In the first week of November Amy and I flew to Arizona for a vacation with a mission. I'd been planning to get some Pitts training from Budd for many years and we made it happen this year. Since Amy's birthday would fall in that week, we made it an extended trip and visited Phoenix, Scottsdale, South Mountain Park, Prescott, Jerome, Sedona, the Coconino and Tonto National Forests, Tucson, the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, the Kitt Peak Observatories, the Pima Air and Space Museum and the Davis-Monthan Boneyard. It was a wonderful trip, and I could type for days and post literally a thousand photos. But this entry will mostly concentrate on the week we spent at Budd's Shangri-La Resort and the Pitts training.
We arrived in Phoenix on a Saturday evening. Sunday we went up to Prescott to visit an old friend and attend a jam session. Monday we left early and got to Budd's place at 8:30. He and his wife Marlene operate their home as a Bed and Breakfast for training pilots and their families, and we gladly accepted their hospitality. After a quick settling in, Budd and I got right to work. We sat in his office and he went through a 3.5 hour ground school that first morning. He covered many topics I was familiar with from attending his OSH forums, but in much greater detail and covering some important tangents.
After lunch, we headed for Scottsdale Airport for my first flying lesson... but first we had to figure out if, and how, I would fit into the front cockpit. When you register for his Pitts training Budd asks for your height, weight and inseam so he can set the cockpit up with the correct cushions for the trainee. Great care must be taken while entering the cockpit, as even a slightly errant foot or knee can cause many thousands of dollars in damage to his airplane. I took my time, moved very slowly and figured out the best and safest way to get in. Once there, we refined the fit by picking and choosing from his vast selection of cushions and padding until I was properly located in the airframe and relatively comfortable. As the week progressed, we made further refinements, with Budd actually custom-cutting foam that would work best for me. While Budd preflighted the aircraft, I took pictures with my cellphone and acquainted myself with my new office. The front pit is very sparse; only what is required to help refine a pilots own internal senses of how to fly an airplane correctly. I handled the stick, rudder and throttle and used the altimeter, airspeed, ball and slip indicator and convex mirror affixed to the upper wing to help determine if I was doing things right.
I used the special leather helmet and headset Budd uses with his students. Once we were ready to go he fired up his loyal, hard-working steed and we we were on our way. On this first flight he allowed me to do some of the taxiing... but not much, and for good reason. The Pitts' ground handling and lack of visibility were things I anticipated, but it took me a while to get the actual feel of what the airplane needed, and Budd had to teach me the correct method of rounding up this rattlesnake. Budd handled the takeoff and had me fly out to the local practice area to assess my current skill level. It was heartening to hear that I was better than either of us thought I would be, but as always, there is a lot of room for improvement. We went back to the airport and started working the pattern. Later that evening, Budd trimmed the back of my shoe heels to improve my foot placement on the rudder pedals and allow them to slide better on the heel trays.
Tuesday morning we were back at the airport before 8:30 and jumped back into pattern work. Those of you who are familiar with Budd's OSH forums on flying the Pitts know that he's developed his own techniques for approaches based on decades of experience. We got many opportunities to practice both his short, power-off approaches and his unique extended-downwind approaches. Scottsdale Airport also has an unusual pattern for Runway 21 to avoid noise complaints from four unfriendly neighbors (they get literally thousands of calls from these same four people). Training traffic in the pattern for 21 start with a right crosswind turn to a right downwind, then cross over mid-field to enter a left downwind.
Budd's pattern work is rapid-fire; his ground track is tight, his airplane is fast, and his touch-and-goes are more like bang-and-launches. His Pitts may be one of the highest-time in the fleet, with over 8000 hours on the airframe. He averages about 7.5 landings per hour; that's over 60,000 landings in the same airplane. I would say that qualifies him as an expert. We had opportunities to use both Runway 3 and Runway 21. Scottsdale can be quite busy at times, with a mix of corporate jets, transitional traffic and trainers in the pattern. It tends to be seasonal; fall and early winter are the busiest with the additional snowbirds and Barrett-Jackson traffic. During my stay we had quite a few extended downwinds, square 360s on downwind and lineups in the run-up areas. Budd said this was an unusually busy week.
Our daily routine was to get to the airport early and fly for about an hour. Then we'd go to lunch with his hangarmate Ron Chadwick at the local First Watch cafe. We'd get back to the airplane and fly another hour, usually knocking off at about 2 p.m.. Tuesday afternoon's flight was more pattern work; we'd return to the hangar, have the aircraft refueled and then put her away for the night.
Tuesday was Amy's birthday, and I had made arrangements for a surprise present to be delivered while Budd and I were flying. After we returned to Shangri-La, I took Amy along for a top-down beer run and we went back and had a pleasant beerbrief on Budd's back patio. Marlene made a special dinner at home that night.
Wednesday morning started with more pattern work. Before we had lunch, Budd had another student booked for an hour, so I chose to wait at Ross Aviation, the local FBO. I thought I'd get some photos of him working the pattern, but he ended up doing hi-speed taxi work. The runway had changed by then so I didn't have a very good angle to catch him, but there was lots of other ramp activity to keep me entertained. I hadn't brought my handheld transceiver for this trip, so I downloaded the LiveATC app to my phone and had fun monitoring the tower and ground frequencies while taking photos of many interesting aircraft.
After a late lunch, it was my turn to get some high-speed taxi training. It seemed to go well enough... I don't recall Budd yelling at me or struggling to save both our lives, so I'll call it a win. Since it was already a late day, Budd had some surprises planned for me after we left the airport. Knowing our shared interests well, he gave me a scenic tour of Scottsdale, featuring the local motorcycle dealerships and a Burger King that had a Pitts Special hanging in the dining area. Then he took me to the secret lair of a personal friend that just happens to restore Jaguar E-types and other rare cars and motorcycles. Way beyond cool... I was in heaven!
Budd and I were somewhat in the doghouse for being gone so long that afternoon, but we all went out and had a great dinner at Shogun. After that, all was forgiven... I think.
Thursday morning we did some more high-speed taxi work and had our usual lunch with Ron at the First Watch. That afternoon it was back to the pattern. Budd gradually let me handle more of the taxiing, takeoffs and landings; there were a couple of times I thought he was guiding me through it, only to find out later that he was only following through on my control inputs, giving light assistance only when absolutely needed. I was still far from being a proficient Pitts pilot... but I was improving.
Amy had been incredibly patient with me during this week, playing airplane widow while Budd and I were gallivanting all over the sky and ground. Marlene had flown out Thursday morning and Amy spent the day alone at the resort. We were due for some quality couple time, so that afternoon we hopped in the Mustang, put the top down and did some exploring. We went view hunting, and after some interesting miles of getting through the usual heavy Phoenix traffic, we explored the South Mountain Park, which was just magnificent. We went to numerous vista points and bought some unique and stunning handmade jewelry made by the vendor who had set up shop in the parking lot. We were tempted to stay up there until sunset, but we wanted to get back down to Scottsdale for dinner and knew traffic would be heavy. We had dinner at the Caramba Mexican Cafe, picked up some beer on the way home and enjoyed a late-evening beerbrief on the back patio before settling in for the night.
Friday we got an early start for some more takeoffs, landings and pattern work; this would be my last flight as PIC. During my training I didn't want to be distracted by taking photos or video, or even tracking the flights with my iPad. I wanted to focus completely on learning how to fly the airplane as precisely as possible. But for my final flight with Budd I asked him to act as PIC while I captured the experience with my Garmin Virb action camera. There wasn't really a good place to mount the camera on the airframe and I wanted better tracking than I'd get with a helmet cam, so I rigged a handheld mount attached to a lanyard around my neck for better security and stability. The ramp and airspace were busy, so we only did three circuits in the pattern. But I got some good shots, and edited it down to a fairly decent video that I shared on my YouTube Channel. Here's a link: Budd Davisson Pitts Special Training
After shutting down, refueling and tucking the airplane in for the night, we went over to Ross Aviation where they were hosting an Aviation Expo. That explained all the interesting aircraft that were coming in during the week. We walked around the exhibit aircraft, discussing their flight characteristics and other related stories.
When we got back to Shangri-La Amy and I had a beerbrief, then I asked Budd if I could take pictures of his hot rod, commonly known as the Buddrod. Budd had put this car together as a teenager, and when he moved away from home it went into storage in his father's shed. It was retrieved in 2000 and over the years Budd worked on it when he could. It finally became roadworthy in 2017; after years of following the restoration on his website, I was thrilled to hear the news. It was even more thrilling to see it in person. I knew I wanted to get Budd to talk about it in detail, but I also knew I had to time it right. Budd is a very busy man; in addition to instructing in the Pitts almost every day, he spends his early mornings, late afternoons and evenings going through a mountain of correspondence and writing numerous magazine articles, often simultaneously. He says that often his ADD serves him well because it allows him to drop one task and pick up another instantly without losing any continuity, and his skill at multitasking has been an essential element of his success. I knew not to distract him after we got back from flying unless it was important, because he'd be busy as hell. But many times I'd take advantage of a momentary lull to ask a question or two; we'd end having a long, enjoyable conversation and I'd learn a lot. I wanted to pick the right time to discuss the roadster because I knew he'd want to share a lot of detail about its history and construction. Friday afternoon was the right time. He backed it out of the garage into the light while I videotaped the action, then I took photos as we went over it inch by inch. I knew Budd was a craftsman and avowed scratchbuilder... but what I learned during that hour was nothing short of amazing. Every part and every detail was significant not only in terms of function and history, but they all had to fit into the overriding ethos of the project. Budd wanted the Buddrod to be true to the old-school ways of hot rodding; he scratchbuilt as many of the parts as possible, doing his own design work and only purchasing parts if they were from the correct era. I could spend hours describing the level of detail he put into the parts and their significance to him. The car is still a long way from finished... but what it is now is just so... cool... that words fail.
Budd later admitted how much he enjoyed showing the car to me, along with some of his gunsmithing work and other projects, because he knew I'd "get it". I know full well how cathartic it can be to share creative endeavors with a like-minded soul. After we put the car away, I couldn't resist the chance to return the favor and share some of my videos with him. I was happy and somewhat relieved to find that he enjoyed them a lot. Budd "gets it" too...
Amy and I left Budd to continue catching up with his work while we went out to dinner at the local Outback. I finished the evening with some bookkeeping of my own, getting my logbook caught up for the week and paying the bills for our stay, including the purchase of Budd's novels, Cobalt Blue and The Stonewall File. I did as much packing as I could before calling it a night. The next morning we loaded up the Mustang, said our goodbyes and headed off to our further Arizona adventures. Since Marlene was gone for our departure, we mailed thank-you notes from Sedona and sent her a birthday card. I also couldn't resist sending Budd a photo of some hot rod parts I found in Sedona that I thought he might want. For some reason, he declined.
So ended another bucket-list experience; one that exceed my highest hopes. I gained a lot of knowledge and experience that will serve me well for the rest of my life... and became good friends with someone I've respected from afar for most of my life. It doesn't get much better than that. If you want the best Pitts training on the planet, go to Arizona and see Budd Davisson; you'll be glad you did. Check out video link I shared above to get a sample of what it's like... and for more information on all things Budd, visit his website:
airbum.com
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