I recently flew the RV-6 with Kent Gorton down in Locust Grove GA for the first round of my transition training. On the two days that we flew, the winds were gusting quite a bit with a pretty good crosswind component, so I had a chance to "see the elephant". I am a low-time pilot (140 hrs over 15 years...) with about 10 hours of tailwheel time, so I am pretty green by any standard.
We started with a ground briefing and a few minutes of just sitting in the cockpit getting the 3-point image burned into my brain. We then did slow flight and stalls. Next came 3-pointers. We finished up with wheel landings. It was great fun, and the -6 was great with the gusting crosswind. I will go back to work on emergency procedures and spin entry.
I learned that I had some bad habits which could have gotten me into trouble down the road. One was that I was not positioning the controls correctly while taxiing which could have allowed the wind to lift a wing on me...the other habit that I had developed was not lining up with the centerline while on final. I was happy to be "close" but Kent reinforced that the line should be kept between my legs at all times as proof that I am in control of the plane and not the other way around...
We started with a ground briefing and a few minutes of just sitting in the cockpit getting the 3-point image burned into my brain. We then did slow flight and stalls. Next came 3-pointers. We finished up with wheel landings. It was great fun, and the -6 was great with the gusting crosswind. I will go back to work on emergency procedures and spin entry.
I learned that I had some bad habits which could have gotten me into trouble down the road. One was that I was not positioning the controls correctly while taxiing which could have allowed the wind to lift a wing on me...the other habit that I had developed was not lining up with the centerline while on final. I was happy to be "close" but Kent reinforced that the line should be kept between my legs at all times as proof that I am in control of the plane and not the other way around...