Stuck in a rut.

Confession:  I haven’t felt like flying lately.  I know I know I know.  It’s like Santa Claus saying he doesn’t feel like being jolly.  I think I know why but it doesn’t make it any better. 

To start, I’ve been stuck in a rut.  My overall flying is good.  Loops are good.  Rolls are good.  Hammerheads are fine.  My landings SUCK.  I’ve been bouncing them every time I come in.  I get down to the runway and I just cant find it with the wheels.  It’s a horrible feeling and I know exactly why I’m doing it.  I can hear my initial tailwheel instructor, the immortal Paul Santopietro saying it…”you’re not moving your eyes Chris.  You gotta move your eyes.”  Bingo.  I just cant seem to get it done.  I spend the entire flight worried about landing and it sucks the fun right out of it.  Paul should be back up this neck of the woods soon and you better believe I’ve going up for some recurrency training.

Compounding the problem is that the weather here has sucked.  Not sucked in a monsoon way that we had a few weeks ago but sucked enough that given my annoyance in landing, the idea of landing when its gusting 25-30kts just doesn’t appeal to me.  Clouds have been low; turbulence nasty.  It all adds up to me going BAAAAHHHHHHH and not wanting to fly.

I don’t want to spend the time (and time = $$ in aviation) venturing to and from the practice area too.  It is 20 miles between the airport and where I can practice.  That’s 40 miles I have to cover each time I fly just to practice.  That equates to a whole ton of cash being spent that I really don’t want to spend.  I mentioned this a few weeks ago when I was trying to double up my practice sessions. 

The worst part of all of this is that flying is central to my life.  Everything I do revolves around it.  Its my job.  I base all my vacation time around it.  And I don’t feel like it lately?!?!  I haven’t even felt like maintaining my exercise routine (which up til now has been working like a champ).  My motivation has been zapped completely.  I’m looking at the next few weeks and I don’t have a day off until May 8^th.  Ugh.  I need to take the plane out and just have fun.  Get past my hangup on landing and stop being such a wuss.  There I said it.  The flying is the easy part.  The discipline is the bitch. 

As Kendal Simpson told me; “you just gotta go fly, man.  Especially on the days when you don’t feel like it.  Get the plane out and go do it.  I’ll guarantee that you’ll learn something and come back with a smile on your face.”  Amen dude.  I need to tattoo that on my forehead.  

First POV Recorded Flight

I finally bought a camera. After looking at every possible video sample I could I settle on the VholdR Contour HD. I got a sweet deal and am pretty happy so far.

The main competition was the GoPro and the VholdR 1080. The Go Prop roughly the same price as the Contour but I wasn’t all that impressed with the quality video I was seeing online. That and the basic shape of it made it less appealing. I was having a hard time envisioning how I would mount the camera to my headset for POV video. The 1080 is basically a beefed up version of the Contour with a higher resolution and higher pricetag. I’m running a 5 or 6 year old PowerMac which is just about an antique at this point. There is no way it could handle 1080 video and I don’t want to drop $1000 on a new comp…at least not yet.

I picked up the VholdR through REI of all places. They have a big promotion going on right now for members (which I am) that features 20% off any one item. The camera retails for $250. After the 20% discount and my dividends reward money I just got in from REI I ended up spending less than $200 on the camera including shipping. (Keep in mind that any money I spend on anything comes directly out of my flying budget. Cost was a huge factor here.)

The next test was figuring out how to mount the camera to my headset. As you can see in the photo, I used a highly scientific method of applying several rubber bands in strategic locations. That thing wasn’t moving. The last thing I wanted was the camera flying falling off my head in a heavy G pull.

I hit record before engine start and let the camera roll for the duration of the flight. I wasn’t trying for acro brilliance here, just going out and having fun. I had lots of fuel so I limited myself mostly to rolls. It was also a crazy busy day in the air so my head is in constant scan mode. I did try an 8 point ballistic roll at some point and it turned alright for a first attempt. I edited down the hour to a quick little snippet.