Flight Training - September 2014 - 64

DEBRIEF

A pilot's perspective
TO OVERCOME airsickness, Suderman took spin
training with CP Aviation's
Rich Stowell.

SPENCER SUDERMAN

SPIN MASTER
PLUS View the video of Suderman's
record-setting flight.

WHO: Spencer
Suderman, airshow
performer
HOURS: "I have just over
2,000 hours; it is hard
to build time when most
flights in a Pitts are less
than 45 minutes."
AIRCRAFT: "My favorite

airplane is the one I have
been flying since 2003,
the Meteor Pitts S-2B. It's
bright red, has old-school
hot rod flames, and helped
me get a world record. Yes,
I'm in love!"
EXTRA: Suderman's
record flight took him
from 23,000 feet to less
than 2,000 feet in a little
more than three minutes.

64 /

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Airshow performer Spencer Suderman recently set the world record
for inverted spins-81 turns in three minutes. Based at California's
Camarillo Airport, Suderman's airshow performance features the
inverted spin with his signature corkscrew smoke trail. "As long as I
have that smoke, I can wow them," he says with a smile. "That's why
I'm an airshow performer-no one is crazier than me."

STARTED IN AVIATION...I
started flying while in college
in the late 1980s. Like most
college students I was of the
starving variety and couldn't
really afford to take the
lessons in a meaningful timeframe so I only got about one
hour of flying in per month. It
wasn't until a decade later
that I was employed in the
tech industry and was able to
finish up and get my private
pilot certificate.
EARLY CHALLENGES... Getting
enough flight time to make
progress. Best practices dictate that you should fly two
to three times per week when
pursuing the private pilot
certificate and I wasn't able
to fly that often, which meant

that every lesson was first a
prolonged review of previous
work before new learning
could take place.
HARDEST LESSONS TO
LEARN... Learning to be

smooth on the flight controls
and not jerk the airplane
around. This is especially
important on landing and I
had terrible fear of ground
rush-not that there is much
of that in a Cessna 152.
AVIATION RELATED ACTIVITY...It wasn't good enough

for me to just fly in aerobatic
contests; I had to pursue
airshows because performing
acro for yourself is fun but
demonstrating it to others is
awesome!

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS...

I tell all people who want
to be pilots to learn how to
spin and roll an airplane. You
can't truly become a safe
pilot if you aren't comfortable handling the airplane in
all situations, conditions, and
attitudes of flight.
WHOOPS...I was pink-slipped
during the oral portion of
my private pilot checkride
for giving the wrong order
of application of the flight
controls to recover from
a spin. How ironic is that
since I just broke the world
record for most inverted
flat spins? Never give up,
because success only comes
to those who are willing to
put in the effort.
http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG
Flight Training - September 2014

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