By David Caywood, DC-10/FedEx

In the summer of 1990, working as a newly minted flight instructor, the flight school I was working for got an unusual phone call.

Two Brazilian test pilots had flown from Brazil to Oshkosh, Wisconsin a Ximango-200. A local Memphian attending the Oshkosh air show saw it and bought it. This was the first of its kind in the US and the only pilot who knew how to fly it spoke Portuguese and not a word of English.

With the aircraft delivered to a grass strip south of the Memphis, at that time, TCA, the owner called the local FSDO office about what would be required to get checked out. Both the FAA and his insurance company required that the new owner be instructed and signed off by a CFI, who was rated in that particular model! Hence the phone call to the flight school.

The plan was for me to get checked out by the Brazilian test pilot and then in turn check out the new owner. Now consider the fact that I had no glider experience, no tail wheel time, never flown with a stick and had problem with turning an engine off in flight for fun of it. All of this coupled with the fact that I did not speak a word of Portuguese and a test pilot who spoke no English, made for one memorable learning experience. Truth be know I did not even know what a Ximango was. I could not even spell it or pronounce it correctly! But it was flight time in the logbook!

I still can remember when I first saw the folded up airplane. I though it had been wrecked. The two homesick Brazilians, unfolded it, strapped me in and off we went. The test pilot, who had seen it all, would demonstrate something and I would repeat it. I got used to the stick and the fact that the plane was real light on the controls and we started to do some maneuvers and I have to admit it was as stable as the DC-10 I fly at FedEx.

As all pilots like to do, we got to the "Watch this" portion of the flight. Shutting down the engine and feathering the prop, he put the Ximango into a shallow dive to increase the airspeed. Slowly pulling back on the stick he took me for my fist loop. It was very impressive. Next he had me do the same and I did. Only problem was I got about half way into the loop and chickened out. I pushed forward on the stick, unloading the wing and did a tail slide, another first for the airplane and me. The test pilot who up until this point had been half asleep was now wide awake and cussing his head off. He thought I did it on purpose.

I do not know what he said but when we got back on the ground he went over to his buddy and pointing at me went off in Portuguese for about 5 minutes. Two more flights with the other test pilot and based on ether their being severely homesick, or my superior airmanship, I got signed off and they went back to Brazil in one peace.

I got to fly the Ximango a great deal and became quite proficient and eventually signed the owner off. My last flight was to take it from Memphis to Saint Luis, MO for it's annual. As we usually did after take off, I flew over to the local Wal-Mart to catch the thermal created by the parking lot. With enough altitude to establish radar contact with Memphis Approach, I turned and followed a UPS truck on I-55 all the way to St. Luis. Not like a Falcon but more like a Condor.

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Ximango Brazilian Motor Glider