BFR

[bruceh]

I completed my first post-RV flying BFR today. Another RV pilot offered to do it for free, and I couldn't pass that up! He has way more flying experience and skill than I could ever hope to have. Ex-navy fighter pilot, Commercial airline experience, warbird formation lead, etc. etc. He really put me through some maneuvers in my RV-9A that were way beyond my normal type of flying. We did lots of steep stuff. Got to try doing overhead breaks. I don't think I've ever yanked on the controls that hard to turn before. We did a bunch of unusual attitude recoveries. Nose high attitudes, push in the power, drop a wing to let the nose fall and then recover without stalling. Nose low aiming at the ground and power off to recover gently pulling back. Some zero G parabolas. After about an hour of this I was really starting to sweat and have the stomach start to churn. We cut it off before I got sick, but I had that woozy feeling for hours later. We also did some really slow flight manueuvers and accellerated stalls. I put the RV-9A in a stall and just held it there for a really long time. Steering with the rudder versus aileron was good practice. The AOA warning tone beeping constantly for about 10 minutes. It was really fun and gave me a lot of confidence at the edges of the envelope where I rarely venture. Best BFR ever!

[captain_john]

Bruce, that's great!

This past summer I did my first BFR in my own plane too. Great thing, isn't it?

Sounds like he really put you outside your envelope! That is a great place to be. That is when you learn the most.

The pilot who does the same one hour flight 500 times has wasted 499 hours.

You have to keep it fresh!

CJ