Conference vmszoo::rc

298.0. "importance of concentration, pre-flights, practice" by GHANI::CASEYA (THE DESERT RAT RC-AV8R) Wed Sep 02 1987 11:22

    	(MAN!  THE NET WAS SURE A MESS TO GET ON YESTERDAY...TOOK "FOR-
    	VER!!"  THEN AFTER GETTING ON, IT TOOK A LOOOOONG TIME TO EXECUTE
    	EACH COMMAND.  AFTER ABOUT 11:00 AM (14:00 EST), I COULDN'T
    	GET INTO NOTES *PERIOD*!  WAS THIS A LOCAL SYNDROME OR DID ANY-
    	ELSE HAVE SIMILAR PROBLEMS??
    
        ANYWAY, THE FOLLOWING VIGNETTE WAS WRITTEN LAST EVENING FOR
    	YER' MORNING CONSUMPTION OVER COFFEE...COULDN'T GET INTO NOTES
    	SO HERE IT IS, MID-MORNING FER' MOST OF Y'ALL:
    	================================================================
    
    	Well guys, activity's been a little slow in "RAMBLINGS" of late 
	so here's a another little tid-bit fer' ya' ta' chew on.

	This one deals with a very recent instance which occurred at the
	Western Scale Nat's, weekend before last.  This is kinda' telling
	on myself and it's plenty embarrassin', but it makes a good point
	about how quickly this sport can humble you, so I'll martyr myself
	in the interest of helping some other R/Cer to avoid the pitfall
	I very nearly fell victim to.  It's somewhat easier to confess in
	that I, luckily, walked away without damaging the faithful MiG-3
	but I made an enormous trailer-hitch in the seat of my jockey-
	shorts during the event and (re)learned a valuable lesson.

	GIVENS:  I hadn't practiced with (or even flown) the MiG-3 since
	winning the Tucson Masters Qualifier last Memorial Day Weekend 
	(DUMB!).  I scratched the first two rounds of the Wstn. Scale Nat's
	'cause "I really didn't HAVE to fly at all" (DUMBER!).

	When I "finally" decided I would go ahead and fly, beginning with
	round-3, I spent a non-typical 1/2 hour fiddling in the pits trying
	to get ready.  You see, I always pre-run the engine (at idle) in
	the pits then "lock" the engine at top-dead-center to assure that
	the inverted engine will start once I'm on the clock...only,THIS
	time, I forgot to remove the little wad of paper-towel I always
	stuff into the carb-intake (to keep out dirt/dust) and spent a
	LONG time scratchin' my a**, wondering "howcum' this d**n thing's
	so blasted rich and won't respond to the throttle?"  I'll bet I
	pulled the plug and blew-out the head more than 10 times before I
	"finally" figgered' out what th' he** was goin' on.  Well, that 
	screw-up kinda' distracted my concentration and I didn't pre-flight
	the retracts before taking off...you guessed it, the gear wouldn't
	retract and the reduction in speed/performance made the first flight
	a throw away!  Yes Virginia, there IS a big difference between per-
	formance with gear up and gear down!!

	There was NOTHING wrong with the gear at all...it's just that, after
	Rhom-air gear sit for awhile, the O-rings on the pistons kinda' take
	a set to the cylinder walls and need to be cycled once or twice to 
	free them up.  I'd have caught this IF I'd followed my usual pre-
	flight routine.

	Rounds 4 and 5 I found my wind and played error-free ball receiving
	an 88.75 flight-score for round-4 and a 93.75 for round-5 (second
	highest flight score of the meet).  

	Then, with (apparently) a "what's so hard about this" attitude, I
	committed the cardinal sin...I BECAME COMPLACENT!  My round-6 flight
	was progressing nicely, shaping up to be my highest flight (maybe THE
	highest flight) of the meet.  I was done...all maneuvers completed
	except for landing but, not to worry, the MiG gets 9-10 point landings
	almost automatically. ("Hmmm," I think to myself, "nail this landing
	and you'll take second place in a meet you didn't even care whether
	you flew in.")  OK, I do my normal (unscored) military pitch-out pre-
	ceding landing...gear and flaps down...hold the constant radius descen-
	ding  turn onto final...roll it out...hold that constant rate of descent
	...call "landing commencing now"...flatten the descent...("Hmmm, idle's
	a little high - drop the throttle trim a click-or-two)...OOOPS!...why's
	the nose comin' up?...it stalls at 3 feet and BLAM!! slams onto the
	mains and leaps 8 feet into the air, nose-high...just hangin' on the
	ragged edge of the "stall, snap, and DIE syndrome"...hovering there 
	like a big camouflaged decoy.

	"What happened?" I'm thinking, "my perfect landing approach suddenly
	went to He** in a handcar...there goes Vegas...there goes the Masters
	...there goes the MiG-3!"  "HEY STUPID!" I hear this voice shouting in-
	side my feeble brain, "you gonna' stand here and watch yer' bird smash
	itself to smithereens against the nasty black asphalt or are you gonna'
	DO SOMETHING TO SAVE IT?" I snapped out of it and, just barely in time,
	became a blur of activity, desparately trying to salvage the ship...to
	He** with the landing...to He** with the contest, saving the faithful
	MiG was all that mattered!!

	Smoothly (but as rapiidly as possible), I came in with full power, si-
	multaneously hitting the gear-up switch and holding nearly full right-
	rudder to counter the torque-roll to the left, all the while trying to
	stay OFF the ailerons...they'd spill me for sure in this nearly stalled
	attitude.  The flaps kept the wing flying 'til I could get the nose
	down and regain flying speed.  Sure enough, that honest ol' ship hung-
	in there and I was able to fly away from the most screwed-outa'-shape
	situation I think I've ever been in.  I flew around the circuit (nurs-
	a near-terminal case of battle-rattle), dropped the gear and flaps a-
	gain and did the prettiest, "kiss-on" wheel-langing you ever saw and
	rolled to a stop, right down the white center-stripe.  The cheering
	and applause from the spectators was nearly deafening as I taxied back
	and shut down the engine.  Friends and fellow pilots (some of whom I'd
	never met before) were slapping me on the back, shaking my hand and 
	commenting on how that was the best save they'd ever seen.

	But, I was inwardly humiliated 'CAUSE I KNEW BETTER what had REALLY
	happened!  Guys were remarking about the tricky gusts and sink-holes
	in the air that afternoon and it would have been easy to cop-out and
	agree that that was what got me into trouble, but I WAS THE CULPRIT!

	I made two near-fatal errors, the second growing out of the first. As
	I said up-front, I hadn't flown THIS airplane since May, not good pro-
	cedure in any case,...certainly not when yer' going into combat (com-
	petition)....that was the first mistake.  (Have you guessed the second
	one???)  When I dropped my throttle-trim down a coupla' notches, I tot-
	ally forgot that the MiG-3's transmitter has CROSSED-TRIMS!  You got
	it!...instead of dropping the idle speed, I ACTUALLY dialed in some UP-
	ELEVATOR trim...the nose came up, etc., etc., etc.

	There was a third mistake, however, perhaps the most dangerous one of 
	all:  I WENT TO SLEEP ON THE LANDING!  I was so non-chalant about the
	nearly automatic landing qualities of the ship that I failed to recog-
	nize the impending problem and do something about it BEFORE it became
	serious!!!  I simply stood there, shocked at the series of events, and
	was just d**n near too late by the time I finally DID take command. A
	touch of throttle and a "breath" of down would've solved the problem
	before it occurred.

	Is there a moral to this tale...you betcha'!...there're several:

	1. Fly THE equipment you're gonna' compete with close enough to the
	   meet to be intimate with it!

	2. Don't let complacency creep in and make you careless.

	3. (This one I PREACH to my students...you'd think I'd know better!)
	   NEVER QUIT FLYING THE AIRPLANE 'til it's rolled to a full stop!!!
	   Even then, retain yer' concentration 'til the ship is taxied back
	   and the engine AND radio are shut off.

	I've always prided myself on NOT getting cocky or over-confident but
	this little episode re-reminded me just how important that really is.
	This helping of humility will stay with me quite awhile and I'm just 
	REAL thankful I didn't have to lose my faithful MiG in the process of
	re-learning something I already knew!

	So, I slipped from a potential second-place finish to fifth-place but,
	BIG DEAL!...even a "first-place" trophy would've looked pretty hollow
	if I'd left my airplane scattered all over Mile Square Park!  Grate-
	fully, she lives to fly another day...and with a MUCH wiser pilot at 
	the controls to boot!

	Well, end of story...I gotta' go now, there's just enough time to get
	in a coupla' practice flights on the MiG, if I hurry!

	Adios amigos,	Al