Kathy Jaffe Challenge 2010 Part 2

I was up by 6am. We all had to meet for the morning briefing at 7am. Topics covered include the holding patterns, wind direction, radio frequencies, staffing, and order of flight for the day. I would be flying 6th out of 13.

That whole morning was a bit of a blur. I wasn’t hungry so I skipped breakfast. A huge no-no in my book. I retreated to a spot away from the flight line where I could watch the first few competitors flying their sequences. I wasn’t nervous. I was ready to go, ready to fly, ready to see how all this would work. If anything I was anxious for my turn in the aerobatic box.

It felt like 30 seconds between the first sportsman pilot taking off before I was getting ready to strap into the Decathlon. N821EF still had that they new airplane smell to it. The paint still looked like it needed time to dry. I had a briefing with Tony Catonese, my safety pilot as provided by Executive Flyers. I had never officially had a rental checkout flight with EFA so I had to fly with Tony. I was worried about having a heavier airplane with a second person but thankfully Tony isn’t tipping many weight scales. Once we were both on the same page we were in the airplane.

It felt different. The seat. The seatbelts. The stick. The prop control. It was different. It was a Decathlon sure but it still felt strikingly different. The same way you step into someone else’s shoes and feel the contour of their feet instead of yours. Once we were airborne the differences were all too glaringly apparent. The airplane felt LIGHT. My chin hit my chest when I saw how effortless the airplane rolled inverted for a belt check. It was easily twice as fast as 317SD. I didn’t have too much time to explore the airplane. As soon as we were at 3000 feet I heard the radio call “Porter you are cleared into the box. Have a fun flight!” Here we go.

And then it was over. I breezed the whole routine in the blink of an eye. I wish there were more to say about it but the cliché rings true with aerobatics. When you are flying you don’t have time to think about anything other than the task at hand. It is a constant battle of “where am I, what am I doing, and what do I need to do next.” I got through the first flight with no big glaring issues and without taking an interruption. Before I knew it I was lining up to land back at the Flying W.

The scores from my first flight weren’t great but so what? I was 10th of 13 with at least one more flight to go. It was only a few hours later that we started running through the sportsman category again. Again, Tony and I briefed quickly and we running down the runway and into the aerobatic hold. Cleared into the box again I was trying to really hit this one out of the park. The second figure screwed me up. I under-rotated my spin by a whopping 30 or 40 degrees. I didn’t realize it until I was coming through the next figure. I knew it would be a giant point deduction if I continued on the present heading so I took an interruption. Taking an “I” costs you five points which is small potatoes compared to potentially getting a zero on entire figures.

To my surprise I moved up in the ranks. I was in 9th after the second flight. Rumor on the field was that we weren’t to fly again and this was the final standings. I was in 9th with the First Time Sportsman Competitor High Score trophy locked up. I felt great.

Funny thing about rumors though. They aren’t always true.