Steven called me and asked if I wanted to learn some basic arcro maneuvers ? Why not, right ? He had to  do a check with an instructor for his Belgian VFR licence. I kicked back on the terras of the KFC flying club at EBKT. He came back as white as a fridge door. An hour of acro I thought, wow that’s a lot ? I figured a half an hour would be more than enough. Danny our instructor of the day expedited the checks and we were off. Flying south to “ Kanaal Bossuyt “ ( water channel ) where we could play safely. Never flew a Robin before so I was getting a feel of the aircraft. Checking instruments and asking questions. We reset the G gauge to see how many positive and negative we had done after the flight. Over the water channel, I started to commence two 90º clearing turns.

Should have expected this response from instructor but caught me off guard.

“ These turns should be more acro style “ as we reached an 80º bank.

We started with Rolls, Danny showed and explained the maneuver. Next it was my turn.

A misunderstanding during 1st maneuver I executed. I’m not used to getting commands in Dutch in any plane. I misunderstood his command, which I understood as stopping all actions. He ment to release the pressure on the stick while continuing turn. I stopped all actions while inverted. Plenty of G’s and altitude loss on that one. After back to our 5000 ft and level flight I told him to instruct in English. He gave me an odd look, probably thinking “ f....... November pilot “ . Loops and other fun stuff followed, sorry can’t recall all correct names.  During the 1st loop I flew, my headset took off and hit the back of the canopy. Reeling it back in by the cord for the next go. I went up for acro flying about 10 years ago as a passenger. This guy told me then how to breathe and when to tilt my head back while inverted. This instructor did not ! Does anyone have any tips on this matter ?

After every maneuver I tried to catch my breath and find out which way was North ;-)

As an A to B kind of pilot, I was overwhelmed by the G loads ! To finalize the training of the day, Danny wanted to due three in a row. He started the 1st and I grabbed the stick not allowing him to continue to the 2ond and third. This was good enough for me anyway. We headed back to the field at full speed and a very close circuit to land rwy 06.

You can fly this plane to the ground, flaring as speed bleeds off. Easy to fly and land I must say. Taxied back to the apron where Steven was aiming his camera to see which color I had. Well, I still had color in my face. It does feel like your roller skating for about 15 minutes when back on the ground. Enjoyed a nice beer at the airport club house.

Check out the pictures HERE ! Hey, go do it, it’s a blast, don’t eat or drink in advance and don’t fly more than a half hour to start ! Oh, mornings less chance of turbulence too.