Rolling right side up
I was a student leaning to fly at the University of Illinois institute of aviation, a hundred years ago, The first course was Private pilot. The second course was an aerobatic course.
Every day I would greet my aerobatic instructor on the ramp at the University airport in Urbana, Illinois for lessons on how to do aerobatic maneuvers in one of two Stearman open cockpit biplanes.
My instructor was a retired airline pilot who really knew how to fly right side up and upside down.
"OK Derry, today we are going to learn how to do an Immelman." "What is an Immelman, I asked?" ''OK , I will show you."
Bob contiued talking as we made our way to the big yellow biplane."Max Immelman was a World War one German fighter pilot. He was an excellent aerobatic pilot and used a maneuver that now bears his name to fly and shoot down British Sopwith Camels and SE5's during the war."
I was all suited up in my white coveralls with my khaki parachute strapped and banging on my butt and legs as I strolled out to the airplane with my instructor. I wondered why Bob's parachute never banged him on his butt.
Soon we would be taxiing out for takeoff. Everything was visual. There was no verbal communication between the instructor and student once you were strapped in to the airplane.
Bob, seated in the front cockpit would pat himself on the head twice or he would shake the stick to indicate he was now in control of the aircraft. Then He would stick his thumb up in the air and point it back to me indicating It was my turn to do what he had just demonstrated.
I kept my hands and feet on the dual controls so I could feel and see what the instructor was doing with his controls.
You learned everything this way from taxi, takeoff and landing, and maneuvers in the air.
Snap rolls were interesting and hard to do. You would pull the stick rapidly straight back, to cause an accelerated stall, push a rudder and the airplane would snap roll in the direction you pushed the rudder. The tricky part was knowing when to rapidly push the controls back to neutral when you were upside down for a fraction of a second in the snap so the airplane would roll out upright, straight and level and flying in the same direction as when you started the maneuver. This took a lot of practice til you got it right.
I learned how to do snap rolls, slow rolls, Loops, split s's and hammerhead stalls. Loops were real easy and a lot of fun. . Slow rolls more difficult and required good coordination of the ailerons and rudder., The Immelman was the most difficult maneuver for me.
Bob would demonstrate the maneuver. Then it would be my turn. I got half-way through it but at the top of the loop when I was supposed to roll out I became disoriented and couldn't get it right, always ending up going the wrong way and almost out of control of the big yellow bird.
Solo flights at the University airport in Urbana Illinois, started out the same way every day.
I would climb into the cockpit sit on my parachute and pull as hard as I could to attach the five point seat belt and shoulder harness. It had to be reallly tight when I was hanging upside down in the airplane. I would pull my helmet and goggles down over my ears while the ground mechanic would turn a big crank on the fuselage side to get a big flywheel spinning which would engage the engine.
The mechanic would then pull a pin which would start the big prop spinning and pull the crank from the side of the fuselage and point the crank at me as he stepped away from the air craft.
This was the signal to me to turn on the magnetos and advance the throttle forward to get the engine started.
I would engage the magnetos advance the throttle forward and the big Pratt and Whitney radial would roar to life, blowing blue oil smoke in a wild, rushing wind back into my face.
The mechanic pulled the chocks from the two main wheels and held them up for me to see. It was OK now for me to start the taxi out of the ramp toward the runway. . There was no radio and no control tower in those days. You did everything by sight, sound and smell.
The Immelman was a 180 degree vertical U turn in the sky started by a loop and then on top of the loop you would roll the airplane from inverted to level flight.
I could do snap rolls, slow rolls, loops, inverted S turns. But every time I tried to do an Iimmelman I could never get it right. I would always end up going the wrong way and disoriented .
The first part was fine. Dive straight ahead at about 10 degrees nose down, push the throttle wide open to pick up speed to 120 MPH. Pull the stick back until you were going straight up and then over upside down at the top of the loop. Stick forward so you would stop the loop. Then roll the airplane right side up at the top of the loop while inverted. It was at this point at the top of the loop and upside down that I became disoriented. Then I finally learned something after several repeated failures.
If I focused over the nose on a distant cloud when I was up side down at the top of the loop I could roll the airplane out successfully every time. All I had to do was to keep focus on the distant cloud as I rolled the airplane to upright.
Wow, I finally could pass the course having successfully demonstrated to my instructor I could do all the maneuvers including the difficult Immelman.
To this day I recognize this was probably the best flying course I ever took in my flying career for it gave me the confidence that I could fly any airplane successfully in any situation or any difficulty In which I might find myself.
Aerobatic flying successfully was the pilot's ultimate confidence builder.
I never forgot the lesson that I needed to focus on a distant cloud to be successful and keep me from becoming disoriented.
Persistence is always the key to success. If at first you don't succeed try, try again.
Pastor Derry
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made some changes in this post as it was too long and needed editing to correct a memory.