Seeing the world upside down

Blue skies!

- Would be nice right now... I'm now halfway into my very last week of flying in 2012 before a long winter break filled with theory studies. Since we've still not had any theory classes after the exams these five weeks have been very relaxing and I've spent a lot of time into playing video games and taking naps during the day... Because of unstable weather I've been in the air about half of the weekdays, which I should be satisfied with since many classmates have not been able to fly as much. The last week have included two highlights in my pilot career. One was when I yesterday landed my first time at another airport than Ljungbyhed, namely Malmö Sturup and Kristianstad airport. It was really instructive and fun to land at a large airport such as Sturup! The other highlight is the main topic of today's blog post.

In Ljungbyhed we will fly two types of airplanes besides the four-seat Cirrus we usually use. One of them is a Scottish Aviation Bulldog, also known within the Swedish military as SK-61. It's a single-engine two-seat airplane first built in 1969 with an important difference from our other airplanes: it's certified for advanced maneuvers. That means we are allowed to fly it in any direction including straight up, straight down and upside-down (for a short while). Last week I flew the Bulldog for two hours – the only two hours I'll have this privilege at TFHS. That's because the objective of the exercises in the Bulldog are just to get a basic feeling of being in abnormal situations, and knowing the counter-measures if it would happen in an airliner.

During the first of these two flight lessons we mainly practised deep stall, i.e. slowing down and/or turning too steep until the plane falls vertically. Then the instructor put the plane into abnormal attitudes – a 90 degree bank, a very steep climb, upside-down etc – and I practiced getting back to a normal attitude. During the second lesson we practised spin: trying to turn sharply when stalling so that the plane starts rotating while falling rapidly. Obviously all this was performed at high altitudes under full control by the flight instructor. For safety we also wore parachutes so that we could leave the airplane if necessary.

When we were finished with the mandatory part the teacher simply asked me what kind of maneuver I'd like to try out, wow! In the two lessons I performed myself five barrel rolls and three loopings and the teacher showed even cooler stunts like the hammerhead, avalanche, the Cuban eight etc. I felt like a 12 year old being at the the best amusement park on the planet, hehe. Watch the videos!

On a side note, an unexpected scenario unveiled last week during a night flight lesson (practicing flying in dark) when a Norwegian student and his instructor happened to see a fire in a storehouse on the ground close to Ljungbyhed. They alerted the fire authority and circled the area until the fire squad arrived which could prevent the fire to spread to the adjacent house.
http://hd.se/klippan/2012/10/18/flygplan-upptackte-brand-i-uthus/ (Swedish)

Videos:

Boarding the Bulldog (short clip)

During the first maneuver, a half-roll, half-loop, I get a grey-out (I see only grey) because of the high g-force, so after that I strain (spänner mig) as much as I can...

My instructor enters spin and then exits it.

The teacher shows loops and rolls and then I try. The fun starts after 0:50.