Page 25 - Sept 19 TNT

Pre-Flight Briefing “Do you know what a D-ring is?” Dan asks as he hands me a packed parachute. This isn’t a common pre-f light brief- ing for me, so I listen intently to his description of the parachute harness and operating procedure (due to the nature of the training, we are both required to wear parachutes). The pack is secured, and I am soon sitting in the front seat of Dan’s Extra. A familiar feeling of nervous anticipa- tion is creeping up on me again. Even though I just completed a few aerobatic maneuvers in an L-39 Albatros, I know the Extra is a different animal. With a G loading limit of +/- 10 G’s, the pilot (me) is much more likely to break than the airplane. Dan is all too familiar with this hesitation and knows exactly what to say. “I want to step you up through the maneuvers slowly,” Dan explains. “We start with the low G maneuvers followed by the rapid roll maneuvers and then if you’re up for it, the tumbles. Part of the training is learning the physiology of flight. Anyone can get sick when they are riding along in this airplane. My goal is that you will not get sick. My goal is that you will have fun and will want to do this again.” I feel reassured as Dan situates him- self behind me and the canopy is closed. Looking forward from the front seat is a totally different picture than that of the Citations I typically fly. Two lonely gauges stare back at me from the panel – an airspeed indicator on the left and an altimeter on the right. Apparently, any additional instrumentation would only serve as a distraction. Between these two gauges and the excellent visibility out of the canopy, I’ll have all the information that I need. With the sun beaming in, Dan quickly gets things going and we S-turn our way to the end of the runway. It is a blus- tery day, so Dan performs the tricky crosswind takeoff. After popping off the ground and getting trimmed out for climb, the controls are passed to me with instructions to climb eastbound to 4,500 feet. I expected an aircraft with a 270-de- gree per second roll rate to be twitchy, or even squirrely to control, but I am im- mediately surprised to find the aircraft is an intuitive flyer. It is much lighter and nimbler than anything I have ever expe- rienced, providing instant results thanks to the pushrod control arms running from the stick directly to the oversized f light controls. With little more than fingertips on the center control stick, it seems that all I need to do is think about what I want and it responds. Low G Maneuvers With an initial understanding of the Extra’s handling characteristics from fly- ing to the practice area, it is now time to really get to know the bird. Steep turns are up first, so I begin a roll to the left. My eyes instinctively come inside the cockpit to look for the attitude indicator to get an idea of my bank angle. No such TuArebrionmesa,nIinac. September 2019 / TWIN & TURBINE • 23