A Nice PARE

"I Just Flew a Super Decathlon!"

"I don't know what to do with my hands." Photo by Don.

In May of 2025, I was in need of a flight review. While I have done flight reviews in my airplane and demonstrated stalls, steep turns, and other basic maneuvers for various flight instructors over the years, my preference is to seek out new experiences, gain skills, learn from different instructors, and fly other aircraft types instead. Past examples include my first experience with a constant speed propeller in the Williamson Flying Club's former Hawk XP, earning a tailwheel endorsement in a vintage Piper J-3 Cub, or a getting a seaplane rating in a souped-up 1947 Piper PA-12S Super Cruiser on straight floats.

Enter Tango Whiskey Aviation, an aerobatic flight school with operations at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester Area International Airport (KROC) and the Williamson-Sodus Airport (KSDC) where we share bays in the same hangar building. I have known Tango Whiskey cofounder Don H since the days when we both based aircraft at the Le Roy Airport. Eventually, we both became Williamson Flying Club members. In a nutshell, Don is either an aviation polymath or suffers from severe ADD. (Maybe both.) He is a high energy, enthusiastic aviator who flies for NetJets to put food on the table and provides aerobatic and upset recovery training under the Tango Whiskey umbrella while instructing aspiring rotary wing pilots with BAC Helicopters owned by my mechanic Ray. He recently shared with me that he was buying a Cessna 150 from my former hangar neighbor at Sodus to teach his kids how to fly.

Tango Whiskey has a fleet of three aerobatic aircraft: an American Champion Super Decathlon (8KCAB), a Pitts S2B, and an Extra 300L. My goals for the flight review included a tailwheel refresh (it's been 7 years) and to experience a spin (because I never have). For this mission, the Super Decathlon was exactly the right airplane for the job and perhaps less of a handful than the other two. As a bonus, despite having known him for over 15 years, I looked forward to flying with Don for the first time.

Getting Cozy with a Hooker (Harness)

 

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
19 May 2025	N248MA 8KCAB	ROC (Rochester, NY) - D52 (Genseo, NY) - ROC	1.1	2978.5

I met Don at the US Airports FBO on the south side of the Greater Rochester International Airport on a beautiful spring day. Nevertheless, I was anxious about managing a 15 knot gusty crosswind for my first taildragger stick time in seven years. "This will be a piece of cake," Don said to me beforehand. "You fly so often, you're practically a professional." It was high praise, but I wondered if I could possibly deliver on those expectations in that wind.

Don assigned some conventional flight review homework (FAA's ALC-25 Flight Review Prep Guide and AOPA's Know Before You Go: Navigating Today's Airspace) that I completed the day before. We discussed that material and completed the ground portion of the review in US Airports' conference room, grabbed our headsets, and headed outside into the restless wind where the Super D was already waiting on the apron.

Me at the controls of Dave's Super Decathlon in 2003. I miss that shirt. Photo by Dave.

Climbing into the Decathlon was a full circle moment for me in that I spent many hours in the back seat of my mentor's Decathlon in the early 2000s. This time, instead of Dave sitting up front, it was me. I was rusty, but remembered the basics of buckling the Hooker five point harness.

I took in the basic instrument panel, knowledgeable with its general layout from past experience while still finding the specifics unfamiliar. Don walked me through engine start and within minutes of bringing the fuel-injected 180 horsepower Lycoming to life, we were taxiing from the 700 Ramp to the departure end of runway 25.

Compared to the J-3 Cub, forward visibility from the front seat of the Super D was excellent and there was no need to S-turn while taxiing. As with any taildragger, each rudder input required positive cancelation with opposite rudder to prevent the tail's momentum from yawing the airplane more than intended. Compared to the J-3, I found the rudder of the Decathlon to be significantly heavier, which reduced the crispness of some of my turns. When I commented on the heavy rudder, Don responded, "Yeah, you've got a barn door back there, especially compared to your Piper." Still, at least my tailwheel training with Damian in 2017 stuck well enough that my ground handling was competent.

Despite the crosswind, take-off was perfunctory. "That was all you," Don noted as we ascended into the blue. Don suggested power settings as we transitioned from climb to cruise. With only an hour of time in airplanes equipped with a blue knob prop control, I struggled a bit to remember that throttle sets manifold pressure instead of RPM the way it does in most airplanes I have flown.

After some basic maneuvers with the airplane including turns in slow flight/minimum controllable airspeed, Don coached me through some stalls. Though relatively docile, stall breaks were more abrupt and ended in a greater downward pitch than Warrior 481. My stall recoveries went well.

PAREing Back

In the ground session, we talked a lot about what causes airplanes to spin, going beyond the rote "one wing being more stalled than the other" definition that every private pilot is taught. Rather than conduct a full-on spin clinic with me, Don wanted to focus on incipient spins and how to get out of them. We discussed the PARE acronym for spin recovery popularized by instructor Rich Stowell:

Power out

Ailerons neutral

Rudder opposite the direction of the spin

Elevator forward to unload the wing

We climbed to 6,000 feet and positioned ourselves over a massive hole in the scattered cloud deck. Don had me slow the airplane to the edge of a stall, nose high, with the stall warning horn blaring. "OK, this is going to feel very wrong, but I want you to take your feet off the rudder pedals, put them flat on the floor, then give me a right turn with aileron only."

He was right. That felt incredibly wrong. 

As the airplane shuddered from turbulent air roiling over the tail from nearly stalled wings, Don goosed in some power and stomped on the left rudder. The power added energy to an already adverse scenario and top rudder pushed the left wing -- already critical -- over the edge so that it stalled hard. In what subjectively took a fraction of a second, the Decathlon dropped her left wing aggressively, smoothly rolled onto her back, and nosed straight down.

This may sound like it must have been a violent maneuver, but I perceived no sense of motion or force as the view from the windscreen rapidly transitioned from pure blue sky to nothing but farmland. Despite not feeling flung around, I appreciated the firm embrace of the Hooker harness.

"OK, recover," Don prompted from the backseat. I worked through the PARE process and returned the airplane to straight and level flight. "Well done. How much altitude did you lose?"

The altimeter now showed 5,000' and we had plummeted through the altitude of the scattered cloud layer. "One thousand feet," I reported back. It was an excellent object lesson on why stall/spin accidents at 1,000 feet in the airport traffic pattern are inevitably unrecoverable.

Slip-Slip

With the 5,000 foot long grass runway of the Geneseo Airport in sight, I pulled the power back slightly for a standard 500 foot/minute descent and set myself up for an appropriate pattern entry. From the back seat, Don chided, "It's an aerobatic airplane! Chop and drop!" So I did.

Lined up on final for runway 5, I could see that the windsock indicated a direct crosswind and that the sock was steadily and fully extended, indicating that the atmosphere was moving across the field at a minimum of fifteen knots. "Give me a three point landing," Don prompted. I accomplished the landing with a bounce and a deviation toward the downwind side of the runway. "Not bad, let's do it again." Once again noticing how heavy the rudder was, I realigned the airplane with the runway before accelerating for takeoff.

The second one was more of the same. The third time around, I decided to make a wheel landing. On short final, I established a steady descent rate and a stable sideslip to the left. "A little slip-slip! Nice!" encouraged Don. I greased the Decathlon onto the turf on the upwind main wheel, rolled along for a few moments amazed at how stable the landing felt despite the crosswind. I brought the downwind wheel to the ground and finally the tail.

From behind me, Don grabbed my shoulder and shook it. "That was awesome! That was a single main wheel landing!" It felt good. Maybe I should have stopped there because the fourth landing was not nearly as smooth.

We launched from Geneseo and I pointed in the general direction of the Rochester airport. I was disappointed in my performance at Geneseo and wished I had calmer wind for my tailwheel refresher. Once faced with the unforgiving pavement of Rochester's runway 25, I asked Don to make the landing. We bounced a couple of times and lurched to the right in the strong left crosswind.

"Not one of my best," Don conceded. For me, it was validating.

"Well, I feel better about some of my landings at Geneseo now," I added as I switched the radio to Rochester's ground frequency.

"Hey!" complained Don before keying the mic and requesting a return to US Airports. 

I taxied the Decathlon to a parking spot between the FBO building and another aircraft parked on the ramp, receiving a thumbs up from the lineman to indicate that we were in a good spot. Once the prop stopped, he came forward to chock the airplane and removed a chunk of Geneseo's turf from the right main wheel that we'd carried back to Rochester with us. He held it up for us to see with a wry expression on his face. Don only laughed. "Yeah, that happens sometimes."

Chris and Don at the end of the flight review.

Debrief

I still don't know what to do with my hands. Photo by Don.

Overall, I was pleased with my full circle moment in the Decathlon. I was discouraged by only making one good landing out of four at Geneseo, but Don was quick to point out that I was rusty on tailwheel flying (not that I had a huge base of experience to begin with), new to the Decathlon, and working in some challenging conditions. I really appreciated experiencing the incipient spin recovery -- it's not a maneuver that I can legally perform in my Warrior. (Warriors are prohibited from intentional spins.) I was able to stretch my envelope a bit and that is always a good thing. Naturally, the basic purpose of the flight was satisfied and Don signed me off for a successful completion of a flight review. And finally, it was great to finally fly with Don, who is both knowledgeable and a lot of fun.

Because the afternoon was still early and I had the entire day off, I drove to Sodus and took Warrior 481 out for a flight. Burrowing through a restless atmosphere, I was amazed at how much easier my usual steed was to fly. Despite the various atmospheric bumps and burbles, instrument panel scans revealed each needle to be pinned exactly where it needed to be.

2025 Williamson Flying Club Pancake Breakfast - A View from the Tower

 Synthesis

For the Williamson Flying Club to host our annual Apple Blossom Pancake Breakfast, the efforts of dozens of volunteers are synthesized into a single, (mostly) coherent effort. From set-up to tear-down, from cooks and ticket takers to aircraft and automobile marshallers, a lot of individual efforts are woven together to create our signature annual event. Before I was based at KSDC, I always loved flying-into this well-organized breakfast.

Since participating in my first pancake breakfast as a member in 2014, I have volunteered as a ride pilot and flown rides for the general public in every one of the club aircraft. This year, for reasons that I will explain later, I withdrew from flying rides and instead volunteered to work the "tower". This is a scaffold set up at midfield for a Unicom operator to help direct traffic and resolve conflicts.

Weather-wise, you never know what you're going to get on each third Sunday of May along the south shore of Lake Ontario. We have experienced anything from snow to blistering heat on the morning of the breakfast. 2025 brought cold temperatures, low ceiling, rain, and gusty wind, the latter fortuitously right down the runway. Fly-ins were few, limited to a medical helicopter, two airplanes, and WFC member Barry arriving in his Widgeon from Rochester. Aeronautical activity at the airport that morning was dominated by our intrepid ride pilots flying a prescribed circuit with community members. Despite the averse conditions and lack-of fly-in breakfast seekers, the club served over 1100 breakfasts that morning. This is the beauty of the entire event -- the community always has our collective backs and this is what makes all the effort worthwhile.

For my part, I spent the morning sitting about 10 feet in the air with the wind howling around me, monitoring the radio through one of my old David Clark headsets. Aside from a couple of interventions, I had very little to do. 

So a took a lot of pictures.

A View from the Tower (Mostly)

Shortly after my ascent of the tower, all four WFC airplanes were staged, ceilings were declared high enough to fly the usual ride circuit, and pilots simply awaited the arrival of passengers.

Despite gusting into the high teens, the wind was right down the runway.

The WFC's travellin' airplanes: Eight Five X-Ray and Eight One Six. The latter, a Bold Warrior with a 180 horsepower upgrade, has been my usual steed for flying rides since it was purchased. Considering that I probably have more Warrior time than anyone else on the field, it's a good fit.

Close to 7:00 am, the public began to appear! The community is always supportive of our pancake breakfast, rain or shine.

A medevac helicopter was the first arrival of the morning.

Dwayne marshalled the new arrival to parking while Bob and Dave conducted the preflight inspection of Eight Five X-Ray.

With paying passengers arrived, the WFC fleet taxied out for departure.

Eight Five X-Ray taxied to the runup area as Eight One Six started her take-off roll into the gusty wind.

Eight Five X-Ray went airborne, undoubtedly boosted slightly by the active wind.

Barry's 1946 Grumman Widgeon is probably one of the best known airplanes operating in the Rochester area. Even on the Rochester Approach frequency, it is not uncommon to hear anonymous "hey Barry" greetings from random pilots when the Widgeon's owner broadcasts. Stick time in this airplane is one of my fondest local aviation memories. Though he is a member of the club, Barry bases the airplane at Rochester and reliably flies into the breakfast every year.

Barry waved while taking on fuel. Club fuel is much cheaper than avgas from the neighboring international airport.

Ray, my friend and trusted mechanic, was active flying rides in his Enstrom helicopter. The Bear experienced her first helicopter ride with Ray in a similar Enstrom in 2012.

"Would you like some extra breeze?" Ray broadcast as he "buzzed" the tower.

"No thanks, have plenty already," I answered, somehow managing to respond without my teeth chattering.

In the distance, a WFC airplane was joining the left downwind for runway 28 on a 45° entry.

Shortly after I took this picture of the medevac helicopter with Five Five Whiskey and One Delta Tango, I discovered the helicopter crew looking up at me from the base of the scaffold. "You look reasonably important, is there anything that we have to do to depart?" asked the pilot and spokesman for the group. It seemed that he thought I was dispensing take-off clearances. 

"Not nearly so important as I look," I answered him. "Feel free to depart when you're ready."

Gilead started Eight One Six's engine in preparation for taxi.

Beebs landed and turned-off at the midfield taxiway with his passengers in Five Five Whiskey.

Our first non-member airplane arrival was this Mooney that arrived from the Southern Tier of NY on an instrument flight plan.

I envied my friends flying as I watched Five Five Whiskey break ground. Five Five Whiskey is a 1967 PA-28-140 with her engine upgraded to 160 horsepower. She suffers from a severe case of 1960s "shotgun panel" and it always takes a moment to locate all the pertinent instruments, but she is one of the sweetest flying airplanes I've ever flown. I can't explain it, but every time I fly this airplane, I just seem to grease every landing. I don't even do that in Warrior 481!

Dave fueled Eight Five X-Ray while Bob and Gilead had what was undoubtedly a deep conversation.

As the event progressed into late morning, rain moved in from the west and with it, lower ceilings. Barry beat a quick retreat back to Rochester.

When Tom radioed in that the ceiling were dropping near the lakeshore, I reported the news to the ride control folks who stopped selling ride tickets. Once we recovered the entire WFC fleet, we shut down rides for the rest of the morning.

As the weather dropped, the only other non-WFC fly-in launched in his Husky. I hope he managed to find his way home safely in the encroaching weather.

As the last breakfast was being served, volunteers switched into wrap up mode. A group of us broke down the tower and stashed the components in a hangar for next year's breakfast. In record time, we had converted the Williamson Sodus Airport from event space back to the airport that we all know and love.

Even when the weather is not as desired, it's still a good time.