---------------------------------------------------------- Pulsar-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Thu 03/17/11: 1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 11:13 PM - How to have fun - - not in a Pulsar (Brian Anderson) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 11:13:13 PM PST US From: Brian Anderson Subject: Pulsar-List: 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Matronics Email List Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post A New Message pulsar-list@matronics.com UN/SUBSCRIBE http://www.matronics.com/subscription List FAQ http://www.matronics.com/FAQ/Pulsar-List.htm Web Forum Interface To Lists http://forums.matronics.com Matronics List Wiki http://wiki.matronics.com Full Archive Search Engine http://www.matronics.com/search 7-Day List Browse http://www.matronics.com/browse/pulsar-list Browse Digests http://www.matronics.com/digest/pulsar-list Browse Other Lists http://www.matronics.com/browse Live Online Chat! http://www.matronics.com/chat Archive Downloading http://www.matronics.com/archives Photo Share http://www.matronics.com/photoshare Other Email Lists http://www.matronics.com/emaillists Contributions http://www.matronics.com/contribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.