Advanced Spin Training with Rich Stowell

The need for training

The weekend of April 17-18 2010, I finally did it. Went ahead to get some advanced spin training, so that I could practice all the aerobatic maneuvers with confidence. Especially when you are learning to do new maneuvers, there’s always a chance that they end up in an “interesting” position. For instance an overly aggressive push and roll input to fix a hammerhead (stall turn for those used to Brit terminology) at the top of the vertical climb puts the controls in a classic accelerated flat inverted spin entry position. (Full power, low speed, full rudder, forward stick and opposite aileron). I had done inverted spins in the Christen Eagle but that was from power at idle, with known yaw direction and known recovery rudder. I was not a 100% sure that I would recognize an inverted spin and do the correct recovery when confronted with an unexpected spin.

The choice of school/instructor

I had a few choices in the US where I could do this training. I thought I could go to Debbie Rihn-Harvey’s school near Houston and do it in their Pitts S-2B. Since my sister lived there, this was an attractive option. I could visit with sis, stay for free and borrow her beater car to go to and fro from the airport (leaving more money for the flying!). Debbie had a great reputation and was a National Champion and their website advertised training of this kind. However, their Pitts had been in for repair and was not available for over 3 months.

The other option was Rich Stowell in Santa Paula, CA. Rochelle, a member of the group that co-owned the Christen Eagle, was a student of Rich’s and had done a lot of her flying with CP Aviation. Rich works out of CP Aviation which is the FBO at SZP (Santa Paula airport). Rochelle had been recommending working with Rich or Judy Phelps as instructors for this sort of thing. After not getting a satisfactory reply from calls to Harvey Aviation I decided that it worth the additional investment in a hotel room and car rental to just go there.

It helped that Rich was nationally known as a really good instructor. He specializes in upset, spin and aerobatic training and has been known to do it at least since 1988. (There is a “Flying Magazine” article on a CP Aviation wall featuring him from that date). He has written at least two books (Emergency Maneuver Training & Light Airplane Spin,Stall/Spin Awareness) about spinning and upset training. He has a bunch of videos about flying aerobatic maneuvers and gives an accessible yet scholarly treatment to the subject.

Rich has seminars that he instructs in all over the country but every time he has been up in the Pacific Northwest I haven’t been able to attend. So I got a weekend slot with him and headed to Santa Paula. I flew into LAX on a Friday, rented a car and was at the quaint Santa Paula Inn B &B in a couple of hours.

Arrival and preparation

SZP airport is real interesting. It is walking distance from downtown Santa Paula, and is a hub of activity. People can come and watch airplanes and the overall feel is much more relaxed than the fenced off areas that most airports have become. I think this is more secure than fences, since everyone seemed to know each other and care about "their" airport.

I showed up at 8:30 am for a 9 am appointment at CP Aviation. CP stands for "Clay Phelps", who is the owner/A&P/IA of the school. According to the historic photographs I perused, Clay's father Robert Phelps operated a flying school at Santa Paula for the US Army Air Force in WWII. Clay's wife Judy is an aerobatic instructor of note.

Rich arrived at 9 am, and looks exactly like his pictures. I was his only student for the day, which was nice since I got to hang out with him all day.

We went to the back room to brief the flying for the day. In an e-mail exchange with Rich, I had asked for training in spins especially recognizing and recovering from inadvertent spins while doing aerobatics. I told Rich that I wanted to do regular, accelerated, inverted, flat spins so that I had seen them all and could recognize them and do something other than freeze or flail on the controls when I got into one. Regular spins are entered with the power off and at low speeds, but in aerobatics one can enter them with full power and at higher speeds. This can cause a high rate of rotation and since they can be entered inadvertently rather than deliberately can cause a high rate of rotation inside the pilot's brain - leaving him dazed and confused!

Rich had asked me to plan for 3 flights on Saturday (9am-11am, 12 - 2pm, 2pm -4pm). I had a late flight back home on Sunday - so we had the whole day to do further flights if we needed to. I also had in mind some coaching for competition figures from Rich.

I had asked to fly CP Aviation's Pitts S-2B. The Eagle is very pitch sensitive with two persons on board, and is easily loaded beyond it's aft CG, especially with my weight in the rear seat. The Pitts S-2B is similar to the Eagle in flying qualities but has a larger engine with more horsepower. It has a six cylinder 260 hp Lycoming IO-540 versus the 200 hp Lycoming IO-360 of the Eagle. This allows it to carry more weight and gives it a wider CG envelope.

Rich asked me what I wanted to get accomplished and I told him I needed to get comfortable with being in unusual situations - which included spins of all kinds so I would not be so tentative in flying maneuvers that took me to the edge of control especially if they were botched. I told him I was doing hammerheads early because I did not want to fall into an inverted spin. I had done both upright and inverted spins - but these were deliberate spins that I had set up. Recovering from them did not give me confidence that I would recover from spins which could go flat, be inverted when I was expecting them to be upright and vice versa. I had reasoned that if I saw enough spins of different kinds I would be able to (a) recover correctly from them and (b) practice them solo in the Eagle to keep current.

Rich's briefing wasn't very long, or at least it didn't seem that long to me! His experience showed in that what I thought was a short briefing prepared me very well. He has a metal model that I have seen in many of his videos that illustrated aileron, elevator and rudder positions in various maneuvers. This was great training aid, since it allowed one to visualize what control positions corresponded to control inputs in entering and exiting maneuvers. It also showed how my mental model of what happens inverted was a little incorrect!

We agreed that we would do three flights that day (Saturday) and would keep the schedule open on the next day (Sunday) to see if we needed a couple of more flights.

The Pitts S2B

I then started preparing for the flight and Rich went ahead to prepare the Pitts S2B for me, including the parachute. I hopped into the rear seat. The Pitts has no floor, so getting in and out is harder than in the Eagle. One has to put one foot on the seat, slide the feet on the rails taking care not to land on the lexan floor and lower ones butt to the seat. In the meantime, the canopy has to be held so that it is not carried away by the wind! The Eagle canopy is solid, whereas the Pitts canopy is very delicate. In the Eagle the engine can be started with the canopy open. Rich said that so many people were losing S2B canopies (which can cost $6000 a pop) that insurance companies do not cover canopy loss on S2B anymore! Even the canopy lock is just a pair of plastic slots into which the canopy is pushed till it clicks, as opposed to the solid lock and pin of the Eagle!

Overall I was surprised by how rough and sparse the S2B cockpit was. I assumed that since the S2B is factory built and was certified under the aerobatic category, it would be more refined than the experimental category Christen Eagle. Wrong assumption! For instance, the prop control on the S2B is a metal lever that has to be teased back when it is at the right angle using the metal tab attached to the lever. Hard to get precise RPM control with that! The trim tab is a plastic lever that points to the floor!

The Christen Eagle seems much more of a factory built than the S2B and it was built around the same time as the factory built S2A. It is surprising that the S2B wasn't built using the Christen Eagle's cockpit arrangement since by the time it was in production Frank Christensen owned both the Christen and Pitts factories.

Jumping ahead, how was the Pitts S2B compared to the Eagle to fly? Pretty much the same performance wise with two people on board and the higher temperatures at Santa Paula as compared to the Eagle with just me on board and in the cooler temperatures in Seattle. The feel of the Pitts was more "solid" and the Eagle seemed like a lighter aircraft overall. The control forces were smaller in the Eagle all round, though in the heat of the moment they didn't seem that much more in the S2B! Budd Davisson's article on the Eagle has a comparison with the Pitts and I pretty much agree with everything I said. Though for overall comfort I would choose the Eagle any day.

Hurry up and wait!

Rich completed the briefing and strapped in in the front. However after start up I couldn't hear him on the intercom. We thought it might be my headset, but even after swapping headsets he couldn't hear me on the intercom. Having a fully functioning intercom so that I could hear Rich's instructions while I was in an inverted flat spin was kind of important! So we had to shut down and see what could be done about it. Rich called the owner - I took the opportunity to have lunch while waiting. Having planned the extra day immediately started looking like a very good idea. Rich wanted to make sure I could fly the Pitts but was also thinking that the Decathlon would be a back up if things didn't work out. My attitude was that things like this happen in aviation and are instrumental in building character!

The first sortie & SOP at SZP

After a couple of hours, Clay Phelps was able to wire the intercom so that it worked. He is an A &P and found that the problem was that the ground of the intercom plug was not connected. An external ground wire to the headset plug did the trick and we were ready to fly.

Santa Paula is a different kind of airport as I have alluded to before. One unique thing is that aircraft are identified by type and color rather than by call sign. So we were the "blue and yellow Pitts" rather than "Pitts Eight Zero Alpha Sierra". The traffic pattern is at 850 feet and has specific landmarks it is flown by. Close by on the east side is a pretty big mountain and all patterns are flown on the mountain side of the airport.

The aerobatic area is north of the airport between the cities of Santa Paula and Filmore, with the highway between the two conveniently bisecting the area into West and East practice areas.

Rich had me do the takeoff and get used to the Pitts handling, asking me to do a couple of Dutch rolls. Once in the aerobatic area we did some upright spins to the left and the right. Rich has a very calm, unhurried way of instructing. He used my name before asking me to do something - which did get my attention. Things were happening fast, but his instructions always seemed timely but unhurried!

We then went into aggravated spins - putting out spin aileron & forward stick before rudder during the spin. The two things that I took away from the spins was

1. Wiggle my toes (so that I was sensitive to the rudder)
2. The spin stops when I could point the aircraft's nose to a point and make it go towards it (no yaw)

We practiced PARE & Begg's recoveries. PARE is an abbreviation for "Power (off), Ailerons (neutral), Rudder (opposite yaw), Elevator (towards neutral)" and is something that Rich has popularized (and trademarked). Begg's recoveries are named for Gene Begg's whose book "Spins in the Pitts Special" specified how a Pitts recovers from any type of spin by letting go of the controls, power off and yaw (rudder) opposite to the spin yaw direction. The way one judges what opposite yaw is to "catch up with the world with your rudder" , subject to the world being viewed by sighting over the cowling between the wings of the Pitts (in an inverted spin if the world is not being viewed over the cowling the direction of turn will be judged incorrectly). The Beggs recovery works just as well for the Eagle.

Flat spins for the first time

Now it was time for flat spins. These were entered like a regular upright spin but as the first turn was completed the power was brought smoothly up at least half way. That caused the world to spin around way faster! I did the PARE recovery first. Normally with power off and opposite rudder the Eagle/Pitts is already coming out of a spin, and it takes about a quarter turn to recover. Doing competition spins you have to work hard so that the spin doesn't stop before the required points. Not so in a flat spin. In a flat spin it took about a full turn to recover. Rich's dictum of the aircraft being out of a spin only when going towards a point on the ground is invaluable here so that one doesn't remove anti-spin inputs prematurely.

The Beggs recovery was pretty much the same, though I was surprised by the" rising out of the seat" feeling which made me instinctively grab the stick as the airplane pitched down to recover itself from the spin after anti-spin yaw was applied. I also found out how hard it is to just let go of everything, and understand better now why people have grabbed on to the controls and never let go! Practicing this with Rich has definitely made it much more likely that I will use this recovery method with fouling it up. We did flats spins to the left and the right before moving on to the "piece de resistance" - post stall gyrations and hammerspins!

Hammerspins

One of the maneuvers that was in the IAC Sportsman class category competition that was not in Primary category competition was the hammerhead or stall turn. I was a little wary of this maneuver since it was a low speed maneuver in which the rudder was the primary control input. There was always the danger of falling into a spin or leaving it late and falling into a tailslide. This lack of confidence had me doing the yaw turn way too early and tentatively. I had mentioned this to Rich and serendipitously he had just finished filming a video about hammerspins for the new IAC "In the Loop" newsletter. In fact the mount for the video camera was still on Eight Zero Alpha Sierra.

The video Rich shot is below, and is well worth a look see.

Rich had me do the first maneuver to demonstrate that the airplane is actually trying to do the right thing, and that it doesn't just fall into a flat spin but gives ample warning even under extreme conditions. He had me set up the hammerhead and at the top give full left rudder, full right aileron and then full back stick. I had to hold these control inputs till the aircraft entered a recognizable left flat spin. He had warned me that there would be three warnings or post-stall gyrations before a flat spin would happen.

I did the entry just as is shown in the video, and the aircraft did 3 yee-ha maneuvers pitching over, pitching level, pitching over, pitching level, pitching over and entering a flat spin. I had the controls in the really unnatural pro-spin direction all the time. Then I recovered from the spin using PARE. It actually isn't as violent feeling as it looks and was a smooth maneuver.

We then did the maneuver and recovered from the flat spin using the Beggs recovery.

It was now time to head back for the landing. Since I had never landed a Pitts before, Rich wanted me to have enough spare capacity to land the airplane. The runway at SZP is only about 2500 ft long and it has houses close to the fence under the approach end of 22 where we were landing. The S2B stalls around 80 mph, whereas the Eagle stalls at 60 mph, so we maintained 100 mph all the way around, reducing to 90 mph over the fence. It lands much like the Eagle, and is equally blind!

Sortie two

After a brief debrief (heh heh) and some coffee we launched for our second sortie of the day. This time we concentrated on competition maneuvers - Rich had me do left and right competition spins so that I could internalize what controls to put in when and in what order. He also coached me on my hammerheads - making sure I understood what truly vertical was and the sequence of controls on the turn around at the top of the hammerhead. One other maneuver we practiced was getting into a the aggravated hammerspin and recovering way before it turned into a flat spin using the Beggs method. This increased my confidence in doing the hammerhead turn thousandfold. Another landing followed, and I was done for the day.

Day two: Introduction to the Decathlon, Inverted spins and inverted turns

When I arrived on day two I expected to fly the Pitts again. But found that there was a more serious problem with the intercom system. Scott, the owner of the Pitts on leaseback to CP Aviation, had the Pitts intercom out and showed me where there were burn marks on the circuit board. This was going to take more time that I had to fix.

Rich in the meantime had brought out CP Aviation's Bellanca 8KCAB Decathlon N5035N or "blue and white Decathlon" in SZP vernacular. 5035N has a 150 hp engine and fixed pitch prop. I was happy to fly the Decathlon just to see how I would do doing aerobatics in an aircraft without quite the power, feel and control authority of the Eagle/Pitts. I have flown Citabrias quite a bit, so the cockpit and controls were familiar. The visibility out the front was certainly a lot better than the Eagle/Pitts!

Rich started me out flying dutch rolls and aileron rolls so that I could get a feel for the aircraft. The Decathlon has a symmetric wing, so it doesn't need quite the nose up attitude that is needed when inverted in a Citabria. It was still quite a bit more than the Eagle/Pitts. Control forces were certainly heavier!

Then Rich had me go through being comfortable inverted in the Decathlon. He had me try some turns this way. The mantra being

1. push the rudder in the direction you want to go and
2. lift a wing by stick into the side you want to lift (the opposite of when one is upright).

We then did some 60 degree steep turns inverted. I had to put in lots more forward stick to turn (since elevator makes the airplane turn once banked, and one needed forward stick to get the turn going). In the Decathlon that much forward stick means that the stick disappears under the panel! That was kind of awkward. It was also weird to feel like one was on the outside of the turn being thrown out rather than on the inside of the turn being pulled in while upright.

It was then on to inverted spins entered from inverted flight (we seemed to spend more time inverted than upright in this sortie!) with brisk rudder application and forward stick for entry. In the Decathlon, the Beggs recovery does not work. In fact the stick can go hard forward and stay there! There is 10-15 lb force required to pull it back towards neutral for recovery. We did both left and right inverted spins and recoveries. Now it was time to land, and I had to be reminded that the sight picture would be lower than my Eagle or the Pitts because the Decathlon does not have quite the same sink rate as those types!

What did I get out of this?

On the whole this was a very educational and fun 3 sorties. I am very confident that if I fall into a spin of any kind I will be able to do the right things to recover. As far as I am concerned the most important teaching that I got from Rich was "forget about the drama going on outside the airplane, just do the process and you will be fine". I also realized that I should get recurrent training like because as someone on the Acro group said "Hitting a maneuver like the hammer perfectly every time doesn't really expand the repertoire, but poking the Pitts /Eagle with a sharp stick (under expert guidance) really teaches a lot!"

More Eagle landings

I hadn't flown the Eagle for a couple of weeks now. And the Eagle isn't the kind of aircraft you fly once in a while. Both from the fun aspect and the challenge aspect of flying it!

As I had recounted in my previous report - I had been behind the aircraft the last time. I was determined to focus on flying and relaxing this time. So I left work a little earlier than normal for the flight, so that I would arrive with a ten minutes or so to clear my mind of all the everyday detritus and to visualize how I was going to fly.

As I drove up on I-40 , I saw Rochelle flying the Eagle for an entry into the pattern for 33 landing. I could only see her for part of the downwind - but the Eagle looked great. For some reason it looked bigger than the Cessnas in the pattern. I think the paint scheme does something to make it stand out. I took this as a good omen!

Dave and Rochelle were in the hangar by the time I arrived. I told Dave I was not going to fly for 10 minutes but I would call the fuel truck. I walked down to the edge of the row of hangars and back, clearing my mind and focusing on the flight. By the time I walked back I was ready to go.

Just seeing the Eagle and its' cockpit gets me excited about flying it. I used the checklist the I had copied as a backup to my checks - making sure I didn't miss the g-meter and altimeter setting this time.

In the meantime Adam Tibbits had arrived. Adam is the newbie in the group, taking the baton from me. This fills up the last slot left in our group. Adam now works for Bombardier, but he used to be a Cirrus demo pilot and CFI before. He has way more hours than I do, including some in a Skybolt he used to be a partner in.

I managed to not miss any items in the checklist this time. I did have some trouble with the ratchet mechanism but was able to fix it without having Dave lean over or get back out of the seat. Since Rochelle had flown the aircraft right before, we used a hot start procedure. In this the mixture is left at idle cut-off, and as the engine is started, the throttle is pumped. As soon as it catches, the mixture is pushed in to full rich. I managed to do this ok.

We had a long taxi to runaway 33 at Renton, this gave me a chance to get the feel of the aircraft again. On takeoff I was able to keep it heading in the correct direction without the swing and was able to liftoff nicely. We took it out of the pattern to do some manuevers.

Dave showed me a real neat way of moving the Eagles nose in an continuous S-turn while flying, which gave us greater visibility and ability to see other aircraft around us. This turn is a slow sweeping of the nose from straight ahead to 30-40 degrees either side. This allowed one to move to an area that had been already cleared and clear an area to the other side to where the nose is moving.

We came back into the pattern pretty quickly and I handled the radios this time. I was flying much more positively and this showed in my flying. I entered the 45 for 33 at the white water tower at the correct height, and flew the pattern at a consistent speed. The landing was pretty good. I am also now in the habit of pulling the stick all the way back to keep the Eagle firmly planted. My rudder inputs are getting much finer than before and I was able to keep the Eagle pretty much on the centerline.

We did 4 more landings - and they were all decent except for one which I'll talk about below. I was aggressively keeping height but having some difficulty find the right amount of throttle and attitude to fly the downwind in. This effected the speed flown and the altitude a little bit.

On the second to last landing I landed a little fast and pulled back on the stick too rapidly. The aircraft went in a very nose high attitude and gained air beneath its wings. Dave was suprised by my action and took some time to react. But I had done the right thing by then, I gave it full throttle and took off again. Adam, who was watching, later said that it was beautiful to watch - it seemed to him the aircraft just briefly touched the ground lightly, rebounded and took off again.

I was able to overtake a Cessna that was out in front because of this go-around. There were a lot of spam cans around, and I had to slow down and weave to keep them in sight.

On the next and last landing I promised Dave I would do a good one. This one was good, I landed nicely had the stick back and slowed down to a full stop without Dave having to get on the controls at all.

Its always a blast flying the Eagle.

Flying the Eagle again

I had planned to fly the Eagle this past Tuesday but the weather forecast was not conducive to me learning much. The winds at Renton are usually mild and one has to fly wide and far to find significant crosswinds sometimes. But not on Tuesday - clouds and ceilings were OK, but the winds were not. Renton is aligned pretty much North-South and the runs are 15-33 (variation is about 20 degrees in Pacific Northwest so 16-34 magnetic is the true north-south line). The winds were 070 at 11 kts, gusting to 16 kts! Pretty much a direct crosswind. Of course we called the flight off. Dave said with his characteristic understatement," You won't learn much (in these conditions)!"

So we rescheduled for Sunday. Both Rochelle and John were flying 16EE that day, because they are preparing to take the aircraft for aerobatic training camp to Ephrata. Another reason to squeeze a flight in, because if I didn't do it today I wouldn't be able to fly till May 5th.

I arrived to see Dave and John already there. I took a photograph with my phone camera. No, I didn't forget my Canon SureShot this time but Amy had the memory card out to transfer pictures!

That shows Dave and John making sure the Eagle is in fine fettle!

I was "behind the aircraft" this time. I made small mistakes like not taking the key before buckling in, and before that in the pre-flight I missed the altimeter and the g-meter. I also didn't check the fuel first, instead doing it just during the pre-flight. We already had fuel so there wasn't much of delay, but if we didn't we could have stood around waiting for the fuel truck to arrive.

I had some difficulty starting too, having to do two tries. Dave was letting me make mistakes and was not prompting me very much.

Taxiing wasn't bad - I was getting the feel for the "flat spot" at around 1000-1100 rpm that all IO-360s have due to a throttle linkage issue (according to Dave). If you blip the throttle too fast it will sputter at that RPM. It so happens that to get around turns or move from a stationary position you need exactly that RPM. Slow throttle movement around that point cures it but it takes some getting used to.

The first takeoff wasn't bad directionally, but I must have misread the speed because I thumped the tailwheel on the rotate. I also didn't keep situational awareness and turned towards the preceding traffic without sighting it. Dave wasn't too happy about that. We went towards Lake Sammamish, and I was asking Dave how high I should go. His reply was," How high do you think you should go?". We went to 3000 ft and were soon heading to the traffic pattern. The first landing was a straight in - and I didn't slow the aircraft down enough. I was behind the airplane again, and landed "hot". I usually know I did that because the mains touch down before I have had the stick fully back. We did a couple of bounces but I was able to pull the stick back fully and smooth them out. Directional control wasn't too bad though I could feel Dave's input through the rudder pedals. We taxiied back to the runaway and went again.

At takeoff this time I got caught by the crosswind and the airplane veered to the left just as we rotated, but I was able to bring it back and then bank to keep runway direction. Dave commented - "Looks like the crosswind got you, but you corrected it". Of course as soon as he said that I shot through the traffic pattern altitude. Dave, being from the old Air Force school of thought, is very strict about sticking altitudes. I had to guesstimate the attitude to fly, because the aircraft doesn't have a rate of climb indicator to show when it wasn't climbing or descending. I was also guessing at the power setting. This time we had to follow a Bonanza on a long final. I turned in behind the Bonanza and made a straight in approach. My speed control was not the greatest but I made it over the fence at the right speed - this landing was also with some bounce but not as bad as before.

I decided to ask Dave to do the entire next traffic pattern to see how he handled the aircraft. I kept an eye on the speeds and the power settings he used. He was much more close in and used steeper banks around the pattern. He bounced the next landing too! The thing one I saw him do was not put the stick back fully immediately but wait for the aircraft to slow before he brought it back. He mentioned that he had landed hot and waited to bring the stick back so that it didn't balloon the aircraft. More about this later!

The next pattern was undisturbed, and I kept it close in. I was more a less on speed and this was the best landing I did so far. I did bounce a little, but put the stick right back at the right rate. I managed to avoid the swerves. Dave later told me I had done the landing all by myself without any help from him!

We decided to do one more. This time we were told to do a short approach by the tower. Dave said he could feel me get stiff on the rudder, because I was concerned about the other aircraft on final. The speed control was awry, I flared a little too fast and ballooned. I did the correct action for the balloon and let it settle again. When it did, we bounced and we were still fast. I pulled back on the stick bringing it to the back stop but did it too fast. Because of the excess energy, the aircraft got airborne again. After a couple of bounces it settled down. There was also some swerving involved.

We decided to call it quits after that landing!

The lessons I learned from this session were

1. Get your head in the game, this aircraft requires one's full attention since the workload goes sky high immediately. I now intend to arrive 10-15 minutes early, and just think about the flight. I will also be better prepared with speeds, power settings and check lists. I got 16EE's check list to copy and study today.

2. The aircraft is a pretty forgiving aircraft, it isn't the squirrelly beast of legend. I did some basic mistakes while landing and the aircraft didn't turn around and bite.

3. Basic airmanship wins. Keep your speeds and heights, don't get sloppy and the results are very good. I need to keep my focus on doing that.

4. I was getting better at the pressures required on the rudder. Practice does help.

5. Relax and have fun - when I get stiff on the controls, it doesn't turn out well!

Circuits and Bumps in the Eagle

Yesterday (Wednesday 16th April), I drove to Renton airport after work. Dave was already at the aircraft hangar. He had replaced the fuel drains and done some other work with the airplane. I am reading Alan Cassidy's book "Better Aerobatics" which is supposed to be THE seminal book on flying aerobatics. He stated that one should be grateful to find small snags because this is a chance to fix them before they become big ones! Dave certainly follows that philosophy. That means the Eagle will always be in top shape.

This time I did the pre-flight unaided. It is simple really. We do have a checklist, but I think I was encouraged to memorize the checks and use the checklist as a guide for study and for backup.

One thing I messed up was on the ratchet belt. I didn't do the "two handed spring loaded catch hold" to lengthen the belt. The consequence was that I had to strap in, then get back out and do it under Dave's supervision. Here is a picture of the mechanism taken with my cellphone camera.

This time the start was easy - we had forgotten to have the mixture full in when operating the wobble pump to get a fuel flow indication last time. Another thing I learned was that when the engine is cold, the mixture can be full rich for the start. This is different from every other fuel injected engine I've started (including other IO-360s such as on the Cessna 172 SP and the IO-320 on the Citabria 7KCAB). There the standard procedure was to keep the mixture at idle cut-off and push it in quickly when the engine catches.

Dave said that we would go out to the practice area, do some turns to get the feel again the aircraft and then would head back to Renton for some landings. This seemed like a fine plan for me.

Taxiing was the usual S-turns. I was doing too much of the "S-ing" and Dave told me to "lazy out" the S-turns. More about this later.

The first takeoff wasn't too bad. I realized I could lift off at a much lower speed than I am used to in other aircraft. Rotate speed for a Cessna 182 is around 55 kts, whereas stall speed is 44 kts. The stall speed for the Eagle is 60 kts and one can start the rotate at that speed. With its' light weight and lots of power it is accelerating and gets to climb speed even when rotated at around its stall speed.

I was a little stiff on the controls and wasn't letting the aircraft fly itself. On Dave's prompting I released my death grip on the controls and started flying with a light touch. My turns and coordination became so much better! One reason for the grip on the controls was that I had climbed so quickly I almost busted into class B on the extended upwind (its at 3000 ft).

After steep turns, slow flight and a stall we headed back to Renton. This thing can book. At 24 square it was doing 165 kts easily.

The story on the landings was quite consistent. Doing the downwind at 120 kts, base at 100 and final at 90 kts (slowing to 85 kts over the threshold) mades my approaches look good to Dave. The round out and flare were at the right height. Somehow I had good height judgement without the forward view I am used to. I wasn't turning my head like Dave but I was looking from side to side to do that.

What I was also consistently doing was overcontrolling on the rudder. I needed to just think about the rudder. So even after a nice landing I was swerving all over the place. Dave asked me to slow down on my S-turns on taxiing so that I used the kinds of pressures I would use on the rollout. This would fix the forces in my mind and I wouldn't have the tendency to overcontrol. I need to develop some fast twitch muscles on my legs so that I can have fine motor control to the level desired!

Another thing I needed to correct was to get the stick back all the way. I was hitting the buckle of my seat belt with my wrist due to the way I was holding the stick, I had to do a "grip change" and have my wrist rotated to get the stick the last 2-3 inches back.

On takeoffs I was not putting the "stick all the way forward against the tach" like Dave wanted. I need to get a feel for the tail lifting and how to balance the rearward movement of the stick till the liftoff can begin.

On the last landing the sink rate was high and I didn't have the stick all the way back, so instead of landing slightly tail low as before I landed on the mains. I compounded the error by not having the stick fully back after touchdown. We did a nice couple of porpoises! Stick fully back cured it.

All in all a pretty exhilarating ride. I felt for the first time that in a pinch I could land the aircraft without major damage to it if I needed. Of course I need a lot more refinement before I am able to handle the landings with even normal finesse!

First "PIC" flight in the Christen Eagle N16EE

Today was my first flight from the back seat of a Christen Eagle. This Christen Eagle (N16EE) was built by a bunch of Boeing engineers in 1981 (in about 18 months time). It has always been a group owned aircraft and I was lucky enough to get a share in the group.

The aircraft is hangared in Renton and is in pristine shape. The wings were recovered last year and in general the aircraft is looked after rather well. The group consists of about 10 people of which only 4-5 are active. One of the more active members is Rochelle Oslick, who is an instructor at BEFA (Boeing Employee Flying Association). BEFA is my club as well - and it was nice to have Rochelle guide me through the process of looking at the aircraft and introducing me to the group. Rochelle and John Smutny compete in aerobatic competition in the aircraft. John is the racketball partner of my BEFA Citabria instructor, Will Allen. Will must have said something good about me - because my acceptance in the group was relatively easy, even though I didn't have the requisite 500 hrs for insurance. (The insurance company just required me to do 10 hours of instruction in the airplane, which I would need anyway!).

I first flew the Eagle (from the front seat) with Dave Womeldorff who is the check pilot for the group. This was a familiarization flight to see if I had the "right stuff" to be a member of the group. Dave is one of the original builders of the Eagle and wasn't going to allow just anyone to fly his baby!

I guess I was having too much fun to feel nervous, because Dave seemed to think I was alright as a pilot. That flight was a blast - Dave did two 4 G loops, a roll and a half cuban eight. He allowed me to do some steep turns, a loop, slow flight and stalls. Wow! This airplane was way easier to do aerobatics in than a Citabria. No need to dive to get speed, coordinate stick and rudder to make sure rolls don't dish out. Everything happens so slowly in a Citabria - you have to know what you're doing to do good aerobatics!

We flew in the evening at about 5 pm. Today was one of those rare spring days in the Seattle/Puget Sound area. High cumulus clouds (over 5000 ft) scattered all over the place and we caught some actual sun.

Dave explained the pre-flight as I followed him around. The pre-flight started in the cockpit, looking to make sure the belts were not fouling the controls. Then we turned the master switch on to see if the battery worked. The second step was to make sure the fuel selector was "ON". We looked at the fuel under the panel, where there is a clear fuel line which is calibrated. You can read off the gallons and subract 3 from the total (since the airplane is tilted from the horizontal on its' tailwheel). We looked at the general condition of the wings, looked at the aileron interconnects (the Eagle has 4 ailerons - 2 on each wing). The metal interconnects have a string attached lengthwise so that the airflow cannot cause a resonant vibration and cause flutter.

Then we got out the "calibrated fuel quantity measurement device" which is wooden stick with markings on it. It was put into the fuel tank just behind the engine. The tank holds 16 gallons and we had about 14 gallons. The aircrafts 200 hp IO-360 takes " a gallon every 6 minutes" which is 10 gallons per hour. I found that the aircraft is operated at full power most of the time especially with two up. An hour's flight is all she writes - especially as some of the fuel is unusable.

We looked at the "javelins" which are the posts midway between the flying wires which connect the top and bottom wing. Dave said that the original metal ones were replaced with wood, since the metal would fatigue due to the vibrations. If the javelins fall off the flying wires vibrate crazily and scare the living daylights out of the pilot.

We looked at the usual stuff like the props, fairings, struts and the tail. One thing that you do with the Eagle is twang the flying and landing wires to make sure they make a "thunk" sound. And of course the trim tabs and the tailwheel need to be looked at.

Now I had to make sure that I had the belts laid out in the proper formation so that I would be able to put them on comfortably once I was ensconced in the cockpit with a parachute. This is a five point harness with a ratchet for tightening and a lap belt. The idea is to get your butt in tight in the seat, so that the shoulder belts are relatively loose and don't hurt your back when you are inverted.

Getting into the cockpit is a procedure! One needs to hold on to the purpose built hand hold on the top wing, put your foot on the walk strip on the wing and swing your leg over to stand on the seat. I have size twelve shoes and I had to get special auto racing shoes that are narrow to make sure my feet fit on top of the rudder without fouling cables. Otherwise the cockpit is very roomy, I had a cushion to sit on - and even so my "top knot" cleared the canopy. With it I am about 6 ft 3 inches.

Starting is interesting - the sequence for a normal start is
1. Crack the throttle wide open, mixture at idle cut-off, prop full forward
2. Operate the manual wobble pump till a fuel flow is seen.
3. Close the throttle and open it a squoosh (a "squoosh" is a precise aviation metric).
4. Start the engine using the key - which you shouldn't have forgotten to bring. Otherwise you unhook and do it all over again!
5. Push in the mixture as soon as the engine catches

It took me two tries to start - which isn't bad!

Canopy latching is important, one needs to be careful not hold the canopy from the strut but there is a strong cross member on which to hang on.

Taxiing is a hoot! You can't see much, the aircraft is really low to ground and you feel the wing will touch the tarmac with every dip. Dave's advice is good - keep moving only towards the area you have cleared. A Zenith 701 came by while we were waiting for clearance to cross - I couldn't see him where I was stationary, and had to turn the aircraft to see him. It could hurt you if you didn't clear the path actively. I couldn't find the taxiway on the other side of the runway because I couldn't see it! I had to be prompted by Dave.

Run-up is pretty standard. The best part is that check list in on the back of the cockpit divider. 1700 rpm, mags and prop and we were ready for take off.

Takeoff was in control for me till I raised the tail. I over-controlled on the rudder - it is very sensitive and Dave had to "help" to get us straight. Takeoff distance was short and the climbout at about 100 kt is steep. The noise is quite loud - I had difficulty hearing tower and Dave. The other thing is that the intercom button is below the sill and I had to take my hand of the throttle to talk to Dave and he had to do the same in the front cockpit.

I was at 2000 ft before I knew it and we headed to the Lake Sammamish area. Dave introduced me to the power setting procedure. He asked me to use the mixture control to set a fuel flow which was eventually 10 gph and then go to 24" on the manifold pressure and 2400 rpm on the prop (24 square). The prop control is low near the left hand cockput floor but it is a big knob and I soon got comfortable using it. We were doing about a 160 kts at that setting.

I got to get the picture from the back seat which has much better than from the front. I did some turns include steep 360s to each side. This airplane made it look too easy - it was all I could do not to scare Dave by screaming "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" throughout the flight!

I next tried some power off stalls and then Dave selected a road on the ground to act as a simulated runaway. 100 on downwind, 90 on base and 85 (knots) on final were the speeds with a 1000 ft floor. He demonstrated one, then I did one that was too tightly in. I loved the go around, the feeling of power and control is so much more than any of the other aircraft I have been flying. The next one was much better so we went back into the pattern at Renton. We came in straight in and I thought I had it all under control. But I flared a little high, touched down with the tailwheel first (which isn't too bad) and was ok with the rollout. Towards the end I overcontrolled and Dave had to step in.

We taxied back and did the takeoff again. Same result, swerved because I was putting in Citabria like inputs on the rudder. Ironically BEFA's Citabria was in front of us and we had to do a non-standard pattern to follow it and a Cessna 172 doing a 747 circuit. This time I flared too high, knew it - but ran out of ideas on what to do with it. We landed with a bump and Dave took over from there.

We taxied back. I think I was satisfied with the first day flying it and feel confident I can handle it with some more practice. I had the same notion as Dave about what I had to change - and he was very encouraging. Of course he encouraged me to relax too!

Folks - it was B-L-A-S-T!