After months of no aeros due to a u/s aircraft, I finally strapped a Citabria to my back in August after Freedom took delivery of a second example, SE-LJP from Sweden.

CFI Dave and I took off one August evening and ran threw some of the basics again.

First off was a step-by-step fly through the 2016 Club sequence, consisting of a loop, hammerhead, half-cuban and aileron roll. We paused between each to chat through the manoeuvres before and after.

My loop was fine, followed by a decent stall turn. Next up was my first even half Cuban. Entry like a loop is straightforward enough but the tricky part was judging where the 45 degree downline was, whilst inverted. Added to this were a number of lose items (my headset control box being one of them), which hadn’t forgotten which direction gravity acted and flew past my face into the Citabria’s sunroof ($500 option!).

Amazingly, this was also my first ever go at a roll, and I think I pretty much nailed it. Being a taildragger convert my feet are working just as much as my hands, so I flew an in-balance roll without too much nose drop at the end, or adverse yaw as I’ve seen a lot on YouTube.