For lesson #3, I was ready to get back in the air and conquer spins, but the low ceiling wasn't going to have it. Therefore, it was an easy audible for Vess and I to keep it local and just beat the pattern up for an hour or so. This was certainly something I didn't complain about as it gave me an opportunity to start building some good technique / habits in tailwheel operations.
A quick background on tailwheel versus tricycle gear operations... When I tell people about tailwheel aircraft, I usually reference World War II airplanes to give a visual picture (think P-51 Mustang on the ground) - I'm not sure if it helps, but I guess at least I know what I'm talking about. When you taxi, takeoff, or land a Piper Archer (or similar aircraft with tricycle gear), the plane wants to continue in the direction it is traveling - a good thing, right? Seems obvious, but to expand, when you land an Archer, your feet are pretty active on the rudder pedals all of the way down to the point of touchdown. Once all three wheels are on the ground, the frequency of rudder inputs vastly decreases. The difference with tailwheel aircraft is that assertive rudder inputs are necessary essentially until you have the airplane parked to make sure the tail doesn't try to pass you (the dreaded "ground loop"). Both Vess and Ted did a great job of explaining the physics behind this (generally due to the position of the center of mass of the aircraft in relation to the two main wheels) and I was really uncertain as to how this would play out in real-time.
My takeoffs and landings during the first two flights were in relatively calm conditions and I was almost spoiled with the ease of keeping the aircraft going straight down the runway. The low ceilings gave us an opportunity to do work on crosswind skills. I felt that the crosswind takeoffs and landings worked out really well with Vess just having me focus on keeping the nose straight. Rather than being mechanical about it, my brain followed where my eyes told it to position the airplane and good ole' brain handled all of the rudder and aileron work. Before this, I've likely gotten the wind speed/direction from the tower, calculated in my head where the winds were coming from, and 'forced' my crosswind corrections. Just working on keeping the nose straight over the centerline of the runway makes it a much smoother and more reactive process. Further, it really helps with what is required in a tailwheel airplane as soon as the wheels meet the pavement. If you are pointed straight, you don't need big steering corrections as the plane is already heading where it should.
You might be asking "why would anyone want to fly a tailwheel aircraft if you have to do all of that work all of the way to your parking spot?" There are structural reasons that continue to support tailwheel aircraft production, but I think pilots would all point to the fun/challenge. Taxiing, taking-off, and landing a tailwheel aircraft is like a constantly evolving puzzle that forces a pilot to think in all three dimensions, and it never gets boring.
Lesson #4 had me paired up with Ted again and this time the weather allowed us to get up in the air and back to the aerobatic practice area to the SW of Aurora. The flight plan called for some rolls and spins - in that order. To master a roll in a Decathlon, the following are the procedures (after clearing the area):
- Pitch down, pull back the throttle to about 2200 RPM's;
- Once the airplane accelerates to 130 MPH, pull back briskly on the stick until the nose is about 30 degrees above the horizon (full throttle as the nose crosses the horizon);
- Once the 30 degrees pitch is set, stick neutral and then full left (provide rudder as necessary to keep the nose straight - adverse yaw is always lurking!); and
- Once the roll is complete, bring the throttle back and apply back pressure on the stick to bring the nose back up to the horizon.
The aspects of rolling in a Decathlon that I most did not anticipate before starting training were the effects of adverse yaw (full-left stick action resulting in the nose dragging a bit to the right) and the magnitude of pitch-up and pitch-down at the beginning and end of the maneuver, respectively. The adverse yaw is actively managed throughout the roll by thinking of a bulls-eye way off in the distance and using rudder inputs to keep the prop spinner aimed at that bulls-eye. On the other hand, the pitch-down tendency of the nose is managed at the beginning and end of the maneuver only - setting up with an initial pitch up attitude and pulling back on the stick to pull the nose up at the end. It is important to keep the pitch-up recovery held off until wings are level at the end of the roll so as to 1) end the roll pointing at that theoretical bulls-eye I just mentioned and 2) avoid unnecessary/unequal "G" loading on the wings.
Speaking of "G's", performing this maneuver was my first real exposure to adding some "G's" to our flight profile. It was awesome! The first time we went through a roll, the "G's" sort of creeped-up unexpectedly. I was a bit hesitant initially to add the necessary level of back pressure as briskly as I should have to pitch-up because my brain was reacting to the feeling of getting pushed down into my seat for the first time. After that, everything seemed to settle in and become much more natural. There is nothing like that feeling when you are inverted and looking down at the sky!
Overall, the rolls went really well and after demonstrating proficiency all of the way through a handful of maneuvers, I was ready to shift that confidence back into conquering spins before calling it a day. Spin recovery #1 had a lot of the same characteristics I mentioned in my previous post (although I was somewhat better). To help convert my mechanical recovery inputs to fluid inputs, Ted had me recover from a normal power-off stall with a particular focus on using as little stick-forward / stick-back movement as necessary. It was like something finally clicked at this point and I just settled down. After this, I did a one-turn spin recovery before heading back and 1) it felt slower because I knew what to expect at each point in the rotation and 2) my control inputs were not as jerky and the airplane responded with a smooth exit. Victory! Great way to end the day - check in later for loops!
