Before you pay the money to do your checkout, spend a little time preparing for the flight. You will save yourself some frustration and a couple flights if you show up prepared. Read these Biplane Blogs carefully, and read through the SOP for our Great Lakes Plus One program.
With exception, I start out a perspective Great Lakes pilot in the front seat after about 30 min of preflight and basic Great Lakes flying instruction. I usually meet them in my hangar, and use a mahogany model of the biplane to discuss taxi, takeoff and landing techniques. Then we just preflight the aircraft, load up and go fly.
When we finished preflighting the Great Lakes, I spend a couple minutes talking about common areas of concern like stepping on the fabric by the step, the harness and heal brakes. The heal brakes are usually a new concept to pilots. They work splendid for these tail draggers but take a little getting used to. Please don’t wear clunky shoes, I prefer flat running shoes or chuck taylors.
When we are all strapped in, I will start up the aircraft in the back seat. For the first flight, I handle the procedures, the radios so the perspective pilot can focus on getting comfortable with taxi and flying the aircraft. We solo the aircraft from the back seat, which has quite a spectacular view and bit more leg room.
The prospective pilots works on his S-turns on the way out to the runway, usually 28R and I back him up with the taxi and takeoff. We fly out west off shore, and demonstrate steep turns, climbs and descents and maybe a stall or two. After a pleasant ride on the beach, we head inbounded to MYF for some touch and go’s. The first landing is a demonstrated landing; I want the new pilot to see the right sight picture. Afterwards, I let them work on 3pt landings and back them up. After 5 landings or so we do a full stop and taxi back to the covered parking spot for debrief.
Depending on the pilots preparation, we may have the prospective pilot sit in the back seat for the next flight and potentially a final checkout. I have even trained new tail wheel pilots from scratch from that front seat, so if you think you have the right stuff, lets get to work.
Since the transponder and radios are in the primary pilot seat, we will put you in the back when you are comfortable with all the radio frequency’s and instrument setup. Maybe the second flight, if you do the cockpit familiarization. The perspective is a bit different from the back, the seat position is more comfortable and the view is much more pleasureable. Prior to the flight, I suggest sitting in the back seat for a while, getting your cushion height set, and becoming familiar with the radio’s and instrumentation.