STOL DRAG Ride Along

[Yamma-Fox 403]

Hey guys, I was super lucky to get to ride with Steve Henry this summer and have meant to write a short description of part of that ride.

Below is that story which I will post on Facebook, but for thoae of you who are smart enough to stay off Facebook - here is a copy:

STOL DRAG RIDE ALONG 

I count myself as a really lucky dude.

Lucky not so much for what I've done in aviation: just another high time pilot (transport), but relatively low time "low and slow" STOL wanna-be.  Owned a couple Kitfoxes and a Maule, but a pretty average pilot in those planes.

What (in my book) makes me really lucky is the chance I had this summer to ride along with one of the greatest STOL / Backcountry / STOL Drag pilots in the world.

Steve Henry is that, but even more impressively he is one of those very rare people that you meet and from the first impression find that he is a really great guy.... someone who's superb skill as a pilot is envy'd by me as much as his superb character.

So for those like me that wonder what's it like to make that STOL Drag run, here is my description from when I got that 'ride along of a lifetime' and felt that thrill of an elite pilot pushing a highly capable plane for every penny it is capable of, and a few pennys extra.

This ride with Steve was before he had his "Yee-Haw 7" running with the Edge Performance 300 HP EPeX.  I rode in Yee-Haw 6, a Just Aircraft Highlander (modified by Wild West Aircraft) and powered by a 150 HP Yamaha Skytrax Apex.

Next time you fly a plane similar to that (one that stalls below 50 and tops below 150), get it ripping down final approach at 100 mph.  Take it down low right to the threshold at 10 feet and 100 mph over a narrow asphalt runway about 2000 feet long.  

From there only imagine  (and do not attempt) the next steps:

From that snapshot you should feel as I did:  "We have NO chance of landing here... it is out of the question ENTIRELY.  He must be doing a high speed fly-by."

In the next moment I am slammed up against Steve's right shoulder, and the runway I was looking at over the cowl is found practically out the Highlander's left door window.  I think I remember bending my head forward to see the runway from around Steve's mic boom.

So now I'm thinking "OK... that left wing is maybe 5 feet off the ground, we're sideways going 100 and the runway end is approaching fast"  

"Did I remember to tell my kids and wife that I love them this morning??"

But this unthinkably proficient pilot has got it nailed.  Smack down the centerline while flying sideways with that left wing pointed seemingly down the runway stripes.

Next I see that we are halfway down the runaway and slowing fast... but dammit we are still sideways!!  Not just a LITTLE  sideways... we are re-inventing sideways to a whole new degree.

My flight instructor taught me that stalling when sideways is BAD.  And maybe more bad is LANDING a tailwheel airplane sideways!  We are apparently about to do one, the other, or BOTH!!

At this point I am really glad that I fully relieved my bladder before we took off.

As the Highlander gets "squishy" slow I take a gulp and blink.  When I open my eyes the runway is once again right where it should be, perfectly straight ahead.  Our tailwheel touches first and paints the centerline for a moment and then it pushes the big fat main tires securely on the asphalt.

I'm thinking "Hot damn, it's over!"

But next we are braking so hard that there is no way we can NOT flip over.  

I am actually relieved with the thought of that.  Surely I can walk away from a nose-over.  This seems like a much better way to crash!

I am so happy to have just overcome the far worse option of being balled up in a small compact heap out of that 100 mph sideways thing!   But for some undeserving reason God saw me through that... and now again he sees me through the inevitable flip over.

The braking doesn't last but a second and we are stopped.

At that moment I was convinced that Steve had nothing to do with our present situation of safety, and I remind myself to never doubt God again.  

"YEE-HAW" I blurted!

But no, it's still not over yet!  Next I intimately meet the right window pane as we wheel around in a full power intentional ground loop, one that ends in a perfect 180 degree left snap turn.  

The tach counts the Yamaha at 9400 rpm.  I'm being pushed into the seatback.

'One potato' -  tail is up
'Two potato' - tail goes back down
'Three potato' - we're off and flying, accelerating back to 100 and making the home strech in this ultimate thrill ride of a race demo.

Next would come that adrenaline rush in testing again how far, and for how long possible an airplane can go sideways.

Yeah... The most fun I've had in an airplane!

One lucky dude I am!
Brett