FUUUUUUUUNNNN!!

[MarcoAviator]

Marco walks to the instructor and introduces himself. Marco is already out of his mind with terror. Rationality left the premises a long time ago.

The instructor has fangs and horns and a red tail and smells of ozone and sulfur. He snaps handcuffs on Marco and drags Marco kicking and screaming towards the "torture plane".

Two demons, called Joe and Moe (Moe is wearing a Nascar T-Shirt with the picture of Jeff Gordon on it), grab Marco by the arms and legs, stuff him in the cockpit of the plane while Marco is now screaming like a girl, and tie him down.

Marco is only aware of the fact that the plane smells of sulfur and makes noises from hell.

The instructor takes off and flies into a loop. Marco screams but his vocal cords are now rotting. His skin peels off his cheeks, the insane instructor pulling 11 Gs. Marco can feel his eyes collapsing into his eyesocket, his raucous voice, now reduced to a whimper, gurgling while he throws up. Blood comes gushing out of his eyes and ears, while his spine is crushed.

Marco utters one last gurgle before decaying in a pool of blood and guts while the instructor laughs his infernal laugh "I will see you in hell!!!"

...

nah.

...

I went to wings field today. I took a ride in the Pitts. The instructor's name was Bruce Everett.. The only noises you could here in the cockpit were the engine ... and me whooping through every loop screaming "MORE MORE!!! I WANT MOOOOOOOORE!!!"

Yep.

I thought I was gonna be scared. Nope.

I thought I was gonna get sick. Nope.

Nada. Nothing. It was joyride.

Before climbing in the plane, Bruce (Everett) explained the manouvers we were going to try. Knife edge. Loops. Hammer head.

Basic stuff.

We did a manouver where the plane goes banked 90 degrees to one side, then inverted, the banked 90 degrees the opposite side, then straight. Can't remember what that's called.

After an uneventful flight to wings field (yes, I flew there), and a bit of trouble to find a parking spot for my Cherokee, I sit with Bruce and we go over what we are going to do. Bruce is a calm looking guy that radiates a sense of ... confidence.

He looks bored more than anything else.

After one hour in a Pitts ... I'd be bored too, on the ground. Nothing could get me excited again, other than flying inverted all the time.

We have a conversation about safety and envelopes. According to Bruce the plane will be safely within the envelope and won't buffet or stall if handled properly and all i have to do is just pull the right amount (he shows me how much) and the plane will stay away from any stall risks.


We walk to the plane, fully expecting my fears to overwhelm me at some point. Any point. But nothing. I was starting to wonder if I had turned into a block of ice. I never felt so indifferent to something as radical as this.

I was excited but even digging deep down I couldn't feel one hint of nervousness. NOTHING AT ALL.

We have a few discussions about safety, parachutes, how to bail out, etc. I pay attention and run the scenarios in my head, fully aware that if we get to the point where we need to bail out, chances are we are in deep shit and we are going to die.

This thought is leaving me completely indifferent. Somehow I hear the words and picture the events in my head and can't ... get scared. Or even nervous.

Some apprehension starts creeping up when I realize that this plane is cramped as hell and getting in will be one hell of a ride all by itself. I am more nervous about getting in than flying it.

But after some contorsions (ouch I gotta lose a few pounds) and after getting strapped in real tight, I feel really comfy. Incredibly I have more legroom here than in my piper ... same goes for the hips. I am incredibly comfortable in fact.

I just can't see shit in front of me. The nose of the plane is gigantic and sticking up right in front of you. The wings don't help either.

I am sitting front seat. The instructor is sitting back seat. He's got it even worse than I do. But if he can fly it ... I am fine with it.

Bruce warned me that the plane was going to be noisy. And indeed it is noisy but it's not the end of the world. Just a tad noisier than many other planes I have been into.

Bruce lines up for takeoff and starts increasing power. When we reach full throttle ... wow. This baby's got some pull.

The plane has a shorter takeoff roll than the Piper (big suprise) and it just doesn't change attitude. It starts the roll, noses down a bit ... but the nose is still up, and the plane is off the ground all by itself in a matter of seconds.

At 1000 feet Burce hands me the controls.

[MarcoAviator]

The plane feels a lot more stable than I thought it would. Sensitive yes (I giggle the stick a bit and the plane giggles with it instantaneously). But quite stable.

On the way there I ask Bruce if I can do a couple of steep turns just to feel how the plane handles. Bruce says "Of course" ... what else was he gonna say?

So, when we reach the aerobatic area, I start one turn to the right. 45 degrees and I pull ...

The plane responds so docile and easy that I am wondering if I am even turning. So I steepen the turn ... more. To 60.

More ... to 80, almost to 90 and I pull and pull and pull even more on the stick.

I roll out of the turn (a 360 turn) and my head almost hits the canopy. Woah. gotta be careful with these ailerons.

Wow. That wasn't hard at all. Fun and this thing can turn in a dime. I don't know how long it took me to turn but I can't think it was more than 20 seconds. Hard to say ... time has a tendency to compress when you are having fun.

Ok, cool. Let's try the other direction.

This time I throw the plane in an 80 degree bank with no esitation. And I pull even harder. I feel a bit of a tug in my guts but ... is this all there is to it?

I glance at the G-meter after I get out of the turn.

3.5 Gs. I blink stupidly for a sec. Did I just pull 3.5 Gs? I didn't feel anything. Not even a tickle.

Next is a loop.

Bruce demonstrates first.

We reach 160 knots (yes 160 ... and to me it's just a number on a dial. It doesn't feel like 160 at all).

Then Bruce pulls up ... hard. Here I do feel some tug. In fact the pull is so hard my head comes into contact with the seat and I can't lift it. I can feel my cheeks pull down ... I can feel my ears pull down.

I am looking straight up when the ground comes in sight ... and Bruce relaxes the pull a bit ... and this is a beautiful moment.

This is one of those moments where you just go "WOW ... I didn't think you could see this ... you could feel like this".

For 2-3 seconds I feel suspended. We are probably still doing 2 Gs or so ... but being upside down, staring at the ground trough a clear canopy, staring at fields and rooftops, 3000 feet below, suspended at 2 Gs after pulling real hard ...

I don't know how to describe it. Sitting on a cloud in the sky maybe? Well ... there were no clouds that day... unless you consider a little monstrous 260 hp plane ... a cloud.

The top of the loop is the best part. The energy of the plane, spent on the climb .. but not enough to let you stall. Just enough to slowly and gently pull through and start the descent ... you just need to let the nose drop down.

then the nose comes down again and here comes another pull harder than the first ... and we are out of it. Straight and level again.

Wow. Amazing.

This is my first loop.

I was supposed to be sick. I was supposed to be scared. I am whooping like a madman instead. Bruce asks me if we are ok. I say yes. He will ask that question once more but that's it. After all the whooping and yipeeing it's pretty obvious I am doing ok.

In fact ... he joins me. 'Isn't this fun?' he screams 'YEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH' ... is my obvious answer.

Yeah, we are having fun. so ... this is what it was all about. I didn't learn to fly ... to fly a plane. I learned to fly ... to get here. Now. To fly a Pitts. To do loops.

Everything else is not flying ... it's just Department Of Transportation.

Bruce tells me to try one myself.

I try the first one and I try to do it the way I learned how to do it playing IL2 Sturmovik, back in the day when I was addicted to videogames.

I pull (following his instructions to pull harder) and the plane goes up.

It's so easy.

[MarcoAviator]

Lemme tell you something about this plane's controls. It's a stick. But you don't need much to yank on it.

In fact, throughtout all this flying, I have been using two fingers to move it. I rest my right forearm on my right thigh and I simply use my wrist and my finger to move the stick around.

Pulling on the stick is simply a matter of moving it back. It goes back with little resistance but with incredible effects on the plane.

Regulating and measuring how much to pull back is very easy. You just feel it. A bit more and you can feel your guts drop down on ya.

The exilarating part is the ABSOLUTE control you have. You wanna pull more? Easy. Move the stick back a little.

So I start pulling up and since there's only sky in front of me now, I glance left and right quickly to make sure I am not rotating or banking, until i reach the top ... and again I get that wonderful feeling of sitting on a cloud.

Now i know why all these crazy guys wanna do aerobatics.

Once I see the ground over my canopy, I simply select an imaginary line connecting points of reference on the ground and drag the nose of the plane over them, until I am out of the loop.

Oustanding!

I just did my first loop ... and there was nothing to it. I wouldn't think I pulled more than 4 Gs to do it.

I glance to the G-Meter.

5 ... and change.

5? 5Gs???? I just pulled 5 Gs????

From that moment on ... it's all downhill.

We do a bunch of other manouvers. We do rolls. I try them by myself and those are one hell of a blast.


The first time he tried it, it felt weird being inverted ... but when i did it myself ... when I rolled the plane inverted, it was a whole different story.

It is incredibly different when you are at the controls and you are snapping the plane around.

I can totally see how I could like this ... and still hate rollercoasters. It's totally different. Apples and oranges.

I am doing this. I am controlling this. I am whipping the plane around. I am not getting whipped around by a mechanism on a wildly colored train full of screaming kids.

I ask Bruce to let me do some more loops. And he agrees to it. Yeah .. that's right. I asked for MORE. And I got it! I just couldn't stop having enough of loops. I do a couple loops on my own and I would go on all day if I could.

We do a few more things ... including going inverted. Which was the last manouver and it was incredible. Again you get to stare at the ground in a way ... not many people do. Hanging upside down directly on top of somebody's crop. I can see pieces of straws and grass fall off from my shoes towards the canopy ... it's so wild feeling the pull of being upside down.

The way back is uneventful and if anything ... i feel full of regret. Regret i have to leave this. I have to go back to the ground ... to my slow life. To my slow, un-loopable, plane.

End of the day?

-2Gs, +5Gs.

I didn't come apart. There's nothing to it ... just pure, unadulterated, brilliant fun.

I posted some pictures at my forum. I am too lazy (and it's too late at night) for me to dig them out and upload them here.

You can see them at the bottom of my post here.

PS: they are just pics from the ground. I couldn't take them from the plane ... the camera would have whipped around and hit me in the head more than 50 times.

[SilverFox441]

Someone had a good time.

You just discovered a truth Marco...It's not scary or sickening when you've got your own hand on the stick.

It's just a blast!

Glad you enjoyed yourself, great story and that's a beauty of a Pitts S-2 you flew in.

[beaky]

Attaboy! Welcome to the club!! Wish I'd gotten pix of my one and only aerobatic lesson. Maybe the next one (gotta do that again)...
May I ask what they charged for an hour of dual in the Pitts at Wings? The rate at SWF for the Zlin lesson was $200/hr. w/instructor...

[Ben_M_K]

Wow...glad you had fun! Kind of makes me want to take aerobatic lessons. I guess I have to take lessons in regular planes first.

[C]

Nice one Marco

5G without a G-suit is fun isn't it? Glad to hear you enjoyed the flight, and thanks for sharing it with us in such detail. Its strange you mention speed, Ive noticed it too when flying a small aircraft not too close to the ground the only impression of speed you get is the number on the ASI, bet it 100kts or 400kts...

Cheers,

Charlie

[beefhole]

So, how do ya like my little field?  The terminal builidng is awesome, innit?

Glad to hear you had a good time Marco.  As I am now seriously considering trying for the fighter program(USMC), I may start acrobatic training.

 ;D

[Ben_M_K]

Go for it beefhole! How old are you and what year in HS are you?

Good luck whatever you choose! I know I want to be in the USAF, and when I retire, fly heavies.

[beefhole]

16, sophomore

Was originally gonna shoot low and just go for flying heavies in the AF(NOT saying there's anything wrong with flying heavies! this was just my mentality, since I do think that it'd be cool to fly fighters but I didn't know whether I could do it or not), but what the hell.

[Ben_M_K]

Yeah thats cool. I don't know exactly what I want to fly, I just know I want to fly in the USAF. But I suppose I'd love to fly the C-130. Great birds!

Like I said before, good luck! Maybe I'll see you up in the sky someday!...

[beefhole]

Sounds like a plan (me likee the C-130)