Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement. As Bob Hunt mentioned above, I flew competition aerobatics on a regional, national and sometime international level for a little over 30 years. It might come as a surprise to some that there are more similarities between full size aerobatics and control line stunt than differences. While I have done a whole lot of the former and just a little of the latter, I have found control line stunt fascinating and a great challenge.
My competition aerobatic career started with a rented Super Decathlon. As I moved through the categories, I switched to a Pitts S2-S, Extra 300 and finally an Extra 300s.
Full size aerobatic competition is a wonderful but extremely unforgiving sport. I have lost five very close friends to aerobatic accidents. In 2017, I was coaching a friend that I had worked with for many years. A competent pilot, just starting to fly in the unlimited category. A fraction of a second of lost concentration resulted in loss of control and ultimately loss of life. Coaching from the ground and holding a radio, I was completely helpless. Nothing in life prepares you for this.
Personally, I have had my share of close calls. FOD induced elevator control failure in the Pitts and a cracked wing spar I found in flight to mention a few. Thankfully I have survived two crashes. The first was many years ago in an Extra 300. It happened the day before I was scheduled to leave for the nationals. An engine failure at the bottom of the aerobatic box (100 meters) left me with few options. The advantage of a low altitude failures is that you barely have time to get scared. In this case the “landing” spot actually picked me. Rolling out on a skinny dirt road, I remember thinking oh ya! A second later the wingtip hit a yucca tree and all hell broke loose. The three-foot drop was dramatic as the gear was ripped from the plane. The Extra fuselage is a steel tube frame covered with sheet metal. I found myself sliding and spinning across the desert at 80 knots or so as the sheet metal was being torn off. The skin acted like scoops allowing the desert to enter the cockpit, quickly reducing the visibility to zero. Getting pelted with sand, sagebrush and rocks at that speed is extremely uncomfortable. I closed my eyes, pulled the stick into my lap and pushed hard on the brakes. Great plan, it might have even worked had the brakes not been torn off with the gear now somewhere behind me. I missed the nationals that year.
I thank God daily for his grace, as I know I have more to do in this life. I also take pleasure with the knowledge that my survival annoys my ex-wife to no end.
Physically there is no comparison. Pulling positive 10 g and pushing negative 8 (no exaggeration) hurts a lot and is not that much fun. As I eased into my 50’s Motrin sales spiked every time I showed up at a team practice.
Mentally, the two are exactly the same. The concentration and focus required to put together a great flight is enormous. I have found it nearly impossible to simulate the stress of a contest in a practice environment. At one of the team trials I was very distracted by my real life. Eight-time national champion Rob Holland was helping me strap into my airplane. As I fumbled with the seatbelts he said, "give me all of your problems. I promise I will give them back when you land". True to his word, when I landed the real world was just where I had left it. Rob has a gift for knowing just what to say at exactly the right time. He arguably will go down in history as the greatest aerobatic pilot of all time, but that’s another story.
Here is where I see the biggest differences. With stunt, the pilot has to build and PAINT the airplane. Some of the full-size pilots I’ve competed with have trouble finding the valve stem on the tire.
Coaching, or being coached is pretty close too. I could go on and on about this topic. I am constantly surprised when I am asked to help someone and then end up having to justify every word. In both disciplines I think it’s important to find someone you trust and simply do what they tell you.
One fun memory that comes to mind happened at the world championships in Italy. The US team hired two-time world aerobatic champion Sergey Rakhmanin to coach the team. His understanding of aerobatics is the best I have ever seen. Sergey ran up to my plane as I taxied in from my first-round flight. I have never met anyone less impressed with my flying than Sergey. I had a really good flight and was super excited. As he approached, I pulled the mixture and opened the canopy. Uncharacteristically Sergey had a big smile. With his thick Russian accent, he said "Team (he never could pronounce my first name) that is the best I have EVER seen you fly”. At that moment I should have closed the canopy, started the engine and taxied away. His next sentence, "what have you been waiting for?".
The learning curve is much easier in a manned airplane. In full size it’s pretty straight forward. Find a competent instructor in a good two place airplane. Climb to a safe altitude, just below one of Brett’s satellites is about right and start learning. With stunt the ground is right there. I have a pile of carnage from the last 10 months learning this sport tall enough to be recycled into a windmill blade.
Trimming is similar too. While my Extra did not have a tip weight box or adjustable lead outs, it does have spades hanging down from each aileron. The spades are designed to reduce the stick forces. They are also set with a small amount of dihedral to meet roll with side slip certification requirements. Setting up a pair of spades is very time consuming. Getting the spade the right size shape and set at the right incidence angle takes many flights. A wall in my hangar is decorated with a number of shapes that really should have worked. A negative byproduct of the reduced stick force is a loss of centering. To remedy this, I used small lengths of sticky back P strip, AKA weather stripping on the top and bottom of the trailing edge of each aileron. Taping up the hinge gaps also reduces stick force. It’s time consuming to find the right balance. It never failed, do 100 practice flights, all good. Get half way to Texas and a piece of P strip starts to come off. Spinning like a tiny tornado in the breeze, all you can do is hope there’s a Lowe’s aircraft supply close by when you land. The bottom line…the better you make the airplane the easier it is to fly. The easier it is to fly, the better the scores. Seem familiar?
My approach to both sports is the same. Time will tell if the lessons are transferable.
1. Try to make every flight better than the last. This is harder than it sounds. I often
practiced with another competitor. We helped each other on every flight.
Every flight we would identify the biggest error or any trends. On the next flight try to
fix that one thing and not lose all the good stuff in the process. Non consistent
errors or one-time mistakes are to be ignored!
2. Aerobatics is not a defensive sport. There is nothing I can do with my flying to
influence how another competitor flies. So, don’t worry about it.
3. Have fun. I’m constantly amazed when I look around at the contest and see how many competitors don’t appear to be having a good time. Watching a good pilot put up a great flight has always been really enjoyable and inspiring to me. Even when they are kicking my butt!
4. Always fly at 100% effort. If you are ON you will enjoy the result. If you are OFF, you don’t deserve it anyway. I flew very conservatively for a while, trying to not make any big mistakes. That philosophy guarantees you a very good viewing position of your buddies standing on the podium.
The most important ingredient and what makes both sports worth the effort are the people you meet along the way. Everyone I have met so far have been amazingly friendly and generous with their knowledge. I could not imagine trying to learn this sport without the support of my lifelong friend and expert modeler, Dave Shadel and my new friends, some of whom I have not met in person yet; Bob Hunt, Fred Underwood, Warren Walker (he can cook too) and Brett Buck.
Tim
Topic: New Plane (Read 2981 times)