Aerobatics in an RV-8

3 July

You’ll often hear pilots say that; “In aviation it’s not about WHAT you know, but about WHO you know.” You can be the best pilot in the world, but that won’t do you any good unless you have some contacts, right? It’s also about being in the right place at the right time.

I was bored and cold, and stuck at work, so I figured I’d walk over to the clubhouse and get myself a cup of tea. As I was leaving the clubhouse, a steaming cup of Rooibos in hand, Peter asked me if I wanted to go for a flight. “I’d love to, but I kind of need to be at work. Thanks for the offer though!” For some reason, it didn’t click that Peter is the owner of RV-8, ZU-LUS.



Geoff, who was sitting at the bar, said, “I’ll go with you!” Peter just laughed and said that he wouldn’t fit. A little switch went off in my head, and I turned back to Peter. “What are you flying?”
“The RV.”
My face split into a grin as things clicked into place. “Ok, I’d LOVE to go for a flight!” Work? What’s that?
“Alright, go tell the cops and we can go.”
I ran upstairs to let the cops know that I was going as a passenger, and they took my details down (World Cup security and all that).

While Peter went to get the aircraft ready, I left a sign in the shop saying that I’d be back in a bit, then I went over to Peter’s hanger and admired his beautiful yellow and blue RV. He told me to climb into the front seat, and I did so, settling myself in comfortably. He then explained which instruments did what, and allowed me to familiarize myself a bit. But I wouldn’t be flying in the 'hotseat'.



I climbed out of the cockpit, then settled myself back into the aircraft as Peter did the pre-flight. This time I was sitting in the ‘back seat’. The only instrument I had was a GPS displaying altitude and airspeed (and a few other things I think, but I only focused on the altitude and airspeed).



Once I was strapped in, Peter climbed in and set about firing the beast up. He always told me exactly what he was doing. The view from the back is limited; you can’t really see forward, turning around is difficult because of the low canopy and shoulder harness, and I couldn’t see any of the instrument panel in front of Peter.

We started up and taxi’d to the holding point of Runway 19. While waiting for the oil temperature to come up, Peter told me some more about the machine and how he came to own it. After a couple of minutes we were ready to go.



As we lined up, Peter said that I must follow on the controls during the take-off as I would fly once we were in the air. I loosely wrapped my fingers around the stick and rested my toes on the rudder pedals.

He advanced the power in stages, and all I noticed was a green grassy mass rushing past. The tail came up, and before I knew it, we were airborne. I think the first thing that popped into my head as my jaw dropped was “WOW!” All of a sudden I could see the world around me. The view was absolutely spectacular, and the rate of knots we were doing was something else.

“Alright, you have control.”
I snapped my mouth shut and focused on the machine. I hesitantly tightened my grip on the stick and got my first feel of what it was like to actually fly this beast. It was rather jumpy “Fly it with two fingers.”
“Alright.” I held the stick between my thumb and index finger, and I found that things just felt smoother. What a difference!



The world rushed past as we climbed to about 1000ft. I then made a left turn and pointed us towards Franschoek, being sure to remain below the cloud base. WOW! We flew overhead Helshoogte and turned right into a valley.

“Alright, climb and we’ll fly over that ridge.”
Not knowing how far back I could pull, I gently pulled the stick towards me and watched the numbers on the altimeter increase. “You can pull back more. Climb at about 90kts.” I checked the airspeed and saw that we were doing about 120kts. I pulled back on the stick until we were doing about 100kts. At about 3000ft I leveled off, and we flew over the ridge. Stunning!

We climbed to about 4000ft to get out of the turbulence. One second we were being buffeted around slightly, and the next everything was absolutely still. It was surreal. This plane practically flew itself.

“Alright, shall we do some steep turns?”
“Yeah, ok!”
“Ok, you can give it about 60 degrees of bank, and keep the nose on the horizon.”
“Alright!”
I gently banked to the right.
“More, more, more. Ok, hold it there.”
I held it there, loving how smooth the controls were.
“Tighten it up, pull back on the stick a bit.”
I did so, the nose dropping below the horizon, the world floating past.
“Ok, now roll out, then immediately snap it to the left.”
Feeling more comfortable, I rolled the wings level then (gently) threw the stick to the left, keeping the nose on the horizon. It was definitely much better than the first one. We rolled out and Peter took control once again.



“We’re going to do a roll.”
I’m quite sure he could hear how excited I was when I said “Cool, ok!”
Raising the nose, he gave it right aileron. Wow, wow, WOW! Now is probably a good time to say that this is the first time I’ve ever done any aerobatics. AMAZING!

He then rolled to the left. Again, it was absolutely awesome. Then came the loop. Nose up, watch the left wing, look for the horizon, pull through, clench the thigh muscles, feel the G’s. All I could say after that was “Wow! Awesome! That was so amazing! Wow!”



Next was a Half Cuban Eight, then a Reverse Half Cuban Eight, then a Chandelle.
“Would you like to try?”
“Uh, ok, sure.”
“We can do a roll. Don’t worry; I’ll talk you through the whole thing.”
“Ok, cool!”
“What you want to do is raise the nose, then apply full left aileron.”
“Alright.” I tightened my grip around the stick.
Nose up, nose up, more, more, check the wing, full left aileron!
I wasn’t sure how violent I could be, so I didn’t actually give full aileron, but it was still awesome.
“Ok, good. What next?”
“Could we do another roll please?”
“Alright.”
This time I was more confident.
Nose up, nose up, check the wing, and told me when to turn, I pretty much used my whole body as I gave left aileron. WOW!



We leveled off.
“How about a loop?”
“Ok!!!”
Nose up, nose up, nose up, harder, watch the wing, keep the stick there, look for the horizon, pull, pull, pull.
“Good, how about another one?”
How could I resist?
Nose up, nose up, nose up, watch the wing, keep the stick there, look for the horizon, keep the wings level, a little less back-pressure, let it float through, ok, pull back, pull back, level off.
“You did all of that. I didn’t do anything!”
I was speechless. I had just rolled an aircraft twice, and done two loops... during my first ever aerobatic experience. AMAZING!!!

He asked what I wanted to do next, so I said that I’d like to take some photos and I don’t mind what he does. He took control and we did a Barrel Roll. We then did a loop, a Half Cuban Eight, a Barrel Roll, and then a 4-point Hesitation Roll, all in quick succession.

I wasn’t feeling good. No, I was feeling GREAT! He then showed me what it was like doing spins in this aircraft. He raised the nose and came back on the power, the cockpit became quiet. Then came the buffet and we flicked to the left. After two rotations he recovered and we leveled off. Second time I’ve ever done spins, and it was fantastic!



“Right, take us home!”
I took control, keeping the stick between two fingers, and pointed us towards the valley we had come through earlier. There was a lot of cloud, so as soon as we were over the ridge of mountains and in the valley, we descended so we could fly below the cloud. “Fly it like you own it!”
An even bigger grin appeared on my face. “Ok!”
I pushed the nose down and we went from about 3500ft to 2000ft in no time. “Just cut this corner here.”
All hesitation gone, I pushed the stick left, applying some back-pressure, and marveled at the sight and feeling as we whizzed past an outcrop of rock.

I pointed us towards the airfield, enjoying the feeling of flying at 140kts (double the Cubby’s cruising speed). Peter took over once we were overhead. Throwing us into a tight left turn, we descended and joined left downwind for Runway 19. He said all the downwind checks out loud as he went through them.

On Final he said, “Ok, I’m going to try a wheel landing.” It was a ‘Greaser’. We touched down gently and the tail stayed up until just before we turned off the runway. Beautiful.



I learnt that the RV is a machine that wants to be thrown around. In fact, it almost begs you to put some force into every movement of the stick. It’s extremely sensitive, but if you tell it what you want, it obeys you and doesn’t ask questions. “Fly it like you own it” is a good way to describe it.

A huge thank you to Peter! I’ve wanted to fly in an RV for ages, and I’m so glad that you gave me that opportunity. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

So dad, when are we going to get an RV?



** For those of you that aren't familiar with aerobatic manoeuvres, check out this website for explanations: http://www.iac.org/begin/figures.html

Some of the flight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CFsJ03cPOE