BECOMING FAMILIAR WITH A BULLDOG


The day started early, me joining the rush hour traffic from the south coast to pick a fellow pilot, David, up from his South London palace. Having been introduced to his pet rats over a welcome cuppa we set off on the second half of the journey to Kemble, commenting on the fact that it was a good idea to have taken the decision to drive, as the mist and fog swirled around us. The day seemed somewhat in doubt but we pressed on regardless........it's a long way by road compared to the trip by air from Shoreham.

Having finally found the way into the airfield, we were greeted by flyguy and Shadow (ex RAF, Red Arrows and Brittania commercial pilot - a little experience then!) who briefed us for the ensuing conversion to the Bulldog. A VP prop on the bulldog meant I had an additional thing to think about today, amongst everything else. This was going to be an education.

Having squeezed myself into a flying suit/babygrower, we made our way out to the brightly coloured Bulldogs sat on the apron. Having been shown how to put on a parachute with the assurance it wouldn't be needed, we were shown how to pre-flight the Bulldog. Most noticeable differences were the enormous pitot, the chunky switchgear and the trailing edge of the rudder that must have been almost an inch thick!!

The following ten minutes was spent initially doing up the parachute harness and then the seat harness and straps - trussed up like chickens we went through the pre-start checks, my brain reverting to proper student mode, struggling from check to check, missing the odd one from the preprinted checklist and chastising myself for it. It is incredible just how much you become familiar with your regular checklist and conversely how much you can be thrown by a strange one.

Engine start and oil pressure and so on ok, so we sit and wait for the engine to warm and the gauges to reach the green. Then we hold the stick fully back and taxi to the hold for the power checks before lining up side by side with the other Bulldog.

A wave of the hands (after a pre-agreed brief on our departure for safety reasons) and we are off, slowly increasing the power to maximum before lifting off the tarmac.
Looking to my right the other Bulldog is just inches...... well ok, just several feet, off our starboard wing

We climbed in close formation between a gap in the clouds before breaking into the clear bright sunlit sky. We took the initial lead whilst Shadow demonstrated to David what is involved in basic formation flying.

We then swapped and flyguy proceeded to show "echelon right". We dropped below the lead plane and made 3 distinct moves to formate. Move up to the same level, move forward to the desired position and then in toward the lead aircraft. Yeah ok close enough!!

Moving to "line astern", we dropped down from the lead and positioned behind and below the lead, before moving up and toward the rear of the lead aircraft. Geeez, that is pretty close!!! This is when the lead aircraft is in the most vulnerable position as he is unable to see the formating 'craft so absolute care is needed.

We then moved to "echelon port" in a similar fashion, being shown left and right turns and how the speeds and heights need to alter to keep the formation tight and together. Highly skilled stuff, requiring the utmost concentration. Made to look easy by the pro's we were with of course.

We had been given the option of a tail chase and we initially chased David around the sky, keeping them in constant view and in a constant position in the screen. Upside down, round and round, one minute looking at the sky, the next at the ground from all sorts of angles!! It wasn’t long before we swapped places and we took the lead, pulling 4g whilst flyguy flung the Bulldog about the sky.

We broke away, David and Shadow to the east and us to the west to learn some general handling qualities of the Bulldog. the first thing I struggled with was keeping straight and level. It appeared to me that the nose was too low (it wasn't!) so I wanted to pull the stick back and of course kept on nudging the altimeter upward. What a solid aircraft to fly though and superb visibility out of the bubble canopy.

Changing heading to avoid Fairford, we proceeded to fly steep turns. Well I thought I did. The comment from flyguy - "did you learn to do steep turns at 45 degrees?" - clearly meant I wasn't flying steep turns.

Onto 60 degree turns and again feeling like a total novice as I sank and rose 100' either side of the predetermined altitude but at least we hit our own wake on one of them!!

Stalling - yikes.

Having learnt on the Tomahawk I was dreading the wing drop, but the Bulldog remained stable and easily adjusted on the rudder. The buffet was obvious and I managed to keep it in the stall while dropping down through the air, recovering immediately the nose was pushed down. More stalls in the approach configuration, very nose high and plenty of buffet again whilst recovery was again instant on lowering the nose and pushing in the throttle.

Moving on, flyguy then demonstrated maximum rate turns, steep turns whilst pulling back on the stick until buffet was felt and then just relaxing it ever so slightly, so we circled just on the edge of the stall.

The one thing I noticed was the different approach to the lookout on the HASELL check. The clearing turn consisted of a chandelle, looking around underneath as the nose dropped before recovering to carry out the actions requested.

It was at this point that my stomach decided it had been enough for one day.

Whilst flyguy sorted the radio I headed for a gap in the clouds above Cirencester, and we started our descent from 5000’ above the Cotswolds. I was prompted to orbit and we did a series of steep (for me!) descending turns to get under the cloud. Why couldn’t I have done those descending turns that well in my Skills Test!!

I will admit to being fairly disorientated by now and flyguy took over and pointed us at the airfield, onto a demonstrated circuit and touch and go.

At 200’ on the climbout he handed the Bulldog back to me and we headed around the circuit. The extra speed caught me out plus the inclusion of “Prop” into the downwind checks but I had her under relative control by the base leg. How to feel like a newbie student again!!

Slow her down to 80, 10 degrees of flap, don’t overfly the farmhouse, turn onto final, remember she lands fairly flat so don’t overdo the flare, speed down to 70 as we put down full flap, over the threshold and I start a gentle flare only to discover we look closer to the ground than we really are. The wheels touch down for a firm but fair landing and then increase the throttle, rudder to keep her on the centerline………… “Flaps?” enquires flyguy!!! Oh yeah…. It was then I realized that the last time I had done touch and go’s was on my Skills Test some 60 hours ago.

We climbed out, turning early to avoid the village. This plane really does handle well. We fly a truncated downwind as the cloud is encroaching on the base leg now. Speed control is a little better this time, though she still flies the downwind a lot quicker than I am used to, and the landing is a lot better this time.

The last circuit is much better, as is the speed control and other than a small prompt from the right hand seat (it is his baby after all) to kick her a little straighter in the flare I think I carried out a reasonably good landing. Taxiing back to the hanger I take care to hold the stick back, remembering that the prop clearance could be higher on the Bulldog and we shut down.

55 minutes airborne and we had covered an awful lot. I seem to remember flyguy saying that it would just entail spinning and PFL’s with a revision of VP prop to complete the conversion for soloing the Bulldog. If that is wrong I am sure I will be corrected in due course. If it is right I am quite pleased with the day’s efforts.

From what I gather David had a similarly successful day and we are both decided that we want to take the training further and look forward to signing up early next year.

I, for one, came away feeling very humbled. I am not stupid enough to think I know very much at all, but seeing the way these guys handle a plane and with such accuracy is something to strive for and work toward. I am also convinced that I really do want to add aerobatics to my experience of flight, and am assured that the nausea gets better and the disorientation becomes less of a problem.

Here was I thinking that 2005 might be a less expensive year. Ha Ha Ha Ha. It will be worth it though!!


As an afterthought, is it only pilot's that are insane enough to drive 7 and a half hours and 340 miles for a flight lasting an hour?