Two Pilots & an LSW: Good Day

Yes it was!

The last couple of days I've been flying with students. This morning I was supposed to fly with a student at 9 am, and then take the T-6 down to Mt. Comfort where FiFi was going to be giving rides, and I was to give rides in the PT-26. My student forgot about today, and didn't show up. Fortunately I had texted him that we'd be done by 10 so I could head down there, and that's when he let me know he forgot, and he's 45 minutes or more away. So we canceled, and I hopped in the T-6 and flew to Indy.

As I was coming into the pattern I heard the B-29 on final for an overhead break. I watched FiFi fly past me in the air, go down the runway, break, and enter downwind, as I was just on the other side of the runway. Magnificent sight, just gave me a big old grin.

FiFi landed first, and I timed it to land right after they turned off at the end. Then I heard a gravely voice say "Hey, Laura!" It was Rozy, aka Doug R., from the CAF, flying FiFi. Well, cool! I parked, and there was Kim P, also from the CAF, and a friend. So I hung out with her much of the afternoon, and that was fun.

I gave two rides in the PT-26. On the second ride, I look over and a Stearman is coming right at me from the side. So I turn left, and look up, and now FiFi is headed right at me. We all did a little dodging and weaving, well, the Stearman and I did, FiFi just kept on motoring. Lol

Then Doug says "Are you checked out to fly the T-6 for the CAF?" I said "Nope". He said "You got 30 minutes to do it today?" I said "Yep!" Then I got kind of nervous because I was planning on going up and practicing a few things first. Then he said "We'll just do it from the back seat so you can instruct in them too." Now I'm more nervous. I have thus far just ridden back there, talked people through and saved a landing or two. I haven't actually done the flying from the back seat myself. I know I can rescue it, but the sight picture is different for maneuvers, I haven't done aerobatics from back there, I haven't done stalls from back there, I don't have my extra cushion, I'm just really not prepared for a checkride from back there. He wants to do an engine out, a falling leaf stall (which last time left me stopped inverted), all sorts of things. I need this checkout but I was going to do it later, after I got some more practice in. I thought we were going to do the front seat checkout, and I'm mostly ready for that. I truly am not comfortable going on a check flight with someone for something I haven't even practiced yet, and risk looking like a fool, or worse yet, a bad pilot. ;) But finally I decided to suck it up and do it.

The flight was not flawless. I lost altitude on a steep turn, my landings were not great, there were a couple other things I could have done better. His version of stalls was much more docile, and I caught them all without ending up inverted, which was extra nice. We went over into one incipient spin entry, sort of. We went around like 1/4 of a turn before we got out of it. It felt a lot more predictable and manageable at that juncture. I need to go back up and do it again, from the back. Still up good and high though. Then, of all things, he said "show me a loop and do a roll right out of it." Well, huh. That is JUST what I've been practicing, but that's the one sequence where I wasn't doing great on the roll. That's what happened here, too. The loop was okay, the roll was sucky. He gave me a couple pointers on that, and for one thing the angle from the back, I thought I had the nose up, but he pulled it way higher than I had when he did one. Anyway. Then we came in on landings, one with an engine out. Funny, I'd just practiced that too--from the front. Again, the landings were not great, and I was kinda embarrassed by that. He told me that he needed to see that I could save a bad landing, and that I always knew where the plane was, and obviously could fix it when it was botched. HAhahaha! I laughed and said "Even when it's self-induced!" (I didn't bounce, I just had to fight to keep it straight. I was landing sort of crooked, which isn't great in any tailwheel, let alone that one. I need to find a good sight picture.)

So when we landed, he said "Well, you can fly a T-6." I was elated that it was over, and that I'd done well enough to be signed off, with the caveat that this was not my best flying performance and I wish I'd been more prepared and been able to really nail it. I went to help some kids look into the cockpit of the T-6, and when I got back Doug was gone, but one of the local CAF guys (SF) was there. He told me he asked Doug how the flight went, and Doug said "Ehhhhhh" at first. I felt myself blush a little thinking that was serious, and then SF said "Then he said 'Just kidding. There are pilots who are stick and rudder guys who can't be professional. Then you have the pilots who are professional pilots who have no stick and rudder skills. Every once in awhile you get a pilot who is professional and who is still a good stick and rudder pilot. That's Laura, and that's pretty rare'." Well, I've felt warm and fuzzy about that all day. I'm going to keep feeling fuzzy about it, too. That's up there with one of the nicest compliments I've gotten. It's what I strive to be. And I'm still working on it. I obviously have some work to do from the back seat...