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jimhefner
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 91
Location: Tucson, AZ
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 Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:51 am Post subject: First solo yesterday |
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Congratulations to Henry Voris, who had a successful first solo yesterday in his Firefly!!! He he recently purchased the Firefly from me. Henry lives on Maui, HI and has been here in Tucson the last couple weeks taking U/L lessons from a local BFI. We had an ideal day yesterday for his solo and he got her up, flew around the valley about 45 minutes and got her down (both from a gravel taxiway) without bending anything...  He plans to stay here until the end of Oct, getting used to flying the Firefly and seeing the local sights before shipping the plane off to Maui in late Nov. I can't wait to see his photos from Maui. He's a really good photographer and one heck of a interesting and nice guy so he'll fit in well here.
Please welcome Henry to the list and give him all the same great support I have had over the last 5 years!!
Thanks ya'll and CONGRATULATIONS again to Henry!!
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Jim Hefner
Tucson, AZ
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jimhefner
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 91
Location: Tucson, AZ
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| Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:51 pm Post subject: Re: First solo yesterday |
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Henry Voris sent this in an email and asked me to post to the list... enjoy!
email: voris_henry(at)yahoo.com
For the past year or so I've lurked on the list. But I've just soloed in a FireFly and I thought I would share my experience for others who may be lurking and thinking about flying.
Often you hear people speaking of perfect flights and greased landings on their solos... For some reason I don't seem to do things like that. My solo flight was a progression of errors and bone head moves that I survived as a tribute to the excellent design of my plane and superb training.
It was a beautiful windless autumn Arizona morning. I started with some high speed taxi practice. On the third run I developed a major oscillation. Swinging wildly first left, then to the right. Loosing control I left the runway at a right angle and shot across the desert until my wheels stopped in a drainage ditch at the foot of a berm. The nose went down, thumped the berm. The plane bounced back on to it's tail wheel. Great... I haven't gotten off the ground and I logged my first groundloop...
Dragging the plane back to the runway I come to the conclusion that high speed taxi practice is one of the most dangerous things you can do with your airplane. Racing down the runway at near take off speeds in a squirrelly 250lb. aircraft is just gonna have to wait until I can fly it better.
First I gotta get off the pavement. The gravel taxi-way is much more forgiving. I line up at the end of the taxi-way, start to wind her up and we roll. As the oscillation starts and I dump the rest of the power on and work the left peddle. We're drifting to the right side of the taxi-way but we're basically heading in the right direction, even if there are a few bushes flashing past. Just then I'm startled as the tail leaps off the ground (Did I mention that it's my first day in a taildragger...). Now I'm sitting in a totally new attitude. It feels very nosedown, not at all the reassuring way it was when I would sit in the plane in the hanger making airplane noises...
I pull back on the stick, the nose comes up and we're flying. With an jerk reaction my left hand (throttle) comes back and the sound of the prop drops, the nose rises, and at 50 ft. we start to sink... I figure it out and push the throttle to the wall. The fan cuts in and at 30ft. we start climbing again...
At 100ft. I remember how profoundly acrophobic I am. My training was in a C-150 and an Rans S-14. Both aircraft were fully enclosed (and came with an instructor who knew how to fly...). The Firefly gives open cockpit a whole new meaning (the factory calls it "Unparallel Visibility") and it was terrifying.
At 150ft. I come to the conclusion there was no way I would ever be able to land this thing. I was in a world of trouble...
I could see from my side vision I was drifting closer to two 500ft. stacks a half a mile past the end of the runway. At this point I made about my only right decision of the entire flight... I stuck to my pre flight plan... I turned to the left, pointed the nose up and picked up a thousand feet of altitude to get away from anything I could run into... I got to a practice area and flew back and forth, round and round, turns over a point, cut back the power to feel it sink... I got up the nerve to look over the side. But I couldn't bring myself to stall it.
After an hour I had come to that point that compels most new pilots to make that dreaded first landing... I had to pee...
Turning towards the airport I managed to scoot around on the seat cushion so that it pushed the trim tab handle full forward (I believe that this move also shut off one of the two ignition switches which are located near by.(saved by redundancy))... Panic at the helm.
I get the trim pulled back and enter the pattern. Flying the pattern is reassuring... Maybe I'll make it... Naa, not a chance... I turn to final, everything looks good. I put in a notch of flaps, pull back on the power a bit and we drop like a stone. Belatedly, I give her some power to make the end of the field. I round-out hot and late... I get a good enough bounce off the runway that I'm gonna log two landings.
My post flight reveled I had managed to turn down my headset so that I heard no one and no one heard me. Also, it was at this inspection I discovered I had turned off one of the two ignition switches and I had picked up a small branch in my tail rigging (at take off, I'm sure).
I learned a lot (but no enough), I'm gonna make some changes and I'm gonna fly tomorrow... That's why an airplane is better than a girlfriend. No matter how poorly you fly it, it won't make you wait a week to fly it again...
Thanks to:
Homer, for a great plane.
Cal Bugbee, for building a great plane.
Jim Hefner, the last owner who has devoted many hours to help me fly.
HL Cooper, the instructor who taught me to "manage it..."
And all the old geezers who have filled me with their good advice.
Aloha Nui,
Henry from Maui
PS I'm on the road in Arizona and I can get to the internet only every third day or so so don't get sore if I don't respond right away.
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Jim Hefner
Tucson, AZ
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Eugene Zimmerman
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 392
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:26 am Post subject: First solo yesterday |
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Hey Jim,
You just gotta get Henry on this list.
Winter is coming and a there are still a coupla old geezers who can't
hanger fly as good as Henry can write.
Gene
On Oct 17, 2006, at 12:51 AM, jimhefner wrote:
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John Hauck
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 4639
Location: Titus, Alabama (hauck's holler)
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jimhefner
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 91
Location: Tucson, AZ
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:03 pm Post subject: Re: First solo yesterday |
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Henry will be on the list soon. I demo'ed BBS for him tonight so I'm sure he will post on here soon, but right now he is having problems with internet access out in the boondocks of San Manuel where he is staying close to the airport. He is looking for places to hangout and get wireless access so once he figures that out he'll be in business.
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Jim Hefner
Tucson, AZ
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