I've aileron rolled my 180 a number of times. It gets around pretty slowly, but behaves beautifully in all phases of the roll.



I have found, in my very limited flight simulator experience that most planes are about half as responsive as planes are in real life. This is consistent with what can be measured between the 12 second roll in the sim vid vs the 6 second roll in the C180 here.

Pull the nose up higher on entry...

When I took aerobatics lessons back in 1980, I discovered that of all of the basic aerobatic maneuvers, doing a well-executed roll, either aileron or barrel, is harder than it looks. Loops, spins, tail-slides, snap rolls, hammerheads, all are pretty easy by comparison. Even with proper trim and entry angle, mine never looked very good.

A story, I've told often: I was going through my first divorce and had to get away for awhile, so I flew down to Boulder in the TR182 in hopes my aerobatics instructor would be there. He wasn't, but a smallish, kind of dumpy little woman in a red jump suit was there. When I groused that I was hoping to go up, she said she'd fly with me. I asked if she was an instructor, she said yes, and we headed out to the Super Decathlon. Practically no other conversation. When we got in the air, she asked me to show her what I knew--and after all of maybe 5 hours of aerobatics, what I did was a really excellent loop, a terrific 3 or 4 turn spin with competition recovery, and a really crappy aileron roll. She said, "Let me have the airplane, and I'll show you what I have in mind with rolls." Suddenly, the airplane took on a completely different personality.

After an hour of her showing me superb precision and me lamely attempting to emulate her, we headed back and landed. She signed my logbook and then asked if anyone could hand prop an airplane, as she needed to get going to her next gig. I could, so we walked out to her red Pitts, and I started it for her and then watched her fly off to wherever.

I came back into the office and said something like, "That's sure an odd little woman, but man can she fly!" One of the fellows said, "Don't you know who you just flew with ?" "No." "That's Betty Stewart--World Aerobatics Champion!"

Cary

I think maybe you mean Betty Skelton.
She flew a Pitts she nick-named "Little Stinker".
Knowing about "Little Stinker", the Pitts "Super Stinker" name makes more sense.

Nope. Betty Stewart. First woman to win the World Aerobatic Championship, only woman to win it twice.

Cary

Cary wrote:
and after all of maybe 5 hours of aerobatics,

After an hour of her showing me superb precision

Pretty impressive fuel capacity for a Decathlon....

I think he meant he had 5 hrs of acro total before this flight.

EZFlap wrote:

Cary wrote:
and after all of maybe 5 hours of aerobatics,

After an hour of her showing me superb precision

Pretty impressive fuel capacity for a Decathlon....

Especially since we never took off with more than half tanks, as stuck with the "official tank stick". Betty and I were up for about an hour--I'd had about 5 hours of aerobatics training up to that point with my regular aerobatics instructor, over the previous few weeks. Or maybe the Super Dec had super long range tanks!

Cary

Cary wrote:

EZFlap wrote:

Cary wrote:
and after all of maybe 5 hours of aerobatics,

After an hour of her showing me superb precision

Pretty impressive fuel capacity for a Decathlon....

Especially since we never took off with more than half tanks, as stuck with the "official tank stick". Betty and I were up for about an hour--I'd had about 5 hours of aerobatics training up to that point with my regular aerobatics instructor, over the previous few weeks. Or maybe the Super Dec had super long range tanks!

Cary

Congrats on making an hour. I'm usually sick in half that time if spins are involved.