Soaring With Sagar

Literally hanging out the door of our photoplane, a harness safely secures me from falling out of the airplane. (Sagar Pathak)You Spin Me Right ‘Round

By Sagar Pathak

You look outside and all you see is the ground flying past you; greens and browns all blurring into one shade. A second ago you were performing an “immelman” in your new Pitts Special S-2B, and now you and your plane are in a spin hurdling towards the ground. Your instincts kick in, you pull the power back to idle, let go of the stick, look over the nose and figure out which direction you are spinning, full opposite rudder, stop the spin, and recover.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get a taste of flying a high-performance aerobatic airplane with airshow great Tim Decker in his immaculate S-2B. In his sixth year of airshow flying, Tim has perfected flying at the edge of the envelope and invited me out to his hangar in Lincoln, CA (KLHM) for a weekend crash course (no pun intended) of unusual attitude recoveries, spin training, and a taste of some basic aerobatics.

Originally meant for someone who is planning or has just purchased an aerobatic airplane such as the Pitts Special, a Christen Eagle, or Extra 300, Tim Decker Airshows offers a custom course on learning how to safely handle your aircraft by becoming familiar with safety maneuvers and techniques to recover your aircraft. But as Tim showed me, you do not have to have aspirations of becoming an airshow pilot to take advantage of this invaluable training; a simple private pilot’s license and the desire to become a safer pilot will do just fine!

Tim Decker Airshows offers a custom course in aerobatic manuevers and safety for pilots. (Sagar Pathak)Unusual attitude and spin recovery are maneuvers that were once taught to all general aviation pilots. But in time, the FAA dropped the requirement and left a vital hole in pilot safety. While some CFIs talk about them, they themselves may only have a basic understanding of the maneuvers and how to recover. But flying with a professional pilot such as Tim Decker, who has logged more than 5,000 hours in both military and civil aircraft such as the U-2, F-117, T-38, RV-4, and the Pitts S-2B, and whose logbook endorsements include Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), Certified Flight Instructor Instruments (CFII), Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI) ratings, an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, and a Level 1, Unrestricted Solo Aerobatics, and Statement of Acrobatic Competency License, is a guarantee of flying with someone who can teach you not only how to recognize, but to prevent and recover from these potentially fatal situations. According to a 2003 AOPA study, 28 percent of stall/spin accidents were fatal compared to other types of GA accidents. And while flying is a relatively safe activity, arming yourself with the proper training and tools to be an even safer pilot is common sense.
    Being a newly-minted Private Pilot, I wanted to get an introduction to the proper techniques before I developed any bad habits of my own. Even though I am a new pilot, pilots with thousands of hours can find themselves in dangerous situation such as suddenly having to perform an upset attitude recovery for a wake turbulence encounter, or sudden avoidance maneuver (impending mid-air) that results in unusual attitude or spin. So with my logbook in hand, I drove up to Lincoln for my weekend with Tim.

The plan was to simply get a brief taste of the three major components of Tim’s course, with the mindset of being a pilot who is interested in owning a Pitts or Christen Eagle. I would fly three flights in the Pitts and get and introduction to unusual attitude recovery, spin recovery, and aerobatics, with each flight laying the fundamentals for the following. Normally, each of these subjects would warrant three to five flights each, ensuring proper grasp of the fundamentals before moving on, but I wanted to get a feel of it all.

As I walked into the green hangar, the red and white S-2B sat calmly but looked like it was itching to jump in the air and let its’ prop take a bite of the sky. With a warm smile and hearty handshake, Tim welcomed me in. After a few minutes of small talk, it was time to get down to business. With the weather clearing up, we wanted to get up in the air as soon as possible.

First flight of the day was an introduction to unusual attitude recovery. Unusual attitudes are when the aircraft is in anything other than straight and level flight. Depending on the degree of the disparity, the application of recovery will vary drastically. The two basics that I was going to be introduced to was a “nose high recovery” where my nose is pointed nearly straight up and in a banking turn where I would be climbing rapidly and losing airspeed and setting myself up for a potential spin. And in the other situation, we would focus on a “nose low recovery” where the nose of my aircraft would be in a dive, quickly gaining airspeed and approaching the never exceed speed (Vne) of the aircraft and the ground.

As I listened to Tim walk me through the two scenarios, he broke it down into the basic elements where I could understand why we were doing each maneuver. I will admit that it was a lot of information to take in, but using the models and explaining how we were utilizing the lift vectors to our advantage, I felt good to go.

The vertical stabilizer of the Pitts S-2B, is fully deflected in the opposite direction of the spin to help the pilot safely recover. (Sagar Pathak)So we pulled out the plane and I jumped into the front seat to get strapped in. First I had to strap on the parachute’s chest strap, two leg straps, then the 5-point harness (two over the shoulder, two across the lap, and one in between your legs) and finally one more lap belt for good measure. Oddly the tighter the straps, the safer I felt. Then came the roar the engine and before I knew it, we were heading down the runway and leapt skyward.

The benefit of flying out of quiet Lincoln was that we were at our practice area within minutes. A few quick safety checks and clearing turns and it was time to get unusual! Before each maneuver, Tim would first demonstrate it, then hand me the stick and I would do it. Easy enough right? Ohhhh nooo!

Tim put the Pitts Special into an 80-degree nose high, 25-degree bank and told me to recover. Starring ahead at nothing but blue sky, I grabbed the stick and was ready to go through my recovery checklist. With my airspeed dropping really fast, I add power so I didn’t decelerate. Then I had to roll and pull the aircraft’s nose back down to the horizon (half ground, half sky), get to the horizon, and roll out to wings level. Easy enough, right? Well, that is what I was supposed to do. Here’s what actually happened.

“We were doing a nose-high recovery that you (Sagar) turned into a nose low one. What I (Tim) wanted you to do was roll and pull to the horizon, and then when you got to the horizon, roll out. Instead you rolled and pulled past the horizon. Then you partially rolled out and just kept going into a spiral. I think what you did was that you kept pulling harder and harder, and somehow got the lift vector past the 90-degree point and recovered. Luckily we were at 5,500 to 5,600 feet, and I was like ‘Okay, this is interesting.’ But you recovered.”

How I recovered, I have no idea. But apparently if you pull hard enough, long enough, you’ll solve anything! Honestly I lucked out, because I could have easily turned that into spin. But save it for the debrief. Time for the “nose-low recovery.”

Once again Tim demonstrated it, and then set me up for to try it myself. Pull the power back. Roll wings level. Pull aggressively and briskly. Use the lift vector. If you pull too hard you will go through the stall and mush right into the ground. If you don’t’ pull hard enough, you risk hitting the ground. Easy enough, right? Well, luckily I did much better at the two nose low attitudes that Tim threw at me.

Normally, unusual attitudes would be spread out over three flights: first with some gentle ones, second with more aggressive ones, and third would be full-blown aerobatic maneuvers. But as we debrief and I just focused on absorbing as much as I could, I realized that I was just scratching the surface and not trying to go after perfection. It was a good time to end for the day.

An expert in formation flying, Tim Decker turns the “smoke on”and maneuvers his plane less then 100-feet from the photoship. (Sagar Pathak)Day two was setting up to be a busy one. Our goal was to squeeze in two flights and get an intro to spins and aerobatics. With the same format as the previous day’s flight, we did a through briefing, hopped into the plane, Tim demonstrates a maneuver, Sagar demonstrates, repeat, head back to the airport and then debrief. It was hard to keep all of the information straight as each maneuver and flight built on the previous ones. But Tim was quite patient and reminded me that this was just an introduction.

The flight on spin recovery was actually the one I was most afraid of. Visions of the plane tumbling out of control had been dancing through my head all week long. Flashes of “Maverick” trying to reach for the ejection handle as he and “Goose” plummet towards the ocean in a flat spin were in my thoughts. And I was going to be in an aircraft and expected to recover? You’ve got to be kidding me.

But the reality was that this was a calculated maneuver: one where I had an amazing airshow pilot watching out for me, and who always has safety in mind. We setup the maneuvers at a very high altitude so that we had time to recover, and Tim was always there to recover in case I was unable to.

On the ground we talked about the various types of spins: Upright spins, flat spins, accelerated spins, inverted spins, inverted flat spins, and inverted accelerated spins. But during the flight, we would only work on upright spins.

While trying to remember the exact flow, I asked what would happen if I messed up the order? Tim started to tell me about one student that he had. “I had a young guy who came in who had his own Pitts S-2B and said that he nearly killed himself doing a spin in his own airplane and he had no idea why it wouldn’t come out of the spin. He said by luck and the grace of god he came out of it but had no idea why and now he’s scared of his own airplane. So I sat with him and we talked about it and I realize what he had done. First he was using the traditional spin recovery technique and not the emergency spin recovery technique and then he got it out of order. He was trying to break the stall before he got rid of the rotation. If you are in a full spin with the rudder stomped in, and lower the nose, it accelerates the spin tremendously. And this guy was lowering his nose first, accelerating the spin tremendously, and he stomped on the opposite rudder, he was not getting out of it.”

So while this was all ‘fun’ to a degree, it reminded me that this was serious business. If I had actually been an owner of a Pitts or an Extra, I could easily see the benefit of taking a course like this.

As Tim put it, “the typical Private Pilot or even Commercial Pilot, doesn’t look at spins. The benefits are tremendous, because when you start flying a Christen Eagle, Pitts, Extra or something like that, it’s very easy to find yourself in a spin just due to a blown maneuver. So it would be naïve to buy or regularly fly an airplane like that without going through spin training. As an airshow pilot, I purposefully try to get myself in these situations because it looks cool. And I want to be able to consistently recover myself from that each and every time.”

But enough talk, it was time to get back in the air. After our safety check and making sure the area was clear of other air traffic, Tim demonstrated the first spin: Straight and level at 5,000 feet. Pull the airspeed to idle, back pressure on the stick to slow us down to nearly a stall, horn starts going off, kick in full left rudder, and away we went.

The two things that have to be present to cause a spin were both there. Stall and yaw. A couple of turns and Tim recovered and we climbed back for my turn.

With Tim talking me through it, I entered the spin. Then it was like I actually knew what I was doing. Power to idle, Remove your hands from the stick, full opposite rudder until the rotation stops, neutralize the rudder, and recover to level flight. Or so I thought. On my first attempt, I fed a bit of forward stick nearly causing us to enter an accelerated spin, which is harder to recover from because the rudder becomes ineffective. On my second attempt, I did better, but still, not quite there.

Return to base, debrief, water, bathroom, brief and back in the air. It was as if I was in the military flying back-to-back sorties. But if I was flying, I would want this former U-2 Commander watching my back. As we made it back to the practice area, I was reviewing everything that we had gone over in the past two flights.

Aerobatics was the ‘real world’ scenario where I would need to employ the unusual attitude and spin recovery. The goal was to quickly and efficiently recover from blown maneuver, without loosing excess altitude and gaining excessive airspeed (Vne), or end up nose high and stall the aircraft (and if I did, then to stay coordinated and so I don’t turn it into a spin). Easy enough, right?

For our final flight, Tim was going to have me do a Loop, Cuban 8, Immelman, and a Hammerhead. While I had seen airshow performers do it countless times, this was going to be the first where I would be trying it myself.

Even the most basic of maneuvers, a loop, was challenging for me. I started the maneuver at 160 knots and pulled back on the stick at 4 G’s. As I brought the nose up, I relaxed the backpressure on the stick, tilted my head as far back as possible and found “my line,” which was a road on the ground to keep me on track through the loop. During the pull, I was constantly looking left and right at the trailing edge of the wings and tried to keep them symmetrical on the horizon. If they were not both symmetrical, then I had some extra bank in them and needed to compensate by adding rudder. As I floated the plane over the top, I started to gain airspeed and had to compensate by adding backpressure to the stick. And still looking left and right to make sure the plane is level and pull through the loop. The couple of times I tried it, I couldn’t keep a smooth nose track. I was pulling too hard, too light and ratcheting the airplane instead of smoothly pulling through the loop. Guess I’m not going to perform in any airshows this season.

We then continued though the rest of the three maneuvers. Ironically, during the Cuban 8, I passed through the 45-degree line and ended up in a nose low attitude and had to recover. Unfortunately I did not recognize that until Tim told me, and in that one moment, the value of this training was evident.

Airshow great Tim Decker congratulates me after a weekend of amazing flying. (John Kluenker)The final part of this weekend’s flying was that Tim was going to give me a taste of what it was like to be in the plane with him during his airshow routine. Well, let’s just say that I have a new found respect for what he does and will never look at another airshow act without my stomach tightening and little beads of sweat forming on my forehead.

So with the flick of the stick, we leapt right into it. Well, all I got through was the first five of a total of 24 maneuvers before having to call it quits. In the span of less than two minutes, Tim put me through a ¾ of a Loop with 1 ½ turns on the down line followed by a 4-point roll followed by a torque roll then a centrifuge, and a half Cuban 8. Imagine the coolest rollercoaster that you’ve been on and then multiply that by 100! And no, I did not lose my lunch!

If you are thinking of getting an aerobatic airplane or want a refresher course on safety maneuvers, or just wants to become a safer pilot, I highly recommend that you go fly with Tim Decker Airshows. (http://www.timdeckerairshows.com) A special thanks to Tim Decker, John Kluenker and James Baker for all of their help.