1st Aerobatic Flight -- I want a Super Decathalon!

As some of you may recall, several months ago I dreamily posted the idea of
rolling my Pathfinder.

I never really intended to try it, but I did wonder if it was even possible
to achieve without ripping off the wings. Many of you assured me that it
would probably roll just fine, but that the techniques necessary to pull it
off were not ones I'd be likely to perform successfully on my first attempt.
(And there probably wouldn't be a second attempt...)

Some of you thought I was in imminent danger of actually rolling the plane,
and begged me to come to my senses.

And then there was Dave Russell. Dave and Lisa Russell own a Super
Decathlon, hangaring it in the Kalamazoo, MI area. Dave works as a
volunteer at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, and is heavily into aerobatics. He read
my post, and did the only sensible thing imaginable -- he offered to someday
take me for an aerobatics ride while paying a visit to the hotel.

Well, today was the day.

Dave and Lisa arrived at the airport around 5 PM, and I drove them back to
our Blackbird Suite, their lodging choice for the evening. The plan was for
Dave to take Mary and me for aerobatic flights after we got off work at 6
PM -- before dinner, natch.

To say I was stoked would be an understatement. I've been "flying"
aerobatic simulators for over 15 years now, and have always dreamed about
doing it "for real" -- and here was my chance! Mary, too, was really
excited -- she's always been the roller coaster fanatic in the family -- so
we were both at a high level of preparedness as we headed for the airport.
Best of all, the air was cool and smooth, with almost no wind -- a perfect
evening for ANY kind of flying.

We flipped a coin and Mary went first, while Lisa, my kids and I sipped a
cold one at our hangar. Unfortunately our hangar looks northeast, and they
flew off to the southwest -- so we never got to see what they were going.
(This may have been a good thing? :-) But Mary came back 30 minutes later
all grins, so I knew it must've been intense!

When it was my turn Dave helped me wrestle my way into the parachute --
necessary for all aerobatic flights. Once he had me cinched into the
harness, he explained to me how I would know it was time to bail out (I
should watch him, and if HE jumped, I should, too), and I marveled at the
tightness of the cockpit and the five-point harness. In fact, I'm not sure I
could've climbed into the seat without specific "put-your-feet-here"
instructions from Dave. It soon became obvious that the odds of my actually
escaping the confines of that back cockpit in an emergency were near zero,
but I wasn't about to let that little detail deter me!

The Super Decathlon has a 180 horse, fuel-injected Lycoming in a rag and
tube airplane -- needless to say, acceleration is sprightly, to say the
least. Soon we were climbing out at a healthy rate, and Dave let me have
the stick....

With no instruments visible from the back seat, it was truly "seat of the
pants" flying. My first few turns were fairly coordinated, as I tried to
remember that rudder pedals were used for something other than ground
steering, and the plane felt very nice -- tight, and responsive. My sense
of speed was way off, though, as I told Dave that it felt like we were doing
about 100 knots, while in fact we were doing just 78 mph!

Once we climbed to 4000 feet, Dave took the controls and explained the
procedure for doing a proper aileron roll: "Push forward to gain some
airspeed. Pull back till your feet are on the horizon. Neutralize the
stick and slap it all the way over to the left. As you go around, be
prepared to give it a little forward stick, although this shouldn't be too
necessary if you started from a nose-high attitude. Swing it all the way
around, and level out." He then performed one, while I followed his
motions with my hand on the stick.

I let out a whoop after that first roll -- what a rush! It seemed to be
over almost before I knew what was going on, but that was probably a good
thing, too. Dave then let me do it, and it just felt like the most natural
thing in the world to do. What a trip to see nothing but sky, then the
horizon spinning crazily around a point, and then the sky again!

Next we tried a hesitation roll, where we held the plane inverted for a
5-count, and then continued the roll on around. Again, Dave did one, with
me following (I found my feet floating off the rudder pedals and my
headphones pressed against the ceiling, so I cinched my harness down a bit
tighter), and again I was allowed to do it myself. Wow, now THAT was an
even cooler rush, as we flew along upside down for a few seconds. I
actually let the nose fall down a bit while inverted, so I pushed the stick
forward to raise the nose, and pulled 2 negative Gs -- whoa! I thought my
head was going to explode, but, man, I was really having a ball!

Then we did a couple of wing-overs (great fun!), followed by a half Cuban 8,
where we pulled straight up and over the top, and then rolled out level. On
my attempt I pulled 4 Gs on the pull up, and I'm here to tell you that
weighing 800 pounds is really something! But it was just soooo cool...

Too soon we were heading back to the airport, and my aerobatics lesson was
over -- but I'll certainly never forget it. To be able to do all the things
in flight that I've dreamed about since I was a kid was simply awesome -- it
was a whole different kind of flying than anything I've ever done -- thanks
a million, Dave!

If you've never tried it, get your buttinski out to the airport, and hunt
down an aerobatics instructor. You won't regret it.

Anyone want to partner with me on a Decathlon? :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"