Aerobatic Lesson One

One of the regulars at Henley owned an S2-A Pitts with a dual cockpit. He came for a $50 hamburger almost every weekend. I don’t remember his name, but I heard he made a pile of money in the early days of cable TV. One day in the diner I learned that he would loan his Pitts to Steve Wolf for aerobatic lessons. Steve was one of those rare pilots that most people would trust their airplane to without hesitation. Seemed serendipitous to me.

I soon had Steve and the S2-A lined up for an aerobatic lesson. Steve is a flight instructor, but he didn’t have a formal program in those days. You just went up, and flew aerobatic maneuvers. Steve put me in the forward cockpit for the first lesson. The rear cockpit is where the pilot in command usually sits. It’s easier to fly the Pitts from back there, and quite a bit easier to land from there. We strapped in to our parachutes, and put the headphones on (for intercom use). Steve coached me down the taxiway and onto the runway. (There is no visibility straight ahead in a Pitts, which makes it hard to taxi and land.) Then he had me set full power, and off we went.

As with any taildragger, the first thing you do on takeoff is raise the tail so you can see forward. That happens in the first 50 feet or so in a Pitts. You keep it straight down the runway until you reach 100 knots. Then you pull the stick back a bit, and you’re in the air. My takeoff was picture perfect (not that it’s hard at all). The power to weight ratio of an S2-A is better than a T-6’s, so we were at 2,000 feet AGL by the time we were a mile away.

Steve began the session by demonstrating an aileron roll. Nothing to it. The Pitts is built for aerobatics, and it rolls with ease. You can roll fast or slow with a light touch on the stick. You need a touch of rudder for a precision roll. Rolling slowly allows a neophyte to see how much rudder is needed at each point of the roll. I wasn’t very good at it, but we weren’t going for precision anyway. [Wikipedia: Aerobatic maneuvers]

The next thing was loops. Precision loops are easier in concept, but harder in practice than rolls. Steve had me do some inverted flying first to get me used to seeing the world upside down. That helps with loops. The proper technique is to look out the side window, and keep the wingtips oriented to a point on the horizon. Easier said than done.

We flew a hammerhead or two, and then headed back to Henley. Aerobatics didn’t make me dizzy, but the constant change in orientation wears you out until you adapt. It also gives you a headache and could lead to airsickness. Steve had me bring the Pitts in for a landing, but told me he would take over when we were down at runway level. The reason? The runway disappears there. You sit low in the cockpit, so the engine hides the runway in front, and the lower wing hides most of it to the sides. We tried two or three landings, but I never got close to making a touchdown myself.

That was lesson one. Not much different from flying with Wayne, but with more coaching, and more description of what was happening and what to be looking for.

I had already decided to get an aerobatic airplane of my own. As you might expect, you don’t find many aerobatic planes for rent. 😀 What I wanted was enough experience to have a feel for the real thing before I went off to try it on my own. I knew aerobatics would be harder in an affordable plane. I didn’t want to work on it cold turkey.