DylanAviation

How often does this have to happen before irresponsible pilots stop killing themselves and innocent people by flying low level aerobatics? It happened again, recently over the ocean beaches on Florida’s Treasure Coast. A local pilot with a reputation for “showing off” exceeded the limits of his airplane’s V-G diagram. The pilot lost control and spun into the water killing himself and his adult passenger. I mention adult, because the next scheduled flight that day was with a youngster in the young eagles program.

I recently received the following email. I think it is a great question. You can decide about my answer.

Jim, I just read this article on spins: www.aopa.org/training/articles/2010/100603spins.html?WT.adv=adv1

Teaching pilots to fly tail wheel aircraft and teaching aerobatics is very similar. The pilot must have command of the airplane to do either. Being in command includes controlling yaw and coordinating the use of rudder and ailerons together. The Dutch Roll is a great control coordination exercise. The Dutch Roll is simply rocking the wings, right? It seems easy enough, but the Dutch Roll can destroy your self esteem.

Recently a West Palm Beach, Florida pilot lost his life in an aircraft accident. The aircraft reportedly lost power shortly after take off. The pilot attempted to return to the airport. His maneuvering ended abruptly in a stall spin event.

If you will be attending the Sun n Fun Fly In, at Lakeland Florida in April, you might be interested in the Educational Forums. If you can attend one or more Sun n Fun Forums, it will be time well spent. All of the speakers are experienced professionals offering valuable information to help us all become more responsible pilots.

If you enjoy flying an airplane, you will want to bring aerobatics into your life. Please visit this link to learn more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJM6OEEy_CA

Pilots of aerobatic aircraft fly for different and personal reasons. They come from many backgrounds and they fly with differing levels of skill and ability; however, all pilots who fly aerobatics share one commonality – we are smiling.

Life is stressful; stress hates fun; inject more fun into your life! That is why you should fly aerobatics.
• Take a few minutes each day and just hang upside down.

Would you do the right thing in an emergency? You will react the way you trained. You have earned your license to pilot an airplane, now learn to fly the thing.
Emergency Maneuver Training is my definitive stick and rudder flight training course. Take a few hours of proper instruction to learn that flying near “the edge” is fun, and it could save your life.
• Discover and correct your bad piloting habits.
• Learn to fly a 60 degree, 2g turn just above stall speed.
• Learn the chandelle and wing over maneuvers, and imagine you are Snoopy as he dog fights with the Red Baron.

Leighton Collins writing in the classic book, Stick and Rudder, describes “the great booby trap that the airplane sets for the pilot”. Consider a pilot starting a base to final turn, but the turn is developing too wide. The pilot realizes the plane will not be aligned with the runway when it rolls out of the turn, and the pilot makes a poor choice.

He/she uses the rudder to tighten the turn. Heavy in turn rudder causes the airplane to skid to the outside of turn. The out-board wing speeds up and develops more lift relative to the inboard wing. The bank becomes steeper.

I hope every pilot will discover and visit the AOPA Air Safety Foundation web site from time to time. This web site offers a plethora of features and information for all pilots who care to become a better pilot. (www.AOPA.org/asf)

One of the big features on the ASF site is the educational courses that can be completed on line for wings credits. The newest of these courses deals with the use of the radio.

The Chandelle is just one of the maneuvers flown in my Emergency Maneuvers Course. This course is meant to be a definitive safe flying clinic that reviews best pilot practices to safely extricate a small airplane from an emergency situation. In the case of loss of control accidents, almost all involve a turn. It follows that learning to properly fly Emergency Maneuvers should begin with a comprehensive study about the anatomy of a turn.