From the rear seat of a CJ-6 Nanchang - Victoria Flying Club

Training at Tutima Academy
of Aviation Safety By: Sam Roland
I open my eyes.
I open my eyes and what do I see?
I open my eyes and I see the world
spinning beneath me.
I open my eyes and I see the world spinning beneath
me but upside down. I struggle to detect the direction
of yaw as the world spins by in an incredible blur. I
feel pain at my hips as my harness strains to keep me
in the airplane. I am in a Pitts aerobatic biplane in an -
3g inverted spin hurtling towards the Earth. I initiate
the recovery: power to idle, ailerons to neutral, full
opposite rudder. As the rotation slows I punch neutral
elevator to break the stall. Now that I am out of the
spin, I immediately hammer the throttle to full power
and pull on the stick until I feel the aircraft buffet due
to a near stall. I pull all the way up to the Vx climb
attitude, and my instructor and I climb out of the end
of my spin training course at over 2000 feet per
minute. Mission accomplished – I have recovered
from an inverted accelerated flat spin that my
instructor put us into while my eyes were closed.
I can now literally find myself in any spin and recover
within seconds.
I have spent the last five days in King City, California, a
three hour drive south of San Francisco where the hills
are rolling green and the air is warm blue. I have just
finished the Advanced Aerobatic Proficiency Course at
Sean Tucker’s school, the Tutima Academy of Aviation
Safety. I have learned to land the Pitts S-2C biplane. I
have learned an exorbitant number of aerobatic
maneuvers: tail slides, torque rolls, outside rolling
turns, lomcevaks… the list goes on. But most
importantly, I have increased my confidence in my
ability to handle aircraft by leaps and bounds. As long
as I do not over speed or over-stress an airplane, I will
always be able to recover the airplane from any
unusual attitude and land safely back home (provided
I gave myself ample altitude, of course).
WWW.FLYVFC.COM
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I know what I do is not for the faint of heart. In fact, I
am the only one my age in the northwest of North
America that I know of. I am definitely the only one
of any age bracket on Vancouver Island. High
performance aerobatics is a calling for me but...
I want to make a point with this article. We aerobatic
pilots take safety very seriously. We never, ever,
perform aerobatics in a Cessna 152, 172, or any other
airplane that is not built for it. If the Pilot’s Operating
Handbook does not say it’s Kosher – we do not do it.
There may be pilots who call themselves aerobatic
pilots, but if they’re breaking the Canadian Aviation
Regulations regarding aerobatics they are flying
recklessly and giving aerobatics a bad image. Flying a
C172 through a reverse half Cuban eight or
hammerhead is outright dangerous. Low level
aerobatics is even more dangerous. An aerobatic
pilot is a very disciplined and safety conscious
individual who enjoys exploring the third dimension.
He or she enjoys exploring the limits of his or her own
capabilities along with respecting the limits of the
airplane. If you come across or hear a story about a
pilot performing negligent or reckless aerobatics
please do not lump the pilot into the “foolhardy
aerobatic category.” Instead, simply label him as a
reckless pilot.
True aerobatic pilots are
disciplined individuals
who value safety first,
before all else.