I Taught Myself IFR

[Colonel]

Obviously, my RV doesn't have the required power to weight ratio or an inverted system

A poor workman blames his tools. That's you.

Because I'm such a stupid pilot compared to you, I removed the initial "no-aerobatic"
restriction from many RV's. I did most of the models, IIRC: RV-6, RV-7, RV-8.

The RV does wonderful surface level aerobatics, and I look forward to seeing your
video. Because I'm so stupid, here is a sequence for you to perform in your RV with
no inverted systems:

Take off. Accelerate level to end of runway
Wingover. As you well know, energy-gain maneuver.
Descend back to surface. High speed low pass
At end of runway, pull +4G and 1/2 inside half cuban-8 - spiral the half roll to avoid negative G
Back to surface at runway center
At end of runway, pull +4G and 1/2 inside half cuban-8 - spiral the half roll to avoid negative G
Back to surface at runway center. Inside loop.
At end of runway, wingover, back to surface
At center runway, pull +4G to vertical and 1/4 roll to show the crowd the top of your airplane.
Hammerhead pivot and 1/4 roll, pull +4G from the vertical downline to level at the surface

Easy as pie. Because I'm such a shit pilot compared to any Canadian, I could jump into your
airplane and fly that sequence that I just designed.

Now, I can't possibly fly your airplane better than you. That would do permanent damage to
your feelings because I am so stupid, and such a shit pilot compared to you.

Therefore, the above sequence should be trivial for you to perform. I look forward to your video.

Talk to me about entry and top gates. How might that be applicable to your inside loop? What
is the appropriate action to take, for a blown entry gate? For a blown top gate? This might seem
stupid to you, but it's how you stay alive, flying surface acro. Remember Marcus Paine?

Because I'm so stupid, Wayne Harper approved many of my sequences to fly at airshows over
the years. Send the above sequence to him for review.

Talk to me about how you spiral the half-roll at the end of the 1/2 inside cuban-8 to maintain
positive G, and thus not require inverted systems. It's incredibly fucking simple, and even a
really stupid pilot like me figured it out, and taught aerobatic instructors on the Grob at OAS
how to fly aerobatics with only positive G, because their Grob didn't have inverted systems.

Do you teach a lot of new class 2 aerobatic instructors, John? Do you show them how to
fly a surface aerobatic sequence in an airplane with no inverted systems and only seeing
+4/0 on the G meter at the end of the flight?

I remember adding aircraft to my airshow pilot card, that had no inverted systems. The
Citabria and PT-22 Ryan come to mind. They both do nice surface acro, right John?

I have watched really skilled pilots - they would be stupid, compared to a Canadian - doing
a four point roll immediately after takeoff, in aircraft with no inverted systems.

Because you're so smart John, and they are all so stupid compared to you, please explain
to me what technique they used.

[Liquid_Charlie]

Straight and level flight. Duh. That's really hard

Ironically it is. Take away the auto pilot and hand bomb I see guys all over the sky. Why is that. It was comical to watch guys scanning away from the panel as seeing almost spiral dives develop. I always let go of the controls when I was checking other areas or getting out charts etc. Try and tell that to a guy, not many ever believed or took my advice.

Good muscle memory reduces or eliminates the difficulty factor no matter what you are doing.

I never enjoyed or liked being upside down in an aircraft. My area of jollies was off strip and crappy short runways. When I was a "4 bar" flying away from Canada and high density IFR was my "fix" Flying and working Europe, Greenland and high Arctic was the most fun I had in my airline career. Landing a hawker at 86N on the ice on an unprepared lead was a real rush. A Hawker at the North Pole was another memory. Those Russians are just crazy fuckers.

Downwind in a 72 at 350 kts with a half mile gate, doesn't get better than that. The are so many areas in flying where one gets satisfaction. Different strokes.

[Colonel]

Take away the auto pilot and hand bomb I see guys all over the sky

Bizarre. For the PPL, I used to have to give 5 hours of hood instruction and generally
people could hold a heading and altitude, and transition to any other heading (rate one)
or altitude (+/- 500 fpm) long before the 5 hours was up.

Often students would have to go do some more hood time after their PPL flight test,
to meet the 5 hour requirement for PPL issuance (I was an Authorized Person).

I used to teach them to take vectors to the ILS, which is not a bad emergency skill for
a PPL to learn. He doesn't have to keep the needles in the donuts below 500 feet, just
ask ATC for the LOC freq, dial it in and fly the ATC-assigned altitude and heading to LOC
intercept. At LOC intercept, turn until the GPS track is the same as the runway.

I guess things have gone a long way downhill since I instructed. I used to teach people
to learn to hold a heading and altitude, and to believe the attitude indicator. That's the
big one, in the center.

[anofly]

Lucky for me I have never been a 4 bar. Many Many 4 bars would think Andrew is a brilliant pilot. Someone from transport pissed him off bad.
Maybe a 4 bar or or two pissed him off too.
Any 4 bars that are my friend ,and I have several , would know they had met the real deal, if they met Andrew.
I wish he was still in smith falls ,to teach me some gentleman type aerobatics.
If you were up to it you would have a great instructor... but you better do your homework...
I think there are some software folks that know he is smart too....
I would like to work on planes with him too....

[Chuck Ellsworth]

When we used to fly the sched. runs in the north in the DC3 ( Probably the easiest airplane ever made for hand flying in IMC I found that keeping the altimeter needle straight up by seeing it in my prereferral vision was my best means of keeping the thing flying straight and level and I could concentrate on playing battleships and cruisers with my co-pilot.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Flying by reference to the instruments only is easier than flying VFR and using the outside picture to control attitude .

Far easier than driving a car, just try letting go of the steering wheel in a car as long as you can let go of the flight controls in an airplane.

I used the altimeter needle in my peripheral vision as my main means of watching for a change of attitude in cruise flight.

Instrument flying is easy and to relieve boredom on flights in the far north we used toplay battleships and cruisers until it was time to start the approach.