Yeah, it’s been a busy couple of days. Day -1 and Day 0, Thursday and Friday before the Michigan Aerobatic Open. It’s been hotter than hell here. And Hell, Michigan is not far from here, so we know from Hell. 99 to 103 in the afternoons and a lot hotter than that in the Pitts cockpit.
With that decided, I took the Primary to the box today. i have some work to do getting the maneuvers to fit in the box, but I’m not as awful as I was last year. I actually have SA and I can at least tell that I’m near the edges.
This shot is a pretty good example. It’s from this evening’s practice. I got up once this morning and once this evening and managed to get a much better feel this evening. The above shot is more or less right over the center of the box (which is essentially the numbers of Runway 14).
Just before this evening’s flight, I managed my only truly stupid move of the contest. While sticking the fuel tank, I dropped the stick into the tank. Disappeared. Gone. We could slosh the fuel around and see it floating around in there, but it’s a ruler-sized stick and it was floating flat. A run to the auto parts store resulted in obtaining a grabber (like a large pickle fork), a flashlight, and a mirror. We then spent a the better part of an hour fishing around for it.
Christian Smith managed to get it hooked with a but of coat hanger, then I worked it the rest of the way diagonally in the tank at the surface and managed to get it out. Of course, to get the stick higher in the tank, we had to add 12 gallons of gas. Which meant that I had to go up and fly it off. Not a tall order, considering how much fun Sleazy is to fly and how much I needed the practice.
So the contest proper is tomorrow. I have to confess that I’m a little blue about not being able to fly Sportsman. But I’m feeling pretty good about the primary routine and it’ll be a good time up there in the box. I get to fly back seat with the attendant better visibility and I get the best safety pilot that anyone could ask for in the person of Don Weaver. And I get to hang out with the best bunch of people with which one could hope to hang out. Aerobatic pilots!
More soon. Now to hit the rack for some crew rest!