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Lesson 9 – 8th June 2009 – 13.30pm – 50mins – Total so far – 9hours 6mins

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Loved this lesson. It was hovering/transitioning/circuits and autorotations, and my favourite, landing/taking off. I did everything bar the autorotations.

So, Steve caught up with Rupert and he had a chat with him about how his cross-country had gone – interesting to listen in on.

I went out to do the checks, start her up, and Steve let me take off, hover taxi along the yellow taxi line cross all the way to a grass triangle (size of a football pitch (I NEED IT THIS BIG !!!)). And then using that as a BIG helipad, we did circuits and they felt much more polished this time, plus as a lovely twist, after each one, I landed and took off. Once I get it on the ground, I always have this huge sigh as I push the collective down as if to say “I’m still alive”, Steve always seems to find this very funny, which in turn makes me laugh. So, we probably did about 5 circuits and they felt really good. With only a minor thing wrong here and there (ie speed, tightness of turns) they went really well. And then we finished off with 3 autorotations. So, the first one, I followed Steve through – I did a circuit, but we end up very high on approach and then Steve did the first one and I followed through. Then the second one, I did it and he monitored the rotor rpm, and then a third ‘cos I didn’t get what he meant by “POP” which is what he says at the very end as he “POPS” the collective to bring the engine back in.

He let me hover taxi back and then he did the “park by the fuel pump” manoeuvre, although I’d loved to have seen the fuel guy’s face if he saw me hover park next to the pumps ;-)

It was then Rupert’s turn again. Whilst he was out, there was a lady in the cafe who was waiting for her son to fly in. He was one of the pilots who was flying a Lynx helicopter in a formation consisting of 2 Lynx and 1 Sea King helicopters. I think I overheard that they had come all the way up from Yeovil (Devon) to Carlisle, NOT ABOVE 200 feet !!! And sure enough, when she pointed them out (flying in), they were at about 200 feet.

Here’s a picture of them getting refuelled (rotor’s stll running and VERY loud).

lynxseaking

And here’s some video of them taking off beautifully and flying off (in formation).

Once they had gone, Steve and I had a chat along the lines of “You need to get your medical Dave”. That’s a sign that Steve thinks I’m nearly ready to go solo. He mentioned this the other day but I thought he was joking when he said “We’ll have you solo by 10 hours”. I thought he meant in 10 hours time, but I think he meant 10 hours flight time. Yikes !! But, compared to the other day, where I thought he was joking and one screw short of a full bag, when he said it this time, I thought, “Yes, I could do a circuit on my own, and there’s a good chance I can land it”. That felt good !

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Lesson 8 – 8th June 2009 – 10.30pm – 60mins – Total so far – 8hours 16mins

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Weather surprisingly good today. Wasn’t expecting much flying at all this week.

The plan for today was to fly over to Carlisle, do some circuits there (where it’s cheaper and less R/T required), some autorotations, take offs, landings, transitions and fly back. Sounds like a lot of flying, but another student pilot (Rupert) was going to be flying also, so we were giving each other breaks.

We didn’t plan the trip and legs as I thought we would, but rather, pretty much checked the heli over and set off. I suspect the full cross-country planning stuff will come later. I forgot to mention that on the last trip, Steve was confident enough in me to get me to do all the checks, initial R/T and start the helicopter up without him there, which strangely I found quite nerve-racking. It was the same today, so….

  • External checks
    Before Start Checks
    Get the ATIS (weather, runways in use)
    Call for Startup
    Startup
    Post Startup Checks

    • At this point Steve joined me and it was Run-Up Checks, call for taxi and then I took us up in the air and started the hover taxi off. Steve took over approaching the hold and he did the transition to forward climbing flight and then it was my turn :-)   I flew us to Carlisle, with Steve explaining the landmarks to look out for (Stagshaw Masts, Craggy Cliff in the distance, and then Haltwhistle). Pretty straightforward routing. We had to fly south of Spadeadam, which I think is a big army/air force expanse used for military training. The R/T was trickier, because we were passed to Newcastle Radar and then Spadeadam, and then finally Carlisle. I’d like to say I did it all, but Spadeadam was very hard to understand, and not knowing what to expect (comms-wise), there were a number of times, I had to say “Steve, can you get that ?”.

    On the routing from Stagshaw Masts to Haltwhistle (just south of Spadeadam), we were receiving what’s called a Basic (Information) Service. And in a nutshell, that’s them informing us of information that’s useful for the safety of our flight, eg weather, traffic. They called us and informed us of a fast jet flying south in our vicinity. VICINITY !!!!! Well, we scoured the sky and Steve spotted a Tornado which passed about 300 feet below us and 300 feet in front of us. Moments like this are just awesome. It had a full load of ordnance on too.

    Carlisle is a beautiful little airport, much more suited to private pilots. It has views of the Lake District, the sea, and the most amazing variety of birds. I know all the birds that visit our bird nut offerings, but didn’t recognise one of the birds that I saw. Must look them up. Anyhow, back to helicopters. So, arriving at Carlisle, we were ok’ed for circuits with negative R/T (a dream), no talking on the radio. Full concentration on helicopter flying ! I did all the flying from the transition to hover (which I feel much more confident in), and then from the hover to forward/climbing flight, turn left, left again and then left again and another transition.

    My first circuit was pretty poor (and that’s being kind). Steve told me circuits should have 3 x 90′ (90 degree) corners, whereas mine were more 2 x 180′ turns. I knew where he was coming from 100%. But, after the initial awe at getting back in a helicopter and hovering, they became better. I am sure I did about 4 circuits and the last one definitely had 3 x 90′ turns. All the hovers, at this point, were much improved. FAR FROM perfect, but safe and I was confident that I could bring it back to the hover if I lost it, which is key really ;-)

    Then, Steve let me hover-taxi to the apron and he took over to do the final parking next to the fuel pumps. I can’t think why he didn’t trust me to put it down within 10 feet of 20,000 gallons of aviation fuel ;-)

    That was Flight 1 of the day !!

    Steve left me to shut it down, which was nice, another sign he trusts me to stay alive and not damage the helicopter. I followed him in to the office the school has there and met Rupert (the other student).

    Rupert was further on in the course and he was going to be doing some cross-country solo work and some solo circuits.

    I followed them out to watch Rupert take off and get some pictures.

    gmavi

    Plus some video of his takeoff (very like mine!)

    Whilst they were away, I got chatting to some microlight aircraft pilots. I was asked where I did my microlight aircraft flying and who was my instructor, and was told that my instructor Tony Wells (one of the first microlight instructors) had passed away a couple of years ago. Very sad ! Nice bloke.

    When Steve had done a few circuits with Rupert, he got out, leaving Rupert to do his cross country and Steve and I went to the cafe for a cuppa ! We then went to have a look at the tower at Carlisle Airport. Very helpful crew in there who explained all the equipment.

    insidetower

    We saw Rupert return and land on the helipad…..

    fromthetower

    And then it was my turn again…..

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    Lesson 7 – 4th June 2009 – 3.25pm – 55mins – Total so far – 7hours 16mins

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    Today’s lesson was hovering and hover taxi’ing. It went great – one of those lessons where I left buzzing !

    This is the first lesson where Steve let me takeoff from the original position the helicopter was parked in and start the taxi off. I think Steve took over a few seconds later to get us to the holding point, and then we were cleared to enter the hover square, which is an area where we can practice hovering right next to the runway. The hovering wasn’t great but I was well pleased with it. There were a couple of maneuvres, where I impressed myself. One was where I was hovering and asked to do a 360 turn around the spot. This is trickier than it sounds as the wind affects the turn and can move you off the spot. It went really well, so well, I asked Steve if he was helping me, to which he replied the only thing he was doing was “praying”. Made me laugh.

    I lost the hover a couple of times, but I think this is the first lesson where I have got all the lost hovers BACK to a hover – really pleased at this !! It was going so well, we then proceeded to do some hover taxi’ing. Basically, we were (or I should say I was), taxi’ing from one point on the hover square (more a rectangle about 300 yards long) to the other side, turning round, back again and repeat until dizzy. I was really pleased. Not perfect, but I was happy with it.

    We also did some takeoff and landings. One of the landings had some sideways movement (NOT GOOD!), but we got down. Landing is HARD. It requires the perfect hover and a lowering of the collective, which changes the hover in itself – they will be a challenge.

    That aside, all good !! Steve then let me taxi back to the parking spot and attempt a landing, which I did. he then took off and got it 20 yards closer to the fuel bowser. Loved it !!!!

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    Lesson 6 – 3rd June 2009 – 11.45am – 1hr 15mins – Total so far – 6hours 21mins

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    Absolutely drained after this one !!! It’s always the ones where I don’t crack it that leave me drained. It’s as if my mind is going 100mph to work out what went wrong.

    Today was transitions. This is where the helicopter goes from a hover to forward/climbing flight and from descending/forward flight to the hover. I suppose it’s the equivalent of a takeoff/landing for a fixed-wing aircraft.

    The transitions themselves went “ok”ish, but of course, they involve a hover. We did circuits where you takeoff, fly back on yourself and then transition back into the hover and they went ok as well, but once I had got into the hover, the hover just WASN’T there today. I am disappointed in myself because it was worse than the other day.

    But, Steve could tell I was feeling dejected, and said that I shouldn’t worry. He explained that he was nowhere near my level by this time in his PPL and I was doing very well, which was just the pickme up I needed. Thanks Steve.

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    Lesson 5 – 1st June 2009 – 5.35pm – 50mins – Total so far – 5hours 6mins

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    Two weeks of a break (holidays and bad weather). Favourite lesson so far.

    And I felt THE BEST after this lesson. I felt I had cracked the hover. I was able to maintain a hover for two minutes and get all the hovers that I lost back to a hover. It felt great and I felt on top of the world. Previous hovers have seen me hold the cyclic with a grip of steel, and today I felt much more relaxed.

    The weather was gorgeous and very hot, so hot, we had to take both doors off the helicopter to keep cool, which made the R/T challenging.

    I felt so comfortable with the hover, that Steve suggested we do some takeoff and landings. As usual, I follow him through on the controls and then he let me do 2 landings and 1 takeoff. Landings are trickier (imho) as you don’t want ANY sideways or backwards movement at the moment you touch down, as this can cause the helicopter to roll over (dynamic rollover), which is bad. But, my efforts were “ok”, bordering on “poor”. Takeoff is easier, but again you don’t want to lurch to the left or right (or front or backward), so you, kind of, have to be hovering before you takeoff. Lots of fun !

    Bizarrely, the cheapest lesson so far, for the most fun !

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    Lesson 4 – 13th May 2009 – 4.00pm – 1hr 5mins – Total so far – 4hours 16mins

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    Autorotations today, but me doing them. Not the full thing down to the ground, just entering autorotations and holding them with correct rotor speed down to 500 feet and then we carry on flying normally.

    I am now doing all the R/T as a matter of course, plus all the initial checks, including starting the helicopter up, shutting it down etc…..

    Steve does all the low level stuff, hover taxi’ing, takeoff/landings, and I do everything else (the easy bits).

    Today, we were number 2 for departure after a Cessna Citation and we were asked to take off immediately heading due north from the taxiway, which took us within 200 feet of the Emirates Tower at Newcastle. That was great, you could see all the controllers. I was tempted to give them a wave, but Steve would have not been happy with me taking my hand off the collective ;-)

    Off we flew, north, past Morpeth. Absolutely gorgeous day, despite predictions of potentially gusty weather. Very calm ! Calmest it’s been.

    So, autorotations. I flew us upto 2000′ and then we do HASEL checks (Height, Area, Security, Engine, Lookout), and then for the first one, I follow him through doing the whole thing first to get a feel for it. So, then we do another one, and I did the cyclic only. As soon as you have no lift from the engine, the nose drops and you need to pull back on the cyclic to maintain a 60knot speed. Then back upto 2000′ again, this time, I was doing the Yaw pedals. Without the torque from the engine, the helicopter veers a lot to the left so right pedal was needed to counte this and keep us in straight balanced flight.

    Then repeat again, but with me doing all 3. I did it twice in total. On one of them (the first one I think), I let the rotor rotate too fast, but generally found entering an autoration straightforward(ish). Of course, if the engine ever did go, I’d need to instinctively do the maneuvre, PLUS find somewhere to land and land it, so this bit SHOULD be the easiest bit and should be stress-free because there’d be more to worry about should I ever need it.

    I asked Steve, if he’d ever had to do a real one (and he has been flying heli’s for about 1300 hours I think) and he has NEVER had to do one for real. Reassuring !!! The R22 Beta has an AvcoLyoming engine and from what I have read, they seem incredibly reliable !!

    To top off the autorotation lesson, Steve did a full one, all the way down to land, which was very impressive. We aren’t allowed to land away from a licensed airfield during training, so he could do everything apart from the final touchdown but I got the idea ;-)

    Once he had it in a hover, he handed it over to me to do some more hover practice. It was “ok”. I was better than my first attempts, but not much improved on the great day of hover I had in Lesson 2 or 3. But, it could have been worse. Still needing Steve to save our lives when the hover was lost !

    After the hover practice, we do a lookout to check we’re ok to transition to forward/climbing flight and lucky we did, as a pair of Harrier’s flew directly over us – exciting stuff. Could hear the roar through all the rotor noise and the headsets !!! I asked Steve if they often do that, and he said they often use us as target practice – GULP ! I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. And I’ve had another experience with them in a later lesson (Lesson 8), so I think he may be telling the truth.

    Flew back and arrived back in the vicinity of the airport at rush hour (5pm) and we’re greeted by some queuing. Couple of flights queuing for takeoff and a couple coming into land PLUS us. And the added stress that Marky Mark (the local eye in the sky) wanted our heli to do his commentary on traffic asap. The tower asked us to do orbits over the golf course, which I did, but kept slackening off on the speed every once in a while. After a while of going round in circles (orbits), it gets a bit dizzying, so Steve put us into a hover at 1000′ and that was much easier and allowed us to watch the takeoff/landings from a great vantage point :-)

    I found the hover much easier to keep at this height, but probably because you can’t tell how bad the hover is ‘cos of the height you’re at !! ;-)

    Here’s Marky Mark getting ready to life off……Notice the tail rotor. It’s a straight line, but it appears bent because of the speed it’s rotating….

    markymarkheli2-1024x768

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    Lesson 3 – 12th May 2009 – 12.45pm – 1hr 5mins – Total so far – 3hours 11minutes

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    Thoroughly enjoyed this lesson. It didn’t feel as exhausting as the hover lesson from the previous day. It was mostly practicing climbing/descending, climbing turns, descending turns etc..PLUS we got another 15 minutes worth of hover practice in !! :-)

    The climbing/descending turns etc was all fine and event-free, and the hover practice was the bit I was really looking forward to and it went MUCH better today. From yesterday’s “How will I ever crack this ?” to “Yes, I can see it’s possible I might be able to crack it”. It was a big relief to me, and I felt good. Don’t get me wrong. If you’d seen my hover, you would have thought I was doing aerial aerobatics to music, but whereas yesterday I managed a ONE second hover, I managed a 30-second hover and that’s a LONG time when you’re doing it. Still, not there yet. I still lost it, and could maybe only get it back to hover 50% of the time. Steve saved the day, the rest of the time.

    Another plus is I did all the R/T myself. I did have a bit of a scare though. Not sure if it’s my headset or me concentrating too much on flying the helicopter, but the Tower had told me I was “Number 1 to land”, which means I should be the next one to be given clearance to land, so we turned onto final approach, all lined up with the runway, where I heard “SOMETHING SOMETHING, Cleared to Land”. I didn’t hear our callsign (Northumbria ZERO FOUR), and nearly shit a brick thinking there was an Easyjet 767 right behind us. Steve quickly told me “don’t worry, that’s us”. Phew !!!

    Steve found it funny – ha bloody ha !

    So, great lesson. I am quietly confident that I will crack the hover now. It may take a while, but at least it’s a possibility !

    Bonus today was that we did one autorotation. That’s what a helicopter does when the engine goes. Bit like a sycamore from a tree when it falls, it spins round. When a helicopter falls through the air, the rotor does the same and spins round itself. This potential energy in the spinning rotor can be used to safely land if the engine goes. So, Steve did a complete autorotation. Cut the power, enter autorotation, last second, flare, kick the engine back in. Very interesting maneuvre !

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    Lesson 2 – 11th May 2009 – 11.40am – 60 minutes – Total so far – 2hours 6 minutes

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    What seemed like a very long wait for Lesson 2, but it was gorgeous weather finally !! Quite a bumpy lesson this one, probably thermals causing a bit of turbulence.

    This lesson left me totally braindead. I have found this with helicopter lessons. It’s after Lesson 8 when I write this, and just in these few short lessons, I have found that some lessons, I come away calm as a cucumber, and others I am left with my brain going at 100mph trying to compute what occurred in the lesson. This was one of the latter.

    So, this was the first lesson, where I did all the R/T ie….

    Speaking to ATC to get ….

    • Permission to start the engine
    • Flight Plan Clearance
    • Taxi Permission
    • Takeoff Permission
    • Leaving the control zone
    • Rejoining the control zone
    • Permission to land etc….

    I say “All the R/T”, probably a bit unfair on Steve, who had to step in when I had no idea what had just been said, but I probably did 80% of them.

    Today was mostly focussed on straight and level flight, turns and climbing/descending. I think my PPL(A) from 25 years ago stood me in good stead here and they all went swimmingly. I think Steve thought it was going so well, he’d see how I was at hovering, so Steve asked me to fly down to this field and at about 300 feet he took over and got the helicopter in a hover. So far, so good !!

    Now, he asked me which control I wanted to take. Now, knowing that they all affect each other, I thought, “I’ll take all 3″. Cocky Git !!

    Well, could I hover, could I bloody hell ! I was all over the place. Steve was great in that he didn’t step in until the last moment, where not stepping in would have been dangerous, but he wanted me to try and recover from a lost hover. He would step in if I asked him too though, thankfully. I maybe recovered from one out of 4 hover attempts, he did the rest. Hovering (or attempting to) TOTALLY drained me !

    There was one of the hovers where I managed to keep it in the hover for about half a second, maybe a second, that’s how bad I was !!! :-)

    My thoughts were “How on earth am I EVER going to crack this ?”

    He then let me have a go at each of the controls seperately. The pedals were easy enough on their own (in light winds), the collective, same. The cyclic was the tricky one, keeping the helicopter in the same spot was a bitch !

    And together on lesson 2, it was too much, but I’m glad we tried it !!!

    I asked Steve “how many people don’t crack this” and he said “Everyone gets it eventually”. It comes with a Eureka moment apparently. Albert Einstein I need you !

    Thoroughly enjoyed the lesson.

    Note to self – keep an eye on the collective. Collective effectively controls the manifold pressure (engine power) and it kept dropping without me realising, so need to keep an eye on this !!

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    Lesson 1 – 6th May 2009 – 12.50pm – 36 minutes – Total so far – 66 minutes

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    The first consideration before the lesson, of course, was where to take the training for the licence. A lot of the cost of a lesson is in the fuel required to fly, being extortionate in the UK. I toyed with the idea of doing the training in America or Australia, but my personal circumstances are such that I really need to be helping my wife with her recovery after a car accident, and so need to be at home, so the decision was made for me. Newcastle Airport it was and Northumbrian Helicopters.

    Another big consideration is the funding of the training, at anywhere between £12k and £16k (2009) for a PPL(H), its an expensive path just to private flying. For CPL, you’re looking at a total of not much short of £60k to £70k.

    Frustrating start, weather meant the first lesson seemed endless in coming. British Weather !! Another advantage of going abroad is the weather is pretty much “ok to fly” every day !

    So, from the moment, I was ready to go to the first day of flying was 10 days !

    But the day came and I was so excited, I had to go to the toilet twice before we went up and my bladder is normally great !

    Steve (my instructor) spent some time with me before we even went to the helicopter, going through what we would be doing and then we went out onto the apron with our hi-vis overjackets on, to do pre-flight checks. There’s a lot to remember and I didn’t get the hang of the external checks until about Lesson 7.

    Once they were done, we got comfy. And then it’s time for more checks (Before Starting Engine Checks), then a bit of radiotelephony (R/T), then Starting Engine Checks, then Engine Run-Up Checks. About 10 minutes later, we were ready to rock’n'roll, my heart going 10 to the second !

    At this point, Steve is doing everything and just explaining it all as he does it. Once we were cleared for takeoff, he pointed us in the direction of the runway centreline, hover-taxi’ed and then we zoomed down the runway (about 10 feet off the ground) and then pulled back and we were off. We headed North towards (and past) Morpeth. Once we were in level flight, he gave the controls to me one control at a time. Staring with the cyclic, which is the one that traditionally comes from the floor up between your legs (although on the Robinson R22 Beta, it is a stick that comes up in the middle of the helicopter with a contraption which allows 2 people to control the helicopter. The cyclic controls (in it’s basic explanation) controls forward, backward, left tilt and right tilt. Direction is a bit of an understatement, but good enough for now !

    After my flight experience session, I had remembered that you don’t move the cyclic, you just use small pressures. Neil (the flight school owner) had said to think of it as “using the force” (from the Star Wars films). You think the pressure only, don’t apply it, and that pretty much sums up how light your touch needs to be. Of course, you do apply pressure, but it’s so slight !

    Next control was the pedals. Now, they control Yaw, which is the movement in the horizontal plane of the nose of the helicopter, ie the direction you face. So, cyclic, direction you travel (in basic terms), pedals direction you face. No problems there, pretty straight forward (or so I thought). In a later lesson, (I am writing this after Lesson 7), I found out that pedals are very important in the hover, but let’s not worry about that just yet.

    But, pedals in forward flight are very easy.

    Finally, collective. Now, the collective is in the position the handbrake of a car would be in and is operated with your left arm. In basic terms, this is UP and DOWN. Now, EVERY control affects the other controls without exception, so if you increase the collective to get more lift, you need more left pedal to counter the torque etc etc….. It sounds really complicated, and I’d like to say it’s not as bad as it sounds, but it is. The best analogy for what’s it like to learn to fly a helicopter, is what it was like when you first learned to ride a bike. It doesn’t matter how much you understand the theory of riding a bike, the movement of your weight, the fact that if you want to go right on a bicycle, you turn the handlebars to the left initially (seriously, you do), etc etc…. The theory helps, but when it comes down to it, you have to feel it for yourself. It’s so true !

    So, all the controls one by one, very straightforward. Together, NOT !

    Having said that, when you’re going forward at any speed above 20 kts, it is relatively easy to fly a helicopter, and when steve could see that I was ok with the controls, he let me fly past Morpeth and then do some turns and fly all the way back until we were about 500 feet above the runway and then he did some amazing hover taxi’ing back to the spot we took off from. I was well impressed !

    So, in summary, 1st main lesson, use of the controls, their effects on each other, some straight and level flight and turns and some descending too.

    Came back from the lesson ABSOLUTELY buzzing ! Loved it.

    Bring on Lesson 2

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    Helicopter Experience Flight – 14th June 2008

    Sunday, June 7th, 2009

    dpheli

    This is when it all started. My wife had bought me a helicopter experience flight for my birthday. 30 minutes ! I am writing this a little over 12 months from when I took it, so this will be a short entry.

    All I can remember about this first experience is the briefing beforehand, and key bits of the flight. The briefing was very thorough and I remember coming away with one KEY bit of knowledge. The cyclic (the stick between your legs) requires VERY little movement to fly a helicopter.

    And the one bit of information I remember from the flight was how jerky I was for the first 5 minutes. I was overcontrolling, making for an uncomfortable ride. But, then I calmed down and flew it much more calmly. Mostly straight and level, and some turns. Scott Dixon was the brave instructor !

    So, that takes us upto Lesson 1.

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