"John Harper" wrote in message
news:1086589290.295808@sj-nntpcache-3...
So I think I must have flown the Decathlon shortly before or after
you... what time did you fly? I had an interesting experience, that
I'm NOT in a big hurry to repeat. I did a fairly unsatisfactory
Immelman and as I was recovering from the resulting
partial split-S, the stick wouldn't come back. Fortunately I've
been taught to expect the rear stick to get tangled up in things
so I groped around behind me and discovered that the soft
cushion on the rear seat squab had come adrift and was blocking
the stick. Once I dislodged it things worked properly and I
recovered, but I figured that further acro wasn't prudent.

It's interesting because I've got Immelmans to the point where
they're routine. But (following a discussion on this newsgroup)
I started trying to fly loops at exactly 3G and tried that
with Immelmans too. Not cool. You lose too much speed and
just kind of fall awkwardly off the top. (3G *loops* are
really nice, they feel very elegant). Sometimes you start to spin,
other times you just split S, but either way Max wouldn't have
been proud of me.

One of the real defining moments of acro is when you get into
an inadvertent spin and recover without really thinking about it.

Acro is a lot of fun but in addition it really gives you confidence
handling the plane. And the Decathlon is a great plane for it,
it has enough performance to keep you busy but it's very hard
to get yourself into serious trouble.

Glad you had fun!

John

Hi John;

Am I assuming correctly that you had trouble with the rear cushion even
though the rear harness and belt were as tight as they could be
tightened and CONNECTED over the cushion for solo aerobatics?
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
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