Two Old Warriors

A couple Saturdays ago I had the pleasure to fly with two former military aviators: Ken Elias, a former F-4 fighter jock and former airline pilot and Steve Ham, a retired USAF Colonel, who was a T-38 instructor pilot (IP) and an IP instructor, and finally a base commander. Both wanted to revisit aerobatics, in a slow, methodical fashion. Like I do with those just beginning aerobatics, we talked about what we'd do aloft, explaining the theory, pilot's control inputs, sight pictures, airspeeds, and common problems for each of the figures. Once aloft, each pilot did all the flying (less a few demos of some figures), from slow flight, stalls, spins, rolls and loops. Steve was surprised how little "air" each figure used (he was used to a T-38 which would take up 5,000 feet and more in a loop). Ken's working on some tailwheel proficiency, and continues to fly aerobatics with me, and Steve is planning on more acro in the not-to-distant future. I'm looking forward to it. I hope to see you in the not-to-distant future, too.