Brief Description: Flew formation with some new friends from Lees Sum
After our formation flight last week, Bill asked me to come back this week and the two of us would go up alone and he would let me fly left seat in his -7.
He pretty much let me do everything from engine start to landing. Taxiing was a challenge as I havn't flown a tail dragger before and the delay between rubber input and the tail wheel moving gave me fits. I could barely keep the thing on the taxiway it seemed.
Take off was pretty uneventful, but I could feel Bill helping on the controls which was a good thing. This RV-7 is much more sporty and responsive that the Cessna 150 I typically fly. The acceleration and climb rate are impressive.
We leveled at 5,500 feet and flew to Whitedale Airforce Base. On the way I did a bunch of turns to get the feel for the plane. It feels like a sports car and minimal control input is all that is needed. Airspace regulations allowed us to fly right over the base which is home to the only B-2 Stealth Bomber Squadron in the world. All twenty in existance are based there and they fly non-stop missions to Iraq and back from there. Pretty amazing. On our fly over a B-2 was on the ramp in front of the fourth hanger from the left as you can see in the second picture. As we were flying over the runway, another B-2 did a touch and go right underneath us! It was a once in a life time experience I am sure.
I flew us back to Lees Summit and Bill coached me through getting set up for landing. The plane felt pretty squirrely and after touch down we decided to do a go-around. The second landing went better, but I still didn't feel very happy with it. It will take some transition training to get used to flying one of these, but I am sure I can do it. I am really stoked about my project and am motivated to keep making progress.
After our solo flight, we flew formation again. This time Kevin invited me to fly backseat in his -8. It is also a great airplane and won a Bronze Lindy award at Oshkosh in 2009. Quite an achievement. This formation flight was also gr
