AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2023 - 104

RUDDER & WRENCH
NEVER AGAIN /
Anticipation of
adventure
Tablets, turbulence, and a bloody hand
BY TOM FOURNIER
reward my open cockpit expectations. On
the way to my first destination, I trimmed
up the airplane and let go of the stick to
see how true it would fly after rerigging.
Joy! Straight and level perfection without
a touch on the controls. It was tempting
to stress test the rigging then and there
with a loop or roll, but a more cautious
approach seemed appropriate. I decided
to first stress-test tires and brakes with a
landing or two in case a failed rigging wire
under aerobatic loads dictated an emergency
landing.
Nearby Pinal Airpark (MZJ) was
just the place to do so. Its 6,800-foot by
150-foot runway offered lots of room to
grapple with any unexpected landing
issues. With just one other airplane in the
pattern and a single departing National
Guard helicopter, there was ample spacing
to do full stop-and-go landings. More
joy! The landing gear and brakes performed
precisely as expected even under
heavy braking. I did four patterns and
departed the area looking forward to performing
a few aerobatic maneuvers.
Climbing at a leisurely pace and
" PALPABLE ANT ICIPAT ION OF adventure "
is perhaps the best way to describe what it's
like to approach a waiting biplane. On this
cool fall morning, the porcelain blue skies
over Tucson, Arizona, were lightly scattered
with fluffy clouds adding to that prospect of
adventure. My Waco YMF-5C biplane had
just undergone an extensive annual, including
replacement of mains tires, new brake
fluid seals, and complete rerigging of the
wings. So, this mission was to be a solo test
flight inclusive of aerobatics before taking
on any passengers.
Given the amount of work just completed
on the airplane, today's preflight
merited the utmost scrutiny. Post-annual
issues I've experienced in the past include
under-inflated tires, missing oil filter safety
104
AOPA PILOT / January 2023
wire, wheel cracks, and disconnected
electrical wires; but nothing of that sort
surfaced today. Everything looked in order.
After manually pulling the propeller
through seven compression strokes,
I donned my parachute, climbed aboard,
strapped in, and cranked the engine. The
Jacobs radial chugged to life with its signature
belch of smoke and a guttural rumble.
Oil pressure swung to the green, so I
switched on the avionics and verified wireless
communication between the ADS-B
receiver and my tablet affixed to the panel
with a sturdy double ball clamp arm. The
runup was uneventful, so I deemed the airplane
good to go.
Once aloft I was greeted with smooth
air, few clouds, and enough sunshine to
enjoying the scenery, I headed out over
the Sonoran Desert toward a local golf
course-an area free of other air traffic
and offering many landing options if
things went wrong. At 6,500 feet msl with
nearly a mile between me and the dirt, I
performed a couple of clearing turns and
consulted my tablet for ADS-B traffic
alerts. Nothing was in the area, so it was
finally time for a loop.
The book says loop entry speed for my
Waco is 150 mph indicated, but the airplane
only cruises around 95 to 100. It is
more like a graceful piggy than a flashy
speed demon. So, with a firm and steady
push on the stick, down went the nose:
110, 120, 130 mph. I slid the throttle back
slightly to prevent overrevving but kept
steady forward pressure on the stick. The
rigging wires began to hum their pleasing
song of excitement: 140, 150, and pull up.
It takes purposeful effort to hold the stick
back at high speeds because of the large
control surfaces of the elevator. I glanced
at the accelerometer and eased stick backpressure
just slightly to limit loading at
3.5 Gs. As the airplane went past vertical
and began its backward arc to inverted,
SARAH JONES
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2023

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