Just thought I would share my most recent experience with the group, and since I'm a newbie on this particular board get my post count up.
Dave
Today 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 nicely, I've only flown once within the last month and a half. I'm 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 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
Today 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 nicely, I've only flown once within the last month and a half. I'm 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 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.
