Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "" video.

@scottmanley Having flown in both a Pitts S2A and an Extra 300L I'd take an Extra or a Laser any day of the week and 15 times on a Sunday. Especially if you are keen on competition aerobatics which I was for a few years. There is one thing that's great about learning tail dragger in a Pitts is that once you can fly a Pitts you can fly any tail dragger. There's very few planes other than those like the Pitts that are as demanding to land as the Pitts. Another thing YOU SHOULD HAVE but do not technically need before owning a Pitts is an aerobatics endorsement. Learning how to take off and land one is one thing. Learning how to recover from an inadvertent inverted spin which I did is another thing entirely. And for the record not only did I do that but 3 other student pilots did it with the same instructor on the same day I did when we each misjudged the 1/2 roll at the top of what most people call an Immelman. A bit of advice to anyone wanting to learn how to fly a Pitts. Look for a flight school with an S2A. that has the smaller 4 Cyl Lycoming engine and will save you a lot of money. They are typically $100-$200 cheaper per hour. The same applies for the Extra's the EA-200 is a lot cheaper per hour than any of the 300s or 330s. The other thing with Pitts is that MOST are privately built. Even if they are factory built they are a plane you really need to have someone who knows Pitts look at for you. With aerobatics planes don't just get the closest mechanic get someone who knows aerobatic planes. MOST OF ALL UNDERSTAND that Aerobatics is unbelievable fun, but it is also the most ruthlessly unforgiving of activities to reckless behavior.
22
@scottmanley OH yeah - If you have any aileron input during a spin you are in DANGER OF NOT RECOVERING. Its something that has to be stressed time and time again. The plane is stalled in a spin and the ailerons are your enemy and the rudder is your friend. If you have aileron control then you are NOT spinning. You are in a spiral and in danger of ripping the wings off. Its one of the most basic things an aerobatics instructor will teach you. How to recognise if you are in a spiral or a spin - look at the airspeed indicator. If the air speed is not changing then you're in a spin, the plane is stalled and you have to do a spin recovery. If the air speed is increasing then you're in a spiral, the plane is NOT stalled and you have to do a spiral recovery. And for those recoveries ASK YOUR INSTRUCTOR.
15
@@user-gg2ty5tk8k I fly in Australia. We not only have aerobatic endorsements but also low level waivers. A basic aerobatics endorsement gets you. Spins Rolls (barrel & level) Loops Stall Turns Roll of the Top (1/2 loop 1/2 roll) Depending on the flight school and plane they have you might also do flick rolls. More often than not you'll do 1/2 Cubans as part of the roll of the top training. As part of that process you also do failed manoeuvre recovery. Its very important for some aircraft as they will drop into a spiral instead of a spin like the Robin 2160 I did my basic aeros in. A basic aerobatics endorsement requires that all aerobatic manoeuvres are completely performed ABOVE 3000ft AGL. The first low level waiver you can get is for 1,500 ft AGL (which I have). You will have a flight test for that and depending on the flight school issuing the waiver will depend on what you have to do. Since its for competition people wanting to start moving up from the entry/graduate level the flight test had a lot of things that sportsman and intermediate have. My instructor made me roll both ways which can be a bit disconcerting because most people when they are starting out tend to fly with the prop torque and can get out of practice with rolling against it. I had to do a 4 point roll and maintain course and altitude. I had to fly a couple of high bank angle inverted turns (60 deg+) and maintain altitude and exit on the right heading. I had to fly a reverse 1/2 Cuban and Reverse Tooth (1/2 roll on 45 up) which were BOTH about judging entry altitude so that you came out above 1500ft. He gave me a list of figures and I had to make up a sequence and stay above 1,500 ft. Its a while back and there were a couple of other things but that's the bulk of it. After that the next low level waiver is 1000ft, then 800ft (I think), then 500ft then ground (as in you can go right down to the ground). Quite often people skip the 1000 ft and go straight to the 800 which is for Advanced level competition, which I never got to but wanted to. I can't say our system is the best or worst. I certainly know the French System is the best for producing aerobatic competition pilots.
4
@Abledoggie42 Yeah but those are planes that are completely different. For starters the wing aspect ratios are tiny even compared to a plane like an Extra or Pitts. Also I have never flown military jets so can't comment beyond what I know of fundamental aerodynamics as an aerospace engineer. I doubt they spin at all like a normal aircraft and its either a spiral or a flat spin which is another thing all together because you have nothing really flying at all. One of the aerobatic instructors in Australia who trains (or used to) people in spinning has an advanced spin course for aerobatic pilots and he shows his students 16 different versions of spinning and how to recover from them. I asked one of his students who at that stage flew Unlimited and Airshow and he told me yes there's 16 different spins to learn. He explained Left and Right are different because of the torque effects of the engine. Then there's how flat or vertical the spin is. Then there's inverted verses upright. Then there's negative G versus positive G. Then there are knife edge spins if you're truly bonkers. There's a video somewhere on YT of a guy in a Pitts flicking between positive and negative G rotations while inverted. I showed it to another of my aerobatic instructors and he told me if I wanted he'd demonstrate PARTS of that flight in his Pitts. The other thing you will see in competition aerobatics are pilots letting go of autorotation manoeuvres early but maintaining the rotation with aileron so that that can stop the rotation with more precision. There's a great vid from inside the cockpit of a guy in an Edge 540 doing this at an Advanced World Championship. Without explanation that vid and others like it can be very misleading. I had no idea what I was looking at until an unlimited pilot watched it with me and explained what he was doing. Hope that clarifies more of where i am coming from.
3