The Southeast Coast Editor...
Comes to the Left Coast.
I have not had the pleasure of sharing time & space with Gator for far to many days, weeks, and/or years. While I was at Pepperdine, School of Law, attending a seminar, he flew out for some flying frivolity. As luck would have it he finished on Saturday and so did I. By a stroke of luck we gathered at Rumbear Manor and headed out for dinner and, uh, ummm, several adult beverages. A good time was had and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing of his adventures aloft. On this point I will defer to his report on the time spent in the cockpit.
After much careful thought about how to spend some precious and valuable time off, I decided to do some new types of flying (what a surprise)....I was looking for something that satisfied my desire to have a meaningful and productive vacation and by turning the days into formal flight instruction, was able to achieve my goals. The experiences were liberating, game changers and mentally stimulating, not to mention the most fun I have had after several months of hard work. I have to say that poets have described activities with action verbs and graceful prose better than me but that last three days have been exciting, gut wrenching, awesome, spectacular, ....what can I say, I have just had this huge smile thinking about the experiences.
The flight training in the Schweitzer 2-32 at Skysailing started with ground school instruction from Polly, the Chief Instructor and all around wonderful person who asked me what I wanted to do...did I want the formal, by the book classes and t
echnical charts, graphs, mathematical theory or would I like to just get the feel of the sport and go flying...I said lets go have some fun and that is what we did. The tow plane took us up to 7200 feet above sea level and we dropped off looking for some thermals...the forecast was not promising so we tried to make the best of it and when Polly saw a golden eagle she said we may be in luck. Sure enough we followed the eagle and found a thermal and up we went like an elevator. I was in sensory overload with the long wings and high lift to drag ratio. Eventually it started coming together and we topped out at 9200 feet. The eagles and hawks are far more skilled at using the same thermals....huge smile for me but it was a little sweaty getting th hang of it. I flew over to Mt. Palomar where we found zero lift and then did some mental gymnastics with sink rates, time and distance and winds aloft to set up an approach which is so much different than in a powered airplane. On my first landing I flared too much and hit the tail wheel...a rather big no-no....
After lunch we went up again and this time dropped off the tow plane at 6000 feet and immediately climbed to 10,300 in some beautiful California summer thermals, chasing the eagles and hawks again. We had some other gliders in the same airspace and let me tell you, it gets pretty busy when you are flying around and around and the other guys are trying to use the same columns of rising air. What a blast! This time we stayed aloft for over two hours, did cross country, a stall series and some ridge flying. Back to the airport for my second landing and this time I flew it right to the ground like I was supposed to and got out thoroughly stoked!
After a great evening with Mike B and Ray Y in Del Mar, I got up Saturday morning and drove to Montgomery Field in San Diego, home of Barnstorming and the Air Combat flight experience. This event is highly structured one vs. one air combat engagements where the two aircraft fly a mock battle and try to shoot the other airplane down. Of course there are no bullets or guns but the aerial dog fight is real in that the first pilot to get on his opponents' tail wins. Both aircraft start the event at the same altitude and flying directly at one another with about 300 feet of separation. Once you pass each other going in opposite directions, the dog fight is on. The most aggressive pilot usually wins because he out turns the other, less aggressive pilot.
The day starts with a 30 minute briefing done by our instructor pilot "Lex" a former U.S. Naval Aviator and F-18 fighter pilot. He is technical to a point but simplifies the briefing enough so that the non-pilot customers can get the gist of the flying. Warning, this is not for the weak of stomach. After we were introduced to the Varga Kachina aircraft, "1100 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal," we boarded and our instructo
rs used hand signals to communicate with each other during warm up, taxi out, pre-departure checklists, and then we did a formation take-off, a first for me. ((-: Climbing out of Montgomery airspace, we crossed Miramar Marine Corps airbase and then did some air work to get me familiar with how the airplane handled. Let me tell you, applying dogfight theory to real stick and rudder movements is harder than it looks if you’ve never done it before so Lex, my instructor did a couple of examples and then talked me through the maneuvers. I immediately noticed that my opponent busted the pitch and roll limits previously stated in the pre-flight briefing. The first dogfight was flown at the limits of the airplane and I was slightly more aggressive than my opponent and after about 5-6 times around in extremely tight turns to the left, I gained an advantage and won the fight. The next time I had a penalty and was only allowed to use q reduced power setting ( my opponent was not a rated pilot) so the intent was to let him win round two. He did and I flew at the ragged edge of a stall for most of the flight. Still sweaty and lots of G forces although not anything like the 7 G's F-18 fighter pilots feel. I can say without any reservations, the G's I felt were the most I have ever flown in an airplane and the most exciting. It is quite an eye opener when you see that guy on you tail knowing he is gunning for you. No points for second place in this flight. After round three which I flew too aggressively and lost my advantage by entering high speed stalls and a wimpy yo-yo maneuver that my opponent countered, we knocked it off and the two instructors flew a 1 v 1 and the difference between a novice like me and the professional air warriors is dramatic. I was in awe and realized just how far I had to go to be anywhere near their level.
On the way back to Montgomery, I was allowed to fly formation and picked up some valuable tips on how to do that. Never having done it, I was all smiles. Let's just say I was grinning from ear to ear, was a sweating mess and thoroughly impressed as I started to review the experience. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed 1 v. 1 dog fighting, mostly because it was something I ( and probably most every other non-military pilot ) had wanted to try and see if I was worthy enough or had what it took to do this without losing my cool or my lunch.
I then had the privilege of having dinner and a great evening with my old time aviation buddy and successful lawyer, you know as Rumbear. This may have been my greatest three days in aviation and that is saying a lot for a guy who started by riding my bike to Berz airport in Troy when I was 13-14 spending my hard earned lawn mowing, leave raking and snow shoveling money on flying lessons.
