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Do What it Takes

 

By James F. Riordan
©2012

 

Bret Willat of www.skysailing.com has been one of my best friends for so many years I have lost track. He is also one of the best pilots I have ever known.  In anything from high performance sailplanes, to aerobatic planes of all types, to jets.

Funny how the best pilots I know all believe in the same basic rule of flight, regardless of what you are flying. In any and every situation, the answer to, “How much rudder do I need?” or “How much trim should I use?” or “What do I do when the stall breaks?”, or “What do I do in an emergency?”  . . Their answer is always the same  “Do what it takes!”

To the novice pilot this is a little disconcerting for they are expecting a more defined or finite answer. The truth is, there is no better answer.  One should never try to worry about learning an exact measured response to anything in an aircraft because we are flying in an ever changing environment, full of surprises and one must be ready to do whatever it takes to get out of it or face losing control of the aircraft. If you put in a measured amount of rudder and you are still not getting the response you need, put in more! Do what it takes.

One day Bret Willat and I decided to go up and do some side by side aerobatics.  I had my, then, young son Brett in the back seat of our Champion Citabria (That is Airbatic spelled backwards – A little manufacturer’s joke) Little Brett loved flying at a very early age and “Big Bret” was teaching him to fly sailplanes during that same time.

Jim Riordan, Bret Willat and Brett Riordan standing by a Schweitzer 233 Sailplane

Jim Riordan, Bret Willat and Brett Riordan standing by a Schweitzer 233 Sailplane

Here is a photo of Brett in the front seat, Big Bret in the back with me standing by the Schweitzer 233 sailplane Brett was taking lessons in.

So Bret hopped in his experimental “Snarl Cat” a small aerobatic Biplane  and my Brett and I flew alongside the Snarl Cat until we got to our aerobatic practice area.

Once we made clearing turns to check for other air traffic, we started our routine of flying aileron Rolls and doing loops side by side. The side by side aileron rolls are a little “sporty” and require a concentrated symmetry to avoid touching each other’s’ wings on the roll in and roll out phases.

The side by side loops are fun and far less demanding.  After completing a couple of loops, I came out at the bottom of one in perfect formation with Bret when I heard my little Brett casually say, “Hey Dad, Bret’s GONE.”  He said it so casually I thought he was joking until I looked to the left and there was the little Snarl Cat in perfect formation BUT WITH NO VISIBLE PILOT.  I could not believe my eyes.  I immediately radioed over “Bret are you ok?” He answered ever so casually, “No!”

The next thing I see is his left hand come up out of the cockpit and he was holding the stick in it. Yup, the ENTIRE. FULL LENGTH STICK!. I could not believe my eyes. I asked , “are you going to be ok?” and the answer I got was a not-so-reassuring, “I think so”.  I moved a little more to the right to give him more working room and finally I could just see the top of his forehead and a little bit of his eyes peering over the cockpit “combing” of the Snarl Cat.

I asked , “will you be able to land?”- – Another “I think so” came back. The thought of trying to land that little Biplane with nearly zero forward visibility in level flight and no forward visibility in a nose high landing flare was perhaps the greatest challenge a pilot could ever face. I offered to fly his wing right to the ground and he accepted. I hopped up over the top and lined up with him being just off my right wing.

Bret Willat is one of those incredibly few pilots that just never does anything but a perfect landing in any darn airplane, including every taildragger I have seen him fly, some of them dating to darn near the dawn of flight. (We both belonged to the Northern California Antique Airplane association).

True to form, Bret made a perfect three pointer with nary a bounce and coasted to a stop.  My Brett and I pulled up next to him, jumped out of our Citabria and ran over to the Snarl Cat. There was Bret with a big grin on his face – he had taken out his Swiss army knife, placed it into the hole where the stick broke off and used it as a three inch “stick” to fly and land the plane. Without that knife I don’t think the outcome would have been pretty. This was probably the most unique life-saving use of a Swiss Army knife known to man.

The moral of the story- DO WHAT IT TAKES.



 
 
 
 
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