daily scratchpad

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The only other panicky woman I remember was the wife of one of my Honeywell friends who wanted to experience 'aerobatics.' Her husband was very interested in flying and later became a pilot himself. She wanted me to take her up and do some aerobatics. I was working as a part time flight instructor at that time, at 'Littleton Airport,' a dirt runway near Sedalia. The photograph was taken by me from the front seat of 5087X, our aerobatic trainer (a Citabria).

So I loaded the adventurous young lady into the back seat of 87Xray and we climbed to about three thousand feet above the airport (about 9000 feet ASL). I told her that first we would to a 'hammerhead turn.' Then I dived the airplane at a shallow angle until we reached 140 kts, then pulled the nose straight up and applied full power. We went straight up for a while. As the airspeed passed through forty on the way to zero, I kicked in full left rudder. The airplane pivoted to the left around the left wingtip, and we headed straight back down. The airport was exactly below us and filled the forward view as I closed the throttle. At that point she screamed, 'Stop!'

The urgency in her voice convinced me, and I pulled out of the dive as soon as aerodynamically possible, and began a gentle 'power-off' descent back to the airport. It was the end of her aerobatic adventures.