Rush of Blood to the Head

Flying Inverted in the Zlin
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

Sadly I had my last flight in the Zlin today. One full hour of loops, spins and pulling G’s. Five and a half was the maximum G’s that I pulled. Dave was gladly my cameraman, snapping pictures and videos with my camera. I don’t think any one maneuver took precedence of being my favorite. I even enjoyed recovering from a spin once I did one or two. The crazy thing about spin recovery is that you give full opposite rudder and push the stick forward and the spin increases in speed and if you don’t neutralize the rudders you’ll end up spinning in the other direction or if you push the stick too far forward then you’ll actually end up in a flat spin (neither of which is a good result and I came close to doing). But once I got the recovery down, spin recovery was actually a lot of fun. Over the course of the last three flights I did more than spins and loops, I did hammerhead stalls, snap spins, half Cuban eights, four point turns and four leaf clovers. The great thing about flying in the Zlin is that I was laughing the entire time. Lately flying has been very serious and intense because I am wrapping up my instrument rating, being under the hood and concentrating on shooting approaches and adjusting to the craziness of Miami Center/Daytona Approach. So it has been nice to lighten the mood with some inverted flying and make all the blood rush to my head.

To The Moon!!!

Kennedy Space Center
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

…Okay, no…To Kennedy Space Center. Paul and I decided to go up and check out the space center together. I knew that it would be an informational trip and receive a great tour, but what I didn’t realize was how amazing the experience would be. We got there and immediately saw this fun and informative 3D IMAX film on the International Space Station that many countries have joined together to build. After that you get on a tour bus which shuttles you around 140,000 acres of land that surrounds the space facilities. And believe it or not NASA only uses a small fraction of this land; the remainder is a wildlife reserve that is the home to thousands of animals. They take you to different locations and tell you brain bursting amounts of information. Such as, did you know that the shuttle landing facility is 3 miles long? Or did you know that the Russian’s were the first country to put a man in space and that America failed miserably for many years until we finally had our first man in space? Or that when landing on the moon things went terribly wrong with the Lunar Module, but America still successfully put the first man on the moon? The Space Center does a great job of sharing the history of both good and bad (embarrassing) events NASA encountered and shows that it is very much part of our lives today not only as American citizens but how the International Space Station has united many countries. I would strongly suggest if anyone comes to Florida and is in the Orlando area, consider going on the tour, it is better than Disney. I do want to clarify that as amazing and appealing as becoming an astronaut is, I think I will remain on earth as a pilot…I have so much to explore here in my airplane.

Loops and Spins and Barrel Rolls...Oh My!

Loop De Lou, Loop De La
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

Today I flew up side down. Yes, up side down. I did loops, barrel rolls and spun the Zlin. You would think that one would be nervous about performing such maneuvers, but the truth is, I was so excited! This was exactly what flying is all about, and I get three more hours in this toy airplane! The reason behind the aerobatic flying I did today is that Flight safety has students fly four hours in the Zlin for upset recovery and spin training. This is primarily so that as pilots we will know what to do if ever put in a spin condition and then on the side we get to have some fun and pull a few G’s. I had my first of four lessons today in which we did chandelles, lazy 8’s, Crazy 8’s and wingovers. These maneuvers gently increases in bank and pitch, easing us into more unusual attitude of flying. Chandelles introduced 30-45 degrees of bank in a high pitch attitude and by the time I was doing a wing over, with 90 degrees of bank, I was ready for a full fledge loop – which I promptly did again and again and again, until Dave, my instructor, told me it was time to stall spin the aircraft. We did that a few times, it happened so quickly, it was amazing that in an instant I had lost a thousand feet of altitude. I was like a little kid in a candy shop, which Dave saw and introduced me to barrel rolls. I could have done those all the way back to the airport. Then he wanted to know if I wanted to fly inverted – HELLS YA I WANTED TO! So he took the controls and flipped us up side down and we just cruised along for a while. The G’s I felt on my body as we pulled out of that was intense. I’m flying in the Zlin again tomorrow and I am shaking with excitement. More barrel rolls, loops and spinning!!! The accompanying picture was taken by Dave while up side down during one of my loops – look in the upper right hand corner and you can see the ground. Other than that, all is well with me, unfortunately my Apple is sick and has been sent to see Dr. Mac.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

This past weekend was a fun, but long, weekend. I say this because I got sick for the first time in Florida, ended up on antibiotics and about three other drugs. Despite my ears refusing to equal out I still went to my GATs training last Thursday and Friday. GAT training is a spatial disorientation type training where they put you in a C182 motion simulation and put you in different attitudes and illusions. Some of these included up- and down-sloping runways, false horizons, wider and narrower runways than what a pilot is normally used to and the Coriolis effect. I know there were others but I can’t think of them right now. The Coriolis effect was the only one that really made me dizzy and forced me to concentrate. But needless to say that this did not make me feel any better last week. However, somehow I felt better long enough to enjoy going to the Vero Beach Air show and then to Port St. Lucie to Tradition Field to see the Dodgers play the Mets. It was a beautiful great day. I went to the game with Melissa, Katie, Josh and Paul. I recently met Josh and Paul through Katie. These two guys came here Rochester, New York and are a lot of fun. I am hoping to go to a lot more spring training games with these guys. The following day, the same group of people, adding Jamie, went to a beach party thrown by another girl who is going to Flight Safety through NOAA. She was a sweetheart and we had a blast at her place on the beach. Oh…one other thing…I finally began my instrument training! I only have nine lessons total and then, well I have my check-ride. I will be sure to keep everyone updated on that, but it’s going to happen fast.