Acro in the Hatz

[mtaylor]

Hello all Hatzers,
I lost a friend and flying buddy last weekend in an airplane crash. He was a low acro time pilot in a hot rod acrosport. We aren't sure what happened yet, but he spun in after a few barrel rolls and loops. Not sure of the maneuvers he did, only have the witness reports. But his final maneuver was a spin. Whether or not the spin was intentional, he never recovered. Took his and his brother's life. So tragic. And, as always, shouldn't have been.
Please, everyone who would like to leave the sedate beauty of normal flight in your Hatz (or any airplane), get a thorough check out with a QUALIFIED and capable acro pilot, then practice At ALTITUDE. I was told by an old salt years ago that 'altitude is brains'. It gives you time to think and time to recover. I'm alive today because I heeded that advice. Botched a tailslide and ended up in an inverted flat spin (my head was way up my tailpipe). I had climbed to 4000 ft for the maneuver since I hadn't done a tail slide in a long while. I recovered the botched maneuver at 1000ft. First and last time I ever did a flat spin. I had a buddy taping it, so it ended up a funny story. My friend this weekend didn't have a funny ending. He had some time with an acro friend, and I wonder if they did spins. My point is, you aren't an acro jock with three loops and a half dozen barrel rolls logged. Get checked out, then Practice solo at altitude. Read books like Duane Cole's "Roll Around A Point" and "Conquest of Lines and Symmetry".
I guess I'm just wishing I could've said or done something to him so he'd never have gotten himself into this predicament. If I
can influence someone here into taking acro more seriously, this is my hope.


Happy Hatzin' to all.

Mark Taylor

[JBMoore]

Well said and sorry for your loss.

Jeff Moore

[hatz215]

It's been a bad year for the biplane community. Seems like every week there is another loss. All I do anymore are 1G aileron rolls. Easy in a Hatz.
Still try to stay two mistakes high.

Steve

[stearmoth]

Hi Hatz friends,

Among our certification flighttesting the following gentlemen aerobatic manouvers have been carried out with the Vintage Hatz HB-YSH. If we want to fly any manouver, it has to be test flown to receive a permit!
Sam and aerobatic ace Matthias Glutz at the controls:

- Loop
- Roll
-Hammerhead
-Immelmann
- Half cuban eight

All went very well! Maximum 3.6 g's have been measured!
Spins have still to be made, however!

The Rotec radial is doing very well!!!

Our flight testing is almost finished (noise measurements still to do!!! - not necessary in the US eh?)
As soon we have eversthing completed, flight data will be published on this site!

Watch for Go Pro movie (camera installed at the rear interplane strut on the right side): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlhdjgLw5ZE

To bad it's too late to arrange for Brodhead and Osh this year! However we will attend in another year a.s.p.

Kindest regards
Hans & Sam, H.C.#78, Switzerland

[stearmoth]

Dear Hatzers,

We would like to let you know, that our "Vintage Hatz" has also performed left- and righthand spins (5 turns each) successfully!
We are very happy with our Hatz and that the ship is capable for those previous listed gentlemen aerobatics! What a thrill!
Watch for spin GoPro video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9gErwE-ioY

Beste regards
Hans & Sam, H.C. #78, Switzerland

[stearmoth]

Vintage Hatz performing a Chandelle (Renversement).
This picture has been shot by a interplane struts mounted GO-PRO camera during the vertical climb of a Chandelle.
Watch for the ruder input for the 180 deg. turn.
amazing is the sharpness of the picture. Enjoy!
Hans & Sam, H.C.#78, Switzerland

[mtaylor]

VERY COOL pic! This one is worth enlarging and framing! Love it!

[wildhorsesracing]

Does anyone have tips for acro in a Hatz? Someone told me that loops require some serious finesse.

[mtaylor]

Serious finesse? No more than any other loopable airplane. Entry speed of around 115-120 mph, pull maybe 2.5-3 G's in the first quarter of the loop. It's a good idea to lessen the stick back pressure (G load) a little in the top half of the loop. Too many positive G's (pull) near the top of the loop and you'll snap roll out of the top. Push forward on the stick in the top of the loop and you go negative G's which is a very unnerving and disorienting and can lead to an inverted spin. Do your acro at altitude! I like doing my acro with a lite load, e.g. 1/4 to 1/2 tank of fuel, no passengers. If you have a passenger, rules say you both have to be wearing a chute...even more weight. Triple that extra weight in a 3 G pull and it's just that much more stress on the airplane. If ever the plane were to enter a spin when you are
upside down, pull the throttle back and let go of the controls. Push rudder pedal one way, then the other. If one requires more pressure to push, that's the one you want to push and hold till the spinning stops. By then the nose heavy condition of the airplane will have automatically caused the nose to drop and airspeed to increase for recovery (you DID make sure the CG is correct, didn't you). Pulling back on the stick gently but firmly will bring you back to level flight without overspending the airplane or pulling too many G's.

Just relating my own experiences here. Not intended to be an acro lesson. Some dual acro in a Citabria or like aircraft with an acro instructor is very much advised and is very much fun!

Be careful and have fun!

[BravoCharleyWindsor]

This thread brings back some wonderful memories for me.

Back in late 80's, a few years out of college with not quite 100 hours on my PPL and with money to burn I took aerobatic lessons in Olean NY from Bill Thomas, a national champ, in his Pitts S2B that had less time in the air than I did at that point. Yeah I pulled to hard on the top of the loop at least once and was amazed as the world tumbled around and settled into an inverted spin. Oh how I loved doing hammerheads! Wish I could have continued on with more but I moved out of western NY soon after that and never looked up anyone else to continue with as houses and careers took over my budget and life. Bill passed away in 2009 (scroll down to 2009 entry in this site http://oleanairport.org/history/).

A point I would add as a recommendation for anyone doing acro is in regards to the parachutes required to be worn when flying acro. Go to a jump school and take the first lesson of the accelerated free fall training. Explain to the jump instructors that you want to fly acro and are required to wear a parachute but want to have experienced going out of an airplane, pulling your chute, and landing incase you ever have to do it for real. Aside from a great training and confidence building measure it is enjoyable in itself. So much so you might want to do it more!

The training takes the better part of the day. When it was my turn to go up it was the very end of the day as there had been a lot of other jumpers, static line students, and free fall students there and I drew tail end charley in the jump order. It was so late that they didn't want to let me go but I begged and pleaded to go so I didn't have to come back another day. They gave in and we went up. I'm so glad we went when we did. While free falling from 10,000 AGl I could see Niagra Falls lit up already to the west, the sun setting, and the moon rising. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! IT WAS LIKE FLOATING!!! No sense of falling really other than the relative wind. But once I opened the chute I could see there was a slight problem. We had jumped about a mile north of the airport since all day there had been a north wind pushing the jumpers to the airport. That wind had died and I was descending straight down over a forest area! About then the ground based instructor with a one way radio told me he couldn't see where I was going to land and that I was on my own. So my pilot training took over as if I was in an engine out situation. I looked around and saw an open plowed field on the other side of a road about a half a mile to the east perfect for an "emergency landing". I judged I'd clear the electric lines on the far side of the road and kept heading for the field. Made it no problem with a standup landing no harder than jumping off a chair. Back at the airport they knew I was okay because they heard my enthusiastic "Yehawwww!!!" I gathered my chute and started walking out of the field (parallel to the rows to not annoy the farmer by trampling his sprouting corn!). Soon some instructors in a van pulled up and I piled into the open side door on the floor to head back to the airport and a beer. What a wonderful day!

Three things I learned and still remember from my acro training.
One is the already mentioned practice at altitude. To that I would add unless you're a competition or airshow rated acro pilot any aero you do is practice, so no low altitude stunts to impress friends on the ground.
The second was how alcohol can affect your abilities. One of the weekends I was in Olean I went to a local gin mill on Friday night and had 3 or 4 beers before calling it a night at around midnight. We flew the next morning around 10. I drove to the airport, felt fine, and had had a good nights sleep. But I was off and I knew it.
The third lesson I learned was how little I knew.