I’ve enjoyed reading Broomstick’s “Airport Stories threads”. With her permission, and giving credit to her for starting the trend, I thought I might do some of the same.
I’m an instructor and spend most of my time in Cherokees. The flight school where I work is trying to think of ways to drum up more business, and aerobatics may be where we go. There’s nowhere else around here to get acro training. So now we have to decide what kind of plane to get. I had suggested a Super Decathlon, but the boss is leaning toward an Extra on the logic that it’s just more fun. No argument here.
So today we had a guy bring over an Extra 300 for us to test fly. In a word - WOW.
I’ve dabbled in acro. I’ve flown Decathlons, Yaks, and T-34’s, which are OK, but lack power and the ability to get really fancy. And I’ve flown some older fighter jets - lots of power, but complicated, expensive to operate, and touchy about what kinds of maneuvers they can be put through. Getting into the Extra today was a new experience entirely. Here’s a plane that’s easy to fly, has lots of power, and you can do… anything. Anything at all. Don’t worry about overstressing it (it can take 10 g’s!), don’t get caught up in complicated procedures. Just go fly and do whatever comes to mind.
So up I go, and man can this thing climb! I quickly learn that a little throttle goes a long way. The instructor gave me a few minutes to feel it out, and I found the controls light as a feather. Just think about doing something and the plane does it. After this the instructor turned me loose to do some acro.
I began some rolls, starting cautiously. After I did two slow ones, the instuctor told me, “On the next one, just give it a full throw of the aileron and hold it.” This resulted in an eye-watering roll rate - I’m guessing a bit under 360 degrees per second. Then a couple of loops. Then some stalls and spins. This airplane appears to go nearly vertical in a spin, and I was glad of my previous experience. Otherwise I would have been even more disconcerted to see so much ground filling up the windshield.
Then I asked the instructor to demo a few moves of his own. He took the controls and let loose the following series:
4-g pull to vertical with 3 rolls on the way up
Stall at the top and into a 3-turn spin
Rapid pull up back into vertical
Hammerhead turn at the top
3 fast rolls on the downline
Pull up to level, three consecutive maximum deflection rolls
I remember thinking, “So that’s what it’s like to be in an airshow.” Except we were up at 6000’. Imagine doing that right down on the deck… :eek:
That was enough for me since I haven’t done any acro in about three months, so we went back and landed. Each of us who took the ride today came back with the same longing look that said, “I WANT one of those!”
So once again, I shall find myself the student as I gain proficiency in aerobatics. And that’s the great thing about aviation - no matter how good you are and how much experience you have, there’s always something more to learn.