N22225 (my first solo), N38316, N36116

N8148L, N9284A, Warrior cockpit view

Skybolt Experimental, Super Decathlon N878AC, Super Decathlon N40AC (180HP)

PT-17 Stearman biplane, N40AC interior, Cessna Skyhawk II 172 (N733XB) at Jeffco, CO

Dave Armando's Kitfox IV Speedster (N34AB) we flew to Oshkosh 2002 and Warrior II (N8396Z) at Manchester, N.H.


The awesome 260HP Pitts S-2C (N126BB) at Aerial Advantage in Nashua, N,H. where I take aerobatics training.

My LongEZ. Click here for more LongEZ pics.
My Velocity. Click here for Velocity pics.

Skybolt experimental aerobatic plane is owned by Jim Simmons hangared at Meriden Markham airport.
This plane is awesome! 260HP, 200 knots, inverted flight, rolls, loops, vertical flight, hammerhead stalls, spins, spin recovery, snap-rolls.
Although Jim was PIC, I did get to fly this plane a while and do some rolls myself. He did all the other aerobatic manuevers, since this was my first time doing this stuff.
This was the most fun ride I ever had (in 2000) until...
August 27-29 2001 when I went for my first aerobatics training.
I took the Stalls/Spin/Unusual Attitude Recovery course offered by Executive Flyers in Bedford, MA. For this I flew the Super Decathlon 878AC with instructor Rob Holland. This was awesome! I learned about stall awareness, deep stalls and recovery, aileron rolls, slow rolls, how to avoid spins, how to put the plane into one and recover, and recovery from from just about any unusual attitude. I learned about inverted flight, inverted stalls, and inverted spins. I also learned a lot about rudder use and authority, to "step on the sky" and "pitch and roll to nearest horizon". This took two days. The following day I got my tailwheel endorsement in the Super Decathlon 40AC. Wow!
On 9/3/01 I flew the PT-17 Stearman Navy Trainer biplane out of Waterbury/Oxford, CT with instructor Milt Marshall. What a beautiful classic piece of machinery! 220HP Radial engine.
9/1/02: If you want to have the ride of your life go to Aerial Advantage in Nashua, N.H. (603) 598-3180 and take aerobatics training or an aerobatics ride. They now have the Super Decathlon (N878AC) and the Pitts S-2C (N126BB) from Executive Flyers. These are absolutely awesome machines to go do aerobatics in. The Pitts is like a Ferrari! On the week of 8/26/02 to 9/1/02 I did competition turns, aileron rolls, slow rolls, half rolls, inverted flight, half loops, half cuban eights, reverse half cuban eights, hammerheads, immelmans, tumbles, vertical rolls, snap rolls, shark's tooth, spins, spin recovery, flat spins, inverted spins, of which after excellent training by Rob Holland, many of the maneuvers I performed myself.I did not do the flat spins, snap rolls or the tailslide/tumbles (next year) as these are an advanced manuevers.

Copyright © 1999-2002 Kevin Minckler (All rights reserved).