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1. 11:13 PM - How to have fun - - not in a Pulsar (Brian Anderson)
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| Subject: | How to have fun - - not in a Pulsar |
A local Aero Club member spent a deal of time and effort arranging for a renowned US flight instructor, Rich Stowell, to come to New Zealand to present some seminars and to provide one-on-one instruction in an aeroplane of your choice. See his website at http://www.richstowell.com/
I attended a seminar session last evening, and this morning flew with Rich in a
C-152 Aerobat.
It's about 10 years since I last flew a 152, so I had prepared for today by doing
a few hours in the plane to get reasonably current again. It's amazing how
much better the plane can fly when the pilot gets some practice.
The flight this morning was FUN. Rich is by far the best instructor I have ever
flown with. We did a few preliminary manoeuvers , Dutch rolls looking only at
the wing tip, stalls, power on stalls, again just looking at the wingtip. Amazingly,
the visual clues are actually better while looking at the wingtip. Looking
out over the nose all you see is blue sky. Departure stalls, stalls while
sideslipping. Interesting again, in some situations the plane would not stall,
it just bobbled up and down while going around in a circle. During some of these
manoeuvers the exercise involved taking hands off everything and just recovering
with proper use of the rudder.
Then the fun part. Some spins. It's one thing to have someone tell you what a spin
is like. It's another to initiate it, watch what happens, and then recover.
We aligned on a road. During the spin the field of view is very narrow, but
I did actually see the road go by, and it was easy to recognise the 1/2 and full
turn locations with the plane parallel to the road. I have no idea what the
instruments were doing during the spins, but actually it doesn't matter. It seems
quite natural to kick in the correct rudder to initiate the recovery, and
there was virtually no "g" sensation, so it was not more than 2g max.
Then some practice recovering from unusual attitudes and spiral dives, and a simulated
engine failure to finish [with Rich holding the throttle to ensure that
there was no cheating].
I was surprised how quickly the time went and it really was FUN.
Now, just to reassure everyone - - - I am NOT going to do a spin in the Pulsar
- - - ever. Having flown these exercises though I feel much more competent and
comfortable about what the plane is telling you when in an unusual attitude,
and what to do about it.
Brian
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