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.