Surface Acro as your Solo Checkout on Type

[Colonel]

Let's say someone delivers a DR-109 to your doorstep, and departs.

No checkout for you. It's two-seat, but the instructors at the local FTU
oddly enough, decline to check you out in it.

It's got a good power to weight ratio, and inverted fuel and oil systems,
supposedly. I strongly recommend you get access into the tail, to remove
any junk in there which is going to float up under negative G and jam your
stick.

Let's say you glance at the airspeed indicator, and the bottom of the green
arc is 70 mph, to pick a number. You know that your 4G stalling speed is
140 mph. Your 9K stalling speed is going to be 210 mph.

Being on the edge of a stall at 4G (loop entry speed) doesn't give you any
margin, so let's pad it a bit for 5G. Say 160 mph. That's your entry gate
for a loop.

Run up, look for engine roughness and temps/pressures. Taxi out, position
for all available runway. Throttle forward, tail up. Glance at the fuel flow,
you want to see around 30 gph for 300 hp. Oil pressure good. Do not climb,
accelerate in ground effect.

At the end of the runway, you are indicating over 160 mph, so it's time for +4G's
and relax the stick through the vertical. You are now inverted, and you have a
choice - do you fly a contest negative G inverted 45 downline? I am a chicken.
No negative G, so we keep the fluids and everything else settled nicely. We do
a nice light positive G spiral 1/2 roll from inverted to upright, just like the last
half of an aileron roll.

We are now pointed at the runway. Down to the surface we go. Throttle and
prop and mixture are all the way in. Glance at the temps and pressures. At
the end of the runway, nose comes up and over for a gentle, glorious 90 degree
wingover. You are building energy like a bandit. Get the nose down, you want
to be back over the runway at the surface as soon as possible to center the
next maneuver.

Before runway center at the surface with buckets of airspeed, nose up 45 degrees
and stick all the way over, with a touch of rudder with the aileron. Exit your
first roll in the aircraft with more altitude than you entered with. This will keep
you alive. Climb up, turn to join downwind, and land full stop.

You have just completed your first solo flight on type with surface acro.

What I call "tuesday". Ask Porkchop to demonstrate that for you.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Personally when getting into a new airplane the first thing I ask is. “Where is the fuel, and how does it get to the engine”

If it is a Twin Cessna with tip tanks it will take 15 minutes to properly answer that question.

However even simple airplanes have gotcha’s. I know of a very experienced pilot who had an unplanned landing in a field because he did not understand how the Air Coupe fuel system worked.