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.
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