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| Will fly for nuts. |
A few years ago, I was promised the chance to fly an
extremely rare bird. Due to the nature
of the opportunity, I went to great lengths to make it happen. When the day came, I was high on
anticipation. Then came the flight.
The person delivered the plane to the place where I would
fly it was a known quantity. He never
liked how most old planes flew, had banged up a few, and was generally
grumpy. No problem there, I’ve met my
share of them. But,
I had talked to this guy in the past and the impression I had was that he was
very protective of “the seat”. “The
seat” is the right to fly somebody else’s plane and many of the people who are
“given seats” get very protective of it; often going to the point of doing whatever it
takes to keep others out of it. And,
sure enough, that’s what I got.
I would not be allowed to fly the plane after all. I would only get to take
the controls for a few minutes in the air.
Unfortunately, that just doesn’t give you a full picture of how a plane
flies. Yet, having cashed in a lot of
time and energy I went anyway (I do not like being a passenger/not above it,
just don’t like it).
When it came time for me to take the controls, I asked my usual questions. Included in this list is perhaps the most important one of all,
“How does it stall?” The pilot didn’t
know. Not only did he not know, but to
his knowledge nobody else had stalled it either because they were “afraid of
it”. Well, I stalled it.
Guess what. It
stalled simple and easy. Dropped one
wing a little and that was it. Scary.
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| "She flies like a big Cub" |
Around the same time, I was invited to fly a Staggerwing and
jumped at it. We took off, flew around,
did some stalls, slow flight, steep turns, a few high altitude slips, and came
back to land. Lining up I couldn’t
believe how easy it was. The plane just
put itself where it needed to be and I found it to be one of the easiest planes
to land I had flown in some time.
According to others though, they’re somewhat of a pain to fly.
Congruously, a lot of time in a PT-22 time was going
into my logbook. Everyone has heard the
stories about the Ryan but I found none of them to be true. So untrue were they, it became the big joke. Oooh, the scary 22.
Of course, the list goes on and on. Plane after plane I fly turns out to be
nothing at all like I’ve been told. Take
the accepted knowledge on the machine and throw it out the window. Most of it qualifies as rubbish.
Naturally, there have been some planes that got the best of
me. The flights may have been successful
but they were not wonderful. And without
fail, I flew all of them when I was tired, or rushed, or unfamiliar with the
airport. Never do this. These things will kill you before any plane.
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| She flies great! |
Yet, with each plane I didn’t fly perfectly, I never found
the plane to be the problem. It was always
me. Wait, there was one time I thought about the plane when I tried to figure out why a flight did not go
smoothly. The aircraft's behaviour was bizarre and only recently (years later) did I figure out the issue (I had
flown others and found them to be great fliers). It turns out it was me. I was tired and rushed and if you ask me in
person I’ll tell you the specifics. Whatever the case, it wasn’t the plane.
Today though, it’s becoming more and more common to see any
old plane, even tricycles, described as very hard to fly, requiring a lot of
skill, and sometimes even scary. Why is
that? Statistically speaking, it’s
impossible that I have always earned “a seat” in the most perfectly rigged
example of each type. But, that’s almost
always what I get from pilots when questioning their sketchy report on any
aircraft. So common is their rebuttal, I
now often cover the subject up front with, “It’s an older restoration so I
don’t believe it was rigging”, or “Maybe I just flew the most perfect example on
the planet.”
If you’ve read to this point, you’re probably curious why
I insist on questioning the reports of others. If not, you’re likely asking yourself, “It is possible that by chance he has flown the best rigged planes?” The answer to
the first one is easy.
I do not want the
pilots of tomorrow to be afraid of these planes and in turn quit flying
them. If they were to quit using them,
it would be a crime to base those decisions on the likes of pilots who have
made these machines out to be dragons only the manliest of men can slay. That’s garbage.
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| He's wearing the uniform so he must know what he's talking about. |
But what about that second one? How do I keep managing to fly the best
planes? That answer to that too is
simple; I don’t.
You see, there is a simple trick to flying old planes. It doesn’t matter what you fly, small to big,
slow to fast, or cheap to expensive, as long as you aren’t afraid of it. Even subtle unrecognized second guessing will
make anything difficult to fly. But
again, it won’t be the planes fault. It
will be yours. And that’s the
trick. Don’t fear the plane*. If you do, the shadows of trees outside your
window will quickly turn to monsters.
If that’s too philosophical, here’s something practical. You have to understand the difference between
respect and fear. There is no plane on
the planet today, which was originally built in any substantial numbers (more
than 20) that is dangerous or difficult fly. If
the make or model received enough funding or orders to make a run of them, and they
were good enough for the fliers of the day, there’s no reason to fear taking
them up. Respect is another thing.
You must respect the plane. To do so, you must also understand why it was built and for what purpose, how planes of the
day flew, and that today’s definition of good flying characteristics is
irrelevant. If a plane hunts
for altitude in flight that does not make it difficult to fly. It’s a common
characteristic of planes built before the thirties. If landing a specific plane requires
you to be on top of your game, that does not mean it should be feared. And finally, there is no plane on the planet
that I know of which goes uncontrollable when it stalls.
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| They each fly differently and yet they all fly better than you. |
Sure, some old planes may wear you out on a cross-country, others demand more attention near the ground, and some will drop a wing on you
if stalled. Yet, each and every single
one of them are easily controlled if you respect it and fly it the way
it was intended to be flown. Respect
leads to purposeful control. Fear breeds
reaction. That's the critical difference.
So there you have it.
Old planes aren’t scary or difficult. They’re just different. And, if you’re flying old planes and telling
everyone they’re no fun because they hunt for altitude, don’t have
balanced controls, are difficult to land, or they’re dangerous to stall, then
you should not be flying them, owners should not be allowing you to fly them,
and you should quit doing history a great disservice.
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| This thing may not fly pretty but it does the job it was designed for. |
Addendum:
Bent gear, a bent airframe, or bad rigging on an old
airplane is fairly common. I won’t go
into the reasons why but I will reiterate that you should be on the lookout for
them BEFORE you fly. Once you’re
operating the plane, these things can and will make the flight characteristics
unpleasant. Yet again, that is not a
reflection on the design of the airplane but the owner, mechanic, or restorer. In relation to the discussion
above though, a bent airplane is rarely the reason people describe a specific
flying machine as being poor in nature.
*Never fly a plane you fear
