posted 04-28- 01:18 AM
I have never flown an aircraft before. The T-6 Texan is a WW II fighter/trainer. Pilots would go from this to P-51s and Corsairs. It is a tandem cockpit aircraft (front / back seat), Looks like a SBD but about the size of a P-51. I sat in the front cockpit and the instructor was in the rear cockpit. I had the greatest instructor. He reminded me of Goose in Top Gun. LOL. The instructor handled the takeoff. About 100 feet in the air he had me raise the landing gear and gave me control of the plane. We climbed to 6000. We talked about how the plane stalls, and the rudder input on the way up. He said this plane always stalls to the right with no buffet before hand. It just drops the right wing and the nose drops at the same time. This is because the tail is angled a little off center to counter for the prop rotation. This added to the force of the prop caused the right-handed stall all the time.
He had me do some S turns on the way up to get used to the feel of the controls. He explained to make a coordinated turn using ailerons and rudder to "Step on the ball". Use the slip indicator. Doesn't matter if it is a left turn or right. If the ball was to the left of center step on the left pedal, if the ball was right of center then right pedal. This really made it easy to figure out what to do in a turn. He explained that in a turn the nose would want to drop, to counter this you have to give the stick some back pressure. The steeper the turn the more back pressure. In a 60degree turn you have to maintain 2 g's to hold the turn level.
What a stable aircraft. Man, handling was nothing like what I expected. The stick was firm in place but you barely had to move it and the plane would really react. I mean a 1/4 to 1/2 inch move to the left or right and the plane would start to turn. He said it had aileron boost...like power steering. The same for the elevators. The rudder was just as sensitive. The pedals could travel about 6 inches, but just pressing it 1 inch would cause the nose to start to pull around, drop and roll all at the same time. Letting up on the pedal just stopped the roll. The plane did not bounce back at all. But then again I just eased on the rudder and eased back off.
We flew between 6000 and 8000 feet, speed from 100 to 200 mph and pulled 3 g's. Man the g's really got me. Before a maneuver we would pick up speed by going into a shallow dive, when we hit the target speed we would pull up.....Uuggggg. It feels like someone is trying to pull your stomach out the small of your back. After about 20 minutes I was getting pretty green. I didn't toss my cookies but sure came close. The loops and turns didn't bother me but man those g's. At 3 g's I weigh 600 lbs. I can't imagine what real fighter pilots must go through. The instructor did say that you build up a tolerance for it.
Once we reached 6000 feet our first maneuver was a wing over. Nose up about 45 degrees, right rudder and right aileron. The plane just falls over into a dive. Uggg more g's on the pull up. Then I tried one, at the top of the turn I was weightless for about 2 seconds. We came down at about 200 mph, pulled up and I did another one to the left.
He asked me if I wanted to try the stall now... He cut the engine way back, pulled up about 30 degrees. At 70 mph the right wing dropped and the nose came down as if we had used ailerons and rudder to do it. Very controlled and quick recovery. It was my turn. It held the 70 mph for a couple of seconds, no buffet, the instructor said to pull the nose up a little more....Bammm the left wing dropped and nose dropped hard. He said it never breaks left but because of adding the elevator at the last second it through the plane off balance. Very cool.
Next came the loop. Instructor first then me. At the end of my loop there was a little buffet. The instructor said I made a perfect loop we flew through the wake we made on the way up. 
Then aileron rolls. I came out of it in a slight dive hitting 200 mph. I almost did a split S which we were not supposed to do.
Then came the barrel roll. This is where nature took its toll. I was turning green. (hate to admit it but true) we leveled out and I tested the rudder input and some coordinated turns. When I though I could stand it, I asked if we could do an Immelmann roll. This was so cool. The instructor did it perfectly. Time was about up and we were heading back to the airport.
At this point I have had enough tricks. I thought this was great but I am glad I am not going to get shook up anymore. But the immelmann roll put us at 8000 feet and we needed to drop altitude quick so he had me hold a left handed spiral, Hard left turn with nose held low. Just about the time I thought I could not take it any more he said to level out, Pheew, then go to a right handed spiral. LOL, well this balanced the feeling. so I was ok. I put the landing gear down and he landed the plane.
Over all the feeling was never bumpy or jerky, all the turns and maneuvers were smooth and you always felt in control. Even the stall. Although if did not feel like the nose dropped it felt like it was pushed down very hard. It was nothing like a roller coaster where you get shook up and bounced all around. And the g's on a roller coaster are nothing. When pulling up out of a dive even at only 3 g's it lasted for several seconds I could feel the blood in my face being pushed back and down trying to catch up with my guts.
I have done some scuba diving and some skydiving, but this has to be the coolest thing I have ever done. If you ever get the chance to do this you should. The whole thing is on videotape. There are 3 cameras, one on the wing pointing at the cockpit, one in the cockpit, and most of the shots are from the tail overlooking the plane.
I thank my wife for saying "I saw this in the newspaper and thought you might like it."
Josh if you are out there, that was a hell of a ride. Thanks a million. You are a great instructor and your input would be invaluable to us here.
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Raider 33rd~GS
Raiders Site
[This message has been edited by Raider (edited 04-28-2000).]
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posted 04-28- 01:18 AM
posted 04-28- 02:03 AM
posted 04-28- 12:29 PM
I wonder if I firewalled the throttle, if I could have gotten her airbirne in the 50ft of the runup area 
posted 04-29- 01:21 AM
