An Article for SimHQ

[Pyroflash]

A regular tailwheel pilot: "Okay, I'm going to get it into a 3 point and let it settle down."

 

A Pitts pilot: "I'm going to slip it in and force it to the ground until the damn thing stops moving. This thing settles in about as well as my ex-wife."

 

P.S. The Pitts is an absolute blast. All the Extra 300's in the world couldn't replicate THAT feeling.

[Headspace]

I'm going to have to try to get a flight in one of these now that I've read about your experience. I need to get tailwheel endorsed at some point, anyway.

[Gorrion 56]

AMAZING Article !!!!! Really enjoyed reading it. THANKS!!!!!!

[JozMk.II]

It truly is wonderful to finally experience what we've inadvertently been training ourselves for with these sims. I personally can relate to your story; a year ago, after playing IL-2 for years, as well as a bit of DCS: A-10C, DCS: Black Shark, and Rise of Flight, I had my first experience of piloting a fixed-wing aircraft: A PT-13 Stearman biplane. My skills that I had acquired from playing sims over the years translated over; I had sufficient coordination and familiarity to successfully make the airplane do what I wanted it to do, to a degree. I only piloted for perhaps ten minutes out of the twenty-minute flight, but nonetheless the experience had a huge impact on me. It caused me to see that I truly want to get my own pilot's license when possible.

 

Since then, I've begun playing FSX over the past few months. Now I know a thing or two about flying "elegantly;" coordinating my turns, using power with elevator to climb and descend, keeping my eye on several instruments at once while maneuvering the aircraft and looking all around me, holding a constant altitude in turns, etc. Just about a week ago, I got to go up in the Stearman again, and my skills I learned from FSX translated over. Here's the quoted experience from an email I sent to a friend:

 

These sims really can teach one proper coordination with piloting an aircraft...

 

Last Sunday, July 22 2012, I got to go up in and pilot the Stearman 75 biplane on the Oregon coast again, this time for about 45 minutes out of the hour-long flight. Our general course took us up North along the coast line before we turned around and headed back south to return to Florence Municipal Airport, which we took off from. Throughout the flight, Sam, the pilot, maintained a throttle setting of about 40%; perfect for cruising along and admiring the Oregon Coast.

 

Aside from the gentle turns, climbs, and descents that I did like last time, I also did several 45-degree-bank turns throughout the flight, which require the simultaneous use of rudder with elevator and ailerons for turn coordination. Boy, you really feel yourself getting pulled into your seat when doing those! "Oh yeah, we're pulling some Gs!" I remember myself saying aloud into my communication headset. Of particular note is when I ran into a significant spike of turbulence during one or two of my sustained turns; Sam told me that it was our own prop wash that we ran into.

 

Speaking of the turbulence, I recall it not really bothering me too much; Any slight turbulence-induced course deviations were easily fixed with use of the rudder pedals. Sam agreed with me; we both shared the feeling that it actually makes the flight more interesting.

 

I remember, as I was piloting, telling Sam that I felt right at home up there piloting the airplane. Being a pilot much of his life, he seemed to completely understand. It is noticeably different from driving a car, where you're confined to the roads, your time to react to threats is often much shorter due to other traffic being only feet from you, and you often can't see terribly well around corners where you need to turn due to obstructions. I almost want to say that the natural feeling of flying is not too far from that of when I go for a walk, or ride a bike. Granted, I didn't do any engine management, nor did I do any sort of maneuvering that I wouldn't do in, say, a Cessna 172, and I certainly didn't pilot the airplane during takeoff or final touchdown, but, it felt natural for me just doing what general aviation aircraft do most of the time that they are in the air; a feeling that is absolutely critical for any would-be pilot.

 

After flying North(and constantly trying a series of turns, climbs, and descents) for quite some time, we began to come upon a small grass airstrip. At this point, with Sam's permission, I turned the airplane about 90 degrees to the right, taking the aircraft over land. I remember watching some hills ahead of and below me as I cleared the beach, careful to keep an eye on them so that I would know I wouldn't run into them... Sam then instructed me to fly North a bit further, with the grass strip now in front of and to the left of us. I did such, and, with the grass airstrip now at about our 8 o'clock position, he took the controls, turned 90 degrees to the left toward the ocean, and descended while staying on a straight course for a bit. "What, are we going on a strafing run?" I asked sarcastically. He then turned 90 degrees to the left once more, now lined up with the grass runway. We buzzed the airstrip, flying from end to end, perhaps a hundred feet off the ground, myself laughing hysterically the entire time. "Now rock the wings!" I remember yelling as we flew past the end of the runway and gradually began to climb. He did just that, ever so subtly.

 

From there, Sam had me maintain a southern course back toward Florence, though he still let me try a series of turns, climbs, and descents throughout the trip back.

 

On the way back to Florence, with Sam's permission, I put the aircraft in a shallow dive from about 1000 feet, eventually pushing past 105 MPH(our normal cruise speed was about 70 MPH). Sam lowered the throttle just as I initiated the dive, so as to avoid over revving the engine. The volume of the wind flowing past the open cockpit increased significantly as I picked up speed. I leveled off before dropping below 500 feet and then climbed to regain altitude, with more of a pitch angle than normal at first as I exploited the kinetic energy that I had built up.

 

Sometime during our return to Florence, I recall noticing that Sam had the mixture set at about 60%. I asked him why he didn't have it set at full rich, to which he responded that it fouls the spark plugs, which requires a full day to fix when it occurs. The reason for their fouling at rich mixture is that the fuel that Sam has to use is a higher octane level than the Stearman's engine was designed for. For the octane-level that the Stearman's engine was designed for is no longer produced.

 

Upon approaching Florence, I saw a large ship coming out to sea along a jetty. I decided to try orbiting it. As I did such, Sam instructed me how to compensate for the wind coming from the North; Due to the constantly changing ground speed of the aircraft, I had to increase the bank angle as I went downwind, and decrease the bank angle as I went upwind, so as to keep the radius of the imaginary circle that I was tracing constant. That is, when the ground speed was lower, I had to lessen the rate of change in the aircraft's heading; and when the ground speed was higher, I had to increase the rate of change in the aircraft's heading. I wouldn't exactly say that the imaginary circle that I traced around the ship would look like a circle that you'd draw with a compass(a bit far from that), but regardless, the experience of orbiting the ship was remarkable, especially for directly observing and dealing with the wind direction's affects on the airplane's behavior.

 

Before landing, Sam had me fly to a series of sand dunes just a few miles south of Florence Municipal Airport. As we approached, Sam pointed out several patches of trees that looked like islands in the middle of a several-mile-long body of sand. I could also see numerous people on ATVs. Once we were over the dunes, Sam took the controls, and began flying the Stearman like a fighter plane. He put the bird in a 45-degree dive, descending to perhaps 100 feet above the surface, and circled above one of the <1000 ft diameter patches of trees, pulling G's like I had never felt before. I found myself laughing like a child! After circling once, he continued flying at low level along the dunes, pulling hard turns as he maneuvered somewhat with the terrain. "Uh, don't kill us, man!" I said to Sam lightheartedly. With a big grin on my face, I waved to several people that I saw down below. A few waved back. Sam, still perhaps a hundred feet off the ground, then sped the aircraft down a straight path in the same direction that a rider on an ATV was going in. "Hey buddy, how ya doin?" I said aloud between my hysterical child-like laughing as we quickly caught up with and overshot him.

 

After Sam's crazy sand dune flying, and after he gave me a brief tour of some lovely homes built along some pretty lakes close to the sand dunes, it was time to land. Sam let me try my hand at holding the aircraft on final approach, up until about 10-15 seconds before touchdown. This time, we approached the runway from straight out, as opposed to approaching from the opposite direction and turning around for final approach like last time. It proved tricky trying to hold a constant approach airspeed while avoiding going too high or too low on the approach course with the elevator as your primary means of controlling such. This is especially true in the Stearman; For while it is quite docile when cruising around, the aircraft is known to be a handful on takeoff and landing. Compounding the difficulty further is the rather limited forward visibility over the Stearman's nose, which makes it difficult to see the runway in front of you on landing. I didn't have any easy time holding the aircraft on approach, but Sam didn't take the controls away from me earlier than planned, so I think I did reasonably well for someone who has less than two hours of stick time in actual aircraft(and not to mention for having the nausea that I was starting to feel from the crazy maneuvering that Sam had just done over the sand dunes!).

 

Unlike last year, for this flight, I was able to more easily divide my attention across numerous instruments as well as the world around me as I maneuvered the aircraft. I recall keeping an eye on the altimeter, airspeed indicator, and the sea below as I held the aircraft in the previously mentioned shallow dive, so as to not over speed the aircraft nor drop below 500 feet. As I was doing climbs, descents, and turns (including 45-degree-bank turns), I was also able to swivel my head to keep awareness of the world all around me(and any potential aircraft that might have come within our vicinity!), as well as essential instruments such as the turn coordinator(essentially indicates how much rudder to apply while turning), the altimeter(you have to keep an eye on it in turns since it's easy to accidentally lose or gain altitude when maneuvering), and the airspeed indicator.

Wonderful experiences. Truly wonderful.