by Mark McClellan…

Well I had honor of being one of the first to attend Frank Noll’s Aero-U. This is where Frank spends a whole weekend with up to 4 pilots at a private air strip and teaches you the proper way to fly IMAC maneuvers.

The trip started out when I showed up at Mike Chandley’s house Friday morning about 5:30am and we jumped in his motorhome to head to Champaign Il. (about an 11 hour drive). After turning out of Mike’s driveway and going around the first turn, there were two deer in the middle of the road. Mike hit the brakes and the horn and they ran off just in time! And, we were now wide awake!

Eleven hours later, we made it to the flying field and we were told by the owner to just drive up the side of the runway and park…so we did. We then found out that after the rain the day before the ground was a little soft…and the motorhome got slower and slower.  We had to stop before we made a real mess. This place is beautiful - nice LONG grass runway, flat wide open area, and, most importantly, nothing to hit for as far as you wanted to fly. A North – South Runway so in the morning you could fly on the west side with the sun to your back for the 1st half of the day then just turn around and face east with the sun to your back for the 2^nd half of the day.  The wind was really blowing so we just gave Frank a call. He came by and explained all we were going to be doing the next day.

The next morning, we woke up to a clear and cold day with lots of wind - just what I need some cross wind practice ! Frank arrived as did Steve Kaluf, the other student. We got our planes out and ready to fly and Frank wanted to see how well trimmed out they were. So… I jumped right up 1^st because I knew my plane was perfect and would not need anything ! Boy when he asked me to fly straight into the wind and roll to knife edge I was shocked to see my plane rolling !!!! So I handed the radio to Frank and said have at it ! He told me to get a pen and paper because there were too many things that needed to be changed to remember it all ! Well we got my plane trimmed out and he had me make some big programming changes, now I need to learn to fly again !

Next it was Mike’s turn and he went through the same things until his plane was right and then Steve was next. After we finished getting the planes to fly right, we started flying straight lines up and down the flight line with a BIG crosswind.  Frank started off teaching us how to fly a line -“No need to try to fly a maneuver until you can fly a straight line!”.  I thought I knew how to fly but, when he told me to do something and I could not, he would say “Do it again!” After a while, he would say “Give me the radio!” and check to see if it was the plane or a loose operating NUT (me) ! We would go up one after the other all day while Frank worked tirelessly with each of us. We certainly gave him a workout but he kept up the pace and taught us a LOT in a short time.  Jason Noll also dropped by that morning and pulled out his new Aero-Works bi-plane…very nice!

We broke for a quick lunch and Frank wanted to know where we wanted to go and eat. But… I had a better plan! We had to get these guys to become members of Team Cholesterol ! Mike and I fired up the frying pot and we cooked some fried bread and hotdogs and then it was back to work.  Later we saw Frank walk over to his airplane trailer and pull out this really nice looking box that had words carved into it that read “The Secrets to flying Aerobatics” .  Before he would let us look inside, we had to sign a legal document stating that we would never tell anyone what we were about to see! When he opened it up, a BRITE LIGHT shown out of it and we saw the secrets! I wish I could tell you all about them but having signed the agreement…what can I say! So if ya’ll really want to know the secrets to flying aerobatics you will have to visit Frank’s class! After a LONG day of flying, we went to a Steak House for a great meal and a great time.

Sunday morning, we started off by getting the motor home back out to the road. While we were not too sure just how bad that was going to be, Frank said to put a board behind the rear tires and we would push by hand on the front while Mike backed up. Well we all told Frank that would never work…that it was just to BIG but after trying a couple other things, we went with Frank’s suggestion and guess what… he was right just like he had been about everything else ! Thanks Frank, we will try to listen next time.

We went back to flying and trying to apply all we had learned. I think we all showed a lot of improvements. Time came for us to pack it all in and get ready for the LONG drive home (some of us had to be at work the next day)! Mike and I took turns driving. About 2 hours from home around 12:30am on I-40 in Ashville NC,  I was talking to Mike trying to keep him awake when I looked up and asked him what is that BIG Black thing in the road? Mike hit the brakes and the horn and yelled BEAR!Well that bear took one look at us heading right for him, turned, and hauled it back up the hill as we just missed him.  So…just like this story started out, we were wide awake once again!

We made it the rest of the way home just fine.  We had a really great time and now we know the Secrets to Flying Aerobatics !

See ya at a contest soon,

Mark