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Optimal Frequency of Lessons



 
 
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  #11  
Old October 26th 04, 03:38 PM
David B. Cole
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Well I haven't started yet, but the airport is named Van Sant and is
located just across the Delaware River from NJ in Pennsylvania.

Dave
zatatime wrote in message . ..
On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 03:48:26 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

. But I
would also like to get as much time before the hard NJ winter
arrives,



May I ask what field you take your lessons?

z

  #12  
Old October 26th 04, 11:06 PM
ShawnD2112
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Sounds like a valuable day spent. I've never met Rich but I've heard good
things about him. Well done for recognizing the value in that kind of
training and seeking it out.

Once you start flying aeros you'll find that some of the unusual attitude
training you did isn't just an academic exercise. I've never actually spun
out of the top of a botched loop but that's only because I've recognized
what was coming, cut the power, and just let the aircraft have it's head and
find it's own way out. But blowing it at the top of a loop and having to
recover from the hihg-AOA, high-power, low-energy state is a fairly common
occurance when starting. Actually, I performed the loveliest slow half snap
roll from inverted to erect at the top of a botched loop. Still not sure
what happened but I know it had nothing to do with me! Still, it was lots
of fun, very gentle, and looked fantastic. I just wish I could do it on
purpose now! I eventually learned not to float them quite so much at the
top. I was easing the back pressure off too early which kept the nose up
too high and bled speed off which, with full power and high alpha is the
making of a spin.

If you take up aeros on a regular basis, for my money, spin recovery is
about the most valuable skill you can learn. I reckon, and I hope Dudley
will correct me if I'm wrong, that nearly any maneuver I screw up is going
to end up in a spin as a worst case scenario. This assumes no serious gyro
maneuvers as I'm not up to them yet. So, I reckon if I can recover from
developed or insipient spins pretty well, it's like an insurance policy,
protecting me from my own hamhandedness.

At any rate, keep up the training, keep pushing your limits just a bit, do
it all way up high, and have loads of fun with it!

Shawn
Pitts S-1D, G-BKVP
"David B. Cole" wrote in message
m...
Good advice Shawn. I most likely will schedule weekly in order to
hedge against the weather. And while I'm at it I'll post my most
recent aero experience below.

Dave


Last week I completed my second year of participation in the annual
spin and emergency maneuver training offered by Rich Stowell here in
NJ. But unlike last year I had to battle a number of obstacles that
didn't exist last year. The first was that I had knee surgery about a
month ago and although I'm recovering fairly well, I'd only flown once
within the last month and a half. I was also recovering from some type
of stomach virus that continues to make me somewhat queasy. In fact
this was my biggest concern as I didn't want to blemish my record of
not tossing my cookies. I also started coming down with a cold which I
fiercely fought against and won.

The weather also stood as a possible deal breaker as low ceilings on
Friday caused the six flights for that day to be rescheduled.
Fortunately the weather held up until the time we were returning to
the airport from the flight, when a light rain started. But enough of
that. I arrived at the airport, Alexandria Field, at about 1:30 where
I was greeted by Rich, the airport owner Linda Castner, and the two
other guys flying that afternoon. I happen to know one of the guys
fairly well and the other in passing, as we all had the same
instrument instructor.

We went back to the classroom where Rich discussed what we would be
doing that day. Myself and one of the other pilots had gone through
the course the prior year so Rich asked what we wanted to do. I
decided that I wanted to review spins, but to also add some control
failure exercises and unusual attitude recoveries as well. I will
admit that while I had a terrific time the previous year doing spins
and some basic aerobatic maneuvers, I was a little anxious and felt
like I was doing it again for the first time.

I was the second of the three to fly, just enough time for the jitters
to build back up. But when it was my time we strapped on the chutes,
hopped in the Super Decathlon, and were on our way. We started with
some coordination exercises, followed by a few steep turns to clear
the area and two power off stalls. Then Rich asked me if my stomach
was up for a spin, to which I agreed. As Rich prefers to allow the
student to perform the entire maneuver, I pulled the power to idle and
allowed the airspeed to bleed off. I wasn't as aggressive as I should
have been in getting the stick back, but eventually got it down to
just above stall speed and then kicked in the left rudder. While it
had been a while since I had last seen the earth from that
perspective, it seemed like a familiar friend and I didn't have to
urge to say "Oh Sh&t!", as I did with my first spin the year before.

We went on to do three more spins with the power off before moving to
control failures. These consisted of Rich first having me perform
coordinated left and right turns, then telling me whether I had an
aileron failure or rudder failure. For an aileron failure I simply put
the plane into a slip by applying opposite rudder. But in the SD with
slips at 100 kts, the degree of uncoordinated flight is so high that
it's almost uncomfortable, especially if you don't lean into it. For
rudder failures in the turn I went from aileron deflection in the
direction of turn to opposite aileron to enter the slip. In both cases
I applied enough forward pressure on the elevator to get the AOA down,
and adjusted the available control surface to maintain the heading.
The last part of this exercise was Rich blocking a control surface at
random, me figuring out what had failed, and applying the appropriate
corrections.

The last module was recovery from unusual attitudes. But these were
far more unusual than the one I experienced as a student pilot as they
all ended in spins. Rich took the controls, I put my hands in my lap,
and waited to see what was coming next. The first unusual attitude was
a steep climbing left turn into a spin. This was followed by a spin
out of a botched loop, and finally a spin out of a snap roll, which in
itself was interesting. The difference between these three spins and
those I had done before was that they all were entered with power on,
so I had to complete all the steps in the Power, Aileron, Rudder,
Elevator recovery. In fact I had to call out each action as I did it.
I was surprised that I didn't feel rushed, and the reason for the
callouts was to have me think consciously about my actions and to
assess about what I was seeing.

On the way back to the field I got to perform a loop, which I did last
year as well, in addition to a hammerhead, which was a blast. While
the experience was a tremendous benefit last year when I did it, the
components that we added this year increased my knowledge and
confidence that much more. As I plan to take between 5-10 hours of
aero before starting the commercial, this will be a good refresher
before starting.

Dave


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
David,

As usual, I agree with what Dudley says, but only based on my own
experience, as I'm not a flight instructor. I'll also add that I really
learned how to fly when I got hold of a Supercub one summer and was
flying
several times a week. Not long flights, most of them spent in the
pattern
doing every concievable kind of take off and landing combination I and my
mates could think of. There were rest periods in between, and lots of
analysis and hangar flying to boot, but there was definitely something
about
frequency in there for me. This wasn't the old "get your PPL in two
weeks"
kind of pressured course, it was just me flying after I got my PPL as
much
as I could. Flying more often allowed me to retain more between lessons,
requiring less relearning during each. I developed a feel for the
airplane
during that period that I've never matched since, simply because of how
often I was flying. I would suggest you give that some thought as a
balancing argument to having weeks beetween lessons.

Also, depending on where you live, if you schedule for every other week,
in
reality you'll get weathered out at least part of the time and end up
only
flying one weekend per month sometimes. Consider scheduling every
weekend
and let weather and other factors give you the seperation you're talking
about needing.

Just my .02 worth,
Shawn



  #13  
Old October 26th 04, 11:06 PM
zatatime
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 13:16:24 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


"zatatime" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 03:48:26 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:

. But I
would also like to get as much time before the hard NJ winter
arrives,



May I ask what field you take your lessons?

z


I'm a bit confused here z; not that I didn't learn something every time
I strapped on an airplane, but I'm the instructor in this equation
:-))))
Do you mean the OP perhaps?

Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Flight Instructor/Aerobatics/Retired



L O L ! Yes, I meant the OP. Tried to be clear by snipping one of
the lines from his post, altough I did send the response out of your
reply.

Sorry for the confusion.
z
  #14  
Old October 26th 04, 11:08 PM
zatatime
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On 26 Oct 2004 07:38:28 -0700, (David B. Cole)
wrote:

Van Sant


Thanks. I didn't know they did aero out of there. Thought it was
mostly gliders.

z
  #15  
Old October 26th 04, 11:44 PM
Dudley Henriques
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

You hit it right on the nose. :-)
Dudley

"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
Sounds like a valuable day spent. I've never met Rich but I've heard
good things about him. Well done for recognizing the value in that
kind of training and seeking it out.

Once you start flying aeros you'll find that some of the unusual
attitude training you did isn't just an academic exercise. I've never
actually spun out of the top of a botched loop but that's only because
I've recognized what was coming, cut the power, and just let the
aircraft have it's head and find it's own way out. But blowing it at
the top of a loop and having to recover from the hihg-AOA, high-power,
low-energy state is a fairly common occurance when starting.
Actually, I performed the loveliest slow half snap roll from inverted
to erect at the top of a botched loop. Still not sure what happened
but I know it had nothing to do with me! Still, it was lots of fun,
very gentle, and looked fantastic. I just wish I could do it on
purpose now! I eventually learned not to float them quite so much at
the top. I was easing the back pressure off too early which kept the
nose up too high and bled speed off which, with full power and high
alpha is the making of a spin.

If you take up aeros on a regular basis, for my money, spin recovery
is about the most valuable skill you can learn. I reckon, and I hope
Dudley will correct me if I'm wrong, that nearly any maneuver I screw
up is going to end up in a spin as a worst case scenario. This
assumes no serious gyro maneuvers as I'm not up to them yet. So, I
reckon if I can recover from developed or insipient spins pretty well,
it's like an insurance policy, protecting me from my own
hamhandedness.

At any rate, keep up the training, keep pushing your limits just a
bit, do it all way up high, and have loads of fun with it!

Shawn
Pitts S-1D, G-BKVP
"David B. Cole" wrote in message
m...
Good advice Shawn. I most likely will schedule weekly in order to
hedge against the weather. And while I'm at it I'll post my most
recent aero experience below.

Dave


Last week I completed my second year of participation in the annual
spin and emergency maneuver training offered by Rich Stowell here in
NJ. But unlike last year I had to battle a number of obstacles that
didn't exist last year. The first was that I had knee surgery about a
month ago and although I'm recovering fairly well, I'd only flown
once
within the last month and a half. I was also recovering from some
type
of stomach virus that continues to make me somewhat queasy. In fact
this was my biggest concern as I didn't want to blemish my record of
not tossing my cookies. I also started coming down with a cold which
I
fiercely fought against and won.

The weather also stood as a possible deal breaker as low ceilings on
Friday caused the six flights for that day to be rescheduled.
Fortunately the weather held up until the time we were returning to
the airport from the flight, when a light rain started. But enough of
that. I arrived at the airport, Alexandria Field, at about 1:30 where
I was greeted by Rich, the airport owner Linda Castner, and the two
other guys flying that afternoon. I happen to know one of the guys
fairly well and the other in passing, as we all had the same
instrument instructor.

We went back to the classroom where Rich discussed what we would be
doing that day. Myself and one of the other pilots had gone through
the course the prior year so Rich asked what we wanted to do. I
decided that I wanted to review spins, but to also add some control
failure exercises and unusual attitude recoveries as well. I will
admit that while I had a terrific time the previous year doing spins
and some basic aerobatic maneuvers, I was a little anxious and felt
like I was doing it again for the first time.

I was the second of the three to fly, just enough time for the
jitters
to build back up. But when it was my time we strapped on the chutes,
hopped in the Super Decathlon, and were on our way. We started with
some coordination exercises, followed by a few steep turns to clear
the area and two power off stalls. Then Rich asked me if my stomach
was up for a spin, to which I agreed. As Rich prefers to allow the
student to perform the entire maneuver, I pulled the power to idle
and
allowed the airspeed to bleed off. I wasn't as aggressive as I should
have been in getting the stick back, but eventually got it down to
just above stall speed and then kicked in the left rudder. While it
had been a while since I had last seen the earth from that
perspective, it seemed like a familiar friend and I didn't have to
urge to say "Oh Sh&t!", as I did with my first spin the year before.

We went on to do three more spins with the power off before moving to
control failures. These consisted of Rich first having me perform
coordinated left and right turns, then telling me whether I had an
aileron failure or rudder failure. For an aileron failure I simply
put
the plane into a slip by applying opposite rudder. But in the SD with
slips at 100 kts, the degree of uncoordinated flight is so high that
it's almost uncomfortable, especially if you don't lean into it. For
rudder failures in the turn I went from aileron deflection in the
direction of turn to opposite aileron to enter the slip. In both
cases
I applied enough forward pressure on the elevator to get the AOA
down,
and adjusted the available control surface to maintain the heading.
The last part of this exercise was Rich blocking a control surface at
random, me figuring out what had failed, and applying the appropriate
corrections.

The last module was recovery from unusual attitudes. But these were
far more unusual than the one I experienced as a student pilot as
they
all ended in spins. Rich took the controls, I put my hands in my lap,
and waited to see what was coming next. The first unusual attitude
was
a steep climbing left turn into a spin. This was followed by a spin
out of a botched loop, and finally a spin out of a snap roll, which
in
itself was interesting. The difference between these three spins and
those I had done before was that they all were entered with power on,
so I had to complete all the steps in the Power, Aileron, Rudder,
Elevator recovery. In fact I had to call out each action as I did it.
I was surprised that I didn't feel rushed, and the reason for the
callouts was to have me think consciously about my actions and to
assess about what I was seeing.

On the way back to the field I got to perform a loop, which I did
last
year as well, in addition to a hammerhead, which was a blast. While
the experience was a tremendous benefit last year when I did it, the
components that we added this year increased my knowledge and
confidence that much more. As I plan to take between 5-10 hours of
aero before starting the commercial, this will be a good refresher
before starting.

Dave


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
David,

As usual, I agree with what Dudley says, but only based on my own
experience, as I'm not a flight instructor. I'll also add that I
really
learned how to fly when I got hold of a Supercub one summer and was
flying
several times a week. Not long flights, most of them spent in the
pattern
doing every concievable kind of take off and landing combination I
and my
mates could think of. There were rest periods in between, and lots
of
analysis and hangar flying to boot, but there was definitely
something about
frequency in there for me. This wasn't the old "get your PPL in two
weeks"
kind of pressured course, it was just me flying after I got my PPL
as much
as I could. Flying more often allowed me to retain more between
lessons,
requiring less relearning during each. I developed a feel for the
airplane
during that period that I've never matched since, simply because of
how
often I was flying. I would suggest you give that some thought as a
balancing argument to having weeks beetween lessons.

Also, depending on where you live, if you schedule for every other
week, in
reality you'll get weathered out at least part of the time and end
up only
flying one weekend per month sometimes. Consider scheduling every
weekend
and let weather and other factors give you the seperation you're
talking
about needing.

Just my .02 worth,
Shawn





  #16  
Old October 27th 04, 01:44 PM
dave
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

David,
That's where I got my private in 1992. Are going with Azher? He's a
great instructor. I'm trying to schedule some time with him in my
citabria, 7ECA. We did about an hour of acro last year but I have been
too busy to dedicate time to acro. I've just bought a new chute and
hope to get with Azher soon.

Will you be using the Decathalon?

Good luck - you've picked a great place to learn.

Dave
68 7ECA

David B. Cole wrote:
Well I haven't started yet, but the airport is named Van Sant and is
located just across the Delaware River from NJ in Pennsylvania.

Dave
zatatime wrote in message . ..

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 03:48:26 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


. But I

would also like to get as much time before the hard NJ winter
arrives,



May I ask what field you take your lessons?

z

  #17  
Old October 27th 04, 07:44 PM
ShawnD2112
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Thanks, Dudley. I take those seven words as high praise coming from you...
:-)

Shawn
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
link.net...
You hit it right on the nose. :-)
Dudley

"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
Sounds like a valuable day spent. I've never met Rich but I've heard
good things about him. Well done for recognizing the value in that kind
of training and seeking it out.

Once you start flying aeros you'll find that some of the unusual attitude
training you did isn't just an academic exercise. I've never actually
spun out of the top of a botched loop but that's only because I've
recognized what was coming, cut the power, and just let the aircraft have
it's head and find it's own way out. But blowing it at the top of a loop
and having to recover from the hihg-AOA, high-power, low-energy state is
a fairly common occurance when starting. Actually, I performed the
loveliest slow half snap roll from inverted to erect at the top of a
botched loop. Still not sure what happened but I know it had nothing to
do with me! Still, it was lots of fun, very gentle, and looked
fantastic. I just wish I could do it on purpose now! I eventually
learned not to float them quite so much at the top. I was easing the
back pressure off too early which kept the nose up too high and bled
speed off which, with full power and high alpha is the making of a spin.

If you take up aeros on a regular basis, for my money, spin recovery is
about the most valuable skill you can learn. I reckon, and I hope Dudley
will correct me if I'm wrong, that nearly any maneuver I screw up is
going to end up in a spin as a worst case scenario. This assumes no
serious gyro maneuvers as I'm not up to them yet. So, I reckon if I can
recover from developed or insipient spins pretty well, it's like an
insurance policy, protecting me from my own hamhandedness.

At any rate, keep up the training, keep pushing your limits just a bit,
do it all way up high, and have loads of fun with it!

Shawn
Pitts S-1D, G-BKVP
"David B. Cole" wrote in message
m...
Good advice Shawn. I most likely will schedule weekly in order to
hedge against the weather. And while I'm at it I'll post my most
recent aero experience below.

Dave


Last week I completed my second year of participation in the annual
spin and emergency maneuver training offered by Rich Stowell here in
NJ. But unlike last year I had to battle a number of obstacles that
didn't exist last year. The first was that I had knee surgery about a
month ago and although I'm recovering fairly well, I'd only flown once
within the last month and a half. I was also recovering from some type
of stomach virus that continues to make me somewhat queasy. In fact
this was my biggest concern as I didn't want to blemish my record of
not tossing my cookies. I also started coming down with a cold which I
fiercely fought against and won.

The weather also stood as a possible deal breaker as low ceilings on
Friday caused the six flights for that day to be rescheduled.
Fortunately the weather held up until the time we were returning to
the airport from the flight, when a light rain started. But enough of
that. I arrived at the airport, Alexandria Field, at about 1:30 where
I was greeted by Rich, the airport owner Linda Castner, and the two
other guys flying that afternoon. I happen to know one of the guys
fairly well and the other in passing, as we all had the same
instrument instructor.

We went back to the classroom where Rich discussed what we would be
doing that day. Myself and one of the other pilots had gone through
the course the prior year so Rich asked what we wanted to do. I
decided that I wanted to review spins, but to also add some control
failure exercises and unusual attitude recoveries as well. I will
admit that while I had a terrific time the previous year doing spins
and some basic aerobatic maneuvers, I was a little anxious and felt
like I was doing it again for the first time.

I was the second of the three to fly, just enough time for the jitters
to build back up. But when it was my time we strapped on the chutes,
hopped in the Super Decathlon, and were on our way. We started with
some coordination exercises, followed by a few steep turns to clear
the area and two power off stalls. Then Rich asked me if my stomach
was up for a spin, to which I agreed. As Rich prefers to allow the
student to perform the entire maneuver, I pulled the power to idle and
allowed the airspeed to bleed off. I wasn't as aggressive as I should
have been in getting the stick back, but eventually got it down to
just above stall speed and then kicked in the left rudder. While it
had been a while since I had last seen the earth from that
perspective, it seemed like a familiar friend and I didn't have to
urge to say "Oh Sh&t!", as I did with my first spin the year before.

We went on to do three more spins with the power off before moving to
control failures. These consisted of Rich first having me perform
coordinated left and right turns, then telling me whether I had an
aileron failure or rudder failure. For an aileron failure I simply put
the plane into a slip by applying opposite rudder. But in the SD with
slips at 100 kts, the degree of uncoordinated flight is so high that
it's almost uncomfortable, especially if you don't lean into it. For
rudder failures in the turn I went from aileron deflection in the
direction of turn to opposite aileron to enter the slip. In both cases
I applied enough forward pressure on the elevator to get the AOA down,
and adjusted the available control surface to maintain the heading.
The last part of this exercise was Rich blocking a control surface at
random, me figuring out what had failed, and applying the appropriate
corrections.

The last module was recovery from unusual attitudes. But these were
far more unusual than the one I experienced as a student pilot as they
all ended in spins. Rich took the controls, I put my hands in my lap,
and waited to see what was coming next. The first unusual attitude was
a steep climbing left turn into a spin. This was followed by a spin
out of a botched loop, and finally a spin out of a snap roll, which in
itself was interesting. The difference between these three spins and
those I had done before was that they all were entered with power on,
so I had to complete all the steps in the Power, Aileron, Rudder,
Elevator recovery. In fact I had to call out each action as I did it.
I was surprised that I didn't feel rushed, and the reason for the
callouts was to have me think consciously about my actions and to
assess about what I was seeing.

On the way back to the field I got to perform a loop, which I did last
year as well, in addition to a hammerhead, which was a blast. While
the experience was a tremendous benefit last year when I did it, the
components that we added this year increased my knowledge and
confidence that much more. As I plan to take between 5-10 hours of
aero before starting the commercial, this will be a good refresher
before starting.

Dave


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
David,

As usual, I agree with what Dudley says, but only based on my own
experience, as I'm not a flight instructor. I'll also add that I
really
learned how to fly when I got hold of a Supercub one summer and was
flying
several times a week. Not long flights, most of them spent in the
pattern
doing every concievable kind of take off and landing combination I and
my
mates could think of. There were rest periods in between, and lots of
analysis and hangar flying to boot, but there was definitely something
about
frequency in there for me. This wasn't the old "get your PPL in two
weeks"
kind of pressured course, it was just me flying after I got my PPL as
much
as I could. Flying more often allowed me to retain more between
lessons,
requiring less relearning during each. I developed a feel for the
airplane
during that period that I've never matched since, simply because of how
often I was flying. I would suggest you give that some thought as a
balancing argument to having weeks beetween lessons.

Also, depending on where you live, if you schedule for every other
week, in
reality you'll get weathered out at least part of the time and end up
only
flying one weekend per month sometimes. Consider scheduling every
weekend
and let weather and other factors give you the seperation you're
talking
about needing.

Just my .02 worth,
Shawn







  #18  
Old October 27th 04, 10:27 PM
David B. Cole
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Dave,

I will be flying with Ahzer in the SD. I've heard from several people
that he's a good instructor, but it's always good to hear from one
more person.

Dave

dave wrote in message ...
David,
That's where I got my private in 1992. Are going with Azher? He's a
great instructor. I'm trying to schedule some time with him in my
citabria, 7ECA. We did about an hour of acro last year but I have been
too busy to dedicate time to acro. I've just bought a new chute and
hope to get with Azher soon.

Will you be using the Decathalon?

Good luck - you've picked a great place to learn.

Dave
68 7ECA

David B. Cole wrote:
Well I haven't started yet, but the airport is named Van Sant and is
located just across the Delaware River from NJ in Pennsylvania.

Dave
zatatime wrote in message . ..

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 03:48:26 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


. But I

would also like to get as much time before the hard NJ winter
arrives,


May I ask what field you take your lessons?

z

  #19  
Old October 28th 04, 12:50 AM
Dudley Henriques
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Why thank you sir. I deeply appreciate that, and the respect is mutual.
D
"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
Thanks, Dudley. I take those seven words as high praise coming from
you... :-)

Shawn
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
link.net...
You hit it right on the nose. :-)
Dudley

"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
Sounds like a valuable day spent. I've never met Rich but I've
heard good things about him. Well done for recognizing the value in
that kind of training and seeking it out.

Once you start flying aeros you'll find that some of the unusual
attitude training you did isn't just an academic exercise. I've
never actually spun out of the top of a botched loop but that's only
because I've recognized what was coming, cut the power, and just let
the aircraft have it's head and find it's own way out. But blowing
it at the top of a loop and having to recover from the hihg-AOA,
high-power, low-energy state is a fairly common occurance when
starting. Actually, I performed the loveliest slow half snap roll
from inverted to erect at the top of a botched loop. Still not sure
what happened but I know it had nothing to do with me! Still, it
was lots of fun, very gentle, and looked fantastic. I just wish I
could do it on purpose now! I eventually learned not to float them
quite so much at the top. I was easing the back pressure off too
early which kept the nose up too high and bled speed off which, with
full power and high alpha is the making of a spin.

If you take up aeros on a regular basis, for my money, spin recovery
is about the most valuable skill you can learn. I reckon, and I
hope Dudley will correct me if I'm wrong, that nearly any maneuver I
screw up is going to end up in a spin as a worst case scenario.
This assumes no serious gyro maneuvers as I'm not up to them yet.
So, I reckon if I can recover from developed or insipient spins
pretty well, it's like an insurance policy, protecting me from my
own hamhandedness.

At any rate, keep up the training, keep pushing your limits just a
bit, do it all way up high, and have loads of fun with it!

Shawn
Pitts S-1D, G-BKVP
"David B. Cole" wrote in message
m...
Good advice Shawn. I most likely will schedule weekly in order to
hedge against the weather. And while I'm at it I'll post my most
recent aero experience below.

Dave


Last week I completed my second year of participation in the annual
spin and emergency maneuver training offered by Rich Stowell here
in
NJ. But unlike last year I had to battle a number of obstacles that
didn't exist last year. The first was that I had knee surgery about
a
month ago and although I'm recovering fairly well, I'd only flown
once
within the last month and a half. I was also recovering from some
type
of stomach virus that continues to make me somewhat queasy. In fact
this was my biggest concern as I didn't want to blemish my record
of
not tossing my cookies. I also started coming down with a cold
which I
fiercely fought against and won.

The weather also stood as a possible deal breaker as low ceilings
on
Friday caused the six flights for that day to be rescheduled.
Fortunately the weather held up until the time we were returning to
the airport from the flight, when a light rain started. But enough
of
that. I arrived at the airport, Alexandria Field, at about 1:30
where
I was greeted by Rich, the airport owner Linda Castner, and the two
other guys flying that afternoon. I happen to know one of the guys
fairly well and the other in passing, as we all had the same
instrument instructor.

We went back to the classroom where Rich discussed what we would be
doing that day. Myself and one of the other pilots had gone through
the course the prior year so Rich asked what we wanted to do. I
decided that I wanted to review spins, but to also add some control
failure exercises and unusual attitude recoveries as well. I will
admit that while I had a terrific time the previous year doing
spins
and some basic aerobatic maneuvers, I was a little anxious and felt
like I was doing it again for the first time.

I was the second of the three to fly, just enough time for the
jitters
to build back up. But when it was my time we strapped on the
chutes,
hopped in the Super Decathlon, and were on our way. We started with
some coordination exercises, followed by a few steep turns to clear
the area and two power off stalls. Then Rich asked me if my stomach
was up for a spin, to which I agreed. As Rich prefers to allow the
student to perform the entire maneuver, I pulled the power to idle
and
allowed the airspeed to bleed off. I wasn't as aggressive as I
should
have been in getting the stick back, but eventually got it down to
just above stall speed and then kicked in the left rudder. While it
had been a while since I had last seen the earth from that
perspective, it seemed like a familiar friend and I didn't have to
urge to say "Oh Sh&t!", as I did with my first spin the year
before.

We went on to do three more spins with the power off before moving
to
control failures. These consisted of Rich first having me perform
coordinated left and right turns, then telling me whether I had an
aileron failure or rudder failure. For an aileron failure I simply
put
the plane into a slip by applying opposite rudder. But in the SD
with
slips at 100 kts, the degree of uncoordinated flight is so high
that
it's almost uncomfortable, especially if you don't lean into it.
For
rudder failures in the turn I went from aileron deflection in the
direction of turn to opposite aileron to enter the slip. In both
cases
I applied enough forward pressure on the elevator to get the AOA
down,
and adjusted the available control surface to maintain the heading.
The last part of this exercise was Rich blocking a control surface
at
random, me figuring out what had failed, and applying the
appropriate
corrections.

The last module was recovery from unusual attitudes. But these were
far more unusual than the one I experienced as a student pilot as
they
all ended in spins. Rich took the controls, I put my hands in my
lap,
and waited to see what was coming next. The first unusual attitude
was
a steep climbing left turn into a spin. This was followed by a spin
out of a botched loop, and finally a spin out of a snap roll, which
in
itself was interesting. The difference between these three spins
and
those I had done before was that they all were entered with power
on,
so I had to complete all the steps in the Power, Aileron, Rudder,
Elevator recovery. In fact I had to call out each action as I did
it.
I was surprised that I didn't feel rushed, and the reason for the
callouts was to have me think consciously about my actions and to
assess about what I was seeing.

On the way back to the field I got to perform a loop, which I did
last
year as well, in addition to a hammerhead, which was a blast. While
the experience was a tremendous benefit last year when I did it,
the
components that we added this year increased my knowledge and
confidence that much more. As I plan to take between 5-10 hours of
aero before starting the commercial, this will be a good refresher
before starting.

Dave


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
.uk...
David,

As usual, I agree with what Dudley says, but only based on my own
experience, as I'm not a flight instructor. I'll also add that I
really
learned how to fly when I got hold of a Supercub one summer and
was flying
several times a week. Not long flights, most of them spent in the
pattern
doing every concievable kind of take off and landing combination I
and my
mates could think of. There were rest periods in between, and
lots of
analysis and hangar flying to boot, but there was definitely
something about
frequency in there for me. This wasn't the old "get your PPL in
two weeks"
kind of pressured course, it was just me flying after I got my PPL
as much
as I could. Flying more often allowed me to retain more between
lessons,
requiring less relearning during each. I developed a feel for the
airplane
during that period that I've never matched since, simply because
of how
often I was flying. I would suggest you give that some thought as
a
balancing argument to having weeks beetween lessons.

Also, depending on where you live, if you schedule for every other
week, in
reality you'll get weathered out at least part of the time and end
up only
flying one weekend per month sometimes. Consider scheduling every
weekend
and let weather and other factors give you the seperation you're
talking
about needing.

Just my .02 worth,
Shawn









 




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