…and quite possibly very boring.)
At Mooney252’s request from this thread.
The company I used to work for conducted aerobatic and scenic joy flights in various aircraft including a Pitts Special, a couple of Tiger Moths, a T6 and a P51. The bulk of our work was in the Pitts and the Tiger, and those are the two that I flew.
At one stage our Pitts was out of the air for a while and we decided to continue doing aerobatic rides using the Tiger Moths. We didn’t normally use the Tigers for this, they were strictly for scenic flights, but the owners of the aircraft didn’t mind, and they’re certainly certified for it.
It occurred to me that I’d never done so much as a loop in a Tiger Moth and perhaps I’d better go and do some practice before subjecting any passengers to my efforts.
So, out comes the Tiger, I dutifully stow any loose items, and straps etc in the front cockpit, chock the wheels (no brakes), turn the fuel on, set the throttle, open the cowl, start jiggling a little button on the carb to get it flooded, close the cowl, make sure the mags are off, wind the prop through by hand 4 times, switch the mags on, check again that the throttle is set, and start swinging on the prop (no starter motor). Generally by about the 3rd or 4th swing, it would burst into life. Such was the method for starting that Tiger Moth.
Some people with other Tigers have different methods and if you ever have to start one for someone you need to do it just how they want:
“How do you normally start this thing?”
“Ok, after priming, you open the throttle, mags off, turn the prop backwards 12 times, forwards 10, then back another 2, go have a cup of tea to let the fuel settle, come back turn it forwards twice, then backwards once, set the throttle, mags on, swing the prop and if it doesn’t start by the 6th turn repeat the above procedure but double the numbers and make a coffee instead.”
“Righto, maybe you should do it the first time eh, I’ll go make the cup of tea.”
Anyway, so now I had the Tiger going, I threw on a sheepskin jacket closed the throttle, stowed the chocks and jumped in.
Not long after, I’m up at 4000’. I try a loop. Nose down, throttle back to avoid redlining the engine, 120Mph, pull back, full power, look back for the horizon, going over the top ease up on the stick, throttle back on the way down. No worries. I try a barrel roll, no worries there either. Cuban eight, could be better but good enough. Getting into it now, loop, wingover, roll, wingover, half cuban eight, stall turn.
All well and good except the stall turn wasn’t very graceful. It seemed to try and roll wings level going over the top. I tried another, that went ok. Tried another one, same problem wings rolling level over the top, this time we go a little weightless because we’re pitching down as well and the engine gives a little cough. It picks up though, no drama.
I should say at this point, that it is normal to have to hold opposite aileron during a stall turn because the outside wing is going faster and tends to want to roll you over on to your back. This was the opposite. I was having to hold aileron in the same direction as rudder to stop it from rolling upright.
Well, I try a few more stall turns and seem to be able to do them ok now. So I figure I’ve had enough, and I’ll do some aerobatics over the runway down to circuit height and then land. I start at around 3000’ intending to come down to 1000’.
Away we go, dive for speed, 120mph, Loop, cuban eight (wa-hey this is fun!), wing over, roll, wing over, loop, down to 1500’, 120mph pulling back to the vertical for a stall turn, looking left to check the vertical, speed back to 50, full left rudder, uh oh wings are rolling level, can’t correct, nose pitching down and we get slightly negative, engine coughs, engine dies, prop stops completely.
“Fuck!” said I.
“whhhhhhooooooo” said the wind.
" " said the engine
The prop just stood and stared.
Well I’m getting down to 1000’ I don’t know how fast I need to go to get the prop windmilling and I don’t want to use up all my height trying to do that when I’ve got a perfectly good runway below me, so a dead stick landing seems to be the best option.
I kept a nice close downwind and a curving base. Made sure I was always fairly high. Occasionally the prop would turn through a compression but mostly it just sat their obstructing my view. Worse than useless once it’s stopped turning.
From a high final I bled of the excess height with a sideslip and with a little help from some adrenalin and my naturally heightened senses I did one of my nicest landings ever.
It was apparent that I still hadn’t quite mastered the stall turns, so I jumped out, chocked the wheels swung the prop, jumped back in, and headed up for some more practice. Turns out I was doing the stall turns the wrong way. The Tiger’s engine turns the opposite way from the Pitts and doing a stall turn to the left, the torque was working against the manoeuvre. Once I tried a few to the right I never had the same problem again.
Thus ends a post with probably more writing in it than my past 380 combined.
Anyone else with some hairy aviation stories?
Well Paul was in heaven for about 60 seconds when the left engine surged once and then totally lost power. With a fast glance at me to see if he should give control back to me, I said, “Just don’t forget to fly the airplane.” Now that was his clue that it was up to him and before he could look around, the right engine gave it up without whimper. It was very quiet relatively speaking.