Building skills to fly Warbirds

[Bill Greenwood]

Saville, it sounds like you have learned all of it pretty well. I think it is time to stop the classes and go take the big test. You may be the guy the CAF was looking for to take over sponsoship and flying of the HA 109!

[henning]

Hey there seville,

Great idea to revive the post from last year. I've just taken great pleasure in re-reading
the thread and all the advice & dialog once again. Lots of great stuff in there.

So it sounds like you're having some fun and building time! excellent! Keep us posted!
Ironically I had a chance to fly with chuck as well and I found him to be a fabulous
instructor! Keep it up, look forward to the next installment! The Instrument rating
will be its own challenge after what you've been doing lately.. just like randy & others
mention.. light grip, small adjustments, and let the scan come to you! Let the force
be with you! (or should I say focus... )

henning

[DB2]

For a while I was working towards competing in the Basic category of Aerobatic Competitions. But in thinking about it, it occured to me that it's a digression. There's a lot to be done to be able to fly warbirds and I don't see how acro competition helps.

Competing will force you to build a lot of discipline in your flying, which makes you a better pilot. When someone is judging you from the ground, you learn a lot about how to fly precisely.

You'll learn to eliminate a lot of slop in the way you fly...you can get to the point where every turn is perfectly coordinated, every roll has 0 ft altitude loss, you hit your own wake on the end of a loop, etc. A requirement to fly warbirds? No, but being critiqued from the ground will accelerate your path to being a better pilot.

The other thing competing does is forces you to learn the impact of wind on flying acro, which is a vital skill should you ever wish to display a warbird. More than one accident has been caused by a guy getting blown over the showline, then panicking and getting into an accelerated stall in an attempt to get back into position.

[Saville]

Hi Henning,

Yeah I'm having a blast. I'll keep you posted though for the near future it's going to be stuff most people are familiar with...working through IFR, followed by commercial.

I'm looking at that 10 hour course of Chuck's.

[Saville]

Hi Henning,

Yeah I'm having a blast. I'll keep you posted though for the near future it's going to be stuff most people are familiar with...working through IFR, followed by commercial.

I'm looking at that 10 hour course of Chuck's.

[Saville]

GUMPS........

To expand on that a little, I've expanded it to GUMP-FC (pronounced by me GUMP-EFF-SEE):

Gas (tank and aux pump)
Undercarriage
Mixture
Prop
Flaps
Carby heat

And I go through it all even though I'm in a decathlon and I know darn well there's no carb heat nor flaps (or in a warrior, no prop control).

In those cases I say:

flaps - none
carb heat - none

and if you could listen to me on final you'd hear

prop and gear

prop and gear....

speed's ok

mm sinking a bit just a little power

prop and gear....

I talk to myself a lot

[Kdmoo]

thanks for posting this Saville - this kinda stuff is always interesting for us 'non-pilots' to read..

Yeppers.

[Saville]

Just a minor update.....

My local FBO just added a Citabria to their list of rentables. So Wednesday I got myself checked out in that. As it's a less sporty version of the Decathlon (flat-bottomed wing - Clark Y - and 150 hp engine), I was pretty familiar with it and after .9 hours I got signed off for solo.

This is good because it rents out at half the cost of the Decathlon. I can add to my taildragger time at a much higher rate.