I immediately fell in love with that little airplane. Being a powered parachute guy I am all about simplicity and good ol low and slow flying. After a thorough preflight next it was time to learn how to HANDPROP the Champ to life. I was in the seat for the first one to pretty much observe. After a few cranks through with the switches off he had me yell "contact" ( I thought they only did that in the old movies) and I turned on the mag switch and he give the prop a heave and she fired right off and purred like a kitten. After untying he jumped in and it was time to taxi. My instructor took it out of the chocks because of a really tight turn in close proximity to other parked airplanes and then he gave it to me and I took it to the runway. Took a turn or two to figure out how much to lead it out of a turn but I picked it up pretty quick and then we worked on control positioning for winds during taxi. RHV has a massive runup area so with grounds permission we did figure 8's for about 5 minutes so I could get the feel of diffferent turn rates. I quickly found out you must stay WAY ahead of the plane while taxiing and how easy it is for it to get away from you.
After that it was time to roll. The instructor did the first takeoff of course. When the tail came up I was grinning from ear to ear.. what a cool feeling that is!! It didn't take long for the champ to lift and pretty soon we were climbing out. He gave me the stick in the climb. I was all over for a second until I got it figured out. The champ has an insane amount of adverse yaw so your feet stay very busy! We went to the practice area and practiced all different kinds of aileron-rudder manuevers. He had me start off by just rolling left and right and trying to keep the nose on the same heading. It takes alot of coordination that's for sure! Those were pretty ugly at first but would get better as time went one. We did slips and skids, stalls, steep turns, and then more rudder-aileron exercises. After almost 2 hours on my watch because there is no hobbs we headed back for a full stop.
After lunch and some more class time we went back up again and worked in the pattern for a while. I also got my first try at a takeoff. I didn't even get the throttle to full the first time we he took the airplane back from me! That was a bit frustrating but after 3 more high speed taxi's down the runway I had figured it out enough that he left me take off. We spent almost 2 hours in the pattern and did 13 landings! The champ is actually pretty easy to do a three point landing in a light direct headwind. I would quickly find out how the wind could really throw a wrench into that though. As in all flight training it always seems like just about when you think you have a handle on something you quickly get put right back in your place by the next series of manuevers. After 2 hours straight of touch and go's my brain was toast we so called it a day. 3.9 hours during day one.
Day two started with me getting the handprop her to life and then another 2.3 hours in the pattern. Made it back to earth 23 times during that one. Again winds were right off the nose and I was actually starting to feel pretty good about my takeoffs and landings. Towards the end he gave me an intro to wheel landings. My first couple I started a nice porpoise because of some stick pumping but after I was able to convince myself that pushing forward on the stick during landing was okay I figured it out and was able to stick a couple. After a lunch break he took me over to Hollister which has a runway that is 90 degrees off RHV. The wind came up to 15 that afternoon. Now it was time to see if I had really learned how to use the rudder or not. First couple of attempts were ugly! I got proficient in the go around real quick. It seemed to take forever but after 14 more landings I started to figure it out. Landing in the crosswind wasn't the bad part it was the roll out afterwards. The champ tries to weathervane like nothing I have ever seen! Our 13 gallons of fuel was about up so we headed back to RHV with a stiff headwind and spent the next 45 minues watching cars on the freeway smoke past us. Day two 4.7 hours and 37 landings. I have never been so tired after a day of flying!!
Day three... started off by knocking out the presolo test and filling out all the paperwork to be a PIC at Amelia Reid. We went out and did 4 trips around the pattern. My instructor must have been happy because he asked for my log book and then got out. I think I was just as nervous and just as excited as my first solo on Jan 3rd, 2005 in the 3334E a 172N. As always the plane flew alot better with no instuctor weight in the backseat. I did 3 full stops and taxied back in with a huge grin on my face! After handshakes and all that good stuff we fueled the plane and went back up to the practice area for a little bonus spin training. If you ever get the chance to do spins I would jump on it! The first demo I was speechless!! After flying the little docile champ for three days here I am spiraling at the earth at 100mph!!!
I quickly had a brand new respect for what can possibly happen in an airplane. I did 3 fully developed spins to the left and the right. Telling a DE what you will do the get yourself out of spin from what you read in a book and actually getting yourself out of a spin are two TOTALLY different things! Luckily you have to work pretty hard just to keep the champ in a spin so recoveries were easy but just getting yourself to go through the proper motions as you are pinned to your seat watching the earth spin round and round takes alot of concentration!
Overall I had an awesome time even though it was probably the hardest flight training I have ever done. Maybe that's why it was so satisfying. Total time was 10.9 hours with 58 landings. Cost was just shy of $1300 which was actually less than I had planned to spend. I think I learned just enough to be dangerous and am by no means proficient in a taildragger but I now have a great platform to build on which is really what it's all about. I can't wait to get my Avid going so I can keep flying the way it was meant to be done!!
