Ohhhhhhh Yeah some Sukhoi bonding time for me

[fougapilot]

Good on you my friend. I will admit I'm a bit jealous...

With whom will you be doing instruction?

I flew with Sergei "the mad Russian" a few years ago in my Chang. Went renew with spins and hammerheads. Great instructor, a bit on the crazy side, but great instructor non the less.

Enjoy,

F

[cgzro]

A bit jealous for sure. You are definitely doing the right thing by traveling to spend time with instructors. Too many folks just get aerobatic planes with little training. With a plane like that you need to spend time with the best instructors in the world.

Have fun and bring LOTS of cash.

By the way, where will you be keeping her in Canada?

Cheers,

Peter

[Hedley]

Have fun!!

The only problem with doing aerobatics in the USA
is that if you want to do it below 1500 AGL (eg
Intermediate 1200, Advanced 800, Unlimited 328)
you need a "waivered" box, which involves quite
a bit of paperwork.

However, in Canada, if you have an "individual"
SFOC as per CAR 603.67, it's really quite simple.

This vastly superior Canadian system is thanks to
a really great guy in Tower C, whom I understand
has recently run afoul of a powerful bureaucrat at
Transport, and has since gotten the boot out to a
region

Dontcha just love corporate/bureaucratic politics,
where good people get punished, and something else
floats to the top?

[fougapilot]

????

You mean WH is out? Do we know whom will replace him?

[Hedley]

The contest types are exquisitely sensitive to a "forced"
spin entry ... easy way to lose points!

Sounds like a cool maneuver, though! I'm a little
puzzled that your inverted spin went flat, though -
wouldn't your power be off for entry into a contest
spin?

P.S. Outside snaps are great fun. If you're going
to fly Unlimited, you need to practice vertical outside
snaps, and rollers. Lots of possible combinations there!

[cgzro]

You should check out Svetlana in the Su-29 to see how exquisitly that plane can be controlled at low speed by an expert. There is a video on youtube shot in Japan that has some upline tumbles combinations that are shot so that you can see everything she is doing.

Your comment about the humpty surprises me a little. Humpties are flown usually full (or at least lots of) power unless you are under a cloud deck and trying to limit your vertical. Like a hammerhead you need the prop blast to pivot the plane and you really can't back off the power until you get the pendulum effect started properly. I suppose you could glide it over the top but that would be a very wide radius and not like any Sukhoi humpty I've ever seen. Properly done a Sukhoi will humpty just like a perfect hammerhead, i.e. 'almost' around its own C of G.

[Hedley]

Hey EngineGuy, you're out west, right? Not sure if
this will help, but there's a really good Sukhoi pilot in
Niagara Falls, NY - Rick Volker.

He's owned and flown a variety of Pitts and Sukhoi in
both Unlimited and airshows. Last I heard, he's also
flying Ed Russell's Spitfire. Needless to say, he's a superb
pilot, knows the Sukhoi, and could probably give you
some tips if you wanted.

Here's a neat shot of Rick at work:

[cgzro]

Here is an example of the low speed capabilities of the Sukhoi in the hands of Svetlana or one of the other russian team members.

Check out the following video and in particular look at the sequence starting at 5:10
This is what really sets the Sukhoi/russian pilots apart in my view. It has sufficient mass to produce some lovely graceful tumbles, enough power to motor through anything and that amazing sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbvfnTGk_6c

The rest of the video is pretty cool too ... just don't try it at your local racetrack

[Hedley]

#1 a Sukhoi 29 flown by me... In second place there was a yak 52, 3rd was a T6 Texan, 4th was another T6, 5th was a T28 trojan, and in 6th was a sweet P51 Mustang

Yes, aircraft like that (and the people who own and fly them)
are not particularly popular with many powerful Canadians.