First aerobatic training flight! Pure magic!

[Boss_BlueAngels]

Wow!  Yesterday I had my first training flight and man, was that incredible or what!  It was 1.3 in a Decathlon and we did slow flight, spins, rolls, loops, and a little bit of inverted flight per my request. lol  I'll tell ya, I could have done that all day long!  I didn't even slightly feel sick once, and that was even after a 6 turn spin we did!  My instructor was very good and would walk me through each maneuver, demonstrate it, then turn the controls over to me and let me do just about all of the flying.  Since I don't have a tailwheel endorsment he did the takeoff and landing stuff but we'll work into that as time goes on.   I've imagined this day countless times in my mind over and over, and can easily say it was so much better than I ever imagined!  That's truly where my hear is.

He was impressed with my maneuvers because on my spins I was always recovering right on heading or on the reciprical heading for the extra half rotation.  And man was that fun!  And we did them in both directions.  

My aileron rolls ended up on the same heading most of the time.  A couple were off quite a bit because I did weird things with the rudder at the last half. lol  

Got the accelerometer up to 4gs for the loops.  And man that was so fun too!  How great to see the ground coming up at you like that.  

Inverted flight was just wonderful.  No better sight than sky below you and earth above you!!  

Man, I absolutly loved every second of it!  Even the strain of the g's and the awkwardness of the inverted flight.  Pure magic!  I never ever want to fly a non-aerobatic airplane in my life!  

So, here's to more trainin!  I'll be going up again next week with Matt to review some of the maneuvers and introduce a couple more, as well as some more unusual attitude recoery training.  

So yeah, and since today I turn 24, I can tell everyone that I began my aerobatic training before my mid-twenties! haha  (I'm a nerd, I know)

Oh, and I must say, having read so many books on the topic and always doing aerobatics on the computer, none of the maneuvers really surprised me in any way.  IT all looked just the same and even control inputs seemed quite natural and similar to what I do on X-plane.  So far everything I've read is spot-on!

So yeah, I'll finish my post of with a picture I took of the airplane after we got back last night:



For a more in-depth review of the flight, check out my blog at www.fight2flyphoto.blogger.com  

[Mobius]

Sounds amazing you lucky SOB!

8-)

[Jared]

I'm really jealous too!

[beaky]

Good for you (and a nice picture of that Decathlon, too)!!  8-)

[Splinter562]

The Decathlon is a great plane for learning aerobatics in. There's nothing quite like hanging upside-down by your harness. You'll prbably get into hammerheads within the next few flights. They are always a favorite of mine. They're a bit harder to do cleanly than a loop or aileron roll but the challenge is part of the fun. Also, they ain't kidding when they say "unusual attitudes" in aerobatics as you'll soon find out.

[C]

Sounds like it was fun. In my time flying aerobatics I've never had a passenger have a problem with airsickness - in fact the only people I've had sick with me were on the transit home straight and level, or downwind or on finals in the circuit!

Aeros are great fun though, as you've just found out, and are an excellent tool to have in your box of flying skills.