I'm a lucky guy. For my b-day this year, my wife bought me an hour of
introductory acrobatic time at a semi-local FBO (Attitude Aviation,
Livermore, CA). I decided to go up in their Super Decathlon. So,
yesterday, I took the opportunity to experience several "firsts". My first
tail wheel experience, first tandem seating experience, first time flying
anything with a stick vs. yoke, first time flying with a constant speed
prop, first time strapping on a parachute. Basically, my first time flying
anything but a C-172/152 and doing more than a steep turn. Hey, at least it
was still a high wing...I haven't crossed over...yet :-)

Of course I had to fly from my home airport instead of drive. It was a
great morning to fly and enjoy the views of the delta area and the back side
of Mt. Diablo. It had been about a month since I'd flown so felt great
getting back in the air. I even pulled off a decent landing on the short
runway at LVK. First time I'd been to LVK despite having flown over it
several times.

I had a chance to get acquainted with the Decathlon for about 20 minutes
before my instructor returned from his previous lesson. I looked over the
POH, sat in the plane (without making airplane noises) and kept thinking
"wow, this different...really different". Peter, my instructor showed up
and we got started with some more aircraft orientation, pre-flight
procedures, parachute familiarization, bail out procedure, etc. Now there's
something to think about. If I hear the words "BAIL OUT BAIL OUT BAIL OUT",
I need to remove my headset, release the 5-point seatbelt harness assembly,
pull the door release pin, then fall out of the airplane head-first...then,
of course, find the release handle on the parachute (evidently, it can come
out of it's velcro-pocket and be hiding underneath and behind your left
arm...fortunately, I'm learning this with both feet firmly planted on ground
instead of while free-falling). It all sounds simple enough but I can
imagine how difficult it must be in the panic of a live bail out scenario,
especially if you're spinning or somehow being tossed about in the airplane.

Ok, so after we get our parachutes on, it's time to climb in the airplane.
And I thought it was difficult without the parachute. I get to start up and
taxi out. For those students who are being challenged to keep a tricycle
gear plane on the yellow line, that's absolutely nothing compared to taxiing
in a tail wheel plane. Much more of a challenge. Fortunately, it's about
100 yards to the run up area.

My instructor handles the takeoff which is interesting since your view of
the world changes dramatically when the tail wheel comes off the ground.
Once we're about 200 ft. AGL, he gives me the airplane and I manage an
uncoordinated right crosswind departure. Man, it's tough keeping the ball
in the cage. Oh, ya, another first, seeing a turn coordinator for regular
and inverted flight. As we climb out toward Mt. Diablo, I get to run
through some S-turns and basic coordination drills. After 5 minutes or so,
I start to figure out that it takes lots of rudder to keep things
coordinated.

Once we're at 7000 MSL in the practice area, we line up on a ridge below us
and it's time for loops. My instructor demonstrates the first one. Lower
the nose, I read off airspeed and when we hit 130, hard pull up (and I learn
what 4 Gs feels like for the first time), float over the top (look left and
right, verify wings are level...but, wait a minute, everything is upside
down :-) ), look up through the top window, pickup up the ridge line on the
ground, and recover. Very cool. Way better than any roller coaster I've
been on. Now, it's my turn. While I manage to keep the wings level, I
didn't pull up hard enough (hit just under 3 Gs on the pull up) and we were
a bit slow over the top...but hey, I did my first loop. I do a couple more
and manage to get better with each one.

Next up, aileron rolls. Pitch up 30 degrees, neutralize the stick, full
deflection (to the left in this case), wings level, neutralize ailerons,
recover from approx. 30 degrees nose down pitch attitude. Sounds simple
enough, now it's my turn. I pick a point on the horizon, imagine a vertical
line up through it, pitch up, think I neutralize the stick (I didn't, had
some back pressure), full left deflection, and the nose traces a big circle
around my point on the horizon. I get to try a few more and when I really
neutralize the stick prior to full left deflection, I manage pretty decent
rolls. It's very cool to see the world spin around in front of you.

Next up, my personal favorite for this ride...spins. This is the one thing
I most wanted to experience because, during the PPL training, you get the
head knowledge on how to recover from a spin but are not required to
physically recover from a spin. My instructor demonstrates the first spin.
Slow to 55 MPH, full left rudder and bam, the plane rolls over to the left,
points down and I'm watching the world spin around while pointed at the
ground. After 2.5 revolutions, full right rudder, neutral stick, revolution
stops, neutral rudder (this is the part I'll forget when I get to do them),
slight forward stick, then recover from the dive. Wow, that was *very*
cool. Now it's my turn. I forget to neutralize the stick when we enter the
spin and as a result, we get into an accelerated spin. When I go to
recover, I forget to release full right rudder (fortunately, we didn't start
a spin to the right). By now, I'm thinking this is great experience but it
sure is easy to mess up when recovering from a spin. I do one more and
it's
about the same as my first one except my instructor has to assist in the
recovery a bit more than the first one. Evidently, I like accelerated spins
more than the garden variety :-) By now, my brain is on serious overload
and I'm feeling ever so slightly queasy. Not like I'm going to hurl any
minute or anything but a bit light headed and very slight upset stomach.
I'm thinking it's about time to call it quits...but not after some hammer
heads.

My instructor demonstrates a nice hammerhead. Pitch down, airspeed to 130,
pull up to the vertical, look left and right, full left rudder when the
string on the strut begins to luff, recover after you're pointing straight
down. My turn. I pitched up beyond vertical and it felt more like a loop
that we fell out of at the top than anything else. I can imagine what it
must have looked like from outside the airplane.

By now, the upset stomach and light headed feeling are a little stronger so
I decide to call it a day. We head back to LVK and my instructor handles
the landing. Of course, since I'm up front, I get to taxi back to parking.
And, once again, I'm thinking that taxiing in a tricycle gear plane is a
piece of cake compared to this. I mange to keep it pretty much on the
yellow line though.

We debrief and I learn that many first time acrobatic rides only last .3 or
..4 hours. We managed 1.1. My instructor thanks me for calling it early
once I felt like I did. He tells me that I'd most likely acclimate and that
it's not uncommon to get similar feelings of nausea when you do acrobatics
for the first time.

Overall, this was a great experience. I can see why folks get hooked on
acro. If I lived closer to LVK, I could see myself getting checked out in
some of their planes and doing this on a regular basis. It's a ton of fun
and I'd highly recommend anyone to find an acro instructor and, at a
minimum, go through some spin training. It was a great experience and I'd
do it again in a heartbeat.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)