July 14th, 2007 (Posted January 12th, 2009)
King City, CA
The “Ballistic Butterfly” & Chelsea Take Flight

So other than buying an airplane, this update might be the most monumental to date. John and I made yet another trip down to King City yesterday morning bright and early. We invited my student, Darrick, to join us as he’s shown an interest in aerobatics and he was my first student that I soloed (and we just like him!!). So we met bright and early in the hopes of arriving around 8am. John and Darrick did the flying…I curled up in the backseat with a bunch of pillows and enjoyed the VIP treatment.

Of course we did arrive right on time, only to find that for the first time in days the entire valley was socked in by fog. Off to Harris Ranch to wait out the weather. But, with our live King City Weather Service (i.e. my instructor, Ken Erickson), we finally made it in around 10am.

Ken, being the wonderful guy that he is, already had the Pitts S2B warmed up and full of fuel. So, should we brief? Naw… lets just go fly! So we pushed out, climbed in, fired up and headed out to the run-up area. It was time for more take-off’s and landings. For those who don’t know, the Pitts has a somewhat ominous reputation for its takeoffs and landings. Because it is so powerful, small, light, short-coupled and a tail wheel, it can get away from you if you don’t stay focused. We flew a bunch of patterns on Tuesday and so this was just more landing practice.

Of course when it’s time to takeoff there is a little Cessna 150 (slow 2-place Cessna trainer) in the pattern which gave me the good experience of having to manage the airplane in the pattern behind a much slower airplane. When he departed the pattern he keyed-up on the mic and said, “King City Traffic, Cessna departing the pattern, thanks for the dance”.
 We did all different types of landings and after about a half hour we taxied off the runway and Ken said, “Well, I guess it’s time to fly your airplane.”

Yikes. Smiling. Knot in my stomach. Starting to get nervous. But we taxied to fuel and then spent some time getting me fitted in the plane, looking at the systems, carefully preflighting, etc. It took about an hour of prep as well as conjuring up the confidence to go do this. I knew I could, I knew I was capable, but still…it’s like test flying an airplane. A totally new airplane, single-seat, I just wasn’t sure what to expect. Yet, it was time. So Ken, who was of course confident calm and cool along with John and Darrick were there helping me set up and cheering me on.

Ken said, just climb in, go taxi around and then if you’re ready, go run-up and go. If you want to come back after you taxi around, and then go for it you can do that, too. Trust me, I look excited above, and I was, but my hands were shaking at the same time! Then I discovered, once I’d ratcheted myself in with the seatbelts, I wasn’t going to get far, because the key was safely tucked away deep in my pants pocket underneath all the seatbelts.  Back to square one.  Eventually I put on the helmet (borrowed a basic one as my custom one won’t ship out until Monday), closed the canopy and it was time to start up.

I started taxiing around the ramp getting a feel for the rudder pedals and the brakes. I went towards the end of the runway, made a circle and it just felt like the next thing to do was head to the run-up area. I expected to taxi for an hour or more before I decided to go…but there was just something calling me. So I swung the nose around into the wind for the run-up. Okay…can’t have anything floating around in the airplane so this run-up is from memory (i.e. no checklist). CIGAR. C – controls/canopy, I-instruments, G-gas, A-altimeter, R-runup. Instruments look good, engine is warm, seatbelts are tight, canopy is latched. Someone’s on downwind…plenty of time.

“King City Traffic, Pitts 222 Echo Charlie departing runway 29 for the aerobatic box which is directly north and east of the airport, King City.”

Taxi on to the runway; make sure our nose is pointing straight down it. Full throttle, push the stick forward and the tail picks up. Whoa, those rudder pedals are light! And in the blink of an eye I’m flying!

I can’t even explain the feeling. I went from a nervous wreck as I climbed into the plane to wearing the biggest grin from ear to ear as I looked below me and watched the ground rush away. I turned right into the aerobatic box, and all by myself enjoyed the feeling of being part of a small, quick, amazing little airplane. The last time I flew solo was 3 years ago (I’ve been training, flying a 2-crew airplane or instructing ever since!).

Now it was time to get a feel for this bird. I did some slow flight, stalls, competition turns. Feeling out where to place the stick, where is exactly neutral on the controls? I’m flying back and forth, pulling vertical and 45 lines to see what it looks like. It’s not long before I key-up the mic and announce to the boys who are watching and listening below that, “This airplane is a blast to fly!”

Should I roll it? I don’t know! I’ve never flown this plane before…I’ve never flown solo aerobatics before! But I’m itching to see so 4,000ft, 140 on the airspeed indicator…pull the stick back and slam the stick full left. Boy does it roll nicely! So now I’m going back and forth, rolling and cranking and banking. Too much fun! But I guess I should try to land, huh? I pulled the power back and started to come down, setting up to enter the pattern.

I cleared my head, thinking to myself, this is just like I’ve been practicing. Just fly this airplane (I can hear Ken and Ben’s words in my head). I’m abeam the numbers and pulling the power back. It’s looking good.

“King City Traffic, Pitts 222 Echo Charlie Final, 29, Full Stop, King City”

Down I came and somehow I landed. 3-point (all the wheels at once). No bounce…sweet! There are those rudder pedals again! But I kept on it and slowed down and taxied off.

”King City Traffic, Pitts 222 Echo Charlie, Clear 29, King City”.

Boy did I want to scream over the radio. How much fun was that?! I taxied back, turned around and stopped in front of the fuel pumps. With a smile and deep breath I slid the canopy back. John came running over with a big hug and a kiss…and of course a smile! Darrick was whistling and video taping the whole thing (such a good movie producer) and Ken came out to see how it went. It was so wonderful to have them there for the support and to share the big day and excitement with a few friends (Mom, of course, I wish you and Dad had been there!)!

So we fueled her up, pushed her back into the hangar and went out for lunch. We came back but the winds were howling (as always around 3pm in King City) and I decided to wait for the next flight sometime this next week (I’ll go down and fly a bunch in the next few weeks before we bring her home). But we hung out with Ken, talked about his new adventure (www.turbinetoucan.com) and of course we had to put Darrick in the plane!

So now it’s more flying and then we’ll bring it home to Auburn. Next person on the list…time to get John ready to fly her!

Written By:
Chelsea Engberg
President
Go Inverted, Inc.™

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