number 2. as it turns out, number 2 was just accelerating down the runway, and went past/under us to catch number 1.
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Sounds awesome, Bat. Just saw a Pitts fly at our airshow this weekend. Always looks like a ride that will leave you grinning. I've never done any aerobatics before, except for a couple rolls earlier today while at the controls of a P-51. ;)
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i hope to do some in a mossie tonight myself too :)
Here's my misses about to fly for the first time in her life, she flew before me. Her first ever flight in any aircraft other than an airliner and she got the pitts! She did really well and flew some good level turns, and took up to 3G. Bruce was very impressed with her and also extended her 20 min begginers flight by some time for free.
(http://www.freeroleentertainment.com/IMG_7437.JPG)
Looking very serious, i was scanning for vulchers during the preflight brief.
(http://www.freeroleentertainment.com/IMG_7463.JPG)
The misses lifting off leaving me waiting with the camera and drooling for my turn
(http://www.freeroleentertainment.com/IMG_7452.JPG)
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Awesome :aok
I've been wanting to take my youngest daughter (19) on a ride. She flew on a Commercial for the first time (other than when she was very young), only a year ago.
<S> Oz
P.S. BTW Bat, you look just like a friend I had named Richard, back in 1976 or so. You could pass for his brother,lol
Hey, anyone notice the missing/ pulled through rivets?
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WOW, batty, I picked you for a rather skinny cheerful plucky brit.
Not big square jawed "SERIOUS MAN"
but that would have been one HELL of a ride.
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Congratulations man, that's an awesome looking ride!
Outside view of your tumble.
http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/299768/bi-plane-tumble-flat-spin.html (http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/299768/bi-plane-tumble-flat-spin.html)
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I just noticed all the scratches on the canopy :rolleyes:
I envy the life out of you. Your story made my day... and my dreams.
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Awesome ! :aok
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Sounds like a great day for both of you, congrats. :aok
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Congratulations! The Pitts is an incredibly fun acro plane to fly. It's incredible it's still being built after so many years.
Hope that got you hooked, now on to the serious stuff (Sukhoi, Extra, Edge) ;)
Daniel
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Great story, Bat. Thanks for sharing. :aok
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Brought a smile to my face man! I know you'll always remember that with a warm glow.
I got to fly a T6 Texan a few years ago and had much the same experience, minus the tumble and hard spin. The stick even had a trigger on it. You couldn't have wiped the smile off my face with a ball peen hammer.
Great stuff, thanks for sharing.
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Congratulations man, that's an awesome looking ride!
Outside view of your tumble.
http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/299768/bi-plane-tumble-flat-spin.html (http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/299768/bi-plane-tumble-flat-spin.html)
Similar typ of thing but very different to the one he did on me. He induced the tumble from level flight, there was no climb into the move. Just straight from level flight at 140 speed and flips into the tumble instantly.
He said it was a Lomcovak i think. He mentioned two types of tumble that sounded the same, one was a lomcovak and the other i forget. We did the more advanced move of the two. The plane we were flying is owned by a pilot named Alan Cassidy, if anyone knows of him. Bruce knows him very well.
thanks for checking out the story guys
S!
edit..... hey Cyrano, they had an Extra 300 i think it was, sitting on the tarmac. They said that the insurance is not worth it to take people for joyrides in it anymore :(
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I had a similarly memorable ride in a Pitts too. I was doing the ground school part of a Flight Instructor's course at the airfield. One of the guys on the course is now a very well known aerobatic pilot in Ireland. At lunchtime he went to the hangar and started pulling out a Pitts Special. I jokingly said 'I'll help you if you give me a ride in the Pitts.' A short time later strapped securely into the little biplane. I was wondering at the wisdom of my joke!
The take off was followed by a near vertical climb to the edge of the stall. The rest was much like Mechanic's experience. I knew how to brace for positive G but you can do little for negative G. It was flying unlike any other I had experienced. It felt like you were balanced on a pin. Think loop and you did it. Think roll and you were upside down in a screaming dive. At one point I banged my head on the canopy.
When we got back to the field. He put on a quick low level display for the boys below. I felt pretty woozy and dizzy by then but didn't care. I thought, 'If we go in from this, I'll die happy'.
Afterward I felt a bit sick until I ate my lunch but my head was spinning for hours afterward. I could barely concentrate in class. Plus the next day my shoulder was sore and stayed that way for weeks. But it was worth it.
Recently he flew into the field where I'm based for fuel after an air display and I reminded him of that ride. This time he was in an Extra 300. I didn't ask for a ride this time! As he taxied out he blew smoke in my face and then treated us to quick display.
Brilliant!
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WOW GREAT POST!!
Long??? I hung on your every word. Glad you had that great experience and a good time.
I have a customer in Laporte that is refurbishing a russian jet trainer for shows. As soon as it is finished and checked out we are going up in it. I'm looking forward to the ride.
We have built several items for this machine.
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Thanks for those posts guys, it is so enjoyable to hear similar experiences. Quite a wonderfull thing to experience one's self but also wonderfull to read other's experiences in the same type of situations. I cannot imagine what flying a fighter jet must feel like. Please anyone feel free to share their flights, I love to read about these things.