As some of you know, Mary and I bought Amelia, our RV-8A, in June. We've flown the pants off of her, and are having a blast.
Before purchasing, Jay Pratt and others took me on demo rides which included aerobatics. I figured we would jump right into them, but Mary (my wife, also a pilot, pictured above) was the voice of reason, firmly stating that she wanted professional aerobatics training before we "jumped right in".
I agreed. I can be hard-headed and impulsive, but I almost always listen to my co-pilot.
So, we started a search for a trainer.
Enter Chris Hill. Chris flies an RV-8 out of Del Rio, TX, read about our search right here on VansAirforce.net, and volunteered to train us. Since he teaches Air Force pilots to do aerobatics all day, every day, in the T-6 Texan II, I figured he sounded like a pretty safe bet, and we made plans to meet at the old air base in Hondo.
And then, the weather sucked. And then Oshkosh happened. And then, the weather sucked again -- for five consecutive Sundays! I was starting to think we were cursed, until this past Sunday, which dawned sunny, crystal clear, and nearly calm. Perfect, even!
Off to Hondo we went.
Chris met us there, in his absolutely gorgeous -8. The paint job is astoundingly beautiful, with all sorts of cool and unique details. But I digress...
Chris took us up, one at a time, and put us through our paces. At age 54, I'm in pretty good shape, but I got to tell you that after 30 minutes of acro I was pooped! We never pulled more than maybe 3 to 3.5 Gs, but making me weigh over 600 pounds was enough weight lifting for me!
Then, it was Mary's turn. She had fun, too, learning rolls, wing-overs, lazy 8s, and the like. Chris is a great instructor, and it was a good first lesson.
I had the GoPro camera set up out on the wing, but didn't turn it on during the lesson. We did take some video of flying formation with Chris after the lesson, though. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qzH9DP9UgWo&list=UU2_U4UFN1Y3-tHPe_OrVbIQ
Yesterday evening we went up to practice what we learned, while flying over St. Joseph's Island, Texas. Here's a GoPro video of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eh3mFMV-Bo&list=UU2_U4UFN1Y3-tHPe_OrVbIQ&feature=player_detailpage
And then, finally, here is a low res video of the same flight, but taken with my cell phone from the back hole while Mary was doing some rolls. Great fun! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saL96QfAnrs&feature=player_detailpage&list=UU2_U4UFN1Y3-tHPe_OrVbIQ
BTW: We ran into a strange thing while doing higher-G maneuvers like loops -- a smell of burning rubber or plastic in the cockpit, right after a maneuver. At first I thought I was crazy, but Chris smelled it, too, so we restricted our maneuvers to low-G acro (like rolls) until I can figure out what's rubbing on what under G-load.
(Any theories? Alternator belt? Some hose or wiring being moved against something hot? The odor went away immediately after unloading the Gs. I haven't had a chance to decowl and poke around, but I hope to find some explanation.)
I highly recommend this sort of training. Many thanks to Chris, who plans to come visit us on Mustang Island soon so we can do some more acro training with him!
Before purchasing, Jay Pratt and others took me on demo rides which included aerobatics. I figured we would jump right into them, but Mary (my wife, also a pilot, pictured above) was the voice of reason, firmly stating that she wanted professional aerobatics training before we "jumped right in".
I agreed. I can be hard-headed and impulsive, but I almost always listen to my co-pilot.
So, we started a search for a trainer. Enter Chris Hill. Chris flies an RV-8 out of Del Rio, TX, read about our search right here on VansAirforce.net, and volunteered to train us. Since he teaches Air Force pilots to do aerobatics all day, every day, in the T-6 Texan II, I figured he sounded like a pretty safe bet, and we made plans to meet at the old air base in Hondo.
And then, the weather sucked. And then Oshkosh happened. And then, the weather sucked again -- for five consecutive Sundays! I was starting to think we were cursed, until this past Sunday, which dawned sunny, crystal clear, and nearly calm. Perfect, even!
Off to Hondo we went.
Chris met us there, in his absolutely gorgeous -8. The paint job is astoundingly beautiful, with all sorts of cool and unique details. But I digress...
Chris took us up, one at a time, and put us through our paces. At age 54, I'm in pretty good shape, but I got to tell you that after 30 minutes of acro I was pooped! We never pulled more than maybe 3 to 3.5 Gs, but making me weigh over 600 pounds was enough weight lifting for me!
Then, it was Mary's turn. She had fun, too, learning rolls, wing-overs, lazy 8s, and the like. Chris is a great instructor, and it was a good first lesson.
I had the GoPro camera set up out on the wing, but didn't turn it on during the lesson. We did take some video of flying formation with Chris after the lesson, though. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qzH9DP9UgWo&list=UU2_U4UFN1Y3-tHPe_OrVbIQ
Yesterday evening we went up to practice what we learned, while flying over St. Joseph's Island, Texas. Here's a GoPro video of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eh3mFMV-Bo&list=UU2_U4UFN1Y3-tHPe_OrVbIQ&feature=player_detailpage
And then, finally, here is a low res video of the same flight, but taken with my cell phone from the back hole while Mary was doing some rolls. Great fun! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saL96QfAnrs&feature=player_detailpage&list=UU2_U4UFN1Y3-tHPe_OrVbIQ
BTW: We ran into a strange thing while doing higher-G maneuvers like loops -- a smell of burning rubber or plastic in the cockpit, right after a maneuver. At first I thought I was crazy, but Chris smelled it, too, so we restricted our maneuvers to low-G acro (like rolls) until I can figure out what's rubbing on what under G-load.
(Any theories? Alternator belt? Some hose or wiring being moved against something hot? The odor went away immediately after unloading the Gs. I haven't had a chance to decowl and poke around, but I hope to find some explanation.)
I highly recommend this sort of training. Many thanks to Chris, who plans to come visit us on Mustang Island soon so we can do some more acro training with him!
