Manic Monday, what else?

Well, the weather down here hasn't been as bad as a lot of other places, Temperatures right at freezing when we wake up.  Been topping out in the high 40's .  Forecast for this week is highs in the 60's and 70's and lows in the 30's and 40'.  Had icy roads when this front first came through, but they cleared up by lunch. So not a really big deal, most people stayed home for a day or at least a morning. Not a lot of meat in that for a posting.

So, anyhow I re-posted a tale from 5 years ago, flying related.  Hope you enjoy it.

...Abundance of Caution

 Abundance of Caution.  I've only spoken those words once in my life.  I was a student pilot early in the T-37 phase of pilot training.  The syllabus for the ride I was scheduled to fly that day included "Introduction to Spins and Spin Recovery."  This was generally considered the least favorite mission in the entire syllabus.  One would take an airplane up and intentionally put in out of control, spinning in flat circles with unexpected pitch up and down moments all the while falling out of the sky.  Literally, the  aircraft was no longer flying.  On this flight, I was scheduled with an IP whose callsign was IronMan.  He had been an F-105 pilot with a couple of tours you know where.  

Been there, done that, got all the respect that he deserved.  But...He didn't put up with much BS, you either knew your S*** and executed it properly or you didn't pass the ride.  And...

You re-flew it with him!

So, we're in the briefing for the mission.  He asks me to recite the bold faced Emergency Procedure for Spin Recovery.  

Bold Faced procedures are required to be memorized perfectly, down to the punctuation and spacing.  Students would be selected at the Flight Briefing at the start of the flying period (as opposed to academic period) and given a hypothetical flying situation.  Most required bold face.  If the bold face was incorrect (e.g. not perfect), the student would be told "Sit Down!" and he'd be grounded for the day.  

That tended to mark you for further inquiry if you actually "Knew your S***" or were just bluffing.

I manage to recite the spin recovery procedure to IronMan successfully.

Throttles – Idle

Rudder and Ailerons – Neutral

Stick – Abruptly full aft and hold

Rudder – Abruptly apply full rudder opposite spin direction (opposite turn needle) and hold

Stick – Abruptly full forward one turn after applying rudder

Controls – Neutral after spinning stops and recover from dive

Yes, 47 years after the fact, I did that from memory.  Although I confirmed the accuracy here.  (A short post with some additional entertaining commentary, go read it.  I'll wait.)

So, IronMan and I start to talk about the mission and how we'll go about it.  He'll demonstrate the first spin and recovery then it'll be me.

Suffice it to say, I'm nervous.

You might understand why.

Airborne, we set up for the spin.  Ironman has the throttles at about 80% and the nose about 45^o high.  The stall warning horn is going off like crazy, the airplane is shaking and finally stalls.  Ironman then steps on a rudder as it stalls to induce yaw.  

My eyes are about as big as basketballs now.

He holds the controls as they are for three complete turns.  

I now have a good idea how long eternity is.

He executes the bold face, the aircraft recovers in a dive and he smoothly pulls it out of that.  Hands it over to me.  We climb back up

I pull the throttles back, nose up, it stalls and pitches down.  I immediately do the bold face and recover.

He snatches the aircraft from me asks me "WTF was that?"  I said, "out of an abundance of caution I thought I'd try an easy one first."

He replied "My Aircraft".  We flew home and landed.  I've busted my first & last ride in UPT.

He said a pilot can and must use caution in performing the mission.  However, accomplishing the mission is his first priority and too much caution is not acceptable.  One is always at risk when flying.

He then went and scratched out the student he was flying with that afternoon and wrote my name in.  

I was peeved.  I'll show this SOB!  We get up in the air.  He asks if I want him to demo another one. 

"NO, sir"

I entered the spin, held it for four turns (I'll show him!) executed the bold face and even managed to recover from the dive without exiting the bottom of the airspace.  Which would have been an automatic Flight Safety Bust.  

Got back on the ground.  Got an excellent on the ride.  Found out later that he'd been key to my getting a fighter out of Pilot Training.

We flew a lot more together in the program.  I learned a lot from him but having an "Abundance of Caution" was not on the curriculum.

Here's a longer version of Spin Training, but does include what it looks like from another airplane.

So, what brought this up, juvat? Got a little bit behind the power curve on the posting timeline, so had to publish a replay. Why you ask?

Did a walk through of our property Friday with the Builder.  He's got the property clearing team ready with the dozers and stuff.  They're going to take down a limited number of mature trees and virtually all the undergrowth. 

Just a tad bit of pruning needed.  Let's get started!

 

Oh yeah, he's also going to take down the old house and cart that debris away also. 

so...just another Manic Monday! 

 

So it begins.

Cheers to all y'all.

juvat