Pitts N24MC Part 2

Circa 2006.  So now I owned an airplane but knew that I wasn’t ready to fly it.  So I would go to the hangar and sit in it and make airplane noises.  (I stole that line from Sean Worthington….sorry, Sean)

Once again I contacted Ken Erickson to see if he could arrange a thorough checkout.  Ken was too busy, so he contacted Wayne Handley; Wayne was too busy so he contacted John King from the San Francisco bay area and John agreed to help.  Now mind you, I barely was even acquainted with Ken and had never met the other two guys and yet they were willing to go out of their way to help.  I was amazed.  Wayne even went so far as to phone me to follow up to make sure that everything was taken care of.  Let me repeat that:  He phoned me to follow up.  Who the hell phones people to follow up anymore?  I guess I spent too many years in retail and was really  jaded.

Pitts Special 2.jpgThe day came and John King arrived at the Red Bluff airport to begin the checkout:  he was driving a twin Cessna.  The meager amount of money that John was going to charge me wouldn’t make a dent in the cost of the fuel he would be burning to go back and forth to Red Bluff.

The first day got off to a very slow start; in fact, it never got started:  John was not comfortable with the way the canopy lock was working and wanted me to find a mechanic who could adjust it.  That was it.  John got back in the C310 and left.  End of Day 1.

After finding a local mechanic to make the requested adjustments, Day 2 arrived and I waited for the C310 to arrive; it didn’t.  Instead, a small black and white biplane approached the field:  it sounded like a P-51 making a high speed pass.  I had never heard a plane this loud.  I learned later that the plane was called the Phoenix, an experimental amateur built homebuilt that John used in aerobatic competitions at the unlimited level.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

The checkout began in earnest, complete with parachutes.  In my mind I knew that I had 14 hours in a Pitts from back in Texas; I even soloed in it.  But my mind had forgotten all of the subtle technique; the hands and feet didn’t know what to do.  The runway at Red Bluff, KRBL, is an ample 100 feet wide and my take offs used most of the width of the runway; surprisingly my landings, if you could call them that, were not quite so out of control.  I was over-controlling the plane and didn’t realize it.  Day 1 and Day 2 were not very pretty.

Sometime along about Day 3 I said to myself before John arrived: “I don’t know what I am doing wrong on these take-offs, but on the next one I am not going to touch the rudder pedals until I see the nose start to move.”  When John arrived and we started out, I tried out my idea; it worked and from that point forward the check out went smoothly.  John would not sign me off on a BFR in a Pitts unless I demonstrated some spin recoveries.  So we did some spins.  And then we did some loops and rolls, etc.  And I was on my way.

Because of John’s schedule or the uncertainties of the weather, the entire checkout process actually took a few months.  While I was cooling my heels between actual flying days, I spent a lot of time on the internet reading about flying.  I discovered an article written by the man, Dan Rihn, who had designed the Phoenix, the plane that John owned.  I was amazed that Dan Rihn, starting when he was in college or a few years thereafter, was designing planes; and, he designed not one, but several world class planes:  the Phoenix, the Sunbird, the Goshawk, Awesome Lady and the One Design.  Over the years, if I’ve read the article once, then I’ve read it fifty times.  Little did I know and I never could have predicted that my life would cross paths with Dan Rihn ten years later.  You can find the article here; its a great read.

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Pitts N24MC

The year 2006 was a turning point for me as I embarked on my first attempt at retirement. After several months of soul searching I came to the almost sudden realization that for years I had dreamed of owning my own plane; and, in one fell swoop, all of a sudden I was there. But, I hadn’t flown in 13 or so years and I knew I would be rusty. There was, however, no doubt about what kind of plane I would be looking for—a Pitts.

After several phone calls to all sorts of people to discuss countless issues involving owning a Pitts, I finally decided to find somewhere where I could get some dual to really decide if this was a goal worth pursuing. Several people referred me to a guy named Ken Erickson, who flew out of King City, California.  My son was attending Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo about 60 miles south of King City, this would be the perfect opportunity to go visit my son and also get in some time in a Pitts.  After finally hooking up via telephone with Ken, the date was set.

Ken is the Chief Pilot for the Tutima Acadamy of Aviation Safety and here is the place to go if you want some quality instruction in a Pitts. Over the course of two days, I believe I made four flights with Ken; I didn’t bother to enter the details in my logbook because my primary mission was to determine if I was up to actually going through with this plan.  But little did I realize just how much that I had forgotten–I don’t know if I would have killed myself if I had been allowed to  take the plane out solo, but at a minimum substantial damage to the plane would have been a safe bet.  Everything in the cockpit looked vaguely familiar but not familiar enough so that I knew what needed to be done with any of it when it was required.  And my landings and take offs had suffered the most.  On one occasion while flying downwind in the pattern,  Ken casually remarked: “Well, this should certainly be interesting”.  When I asked what he meant, Ken responded: “Take a look at your altimeter”, and upon doing so I realized that I had descended 500 feet without knowing it and we were at 500 feet AGL.  I was way behind the plane but somehow I managed to eek out a landing.  My two days of flying with Ken had not worked out the way I had imagined, but I was still bound and determined to see this through.

I started a serious search for a plane to buy.  The internet had not brought us Barnstormers.com so the hard copy of Trade-A-Plane was still the only way to go and I poured over it endlessly until I finally found what looked like a good deal; by that I mean it looked like it was in great shape, needed no work and I could afford it.  N24MC, an S2A, sported a recently remanufactured engine with only 69 hours on it and fabric and paint that, although it was not “new”, was in fabulous shape…….or at least that is what I was told by the owner, Gary Cebrian.  And, most important, it looked really good and it could be all mine.

Pitts N24MCBut I am the eternal skeptic; how does someone who has never bought a plane get over the hurdle of not being sure?  I decided to call Ken Erickson and ask his opinion; his response was immediate and without hesitation:  “You won’t find a nicer one; everything has been done to it”.  The funds transferred and the deal was closed shortly thereafter.  Only problem was that although I had paid for the plane, I wasn’t up to flying it and the plane stayed with Gary until Gary had the time to fly it up to Red Bluff where I had located hangar space.

The day came, 24MC was delivered, there was hand shaking all around and then it was over.  I was at long last a plane owner; it was parked neatly in the hanger; and, I knew that I was not up to flying it but that didn’t matter because 24MC was now mine.

Pitts N24MC

Landings Can Go All Wrong

While researching what has happened to some of the planes that I have flown in the past, I stumbled across this bit of news.  The plane in which I learned to fly was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident.  The good news is that it doesn’t appear that anyone was seriously hurt.

While I have had some close calls, knock on wood, so far my landings have not required the services of an A&P; I hope I don’t regret having written this.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have had some noteworthy arrivals that have really been a testament to the durability of the Pitts landing gear.  If you are too fast, you have problems.  If you are too slow, especially if you are power off, you have bigger problems.  If your speed is exactly right, you still have plenty of opportunity to make it go bad.  And if you add in some nasty wind conditions, all bets are off.

Someone once quoted Ken Ericksen as having said: “I hate it when I have a good landing in a Pitts; that means the next 9 are all going to be bad.”  I find it hard to believe that he really said it, it certainly can’t possibly apply to him, but in my case…..it is a fairly good rule of thumb.  I am currently in the process of trying to refine my landings in a plane with an enormous prop and precious little clearance between the prop and the ground; but I am trying to keep my posts in chronological order and still have a lot of territory to cover before I get to real time reporting. But if anybody should happen to read this, then please wish me luck.

The Eyes of Texas

In the early 1990s I found my family and I residing and working in Houston, but I never adapted to living there. Luckily, after a year and a half of this self enforced exile, I happened upon a small flight school in La Porte, Texas, not too far from my home, that actually rented out and gave flight instruction in a Pitts S2A. Now up until this point my only flight time had been in a Citabria and it had been a while since I had even done any of that. But I had always wanted to fly something like a Pitts; I don’t know why but this was my chance and I was otherwise going crazy in Houston. Now most everything that you read about a Pitts would lead you to believe that they are death traps and you have to be a Superman of a pilot to be able to fly one. I really wasn’t too sure about it but this was my chance to try.

The school was owned and operated by Debbie Rihn and Doc Harvey; I never met Debbie at the school; she had a regular job flying for Southwest, but did see her a couple of times at aerobatic competitions near Houston. I did meet Doc; I liked him; he was cool and he was a hell of a pilot. But my main contact was with my CFI, Mike, who first introduced me to flying a Pitts. I never wanted to fly aerobatics; the experience of the spin demonstration with Joe had scared me quite a bit; all I really wanted to do was find out if I could take the Pitts off and then land it; that’s it. But Mike said: “If you want to fly a Pitts, then you have to learn aerobatics”. There was no discussion; we strapped on parachutes and over the next several weeks I proceeded to have a 10 hour block of instruction on the basic aerobatic maneuvers and in the process learned how to land the thing; and, I learned that spins were actually a hoot.  If you find yourself in the area, make some time to stop in.Pitts

Everyone has their favorite stories about their flight training days and learning to fly a Pitts has provided quite a few; I will never forget two of them from LaPorte. La Porte was non towered and I was not at all comfortable with that since most of my flying had been out of airports with control towers. The first memorable event had to do with the visibility, or the lack thereof, when flying a Pitts. Its damn difficult spotting other planes from inside a Pitts because of the blind spots; and, because it is so small, Pilots of other planes have a hard time spotting a Pitts in flight. I was in the pattern practicing landings and was followed by a Cessna also staying in the pattern; each of us was calling our turns and I just assumed that the lady pilot in the Cessna was well behind me. Mike was in the front seat, basically just along for the ride. I was on final only out about a half mile; I was still at pattern altitude but had just pulled the power back for the kamikaze approach to land. That’s when I heard the Cessna call: “….turning left base to final.” I knew that the Cessna was well behind me, but out of habit I turned left to look for the plane; when I saw Mike’s head casually turn as well, I ceased looking to the side and again concentrated on the approach. That’s when it happened: first the intercom came alive with “oh shit” blaring through the headset; simultaneously the throttle slammed forward and the stick came sharply back; Mike had the plane. Mike was very quiet for a long time but after he regained his composure, he was a able to describe in great detail what the Cessna and its pilot had looked like. Obviously the woman hadn’t seen us and I never saw her. I wasn’t really shaken up; the gravity of the situation hadn’t sunk in; Mike, however, was really shaken; he circled the field well above pattern altitude for several minutes before giving the plane back to me for landing. Mike had likely just saved my life.

But the next time it would be Mike who screwed up. We were downwind for landing, Mike announced that he was ducking down so that I would have a better sight picture of what the visibility was like without a passenger in the front seat; and with that he proceeded to unhook his seat belt and harness and moved down, completely out of sight. I need to digress. In an S2A, the rudder pedals for the pilot in the back seat are abeam the front seat; there is nothing surrounding these pedals to shield them from obstructions. Digressing further. My feet are big, my shoes are size 13; and I prefer to wear athletic type shoes that have wide soles. Because of the size of my shoes and the lack of protection around the rudder pedals, there was very little clearance between my shoes and the seat cushions in the front seat; unless they were perfectly centered in the front seat, these cushions would bind against one or both of my shoes restricting my ability to use the rudder pedals. Final digression. I was taught to fly with my feet placed on the lower portion of the rudder pedals in order to reduce the risk of inadvertently pressing on the upper portions which control the brakes; then when needed, the brakes could be operated by merely sliding my feet up to reach the upper portion. Now, with all of Mike’s twisting and turning to get out of my line of sight, he either dislodged and shifted the cushions or otherwise mashed some portion of his stout torso firmly against the sides of my feet. And I didn’t have a clue; the Perfect Storm approached.

In non aerobatic flight in a Pitts, the rudder pedals move very little; slight changes in pressures are all that is needed to achieve the desired results. And, while flying, if the pressure is a little bit “off” then a change of a few feet in altitude or a few degrees in heading is hardly noticeable and certainly not life threating.  But when on the ground during take offs or landings in any taildragger, and especially in a Pitts, even slight changes in pressure on the rudder pedals have very dramatic effects and must be applied precisely, with authority and immediately when required. Our approach to land seemed normal; so did the initial touchdown. But at the fist sign of a swerve I knew something was wrong and I immediately knew the cause; I also knew there was no way to fix it other than to deal with it. But the rudder pedals were ineffective without massive amounts of pressure, The plane swerved from side to side of the runway; the wings rocked back and forth as the plane was over controlled. Fortunately I did not try to apply power and attempt a go-around; that surely would have resulted in a full blown crash. I tried to slide my feet upward to get to the brakes in the hopes of regaining some control only to discover that my feet were stuck in the lower position. Pulling both of my feet back, shifting them to a higher position, and then reapplying enough force to offset the cushions and Mike’s butt finally got the brakes to begin to take effect to steer and slow us down. And all the while not a peep was heard from Mike as he stayed neatly tucked out of sight. Only after we had come to a complete stop did Mike reappear and comment: “Wow, you certainly know how to make this exciting.” I was speechless.

It was in Texas that I first took my son, who was probably about eight at the time, somewhere around 1993 I believe, to a local aerobatic competition. We ran into Mike and he offered to let my son sit in the front seat of an S2A. At my son’s height at the time his eye level when sitting inside was well below the sides of the plane; it must have seemed like he was inside an enormous cavern and he had no way to see outside the plane. It would be well over a decade before either of us would be in another Pitts.

And Then He Created Idaho

In 1988, I packed up my family and we moved to Pocatello, Idaho; and, upon arriving, if not on one of my pre-move visits, I visited a local FBO and inquired about the type of planes available for rent. The employee behind the desk recited a long list of Piper model numbers that meant nothing to me; then he paused and said: “…but then I don’t know how much complex or twin time that you have.” I told him that I had never flown a plane with a nose wheel. There was a very long pause before the conversation resumed; and then it took quite a bit of effort on my part to convince this fellow that I was serious.

As luck would have it, they had one taildragger—N1877G, a 7KCAB Citabtria. Citabria 77G might as well have been my own personal plane; after a quick checkout, I must have used it 90% of the time that it was flown. Compared to flying in the bay area, this was a dream: drive right up and park outside the hangar; the plane is waiting, ready to go, right inside.  It seemed like all of southeast Idaho was my personal playground, at least everything from Rexburg down to Twin Falls. There were flights that hugged the path of the Snake river as it meandered through Idaho Falls and near Pocatello and day trips further north in the shadows of the Tetons. There were so many out of the way places to go and relatively few people taking advantage of it.

I scoured the internet for a picture of 77G that I could add to this post but found none; what I did find was sad: 77G was destroyed in an accident that killed both people aboard; it happened in 1990, only a few months after I left  Pocatello.  Stupid accident that never should have happened. The idiotic details can be found here.

In The Beginning God Created A Citabria

Citabria

N5032G.  That’s where it all started.  At Reid Hillview Airport in East San Jose, California, in the year 1987.

Joe was my instructor and he was merciless.  On my second lesson Joe commanded that I keep my feet on the rudder pedals and keep the plane going straight as we took off; it was horrifying. At first, it was benign and we went straight; but Joe raised the tail quickly; we surged to the left.  The grass raced at us from the left of the runway and I responded with too much right rudder; then the grass raced up from the right.  Joe mercifully lifted us off at this point but the damage was done; I was a basket case and couldn’t tell you what we did for the rest of that lesson.  A few weeks later, Joe felt that I did not fully appreciate the capabilities of this fully aerobatic 115 horsepower rocket ship; so he climbed a few thousand feet and demonstrated a three turn spin; I had a headache for the rest of the day.

I learned a lot in 32G including a healthy respect for the wind.  Or you might say that I had the crap scared out of me.  I started my lessons in March and it took almost a year before I finally got my license.  During that first year somehow I managed to schedule all of my lessons on days when there was no wind; that was terribly unfortunate.  Shortly after I was licensed I awoke one day to severe clear weather in the San Francisco bay area, visibility was unlimited.  It was a great day for flying; the fact that the wind was blowing 25 gusting to 35, albeit it straight down the runway, didn’t seem to matter one iota.  Something was different from the moment I took off; the plane seemed to climb much steeper; it didn’t feel right.  And there were the bumps-lots of bumps.  But that was only the beginning.  As I paralleled  a ridge line,  I ran into severe turbulence; the right wing pitched up 60 degrees knocking the stick from my hand.  After quickly recovering my few remaining wits, I retreated to the airport and managed to get the plane back on the ground on the second try. That episode instilled such fear that I would not fly in wind exceeding 10 knots; and, if I hit bumps, I froze, even when I was a passenger on a commercial airliner; it took nineteen years for me to shake it off.

But I learned a lot.  Today, I cannot believe that I did my mandatory cross country flights using only a sectional, an E6B, a watch and the compass. The VOR in 32G didn’t even work; well it did work a little but the To-From flag was broken; it was only useful if you already knew where you were located. But eventually I had finished all the required training and passed the private pilot check ride; I was a newly minted pilot and the Citabria was my magic carpet to adventure.