I launched this morning about 11:00 after doing a little maintenance work, intent on simply enjoying the flight. A brisk wind was picking up on the surface, creating bumps down low a little earlier than usual, but there was a 50% layer of flat cumulous between four and five thousand that promised smooth air and sunshine above. With cool jazz playing through the headset from the XM, I climbed through a wide hole and surveyed the broad white expanse of autumn air – perfect for a little “playing around”
I don’t do precision aerobatics – don’t have the patience (or quite frankly, the stomach) for getting involved in a demanding hobby where people are judging me all the time – but I enjoy the kind of free-form flying made possible by the RV-8’s strength and agility. Call it poor-man’s ACM, call it flying repetitive unusual attitudes, I simply call it moving around in three dimensions and enjoying the view. Always keeping a little positive G on to keep the oil in the sump, I combine various kinds of rolls, loops, half-loops – and all of the maneuvers in between. There is plenty of energy to have a ball, and flying on top of a deck (maintaining legal clearance above, of course!) gives you the illusion of flying your aerobatics lower than anyone with out a waiver would want to do – it makes for a “soft” hard deck that gives you visual relative motion and “terrain”.
On a day like today, I can fly for thirty minutes without ever letting the plane stay in straight and level flight. I did enough Acro when I was young to learn my maneuvers, but spent the 25 years before my RV flying non-aerobatic machines, so it has been a readjustment in both techniques and physiology to get back into it. When I started up again, I liked to keep my head fairly rigid to prevent self-induced motion sickness….but after a couple of years of readjusting, I love moving my head around while upside down. I enjoy picking a spot on the ground (or on the cloud deck), and keeping my eye glued to it while rolling inverted or flying a loop. The bubble canopy of the -8 makes this kind of “target spotting” simply breathtaking – and sorry, I wouldn’t trade it for the slightly faster speeds of a fastback…..
After 45 minutes today, it was time to drop in to a neighboring field for cheep gas before heading home (KLBX - $3.47/gallon now!), and just as I was ready to start down, a several-mile-wide hole appeared that allowed me to pull up to bleed off airspeed and start with a split-S to loose a thousand or so. What a way to descend – Split-S, then a step bank in each direction, and before you know it, you’re almost down to the pattern. Bumps down low, but who cares – it was heaven up above, and the sunlight is still peeking through the numerous breaks in the deck. In fact, it is going scattered, and the weather is gorgeous – good enough for a few more loops and rolls on the way home after filling up. Maybe even good enough to go back out for an evening session, just before sunset.
Long cross-country’s are wonderful – the flexibility and mobility afforded by the RV’s is hard to beat – but it’s nice to have a day without a destination, just “to Dance the Sky with Laughter Silvered Wings….”
So what are ya’ doing reading this? Go fly!
Paul
Sunshine Rolls and Freedom...
RE:Thanks for a reminder!!!!!!!!
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