Getting to know you
Entering a relationship with a new airplane
We’re in the early stages of our relationship, the Extra and me, and I know to be careful. The Extra—a popular choice among world aerobatic champions—is built for more than I’m currently ready to handle. Its high G-limits, rapid roll rate, and power response make for an exciting platform to demonstrate unusual attitude awareness and recovery, and to stress the disciplined mental work that advanced aerobatics demands…eventually. All in good time. For now, we’ll get to know each other, this mischief and me.
Airplanes lure you into different risks. Backcountry airplanes like Carbon Cubs and Huskys tempt you to go more rugged, into shorter, and rougher strips in harder-to-access locations. As a result, you’re maneuvering slower and lower, in tighter confines, closer to stall with limited room to recover. You’re also learning maximum performance braking in a tailwheel on rough terrain—a delicate act. The cross-country cruisers, like Cirruses and Bonanzas, get you and companions to destinations in style and comfort. You want friends and family to experience the convenience and access of general aviation travel. The cruisers will lure you to push weather conditions and chance turbulence and icing forecasts to make the trip. They’re equipped to fly approaches in lower weather than you may be ready to handle.
The Extra is an adrenaline junkie. It’s your renegade friend who tempted you to skip class when the surf was up, or the powder was fresh. If a dance with a Super Cub is a slow dance by a bonfire, and a Bonanza is a waltz at a cotillion, dancing with an Extra is a fandango. Provocative and enticing, it demands full attention, and it’s anxious for a thrill. If you’re not careful, if you lack the patience to let your skills develop and learn to lead the airplane with firm finesse, you’ll get tangled up and tumble.
Advancing flying skills requires going beyond your comfort level, but you must extend at a measured pace, deliberately, always leaving an option to retreat to where you’re comfortable. Transitioning airplanes initially pushes us beyond our comfort level, and statistically, new-to-us airplanes add risk. For many the transition is a tailwheel, or an upgrade to more power, retractable landing gear, or advanced avionics. Some step up to twin engines or turboprops and even jets. We see tragedies in each of these upgrade scenarios as pilots underestimate the gaps in their skills and experience. Rather than advancing at a methodical, deliberate pace, they get over-confident after a little experience. When strong winds, poor weather, busy airspace, or higher gross weight complicate the flight, they get behind the airplane and fall further and further behind until they can no longer retreat to their comfort zone.
My experience flying aggressive, high-G air combat maneuvers in mock dogfights, and showing off the performance of the F–15 as an airshow demonstration pilot, will prove helpful. But I’ve been away from the advanced aerobatic scene for a while, and my G-tolerance is low. I’ve not flown extreme aerobatics with propeller thrust, which changes dynamics at high angles of attack. I’ve never experienced inverted spins, lomcevaks, or sustained negative-G maneuvers. The F–15 was limited to negative 3 Gs; I rarely touched negative 2 and then only briefly. Negative Gs are exponentially more punishing than positive Gs and can be disorienting. The Extra is rated to negative 10 Gs. Airshow pilots like Patty Wagstaff and Michael Goulian will push negative 6 or 7 Gs several times in a single performance. That’s a regime I cannot imagine experiencing right now, even fleetingly. So, I’ll take my time with the Extra, seek training, and get lots of advice from experts who have flown them for years through the entire flight envelope. Then, the Extra and I will start with the basics. Once we master those, and I have an instinctive feel for the airplane and build confidence in my ability to recover when I get in trouble, then we can push the edge.
I’ve learned through our first encounters that the Extra isn’t all that naughty. In fact, underneath the rebellious persona, it’s well-mannered. When you go too far with the Extra, you can demand it settle down by pulling throttle to idle, neutralizing the stick, and applying rudder opposite whatever disorienting direction you’re whirling. If you can gather yourself to exert this control correctly, the Extra will straighten up and behave.
Airplanes will lure us to leap beyond our comfort level more quickly than we’re ready. We need to be more thoughtful, start slowly, and progress in stages as we demonstrate skills and build confidence.
