Acro Lesson

Ohhh! After years of the tedium of building and flying my SeaRey amphibious seaplane rightside up--and a full dozen years since I last did any aerobatics--it was time for a refresher! So I went flying with acro instructor Adam Cope in his Super Decathlon and did a few loops and various kinds of rolls.

My plan was not to get good at anything, but just to have some fun and learn to do a barrel roll. I'd never tried one before. That plan worked out fine.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a really good location for the camera. It had to be out of the way while flying and survive 3 or 4 g's positive and negative without coming loose. The only place I could find was the left shoulder strap of my parachute harness. That meant it was below the top of the instrument panel, pointing up and forward through the windscreen. And that meant that all it showed most of the time was sky. Except, of course, when the ground was in that direction. So you'll see some aerobatics in the video, but the view isn't what I'd hoped for. Next time I'll try to mount it higher in the airplane.

But for now I'm back to flying the SeaRey, landing on the water, step-taxiing, beaching, and other mundane flying chores. Tsk!

P.S. Find Adam Cope here: http://aerobaticman.tripod.com/index.html

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• aerobatic
• aerobatics
• acro
• stunt flying
• airplane
• Super
• Decathlon
• pilot
• SeaRey
• seaplane
• rolls
• loops
• inverted
• barrel
• slow roll
• aileron roll
• aviation

[SuperD820]

Not bad for an old guy