THIS IS WHY WE DO IT - WHITE ISLAND - DECEMBER 2008
What a lovely weekend we have just had weather-wise. Shame I couldn't be up there. Never mind, I watched youngest (16) daughter's netball team thrash the opposition while feeling a pang of jealousy seeing a couple of light aircraft overfly Minogue Park and got a bit of gardening done. So with nothing current to report I thought I would do another retrospective on my flying experiences.....
Flashback to 8th January 2009. I had a mind to, if not get an actual rating, at least to get some tailwheel experience. I had been up in a Harvard in England a couple of years back (I'll save that story for another blog sometime) but having seen the C-180 "JFG" at the club a few months back I thought I would give it a go. My first time up was in late December 08 with CFI, Roger and we concentrated on using a constant speed prop and getting used to the extra power (235 horses compared to the 180 on the 172s). This time it was circuits and after doing a preflight and refuel on the"beast" - seemed a lot bigger than the 172 - we headed off to Te Kowhai.
Now, it was about 29ºC, mid afternoon and very sunny. Roger had greeted me with, "Are you sure you want to do this?" when I arrived at the club and, game for anything, I said, "Yes". Roger warned me I was going to get a bit hot and sweaty!! (Great Kiwi understatement rather than British??!!!)
So, into the circuit at Te Kowhai, right hand for 05, and I was already hotter than was comfortable. The 180 has virtually no mod-cons. Air conditioning? - you must be joking. This is a plane for "real men" (or "real ladies", too). The trimming, and you need a lot of it, is very heavy as the whole tail has to move. So, on downwind I had to get the throttle and pitch set for 22 (" of mercury on the manifold pressure with throttle) and 22 (rpm with the pitch control) do the usual checks and, once first flap was applied, trim like mad to keep the nose up. Base and next stage of flap, throttle back a bit, more trimming to get the atitude right, then onto finals and full flap with Roger on the intercom, "Trim. Trim, trim!". OK, Rog I'm doing that as well as making sure I'm not getting too close to those trees and trying to remain somewhere near the centreline. Short final, carb heat cold, pitch fully fine, lined up, lots of back pressure as I come over the theshold to flare, closing the throttle and, bump, down OK and a bit of brake and you stop, if not on a ten cent piece, then pretty damned quickly. Now I know why tailwheel planes are still used for those remote, short and rough airstrips.
No time to wipe the sweat from my brow, we are off again. 10º flap, full throttle, 40 knots and stick forward to lift the tailwheel, hold that attitude, and the beast flies off in a very short distance indeed! I think we did another three circuits with my landings a little better each time and then it was back to Hamilton to be greeted by an 8 knot crosswind on 18 - any crosswind is "fun" (i.e. a challenge) in a tail-dragger - and I needed a fair bit of help from Roger to get down straight and without swinging round on landing.
Taxi back, peel my wringing wet back off the seat and off to the car to wallow in the air-con on full blast. At home the shirt went straight into the laundry - almost needed to wring it out!! I reckon I lost about 0.5Kg in sweat alone, never mind the physical work-out! MMM! Great fun, but I think I'll concentrate on getting a Cherokee type rating for now!!!
Postscript: I did concentrate on getting the Cherokee rating, completed about five weeks later and haven't been up in JFG since. But I still get a little tingle in the spine each time I see it in flight (like today when it flew right over our house), so maybe soon...... - guess that is what taildraggers do for you!
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