I started the day watching the Twin Comanche run up its engines. Three people inside and one open seat headed miles away to Wisconsin for 4 days of bliss. The open seat was mine. I didn’t look at it.
I skipped my favorite trip of the year so I could spend the time practicing for the upcoming contest. I got the green light from my boss to get as much flying in this week as I could provided all my work was taken care off. I hustled all morning so that I could get in the air as soon as possible.
As soon as possible turned out to be 2pm. I had some specific items to take care off with the airplane. I had to see how much altitude I gained at different airspeeds on the 45 degree upline. At 140 mph, pulling 3g’s, leveling off at 75mph, I gained 500 feet. At 145 mpg with the same pull and same exit speed, I was up 600 feet. Every ten miles I increased the entry would add 100 feet. With this I can figure my entry altitude at the contest. If I want the spin to start at 3500 feet, I’ll begin the 45 upline at either 3000 or 2900 feet. Remember, first comes the 45 upline, then straight into a 1 1/2 rotation spin.
The next to do item was find a good “box.” Acro competition all takes place inside what we call a box 3300 feet in each direction including altitude. All the figures are to be flown in the box. Go outside and you are out of bounds and get a deduction of points. I found an almost perfect square made of roads out in Tiverton. This box was slightly smaller but I figured it would be swinging a bat with a weight on it. It wasn’t so much that as much as it was flying inside a box that was too small and had even less room. All in all it went as well as it could for what I’m calling day one. I came away from the flight with some good data.
Flight two was after work. I kept the practice over a pond that was a little larger but still allowed me to have a boundary. The wind was surprisingly strong. I worked my way through the 45 upline, spin, reverse 1/2 cuban, clover, hammer, and wedge. I was slowly moving east as I flew through the sequence. I had Kirby Chambliss in my head. I read something by him where he states that anyone can fly the figures but the champions can work the wind. Amen to that Mr. Chambliss.
I have a few things I need to work on tomorrow. Something happened to my loops. All of a sudden I am not pulling straight through my loops. I’m putting some roll into them and coming out off heading. I need to get this taken care of and quick.
The other one is the immelman. I’ve never been good at them. Don’t know why, the thing has always been my weakest figure in the Decathlon. I haven’t practiced it much because I never HAD to. Now I HAVE to. The immelman is a half loop with a half roll at the top of the half loop. You finish the figure upright and headed in the opposite direction you started from. The tricky part is that when you roll from inverted to upright you are at a very very low airspeed. This makes the roll ever so tricky to pull off well. Acro pilots call it the immelspin because it is so easy to get yourself into an inverted spin in the figure. I’ll climb up high tomorrow and get some practice in before bringing the figure down into the box.
Day one is done. I took advantage of it and feel good about missing the trip. As long as I can keep this up and the weather doesn’t change much I made the right choice. Here’s hoping.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
A Horse of a Different Color
Monday: Weather
Tuesday: Weather
Wednesday: Weather
Thursday: Hosted an FAA Seminar that went til 9:30pm
Friday: Weather
Anyone see a trend here?
My objective for the week was to “kill it.” Instead of me killing it the weather killed almost every chance I had to fly. I am scheduled to fly at Keene, NH tomorrow in Executive Flyer’s Decathlon and I still have not flown the entire sequence from start to finish.
Imagine being in a horse show (Equestrian show? The competitions where you ride around on a horse jumping gates and what not? Yes. Those.) You spend months training with one particular horse. You learn its personality for better or worse. The horse also gets to know you. By the time you get to the competition it is old news. You know you can do the routine because you’ve done it before and you trust the horse.
Granted I’m not flying a horse but 317SD certainly has its own personality. Example: At 120mph it develops a slight rolling tendency to the right. I’m used to it and counter it accordingly. I am also used to having just myself in the airplane. Tomorrow, should the weather hold out I’ll be flying a different airplane with an extra 200 pounds of weight in the rear seat. Same show, new horse. Even though I will be flying a Super Decathlon it will feel different. The rudder pedals will require a different amount of pressure from me. I will not have the same view as I am used to because the seat will be different. There is a universe of subtlety in these machines.
I could focus on all this or I could say screw it and fly. That’s my real attitude at the moment. I know I can fly the sequence. The airplane will tell me everything I need to know to make it sing. The only real x-factor at the moment is the weather. The current forecast shows overcast skies and low visibility.
Tuesday: Weather
Wednesday: Weather
Thursday: Hosted an FAA Seminar that went til 9:30pm
Friday: Weather
Anyone see a trend here?
My objective for the week was to “kill it.” Instead of me killing it the weather killed almost every chance I had to fly. I am scheduled to fly at Keene, NH tomorrow in Executive Flyer’s Decathlon and I still have not flown the entire sequence from start to finish.
Imagine being in a horse show (Equestrian show? The competitions where you ride around on a horse jumping gates and what not? Yes. Those.) You spend months training with one particular horse. You learn its personality for better or worse. The horse also gets to know you. By the time you get to the competition it is old news. You know you can do the routine because you’ve done it before and you trust the horse.
Granted I’m not flying a horse but 317SD certainly has its own personality. Example: At 120mph it develops a slight rolling tendency to the right. I’m used to it and counter it accordingly. I am also used to having just myself in the airplane. Tomorrow, should the weather hold out I’ll be flying a different airplane with an extra 200 pounds of weight in the rear seat. Same show, new horse. Even though I will be flying a Super Decathlon it will feel different. The rudder pedals will require a different amount of pressure from me. I will not have the same view as I am used to because the seat will be different. There is a universe of subtlety in these machines.
I could focus on all this or I could say screw it and fly. That’s my real attitude at the moment. I know I can fly the sequence. The airplane will tell me everything I need to know to make it sing. The only real x-factor at the moment is the weather. The current forecast shows overcast skies and low visibility.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Last Minute Change O' Plans
I bit the bullet. Cooked the ham. Dug the ditch. Whatever other catchy phrase you can think of. I pulled myself out of going to Oshkosh to give myself more practice time. For the next two weeks the goal is simple. Kill it. “It” meaning the sequence; not myself or the airplane and any rogue seagull that may fly into my path. They get up high. 2500 feet? 3000 feet? Sure why not. Jerks.
I’ve been feeling rather guilty about the Osh trip for several weeks. Going out there, despite that being my favorite thing to do each year, would take away a week of practice time. Not just any week, the week right before the Kathy Jaffe in New Jersey. My goal for this year was to compete, not to gawk at Beech Staggerwings and Mustangs though I do love seeing them all lined up in the grass. Competition wins over gawking. I had an opportunity to rectify the situation and I took it. I feel great about my choice though it is not without some remorse.
That’s not all that happened today. The FAA makes the rules in aviation but the insurance companies are really the ones that run the show. If they say “no” you ain’t going. As it turns out, the insurance company said “no” to competitions. I don’t pretend to understand the rationale. I am allowed to fly acro to my heart’s content but bringing the Decathlon to a contest is somehow bad. I guess.
I went into crisis management mode and called Marc Nathanson at Executive Flyers. Marc graciously welcomed me to fly their airplane not only at the Kathy Jaffe Challenge but also this weekend at Keene, NH at a practice session. I’ll have to fly the airplane with a safety pilot on board because I don’t have time to do a normal rental checkout before the contest. This will make the airplane feel heavier than I am used to. Whatever, I’m not complaining. This will be cheaper and maybe even a little easier. It automatically injects me into a group of folks rather than being just me.
Fly tomorrow after work, maybe Friday and then of course Saturday. Game time folks.
I’ve been feeling rather guilty about the Osh trip for several weeks. Going out there, despite that being my favorite thing to do each year, would take away a week of practice time. Not just any week, the week right before the Kathy Jaffe in New Jersey. My goal for this year was to compete, not to gawk at Beech Staggerwings and Mustangs though I do love seeing them all lined up in the grass. Competition wins over gawking. I had an opportunity to rectify the situation and I took it. I feel great about my choice though it is not without some remorse.
That’s not all that happened today. The FAA makes the rules in aviation but the insurance companies are really the ones that run the show. If they say “no” you ain’t going. As it turns out, the insurance company said “no” to competitions. I don’t pretend to understand the rationale. I am allowed to fly acro to my heart’s content but bringing the Decathlon to a contest is somehow bad. I guess.
I went into crisis management mode and called Marc Nathanson at Executive Flyers. Marc graciously welcomed me to fly their airplane not only at the Kathy Jaffe Challenge but also this weekend at Keene, NH at a practice session. I’ll have to fly the airplane with a safety pilot on board because I don’t have time to do a normal rental checkout before the contest. This will make the airplane feel heavier than I am used to. Whatever, I’m not complaining. This will be cheaper and maybe even a little easier. It automatically injects me into a group of folks rather than being just me.
Fly tomorrow after work, maybe Friday and then of course Saturday. Game time folks.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Haze.
90 Degrees. Haze. Humid. This is not the trifecta of awesome one would want when working out this whole acro thing. Which way is up? I have no idea.
Okay it wasn’t THAT bad. To be honest it was a fantastic learning experience. It was a challenge to find the right line and really lock into a pitch attitude (45 degrees nose up straight up, straight down that type o’ thing.) I started stringing the sequence together straight away including positioning in the “box” Competition acro is flown inside a 3000 foot box. Stay inside the box. Do not go outside the box. If you go outside the box you will be incinerated by lasers. Or, get a few points deducted from your score if the lasers miss.
So, where do you place the first figure? How far down the box do you fly? These all change according to what the wind is doing. Flying into the wind slows down your relative speed over the ground. So, consider I’m cruising along at 140mph. With no wind I would be doing 140mph over the ground (yes, I’m leaving out true airspeed considerations for the pilots out there.) With 100 mph of wind coming straight at me, I would only be doing 40mph over the ground. It would take a substantially longer amount of time to fly through the box into the wind. Conversely, if I had 100mph pushing me I would rocket out of the box before I even knew what happened.
That is just flying straight and level. Now consider flying a loop. Flying into the wind all that force is pushing against the airplane. As you go up over the top of the loop now the wind is pushing you along! Now keep the loop going more and…you get the picture. Anyone can do a loop or a hammerhead. It’s the dude (or dudette) that can play the wind that is going to get the better scores.
That was yesterday. Round 2 and 3 coming up…now.
Okay it wasn’t THAT bad. To be honest it was a fantastic learning experience. It was a challenge to find the right line and really lock into a pitch attitude (45 degrees nose up straight up, straight down that type o’ thing.) I started stringing the sequence together straight away including positioning in the “box” Competition acro is flown inside a 3000 foot box. Stay inside the box. Do not go outside the box. If you go outside the box you will be incinerated by lasers. Or, get a few points deducted from your score if the lasers miss.
So, where do you place the first figure? How far down the box do you fly? These all change according to what the wind is doing. Flying into the wind slows down your relative speed over the ground. So, consider I’m cruising along at 140mph. With no wind I would be doing 140mph over the ground (yes, I’m leaving out true airspeed considerations for the pilots out there.) With 100 mph of wind coming straight at me, I would only be doing 40mph over the ground. It would take a substantially longer amount of time to fly through the box into the wind. Conversely, if I had 100mph pushing me I would rocket out of the box before I even knew what happened.
That is just flying straight and level. Now consider flying a loop. Flying into the wind all that force is pushing against the airplane. As you go up over the top of the loop now the wind is pushing you along! Now keep the loop going more and…you get the picture. Anyone can do a loop or a hammerhead. It’s the dude (or dudette) that can play the wind that is going to get the better scores.
That was yesterday. Round 2 and 3 coming up…now.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
600 miles later
600 miles later.
I left work Friday at 5pm. I shot up to the web guys place right quick to go over logo ideas for Inverted Journey. It is looking pretty sharp. A logo speaks volumes about your brand…it IS the brand in a way. What color palette should you use? What font? Any picture content at all? Spacing between letters? Two words side by side or stacked? The options are endless but I think we hit our stride.
A quick stop in Boston Friday night and I was off to Vermont for the New England Aerobatic Contest. Guess who else showed up? Mother Nature! In all her rainy, cloudy glory. Saturday was a total wash. I meandered around for a bit recognizing some faces and trying to insert my own link into chains of friendship tempered over many years of friendly competition.
Confession: I am the king of awkward moments. I’m horrible at trying to “network” or meet people even in the best of settings. I fumble. I mumble. Some would argue I grumble. Any way you slice it, I assume the moron hat in these situations.
I did meet some folks though and should be seeing them all again at the Kathy Jaffe Challenge in early August. I didn’t come away from the NEAC with a whole lot of new insights into anything. I’m glad I went of course.
I think that will be last contest as a spectator. There is a practice session at Keene, NH coming up on July 24th that I am hoping to get to. The flyable days are few and far between this week. With fingers and toes crossed I’m hoping for some serious time in the air these next two weeks.
I left work Friday at 5pm. I shot up to the web guys place right quick to go over logo ideas for Inverted Journey. It is looking pretty sharp. A logo speaks volumes about your brand…it IS the brand in a way. What color palette should you use? What font? Any picture content at all? Spacing between letters? Two words side by side or stacked? The options are endless but I think we hit our stride.
A quick stop in Boston Friday night and I was off to Vermont for the New England Aerobatic Contest. Guess who else showed up? Mother Nature! In all her rainy, cloudy glory. Saturday was a total wash. I meandered around for a bit recognizing some faces and trying to insert my own link into chains of friendship tempered over many years of friendly competition.
Confession: I am the king of awkward moments. I’m horrible at trying to “network” or meet people even in the best of settings. I fumble. I mumble. Some would argue I grumble. Any way you slice it, I assume the moron hat in these situations.
I did meet some folks though and should be seeing them all again at the Kathy Jaffe Challenge in early August. I didn’t come away from the NEAC with a whole lot of new insights into anything. I’m glad I went of course.
I think that will be last contest as a spectator. There is a practice session at Keene, NH coming up on July 24th that I am hoping to get to. The flyable days are few and far between this week. With fingers and toes crossed I’m hoping for some serious time in the air these next two weeks.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Early Summer Huddle
Here we are folks. We have arrived at the eve of what should have been my first contest. Alas, the powers that be declared unanimously that it was not to pass. I’ve given up the plane for the weekend and made alternate plans on attending as a volunteer.
Success is not without its setbacks. If there were no errors along the way, or obstacles to overcome what would be value be in the undertaking? Would I, or anyone learn anything at all about anything if there were not problems to be fixed and decisions to be made? Richard Bach wrote “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” The “gifts” in this case are strewn about across the spectrum. Everything from “don’t annual your acro plane unless its winter (again, not my decision), to large life themes like “don’t place your better days in the future/never put off ‘til tomorrow what you can get done today.”
Since the Decathlon has been back up I have only flown a few times. The 100 degree heat has made long practices undoable as well as zeroed out any meaningful visibility. Am I better than I was 6 months ago? Of course, but I could be better. I haven’t given up on this season yet and with another contest in early August there is still plenty more work to be done. The website is starting to come together with lots of meetings and logo ideas dancing about. I’ve got a list of acro folks that want to fly with me. My budget is holding solid and my spirits are surprisingly high in both the professional, aerobatic, and personal sense.
Sometimes you hit your stride. Everything starts to click. You can feel momentum building bringing with it confidence, ability, and opportunity.
Success is not without its setbacks. If there were no errors along the way, or obstacles to overcome what would be value be in the undertaking? Would I, or anyone learn anything at all about anything if there were not problems to be fixed and decisions to be made? Richard Bach wrote “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” The “gifts” in this case are strewn about across the spectrum. Everything from “don’t annual your acro plane unless its winter (again, not my decision), to large life themes like “don’t place your better days in the future/never put off ‘til tomorrow what you can get done today.”
Since the Decathlon has been back up I have only flown a few times. The 100 degree heat has made long practices undoable as well as zeroed out any meaningful visibility. Am I better than I was 6 months ago? Of course, but I could be better. I haven’t given up on this season yet and with another contest in early August there is still plenty more work to be done. The website is starting to come together with lots of meetings and logo ideas dancing about. I’ve got a list of acro folks that want to fly with me. My budget is holding solid and my spirits are surprisingly high in both the professional, aerobatic, and personal sense.
Sometimes you hit your stride. Everything starts to click. You can feel momentum building bringing with it confidence, ability, and opportunity.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Ty-erred
Welp, there ain’t no such thing as a flight that doesn’t teach you something.
To recap the last few days:
Friday: work per nominal ops all day but stay out too late.
Saturday: Up early, flight review in a Cessna 152 (way fun); drive to Boston for the weekend; once again stay up late.
Sunday: Sleep late (awesome); relaxing day, fantastic fireworks, perfect weekend ends…but I stay up too late once more.
Monday: Up early, drive to Rhode Island from Boston; work all day in the heat, attempt to fly the Decathlon late in the day with horrible visibility.
I never really felt tired all day. I was hopped up on coffee and riding a high from having a great weekend. For whatever reason I wasn’t thinking at all about flying when I got home. Then 7pm rolls around and I realize that the Decathlon is flyable and I should be flying it. A quick IMSAFE checklisk run through and I felt fine (Illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, eating…normal self check to make sure you are ready to fly).
At 3000 feet, 140mph indicated airspeed I was ready to warm up with some rolls. Slow rolls are difficult to do well in any airplane and almost impossible to perfect. Right before the D was down with the camshaft issue my rolls were looking pretty decent (let obese jokes flow freely.) Tonight…what transpired was an aerobatic atrocity. I was all over the place. If flown right, your nose should end right where it began. Mine was all over the place. Altitude was being held fine but sheeesh…every else just wasn’t coming together. I kept looking over my shoulder back towards Providence only to find that it was slowly disappearing behind a veil of haze.
Loops have always been my forte so I switched gears for a moment and did a loop. It just didn’t feel right. It was fine, altitude and airspeed and heading all normal but it just felt wrong. I decided I was just too tired to push anything and decided to call it a night. It was a good decision because I had about 4 or 5 miles of visibility. At 140mph, that is not much room to see. My landing was beautiful so at least I ended the flight on a high note.
Lesson learned, pay closer attention to your energy level. If you’re tired…sit it out.
Oh and yes, I would gladly be tired in exchange for a good/great weekend. Totally worth it.
To recap the last few days:
Friday: work per nominal ops all day but stay out too late.
Saturday: Up early, flight review in a Cessna 152 (way fun); drive to Boston for the weekend; once again stay up late.
Sunday: Sleep late (awesome); relaxing day, fantastic fireworks, perfect weekend ends…but I stay up too late once more.
Monday: Up early, drive to Rhode Island from Boston; work all day in the heat, attempt to fly the Decathlon late in the day with horrible visibility.
I never really felt tired all day. I was hopped up on coffee and riding a high from having a great weekend. For whatever reason I wasn’t thinking at all about flying when I got home. Then 7pm rolls around and I realize that the Decathlon is flyable and I should be flying it. A quick IMSAFE checklisk run through and I felt fine (Illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, eating…normal self check to make sure you are ready to fly).
At 3000 feet, 140mph indicated airspeed I was ready to warm up with some rolls. Slow rolls are difficult to do well in any airplane and almost impossible to perfect. Right before the D was down with the camshaft issue my rolls were looking pretty decent (let obese jokes flow freely.) Tonight…what transpired was an aerobatic atrocity. I was all over the place. If flown right, your nose should end right where it began. Mine was all over the place. Altitude was being held fine but sheeesh…every else just wasn’t coming together. I kept looking over my shoulder back towards Providence only to find that it was slowly disappearing behind a veil of haze.
Loops have always been my forte so I switched gears for a moment and did a loop. It just didn’t feel right. It was fine, altitude and airspeed and heading all normal but it just felt wrong. I decided I was just too tired to push anything and decided to call it a night. It was a good decision because I had about 4 or 5 miles of visibility. At 140mph, that is not much room to see. My landing was beautiful so at least I ended the flight on a high note.
Lesson learned, pay closer attention to your energy level. If you’re tired…sit it out.
Oh and yes, I would gladly be tired in exchange for a good/great weekend. Totally worth it.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Back in the Saddle, Swimming in a Sunset.
Well folks, I’m back in the air. After having not flown upside down since May 17th I finally was back up in the inverted world. It feels pretty good.
I was watching the weather after work on Wednesday, waiting for the winds to die down. Eventually they did so I headed out to my normal stomping grounds. The goal for this flight was simply to get back in the air and hang from the straps a little bit to start working back to where I was when I left off. The plane felt a little different, a little looser if that makes any sense. From just doing a few loops and rolls and I can tell that the lack of flying has really eroded any proficiency I had developed. It will be an uphill battle to make the Jersey contest and Vermont is all but a wash. But, if you watch the video I assembled from last nights flight…who cares.
I recorded the flight with an MC5 song stuck in my head. I was going to use that as the background music but when I went back and watched the footage I was rather surprised. The camera made it look significantly darker than it actually was. It had a striking warmth to it that really didn’t work with the MC5 Kicking out the Jams at all. Aerobatics doesn’t have to be hardcore and extreme all the time. It can be graceful and smooth.
In the video I do some loops, a hammer with a quarter roll on the downline, followed by a half Cuban. As normal, the loops were fine though I am pinching the top of them so that they look more like an egg than a circle. The hammerhead was flown not quite vertical and I knew that. As soon as I established my line I knew I was more positive than I’d ever been before and I decided to initiate the turnaround early, simply because I hadn’t flown one in awhile. I was enjoying myself and didn’t feel like toying with getting to too low of an airspeed.
All in all, it was just a really pretty flight. I’ve got some people I need to follow up with this week. Some I met at the airshow that have flown acro and are looking to get back into it. Others are current competitors looking to meet more people and get to more contests. I’m starting to work my way into the community and my spirits are soaring rather high. I’ll fly again this weekend with increased focus and some more video to share. Thanks for reading everyone. I sincerely appreciate your feedback and support. A special thanks to Mark Wooding for letting me test drive his computer to make the video.
I was watching the weather after work on Wednesday, waiting for the winds to die down. Eventually they did so I headed out to my normal stomping grounds. The goal for this flight was simply to get back in the air and hang from the straps a little bit to start working back to where I was when I left off. The plane felt a little different, a little looser if that makes any sense. From just doing a few loops and rolls and I can tell that the lack of flying has really eroded any proficiency I had developed. It will be an uphill battle to make the Jersey contest and Vermont is all but a wash. But, if you watch the video I assembled from last nights flight…who cares.
I recorded the flight with an MC5 song stuck in my head. I was going to use that as the background music but when I went back and watched the footage I was rather surprised. The camera made it look significantly darker than it actually was. It had a striking warmth to it that really didn’t work with the MC5 Kicking out the Jams at all. Aerobatics doesn’t have to be hardcore and extreme all the time. It can be graceful and smooth.
In the video I do some loops, a hammer with a quarter roll on the downline, followed by a half Cuban. As normal, the loops were fine though I am pinching the top of them so that they look more like an egg than a circle. The hammerhead was flown not quite vertical and I knew that. As soon as I established my line I knew I was more positive than I’d ever been before and I decided to initiate the turnaround early, simply because I hadn’t flown one in awhile. I was enjoying myself and didn’t feel like toying with getting to too low of an airspeed.
All in all, it was just a really pretty flight. I’ve got some people I need to follow up with this week. Some I met at the airshow that have flown acro and are looking to get back into it. Others are current competitors looking to meet more people and get to more contests. I’m starting to work my way into the community and my spirits are soaring rather high. I’ll fly again this weekend with increased focus and some more video to share. Thanks for reading everyone. I sincerely appreciate your feedback and support. A special thanks to Mark Wooding for letting me test drive his computer to make the video.
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