Today, during my flight, I found myself thinking of how different the flight would have been 90 years ago, over the fields of Vimy Ridge. When I was doing my walk around it was daunting to think that compared to the “kites” of the The Great War, the Katana is a wildly advanced and high-performance aircraft.
I was just about to contact ground control when three of the Snowbirds flew overhead after departing 16. Shortly after, I heard “ground, this is Snowbird 5 ready to taxi from Shell.” Pardon my sad excitement at the fact that I got to make my call to ground right after the Snowbirds. Radio communication, one of the many luxuries I have compared to pilots of WWI. I pondered aloud that the Snowbirds must be in town for Vimy ceremonies and then found myself explaining to my instructor what Vimy was and why it was significant.
We taxied north on Charlie and watched the remaining three Snowbirds take off from one-six. They rotation exact, their spacing perfect even watching the Snowbirds doing the meat and potatoes of flying is still cool.
Upon arriving at a safe height in the North-east practice area, I put my a/c into slow flight and then into a stall. From stalls, pilots also practice a manoeuvre called a spin. It is entered from a stall by fully deflecting one or the other rudder pedal. Once in a spin, the view is spectacular because you find yourself hanging in your harness staring directly at the ground while the a/c turns in slow circles. The reason this manoeuvre is practised is that it is a condition that can happen in a moment of inattentiveness and the recovery is the exact opposite of what a person instinctively wants to do. The simple, but confusing, recovery was not fully understood until the 1920's, making spins more feared by airmen of all nationalities in the 1st World War than flak, enemy aircraft and even fire. A dogfight, I'm sure, provides plenty of opportunity for spins to occur.
We were careful of the weather today as it was always threatening to close in. This is something that I have in common with the pilots of 90 years ago. In true Canadian fashion, it snowed the morning of the attack on Vimy and the Royal Flying Corps struggled to get their planes in the air to complete the important tasks of observation and bombing. It was all VFR in those days and unlike me, who turned on the heat when it got chilly today, they were flying in open cockpits.
Although, my upper-air work was well done today, I had a less than spectacular landing when I got back to YYC. It was not a good flight. I don't think that my head was really in the game and I regret my own laziness in not being better prepared for the flight. I think I need to spend more time studying and preparing on the ground so that I am always ready to fine-tune skills when in the air. Due to scheduling, I won't fly again for a week and I think that it's probably best to spend a couple of hours a day reviewing my technique so that I am able to get some solo time in during my next flight.
More on The Snowbirds:
http://www.snowbirds.forces.gc.ca/site/index_e.asp
More on Vimy:
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/Vimy&CFID=13669726&CFTOKEN=71180742