I really enjoyed this.
Chuck
At 10:10 PM 9/14/2006, you wrote:
For the purests that are discussing the LSF right now, sorry, I have
to write about this. For the rest of us that are bored stiff,
something to read.
I work for a company that sells a lot of Klein Tools, like we are
the second/third largest distributors in the U.S. Well, if you have
not seen it, KT sponsors a gentleman by the name of Michael Mancuso,
who lives on Long Island and flies an Extra 300 at events and many
of the IRL races the KT's also has a large vested interest in. You
can find info on Mike at www.mmairshow.com and you can see the ship there.
Well last fall, my two direct bosses got to take about 15 minute
rides each in the ship in SC and had a great time, they new I was
very jealous. There time frame was short so there was no way I
could get there. Well, our KT rep said that if I was going to be
where Mike was this summer sometime, to let him know and he would
see what he could do to get me a ride. Well, the SOAR guys Fred
contest was the same weekend as the IRL race in Joliet IL and I
checked to see if I could go. Well, after about a month of waiting,
the Tuesday before the Fred, the call came to meet Mike at Joliet
Airport on Friday at 1:00. I was there at 11:00 to make sure.
About 12:15 he overflew the field and then made the approach and
landed, I met them on the ramp at shutdown, his first words were,
"You're not ready or anything are you ?" Well, duh! Well, we shot
the stuff for a while talking about my flying background, RC
soaring, and my father. A young man was with him and he asked Mike
if he wanted the stick out of the front seat, he said no and I knew
this was shaping up real well. We took off to the east, and he
said, do you know where your field is that you are flying at, I said
sure and he said take it and take us there. The contest was to be
held west of Plainfield IL so we moved to PLF and then west and in
nothing flat were over the field. Well, there were a few cars down
there and I could see a winch and a ship or two on the ground,
nothing in the air. I said this was the place and he said are you
ready for some stuff, of course I said. There is no formal
aerobatic box in the area and Mike said this was as good a place as any.
Well, off we went, four point roll, immelemens, loops, full roll
rate rolls, eight points, tail slides, snaps, 6G pulls all with the
smoke on. My guts were going everywhere, but holding
together. After what seemed like a lot of stuff, he told me to take
it back and catch my breath, then he let me do a roll, and full
rudder turn. Compared to the pitch and roll axis, the yaw axis took
a lot of umph, the other two, you could breath that way and it was
going there. The ship flies very nice and is not twitchy per se,
but it definately has major authority in power and pitch and
roll. After about 30 minutes of flying, he told to head back to
Joliet and I figured he would take the ship somewhere along the
way. We kept on going, I asked if he wanted a me to set up on a
left down wind, it was an afirmative and to get to 1700' indicated
pattern altitude. So I kept on trucking and when we had passed the
end of the active and nothing was said, I went ahead and started a
turn to base and final. About 2/3 of the way around Mike comes on a
says to start feeding in some right rudder, for a slip ( a pretty
major one by my experiences) and he told to me maintain 90 indicated
on final approach. At this point I am still thinking he is going to
take the ship finally, I have never even been close to landing a
tail dragger in my life, much less land anything in years. We keep
on going and at about 50' he tells to let off the rudder and start a
flair and we preoceeded to make a full stall landing touching down
on the tail whell first. Mike took it back when he applied the
brakes an that was the end of my ride.
We pulled up to the ops building and shut down, standing up and
stepping off the ship was the only time I felt like I could have
blown the load, but I just took my time and we all proceeded to the
building. It took about 5-6 hours to feel somewhat normal again,
when you are not in shape for it, aero hurts a bit. We talked for a
while more and then they took off for University Airport in Boling
Brook where they were hangered for the weekend.
After they left, I went out to the field to see if the guys were
still there, you get a recording of the flight on DVD, but something
like this is way better if your buds see it. Rich and Pat were
there and I asked if anything cool had happened, "Oh nothing much"
and said really, and then Rich saw me smile and he said that was you
wasn't and I said yes. He said there was no way that someone that
did not know about them would have done that right over their heads,
and I said I wanted to let them in on my fun.
Mike asked me if I had always wanted a ride in a 300 and I said
honestly, NO. But I said the ride in the F-16 was probably not
going to happen, and this was way more than that could have been. I
doubt that I could have flown the pattern in a 16. So, I am back to
my normal life and I am waiting for my DVD of the ride to arrive,
who knows, I may post some on YouTube or something sometime in the
future. I will be able to relive that day for a long time.
I hope you enjoyed the read,
Marc
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