@@theregoesmiller389 I was blessed with a father that raced open wheel and off road before I was born. He taught me many advanced techniques and how to read traffic to avoid the idiots.
Don't get me wrong Steve, it's great footage, but sometimes I also come here for your friends' funny comments. 06:35 Luke: "If you don't add power, you're gonna be in this kind of descent profile.... coming down like an Apollo capsule" 16:05 Osama: "Hopefully I can land the TBM again after this" Very funny!
This episode is a great example of what makes me want to be a pilot which is the community. Seems like everyone is experiencing something different and just having a lot of fun.
Love this and all of your videos. The combination of fun and a commitment to safety is one of the draws. I've learned a lot, and I'm safer for it. The authenticity of admitting mistakes is huge, too. Helps everyone learn and stay safe. Myself? I've taken off with incorrect flap settings, and adjusted my flows accordingly. No excuse, I was being sloppy. For alternator, I have two checks, that I didn't realize checked each other until watching this video. First, a flow of the switches. In a PA-28, it's easy, they're side by side, battery & alt. But the second is a scan of the gauges, for the ammeter specifically to see the "pulse" when the strobes fire. That lets me know that both the alternator and the strobes are on. Anytime I'm flying 2 pilot, I always do the checklists out loud, whole thing. I figure that way the other pilot can check me, and I can do a trust but verify if the other person is flying. Stay safe and keep having fun!!
Really enjoying your videos. I took lessons over 40 years ago but never finished. I've done aircraft maintenance, parachuting, and lately a lot video watching LOL When I was working at Mountain Air Cargo, our chief pilot built and flew his own Pitts. Easily one of the best stunt plane EVER!
Not being a licensed pilot (though I have flown a little), one highlight of my life was the front seat of a Pitts in NZ doing aerobatics. I can now see how much of this was done. GREAT Video mate, love it.
That's a lot of fun, doing spins! More importantly it's a huge safety benefit. Mastering the aircraft in and OUT of its flight domain bring a whole new level of skills and confidence, I highly recommend it to any pilot or student.
I've enjoyed all your aerobatics training videos. One barrel roll in a Chipmunk as a passenger convinced me of the physicality of aerobatics. Harder work physically than it looks.
Brilliant teacher. Note, he did not need to do even 15% of the flying. Like all good instructors, he hands over control to the student and lets him learn after a good briefing rather than over-demonstrating. Excellent video. Thank you.
FlightChops i am sure that your lovely children and your wife are truly proud of you and all that you are doing and have achieved. You have much to hold your head up for and to celebrate in life and you inspire me in so many ways
Hi Steve, A Pitts is the perfect airplane to do what you are trying to do. I Only flew a 160hp Pitts for a ride in my Stearman (1967). I was doing inverted spins in the Stearman a year before. It instantly wants to toss you and your body out of the airplane as far as it can. I used to have to put my foot on the stick, to keep it in a spin upside down! Much much fun!
You get the feeling of having downed a case of beer when you do these maneuvers. Your head is spinning and you want to throw up. At my age and what I've been through the last 13 years, my body says try that and you're toast buddy. Good luck and all the success in your flying.
Uhmm, FLightChops, not sure if anyone's said it yet, but it's always best to keep the plane flying right side up! Sky up, ground down! True stick flying, and what great training flying in that beautiful Bi-plane with a aerobatics guy! They are amazing! And your experience doing the opposites reminded me of doing the tail draggers after commercial flying jets, just took me completely out of my comfort zone in a exciting good way! Oscar's certainly racking up the experiences as well, and hope to catch you both on these adventures in the future.
very cool video. I bet counting those turns is harder than it looks during the accelerated spins! It's comforting to know that the recovery is always the same in every case
"Holy shit are you kidding me" dude I wasn't even in the plane and those words pretty much sum up what I was thinking. Made me laugh out loud, great recovery though!
RU-vid is amazing... how else could non pilots ever get to see any of this ? Thank you for this window into some of what an advanced program entails. Could you not say you turned off the alternator to ensure full power for the manouvers ? (thats from the foolish side of me that would want to defer any negativity to my performance... thank you for the honesty as well)
Thanks! But no, the error having the alternator off during flight is not excusable (the only time to turn it off would be an emergency such as an over voltage situation). Best to own up and learn from mistakes.
My first spin in a glider endet up bieng an inverted one, i had to pull the airbrake in the recovery dive not to over speed the thing. Awsome video! keep up the good work.
Besides the alternator turned off, your right parachute strap was not on your shoulder properly at all. That is quite unsafe in the event of needing to exit the airplane during flight.
We didn't do any practical spins in my training, but it's something I'd absolutely love to go and practice with a CFI. Doing it in a Pitts would be ... a ton of fun I'd imagine!
I did my primary training in the 90's in Canada - I started with gliders and then moved to power. In both cases spin training was something we did pre solo. I know it is controversial, but I feel it made me a better pilot.
100% believe it. I'm sad the flight school I went to had it against their policy to teach actual spins. I'm sure I'll get my fair share, I do plan to do some aerobatics training sometime this year. :D
I would highly recommend spin training as well as spin prevention. We don't ever want to unintentionally enter a spin, but if we do, we'd better know how to get out of it. Steve, does Luke teach things like Approach Stall/Spin? I know one person who was training with my father, but was solo, in the pattern, and got into a classic stall/spin scenario at 800'. Because Dad had taught him spins, he easily recovered, but I kind of wonder about the classic turn to final, in too close, too much elevator and rudder, and BOOM!
Obviously, we wouldn't see the alternator switch not being on, especially if you aren't familiar with a Pitts. Having said that, yeah, it's important, but it wouldn't have stopped you from flying the airplane, unless Luke killed the engine for some reason. My personal opinion is that Stall Training should be required as part of every Private Pilot training curriculum. I know I did it back in the 70's in a Cessna 150, and they were FUN! You have so much experience in so many different airplanes this stuff was probably a no-brainer for you, but for most pilots who aren't flying the diverse catalog of airplanes you have, it's a bit more of an issue. All in all, it's a great video, and I'm sure Brock was happy there wasn't a third seat on the Pitts! :)
Stalls ARE required training, spins are not. But, that doesn't necessarily make it right. I think Spin training SHOULD be required as well. Teaching a student how NOT to get to a stall/spin scenario is great, but it still happens. Knowing how to get out of the spin is just as essential.
I agree that pilots should have that knowledge. I disagree that primary training is the place. I understand the argument for and agin and have pondered this for decades. I remain with my conclusion that primary training is not suited for spin training as a requirement. The pilot is free to acquire spin training otherwise.
Just as a heads up, if the alternators been off and the battery is likely particularly drained switching the alternator back on might not be the best plan, at low battery charge it'll draw a massive current to recharge itself, which is gonna generate a lot of heat in the battery and risks a thermal runaway situation. If the battery's been allowed to drain you really should get it on the ground and then pull the battery out and hook it up to proper charge as this will limit the charge current.
Thanks for the insight. As there were no symptoms of the battery being close to dead (radio and intercom still worked ok, and reading on ammeter was not too low) do you think we avoided the issues in this case?
So, first off before continuing this let me sate that my knowledge is as a technician on jets. Now as for avoiding the issue, well yes and no, you definitely avoided the worst case scenario, which is thermal runaway, basically the battery gets hot, getting hot changes it's internal resistance, allowing it to draw more current, which makes it get even hot, the battery internals start to break down and release flammable gases, and then poooof, battery fire, not fun. The likelihood of this depends on the type of battery you are using, lead acid batteries and lithium ion batteries are the worst for this (see the 787's "teething" issues that resulted in several emergency landings owing to battery fire) Some batteries do now have safety mechanisms to prevent this (such as temperature monitoring which will cut the battery charging if the temperature exceeds certain values), however not all, and I honestly doubt that the Pitts would. Clearly in your case this was not severe enough to result in fire, however I would suggest it probably didn't do the battery life much good, or the life on the alternator for that matter, I'm assuming the pitts uses a brushed alternator, in which case drawing the high charge current through these brushes could cause sparking and damage to the brushes. I personally would want to inspect the alternator and the battery after that, it's likely no damage was done, given you didn't notice any other issues, but just to be sure. You were also aided by the fact that in an aircraft like the pitts there really isn't much electrical load, to be honest there was probably still plenty of juice in the battery, the reason I bring this up is that you commented on suspecting you may have drained the battery, personally, if I suspected that I would not want to risk putting the alternator on, especially given that the pitts will fly just fine if you loose power. It's also the same issue that means any jet which battery starts (helicopters for example, yes jet, the engine in a helo is a jet engine...... most of the time) will have a limit to the number of start attempts, it'll still have plenty of power in the battery after the last attempt, however if it tries again the battery will charge over current and risk a thermal runaway incident.
Streaky100001 streaky ..you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Firstly ...all he need do is monitor charge current for a few minutes, and if it sits at 20A or more continuously, without dropping back, then kill the alt again. Also...the pitts has a 60A force cooled alternator with a current limited, voltage controlled OP, so i seriously doubt it is at risk. neil. pitts owner, sndvelectronics engineer.
Oh, there's actually regulation on the alternator? Well that does reduce the risk significantly. I assume it's a case of dropping the voltage output if the current gets too high? And yes, agreed that monitoring the current, however it should be noted that if thermal runaway does begin killing the alternator will do jack, since the battery actually begins to break down and it's then a chemical reaction within the battery that will keep generating heat, however yes, if you cut the charge current before it begins to break down you'll be ok. And agreed, the immediate risk is very low, it's unlikely the battery charge dropped low enough with the small electrical load to cause thermal runaway, however it still wont do battery longevity any good I wouldn't imagine. However, as I say my experience is jets, so maybe it's less of a concern on light aircraft.
Streaky100001 I know nothing about the Pitts but isn’t ever single modern alternator regulated? I’ve never heard of this issue in a lead acid battery. Lithium batteries are there own weird thing but I would thing most of those would have protection on them.
"Hope you enjoyed this one?" ...who says that after making such an amazing video ... whats with the "Hope"? Flight Chops .... LOVVVE YOU. You sir have no clue how much your videos mean to me ... you have no clue!!!
That was pretty intense. I have a headache from watching this as my dog sleeps in my lap as I'm sitting in my recliner. I have got to go to bed now but wont be able to sleep. Would so love to do this. Thanks for the adrenaline punch.
What an amazing aircraft that is! Can't believe how FAST it can change direction! Great video, man! Had me on the edge of my seat. If I were a passenger in that thing, I might have turned yellow on this ride, LOL! Thanks for taking us all with you on this one - I'd have never had this kind of experience otherwise!
Just yesterday, I wrote Budd Davisson and told him I'm ready to fulfill my promise and get training with him in his Pitts. Target date is next February; flexible and subject to revision. Waiting to hear back from him. I'll keep you posted.
1963. RCAF PFS. Lesson 3. Lesson 2 was power-off stall and recovery. Did that fine. Lesson 3 was spozed to be power-on stall and ditto. Got the command, pulled power back to 1/2 or so, waited for the shudder, holding wings level (or so I thought), and then kicked rudder hard left. Friggin airplane INVERTED and proceeded to spin UPSIDE DOWN! This was lesson 3 - my 3rd hour at the wheel. I'd read the manual some, and promptly remembered reading that there were only 2 maneuvers that were verboten with the Chipmunk - Falling Leaf, whatever that was, and uh oh yeh. INVERTED SPIN! Well, I figured it was time to leave this one to the expert in the back seat, but I wasn't thinking too straight at the time, and forgot to say anything about it (such as, "Your have control, sir!) I just pulled my shoulder staps as tight as I could, pulled my feet back off the rudder pedals, hands off the controls, and waited for The Man to fix this thing. Watched the stick for some sense, but it just kept flopping around, like nobody was controlling it, which nobody was. Watched the world up there spin around for awhile, meanwhile trying to hold onto my cookies and keep my shorts clean........ and suddenly, after prolly a half-dozen rotations, that sweet little chippie got tired of this shzt, and flipped back over onto her belly! In about a 45 degree dive with the wings about 45 too. I remembered lesson 2, the power-off stall recovery, grabbed the stick and neutralized, pulled the wings level, applied a little power, and pulled up the nose. While I was trying to get over how the boss back there hadn't done anything about this life-threatening adventure, he says, "Nice Recovery!." I say, "Thank you, sir!," and we continue with the lesson. I had a few drinkie-winkies in the mess THAT night!
I remember my first spin in a Super Decathlon, the only thing I remember seeing was a grass strip to land on, it was in the first part of the spin when you are upside down and yes, I wanted to land on it so we did even though it was a private strip. Didn't need to change my underwear but I did need a moment to allow my brain to recover :-D After that , I knew what to expect and it wasn't so shocking anymore, even got to where I enjoyed spins (upright that is). I never did go for advanced aerobatics, I was happy doing the more basic stuff. I know there are those that say that you aren't the best at any one thing but I salute you, Steve, you're going for the "Been there, done that" thing and for hanging in there and going for the advanced stuff, you aren't afraid to try anything and everythng that you have the opportunity to try!! Good job!
@@ronpearson1912 a faulty alternator can cause other issues. In my car when it failed it was charging 19 volts after hitting a bump and burned out my headlights, some instrument lights and caused the ecu to think there was a transmission fault when it went back to 12v later. Also my 4x4 once had a bad alternator or at least the regulator. Displayed charging 13v. Everything worked as per normal. But it melted the battery lead and fully discharged my battery. Only discovered when i tried to turn it off and the engine kept running (mechanical injected diesel, doesnt need electricity to run but the fuel shutoff solenoid does need power to turn off) I can see all of this a good reason to be able to isolate the alternator in an aircraft
Oh boy I remember flying an S-2A about a year ago that my dad had around for a while for a friend of his. Didn't ever get to fly inverted, the front belts were all messed up and the back seat couldn't use the pedals right. Still flew it normally sitting in front, holding crap does that thing shake like mad, it's a whole different beast compared to other biplanes. I think I still prefer a Skybolt though.
My inverted spin story. I took a friend for a ride in my 7AC and wanted to show him a Hammerhead turn. I was not really paying attention to my airspeed and missed my full left rudder at 37 MPH. Also I wasn’t holding a little forward pressure on the vertical part of the maneuver . So when I kicked in full left rudder, the aileron had no effect and neither did the full forward I added to keep the nose vertical. Let’s see, full forward stick, full left rudder and full right aileron. That boys and girls is an inverted spin. First thing I noticed was that the engine quit (no fuel to the carb). Noxt thing I noticed was nothing but earth in my view. After about the third turn, not knowing what to do, I released all control pressures, the nose started to come up , the engine started running, we stopped screaming and both of lived. End of story
Is there such thing as an inverted accelerated spin? The crossover spin was very cool. Great video and great training and I agree I wouldn't have thought full power in vertical.
I know this is an old video but I couldn't help noticing that your parachute straps were very loose and near the end almost falling off your shoulder. Make sure those are tight because if you have to jump out of the aircraft you want to stay with the parachute. An easy way to tell if the parachute straps are tight enough is to try and stand up with the parachute all the way on. If the parachute makes it hard to stand completely vertical then the straps are tight enough.
Hey Luke & Steve.....Hope Ya'll are doing good.....And Does That PITTS come with disposable BARF BAGS.....LMAO....What a wonderful & Fantastic Video this was to watch....Thanks so much for putting this together for us the viewers. I have a question for the both of you.....How come the pitts can recover from a Stall just fine with no problem......but a Cessna can't recover from a stall and then a spin.....?? Or Can It.....If you throw the nose down hard.....I know that the Cessna can recover from the stall by throwing the nose down.....So I guess my real question is.....why can't it recover from a spin like the PITTS....??? Sorry guys....I kinda confused myself....I'm OLD...So thats my excuse...lol STEVEN A. CAPIZZI COLUMBUS, OHIO USA Thanks Guys
