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Flight 40 – 28th January 2010 – 1210 – 1 hour 6 minutes – Total so far – 40 hours 46 mins

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

It’s good to get back in the saddle. Was surprised how much I missed my helicopter lessons.

Thankfully, the weather was perfect for it. Nice cold temperatures meaning high performance from the engine, and good visibility, with no precipitation.

I had in mind what I wanted to get out of today’s lesson. I wanted to leave it thinking “Oh yes, I can still fly a helicopter” and I achieved that, so am happy.

I arrived at the flying school early (10am) for my 11am lesson. I had decided to take a couple of exams today, the last 2 theory ones. I did some last minute revision, but was surprised about how much I had remembered from previous revision. Scores on the doors :-

Human Performance – 95%

Radiotelephony – 93.33333%

Well pleased with that. All theory exams done, just the radiotelephony practical exam to do PLUS the helicopter equivalent of the driving test ! The end is in sight.

So, today’s helicopter was G-DOGI (Doggy as it’s affectionately known). It was in a hangar next to where the police helicopter operates from, so a bit of a trek in the cold to get to it.

The great thing was I got to fly it from there around to the flying school at no cost to me ! So, takeoff, some precision transitioning (or fast taxi at least) and then landing. Loved it.

The takeoff went “ok”, but then the initial hover showed my lack of experience for the last 3 months, but I was pleased at how quickly I got the knack again.

Once filled up, I started her up again or at least tried to. But it wouldn’t start AT ALL. Steve was booking us out, and I couldn’t work it what I was doing wrong. I knew it was something stupid, but just couldn’t figure it out ! I rang Steve and he said he’d be there shortly.

Well, before Steve returned I realised that the rotor brake was still on, and that was the cause of it not starting. It started fine without the brake on ;-)

Once I’d started it and all the checks were done and I had the clearance, Steve returned and we headed off north. Past Morpeth, we did a vortex ring exercise. We were at about 2300 feet, and Steve asked me to enter a hover. Once in the hover, we entered vortex ring and then came out of it by gently increasing speed and powering away. Then onto the plateau where we did some autos, some quickstops, quite a bit of precision transitioning (fast low stuff, love it). We finished off with an auto to powered recovery into the hover. It went “ok”, but I could tell I was out of practice and Steve could too. But, I wasn’t disappointed, in fact, I was quite pleased that so much of his training was still in me.

I have a tendency when doing “autos to a hover just above the ground” to keep the nose high for too long, whereas I should be levelling out. I know why, but it’s only just dawned on me. At no point, am I thinking of landing it, and although we don’t ever land it (when practising an auto), I need to think and do everything as if I was going to land it. With that in my mind, I feel sure I’ll do it to Steve’s (and my) satisfaction next time. On the way back, we had a good catchup. Steve also slipped in a “small criticism”. Apparently, I’ve been hovering too low. Wasn’t aware of it, but he wants it about waist height for added safety, so I’ll work on that next time too.

So, all in all, a fruitful lesson. My helicopter head is nearly fully back on, more practice required.

I’ll try and get a lesson in next week (weather permitting).

I took video of both flights (PLUS atc), so all being well over the next couple of days, I’ll edit and upload that.

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Lesson 21 – 25th July 2009 – 1455 – 1 hour – Total so far – 22 hours 59mins

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Well, I was gutted last night when I learned that the Carlisle trip (planned for today) wasn’t going ahead for various reasons. I found out when I was half-way planning the routing, just to make things even more frustrating. But, all is not lost, with a great lesson taking its place.

Sunderland International Air show is going on today at the seafront, so Newcastle Airport was hectic traffic-wise with all the departing show traffic. But, Steve said he could do a lesson nonetheless, so I went to EGNT.

He was still out on a trial lesson, so while I waited I planned the routing for a trip I wanted to do. Steve had said that the next lesson would be some navigation to a certain spot. I was keen to do some more autorotation practice, so I had planned a lesson in my head, that involved a navigation to Esh Winning (where we live), and then on the way back, I’d hope we’d do some autorotation practice.

I put the idea to Steve and he was very happy with the plan. He told me to book out via Blaydon VRP, which I did and then went out to check over the helicopter.

It was great being out on the General Aviation (GA) Apron as all the fast jets for the airshow were there. There were F16s, RAF Hawks, Apache Helicopters, a Chinook taking off, some aerobatic planes taxi’ing. It was awesome. I took some video footage today of the GA Apron, and hopefully will post the edited highlights tomorrow. I also video’ed the whole flight today with a helmet cam, but that will need heavy editing, so again, hopefully tomorrow, that’ll be up.

So, I went out to check out the heli. It was VERY close to the bowser (about 10 feet from the rotor blade, and VERY close to a beautifully decal’ed Hawk (probably about 10 feet too). As I was doing the checks around the heli, the pilot was in the Hawk, prepping it for departure. He’d started up and taxi’ed off before I’d finish my checks. I think word has got around about my hovering skills ;-)

Busy on R/T today. I asked for startup, and was granted that straight away. Whilst I was waiting for things to get upto speed, I called for clearance, but was asked to “Standby”. 5 minutes later, Steve arrived, and still no callback, so Steve suggested a reminder call, and it worked, and we had clearance to go.

Once upto speed, call for taxi. I didn’t think Steve would let me liftoff so close to the bowser, but he did. Thanks Steve. I was pleased when we were clear of it. We taxi’ed past 4 fighter jets (2 on the left, 2 on the right), an Apache Longbow helicopter (I think) and a light a/c who’d taxi’ed ahead of us. And we hovered next to Foxtrot. Typical polite dp, I just hovered next to Foxtrot, thinking the light a/c was first and he should go first, but Steve just said to tell Tower we’re ready for departure and sure enough, we were given immediate takeoff clearance. Footage to follow……

For the first time ever, we headed south ! Exiting the zone overhead Blaydon (Visual Reference Point). And then following the headings I’d worked out to get us to Esh Winning. Although I did set the headings and fly them, I was too much in awe of seeing the geography of the south of Newcastle to properly do the navigation. I had forgotten to time the legs, and was just navigating (with Steve’s help), by the 2 (bloody) big aerials between Newcastle and Esh Winning.

It took me 40-45 minutes to drive to the airport, it took 13 minutes to fly it in a helicopter. Straight line travel is awesome !

I’d warned kp that I was due (and what time), and she’d tipped off Tommy and Eileen (our neighbours) so when we overflew Esh Winning, I could see Tommy and Eileen in the drive, but couldn’t see kp and Michelle and Freddy who were visiting. I purposely had flown a safe height (probably about 800 feet agl), so they were just dots, but because I was looking for kp in the front garden, I didn’t see them waving in the back – I was too much concentrating on the flying.

We did a 30 degree turn out of Esh Winning and headed to the Windmill Farm at Tow Law, where we started the first of many autorotations. The first one was a simple (no turns) job. I was pleased that I controlled the rotor rpm correctly, and would have made a field into wind fine.

The next one was a 90′ turn autorotation. Again, that went fine, and then I think we did a 180′ turn auto somewhere near Kielder reservoir. That went fine too.

It wasn’t all good though. Although I had done what I told myself I MUST do, AVIATE then COMMUNICATE. I had totally AVIATED correctly, but had forgotten to do the Mayday call. But Steve did it each time, so it gradually sinks in to me !!!

I’ll get that next time.

A lot of learning to fly helicopters is getting so comfortable with something that it requires zero thought, that you can then concentrate on something else. For example, hovering used to take 150% of my CPU cycles to do it badly and now I can do a half decent job on 20% of my CPU cycles. In fact, at times, I’m not even thinking about it, which is great.

Once i get to that stage with auto’s, I’ll be able to do the Mayday call no bother.

So, all the autos went well. These were all autos with powered recoveries at about 300-500 feet.

Once we were getting close to the Newcastle Zone, we stopped doing them and I made the call for rejoin instructions and we were told to hold overhead the Tyne Bridges, which we duly did. The reason for the delay was the most sophisticated fighter a/c ever built (Typhoon) was on final approach and for some reason he had priority landing ;-)

With him down, we flew onto left base leg for Runway 25, and then unusually Steve said something to Tower. I couldn’t hear what he said, just as he can’t hear what I say to tower, because of the headset setup G-MAVI has. We can hear each other without having to push any buttons (live setup I think he calls it), but it means we can’t hear what each other say on the radio.

It turns out he’d got permission to do an autorotation final approach to a powered recover at 5 feet and I’D be doing the whole thing. So exciting !!

I’d asked Steve before we left, if he’d mind if I call out what I’m doing and when I’m going to flare. Normally Steve does a running commentary, saying “Not Yet, Not Yet, Not Yet, Flare” as we come in without engine power.

I thought if I did it, Steve would feel more able to relax knowing that I WAS going to do the flare at the right point.

So, as we were coming in with a very fast descent rate, I was calling out “Not Yet, Not Yet, Not Yet, Nearly going to Flare, Flaring Now” or something like that. I did the flare and the flare (I thought) was good. We ended up with zero ground speed and zero vertical speed, so all was left was the final cushion. So, as Steve says, it was then time for “Pop”, pull the collective up and recover to a 5 feet hover. Well, there was a bit too much yaw, but that was my bad. Overall, I was really pleased with it. Steve later told me that the rotor rpm went a bit high. I have NO idea why it did this, so will have to ask next time.

This was the first time I’d done the whole thing from entry to recovery with no Steve input. As Steve later said, it’s a good autorotation if you can walk away alive and he said we would have done. Good enough for me.

The final bit was the best bit. The GA apron was still chocka block and the Hawk was back, meaning I had 10 feet (if not less) either side of me to get the heli down. Steve let me do it, credit to him. I went in nose first, and then had to do a 180′ yaw. It felt very close for the tail close to the fence and the bowser. Not sure if it will feel that close on the video footage. We’ll see…. But, I did the turn and landed it. It was a hard landing, but Steve said it was safe and it felt safe. But I didn’t fancy farting on for one of my 30-second kiss-of-a-touchdown landings with so little room for error.

So, great lesson. Loved it and the first one was some video to watch back.

Next lesson is more navigation, but more thorough next time. We going to (or I should probably say I am going to) navigate to Seaham, Durham Tees Valley airport (passing overhead), then Hexham then Newcastle.

Not sure when this week, but I’m already looking forward to it !

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Lesson 20 – 20th July 2009 – 1445 – 1 hour 20 minutes – Total so far – 21 hours 59mins

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Some last minute Air Nav revision in the morning and then a windy ride in on the bike for the exam and a lesson.

Straight into the exam, which involved plotting a route darn sarth somewhere and then answering loads of questions (25). 92% score (2 questions wrong, 1 of which was stupidity on my part), but am happy with that.

Steve was out giving someone an air experience ride, so I chatted with some other pilots, which I always find intriguing.

The lesson plan for today was extensive………..

  • Simulated Forced Landing (with Mayday call)
  • Autorotations (normal + 180′)
  • Steep Turns
  • Precision Transitions
  • Quick Stops

Think that was it, but we did even more than that :-)

Quite windy today. The METAR said 13 knots, but it felt a bit blowier than that at times. Surprisingly smooth trip given the winds.

I booked us out today (a first), and then went to get her started up. When I asked for startup, that was approved and they threw in a clearance too all in the same conversation. All good.

Taxi to Foxtrot and a request from ATC to expedite takeoff. So, no nicely nicely following the taxi line, it was straight over the grass, transition and away clearing the runway asap.

Off past Morpeth, and then the first of 2 autos. The first one went well. It only involved a left turn to get into wind. Once we were nicely setup to land in the field, I did the practice Mayday call. The Mayday call was a good one in my opinion, got everything in. And we could easily have landed in this huge field that we lined up with. All good so far.

The second attempt was, how can I put this, DIABOLICAL !!

We climbed back upto about 2000′. Steve did his “Engine Failure, Engine Failure, Engine Failure.” I rammed the collective down and quickly assessed that we needed a 180 degree auto to get back into wind, and I started setting that up, got us into a turn, and then the mistake I made was forgetting the flying and doing the Mayday call. Well, the flying went to pot. I hadn’t realised that we were WELL out of balance, I also saw the airspeed indicator reduce rapidly to show very LOW airspeed. Steve’s favourite saying and it’s a good one to know….

Steve :- Airspeed is MONEY IN THE BANK.

Well, we were next to skint (penniless) !!

My natural reaction was to nose forward to get some airspeed, but that wasn’t the problem. We were so out of balance that the pitot tube wasn’t pointing in the direction of travel and was misreading our true airspeed.

When we finally got rebalanced, the airspeed increased dramatically and speedily to about 85 knots. Steve reminded me about the balance and then I corrected it all, but all of this happened so fast that the Mayday probably got as far as the third rendition of the word Mayday and that was it.

So, lesson learned from this …………….  Aviate THEN communicate.

I shouldn’t have worried about the Mayday call until I was flying correctly.

Great learning experience though.

On the plus side, I did a much better job of controlling the rotor rpm. It got CLOSE to the red on one occasion, and we had a low rotor rpm horn moment, but I felt in control and recovered from these issues.

So, all in all, only a little disappointed in myself, despite the second atrocious attempt.

We then flew towards the plateau and did some Steep turns (30 degree). They went fine and I kept within 100′ of the altitude for 2 out of 3. We then did a couple of 45 degree turns. They were uneventful. We pulled some G there !!

By this point, we arrived at the plateau and we did some of the funnest flying you can do in a helicopter, aka precision transitions. We must have done about 4 or 5 of them. Steve did the first one to demonstrate.

Hover taxi’ing is slow as you remain below transitional lift (approx 12 knots). So if you need to taxi a long way and get there on the same day, we do this precision transitioning, basically we fly fast enough for transitional lift (approx 30-50knots), but very low (about 30 feet). The important thing is to start it into wind, and FINISH it into wind, despite probably flying with the wind along the way. So, we spent about 10-15 minutes darting around the plateau very fast, very low. It felt absolutely awesome. The best bit was when you’d be flying with a tailwind at 40 knots, but a groundspeed of 60 knots and then you’d do a big turn at the end back into wind and you can literally feel the ground speed just DROP AWAY to next to nothing, as then you are flying at 30 to 40 knots INTO a wind of 20-30 knots. It felt great.

When we’d done these, we did a real one as if we were going to land at a certain point, and then did a fake landing. Loved it. As we came into (fake) land, there was a low flying bright yellow Sea King at our height but about 1/2 a mile away. We’d both seen each other early on, a new experience for me ;-)

Once we’d (fake) took off, I tried to do a 360′ clearing turn to check for any other a/c, but it was VERY ugly with the winds being so strong. But, Steve didn’t step in and I got it back, although I think he nearly stepped in at one point.

I asked Steve to do a 360′ clearing turn so I could see how it should be done. I learned some stuff which I’ll apply next time.

We then did some more precision transitions but this time with some quick stops. Steve demo’ed and then I did 2 or 3. They are lots of fun too.

And then it was return to base time.

Bit of a queue to land, so we were asked to hold over the northern boundary of the airport (close to the tower). The wind was at least 30 knots at 800 feet, so we could enter a near hover by flying at 40 knots into wind. So much more fun than dizzying orbits.

We had to expedite the landing, but Steve didn’t step in which was great.

Final landing and then shut down concluded a great lesson.

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Double Lesson – 13th July 2009

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Lesson 18 – 13th July 2009 – 1420 – 36 minutes – Total so far – 20 hours 9mins
Lesson 19 – 13th July 2009 – 1510 – 30 minutes – Total so far – 20 hours 39mins

I know I’m going to sound like a record, but great lesson(s) again !!

Quite a few CBs around (Cumulonimbus (Thunder) clouds)), but very isolated, so we could still proceed.

First lesson of the day was for Steve and I to fly out of the Control Zone (via Morpeth), do a couple of autos and then fly back – but with a difference. The difference was that Steve wouldn’t say a word. Sounded like the perfect lesson ;-)

No Steve talking, no Steve “jokes” – :-)
Noone to remind me about important things – :-(

So, with enough fuel for both lessons (R22 Beta, not HP model), we took off. I was about to hover us at Foxtrot awaiting departure clearance, but no sooner had we started (hover) taxi-ing than we were given clearance to take off (Runway 07). For the first time, I thought I’d try a transition and turn onto the runway, in basic terms, a bloody fast taxi. This is the fun fly by the seat-of-your-pants kinda stuff. All went well.

We were off. Steve not saying anything didn’t last long ;-)

Steve :- “Are we climbing Dave ?”
David :- “We are climbing Steve and by that you mean…………..” (trying to think what I hadn’t done)

I’d set the trim, I’d set the transponder………erm……..

He meant the speed. I was going 75knots, but standard climb is 65knots.

Sorted.

Bit annoyed that he’d had to remind me, but heigh ho.

We continued up to about 2200 ft. Although Steve wasn’t talking to me, I was telling him my thought patterns so he didn’t think I was flying aimlessly. I’d say I was going to 2200feet. Later on, he said that when there are CBs around or rain clouds generally, that I should fly lower. He was dead right.

Once out of the Control Zone……………

Steve :- Where is the wind coming from ?

I answered correctly.

Steve :- Practice Engine Failure! Engine Failure, Engine Failure, Engine Failure
David :- So, do you want me to do what I’d do if the engine failed.
Steve :- huh huh (yes)

So, I did the auto down to about 500 feet and a power recovery. He’d picked an awkward spot, which meant I had to do a turn and I forgot to check the revs during the turn, Steve had to step in.

But, we made the field.

Power Recovery and then Steve explained what he meant by “Engine Failure” (repeated 3 times). What he meant was, when he says it the first time, that’s when the engine has failed, I need to take action by the 3rd time otherwise it was too late. Well, I was happy now I understood it and laughing at how stupid I must have sounded to Steve.

The next one, there was no dilly dallying. No sooner had he said Engine Failure than we were dropping out of the sky like noone’s business. The collective has never been pushed down so hard, well not by me anyway ! :-)

This time, ‘cos of the wind it had to be a 180 auto. We would have made that one no bother, but again I forgot to check the rotor rpm during the turn.

But, I think something has clicked now with autos. We’ll see next time we fly  if that’s the case. In real life, if the engine did go, you wouldn’t worry about the rotor rpm, the more the merrier.

So, with the autos done, we returned to base, Steve told me where to put it down.

At which point, he got out and said he was going to book me out and I should shut the heli down, recheck the helicopter fluid levels and then await his return.

15 minutes later, I was starting her up again but on my own. It’s such an exciting experience being on your own, hard to put into words. I love it.

I got the clearance for startup, started her up, got the departure clearance, and then did the post-start checks. Now, this is when things went very differently to how it normally goes. Normally what happens is that when _I_ am ready, I say I’m ready for taxi and then I taxi to the Hold and then _I_ say I’m ready for departure.

But, it was VERY different. There was a light a/c in front of me to depart and I knew there was a big jet (not sure if it was Easyjet) also heading for the start of the runway. So, in my head, I’m after those 2.

So, I did the last checks and was ready for the off.

Tower :- Northumbria01 (that’s me), taxi to Foxtrot, Runway 25.

Well, this took me by surprise, but I was ready so………

dp :- Taxi to Foxtrot, Runway 25.

Off I went to Foxtrot, then………….

Tower :- Northumbria ZERO ONE, you cleared for takeoff, Runway 25. Surface Wind blah blah….

Well, I replied to say fine with that, and as I taxi’ed out to the runway, I could see the light a/c about 400 m down the runway, waiting for me, and behind it, at the very start of the runway was the big jet. I felt like a VIP.

I don’t think I was getting preferential treatment because I was on my own, I think it was more because of vortex wake. I give off the least, on a par with the light a/c and the big jet leaves a 5 or 6 mile wake vortex, so if it was any other order, it would have took much longer to get the 3 a/c off the ground.

The flight was uneventful apart from the dodging of rain showers. I went through a couple and dodged a couple. All good fun. Once past morpeth, I ambled for 5 minutes and then came back. I could see a big shower over the airport – a real downpour, but the visibility was such that I could see through it and by the time I got there it would have passed so I rejoined the control zone.

I was number 2 to some commercial airliner, and the passing shower had left the runway Wet Wet Wet, but the air was weirdly very calm. The hover taxi, the final hover and the landing were great. I was dead chuffed. I could have lined it up more with a line, but I thought if Steve was watching, he’d be fretting if I parked it too close to another a/c, so for his heart’s sake, I left a bit of space.

So, all good.

Next lesson not yet booked, but probably friday, and I hope to get another exam out the way (Air Nav). I think we’re doing Practice Forced Landings. I’ll have to brush up on my mayday calls.

dp :- Mayday Mayday Mayday, the engine’s stopped like, we’re ganning doon like a stone.

Yes, that should do it !!

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Lesson 17 – 8th July 2009 – 1500 – 1 hour – Total so far – 18hours 33mins

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Great Lesson – it was quite a jam-packed lesson with lots of different things covered.

First off, I went out to check the helicopter out. It was the HP R22 model  (G-BZBU). This is a lighter version (one less fuel tank) and the battery is in the front, so the CoG is farther forward. This is the one where you feel like you do 2 takeoffs/landings for every normal 1 ie land the front of the skids, then the back and same in reverse for takeoff, but today I really noticed how much more power we appeared to have available because of the lower weight (less fuel).

I made a ballsup of the R/T today. As usual, I go out and check the heli out and start her up and get it so we’re ready for the off and then Steve joins me. But, I had forgot the callsign of the helicopter. All aircraft in the UK have a callsign something like G-ABCD and I knew that this helicopter was G-BZBU, but all the flying school’s aircraft have a more friendly name like “Northumbria ZERO ONE”, so when it came to asking for startup, it went something like this……….

dp :- Newcastle Tower, good afternoon, Northumbriaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. erm…erm……………. (I didn’t know the callsign and had to use the full name) “Golf – Bravo Zulu Bravo Uniform” at the Flying School with Information Juliet request startup.

Thankfully tower was very helpful !!

Newcastle Tower – “Golf – Bravo Zulu Bravo Uniform”, you have been booked out as Northumbria ZERO TWO. Information Juliet is correct. Startup approved”

dp :- “Startup Approved, MANY thanks. Northumbria ZERO TWO”

While everyone else is sounding dead professional, I come on sounding like a numpty. Ah well, live and learn.

Steve seems to be getting more confident in my liftoffs as he is crossing his hands on his knees now, whereas before he wisely always had a hand near the collective or the cyclic. Don’t get me wrong, he still often does at times, but not for the takeoff today, even though we were between a R44 and the fuel bowser. Taxi to Foxtrot and then we (I) basically hover-taxi’ed to a holding area next to the runway, awaiting an inbound a/c who was exiting at Foxtrot. There was one light a/c ahead of us wanting to depart too. Whilst we waited, Steve got me to practice a landing in the “HP” R22, just to feel the difference. I could kinda feel it, but to illustrate it better, he took control and very skilfully lifted off the skids and pivoted on the front of the skids. Quite amazing. It was like watching a ballet dancer go up on to the toes of her feet. He went up and down a few times, all the time pivoting on the front of the skids. I was impressed. Once done, we stayed on the ground awaiting another helicopter passing Foxtrot. Strictly speaking it was the light aircraft’s turn to take off first, but they couldn’t go because there was an inbound 737, but Newcastle Tower asked us if we could exit heading due North (past the control tower) going directly ACROSS the runway and not along it’s length (which runs from 070 to 250 degrees)

dp:- Affirm (with a big grin)

And we we’re off. We headed upto 2400′ and once out of the Control Zone, upto 3000′.

Today, we started off by doing Vortex Ring – Settling with Power. In a nutshell, a fixed wing aircraft can stall (fall out of the sky) if it goes too slow and the angle of attack of the wings is too high. The airflow gets very turbulent and the a/c loses lift because the airflow isn’t laminar (smooth) enough.

A very similar thing can happen in a helicopter. If a helicopter goes less than 30 knots (or more accurately has no transitional lift), and has a descent rate more than 300′ per minute, AND there is power being applied, you effectively stall a LOT of the rotor producing lift, and the helicopter, like a plane starts falling at a much higher descent rate. The more you pull power, the more you are pull dirty air through the rotor, the faster you drop. It sounded very hairy from the book, but at 3000′, you have quite a lot of time to fix it. The fix is easy (at that height), basically cyclic forward so the speed comes above 30 knots and then power and recover.

We did about four of them, and they were all event free. The controls go all mushy, there is a big yaw, and you drop like a stone, but you can’t feel it so much at that height. Cyclic forward, get speed, then power and recover.

So, with those over and with all the height we still had left, we did an autorotation down to the plateau. We were so high, I needed to do some turns to get rid of some extra height. The improvement today was that I completely did the entering. I think I’ve done this once before, but today, I really did the whole “entering into” autorotation. I also did the flare, but Steve did his final POP (as he calls it) and pulled the collective and then I continued the hover. We just did one of them. I’ll be pleased when I do one completely, ‘cos this is SUCH an important skill to have.

Once that was done, Steve asked me to fly to the centre of the plateau and for the first time, I didn’t fart on and hover at a snail’s pace. It felt like I “really” flew it there. It felt real good. A nice turn to finish and back into the hover. It felt sweet :-) A special moment for all the right reason. In a way, it felt like the first time I’d flown the helicopter by the seat of my pants, solely feeling how it flies. Hard to describe in words. Normally when I fly, everything we do, like an approach is a set sequence of events that you do in a set order. But, this was just FLYING A HELICOPTER – loved it. Once back in the hover in the centre of the plateau, we did a (fake) landing and then we did a takeoff and a practice obstacle avoidance. So, in a nutshell, Steve took control flew us at about 60kts (quite fast, when you’re so low) at a mound of earth and then at the last second (all very safe!) sharp cyclic left and up and PULLED collective. The result was a very sharp turn. Quite a few “G” being pulled.

Of course, Steve, the comedian he is, had to get a few jokes in. “Imagine that mound is a Merlin Helicopter” (he said) (referring to the near miss we had a week or so back !). AND OF COURSE, me concentrating so hard, I didn’t get the joke until about 10 seconds after he had said it. But then we were laughing at that as well :-)

So, Steve showed me one and then I did the second one. I felt Steve come on the collective, probably ‘cos he thought I wasn’t pulling enough of it (or too much), but I got the idea and was happy with the maneuvre.

Then we went straight at the mound but this time for a QUICK STOP (as they’re called). In a nutshell, this involves stopping the helicopter very quickly into a stationary hover. That was lots of fun. I was happy with that, but my turn comes another day. He just wanted to show me that one.

Once done, back to the airport and we were fortunate again for being a helicopter. Because there was an inbound Airbus. The Tower asked if we had a visual – we did, and then they offered us an expedited landing clearance ahead of the Airbus. Now, in the past, Steve has done this expedited landings, but he let me do it. Another seat of the pants bit of flying, so much fun !!!!!!

I need to get out of the fixed wing mentality. In a normal plane, you line up with the runway, and land on the runway, and most of the time, in a helicopter you do the same, but at times like these, when we’re expediting in front of a fast approaching airbus, I don’t need to “land” (transition) on the runway, so although I did a fast approach (about 80kts), I needed Steve to suggest use the grass next to the runway, but he was great and let me do the whole transition to the hover and then taxi clear, well in time for the Airbus landing.

This is where I’m disappointed with the result of my flying. I hover-taxi’ed to the parking spot. It was between the R44 and the fuel bowser. I positioned us nicely in the middle, spot turned it so it was lined up correctly, all good so far and then it all seemed to be MESSY !!! I think I’m being too much of a fanny when it comes to the touching the ground bit. I am trying to get ZERO movement in any direction whatsoever, but the end result is I am demanding (of myself) the absolute perfect hover before touching down. Well, of course, I would get to within an inch of the ground, detect a smidgeon of movement sideways and then abort, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat ! I was up and down like a Yoyo ! It must have took me 30 seconds to do the last ONE FOOT. Will have to ask Steve next time about this.

Credit to Steve, he didn’t butt in and sort it, which is great, ‘cos that would have left me frustrated. Anyway eventually, I got it down, but wasn’t too pleased with the landing. It was safe, but not as sweet as I would have liked.

All in all, great lesson. Lots of variety. Loved it, shame about the crappy ending, but that’s my bad, and I’ll have a word with myself before next time.

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First Solo – An exciting day – YOU BET !

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Lesson 14 – 26th June 2009 – 1115 – 1hr 00mins – Total so far – 14hours 45min
Lesson 15 – 26th June 2009 – 1300 – 1hr 48mins – Total so far – 16hours 33min

Well, today has been one of the most exciting days of my life and a huge learning experience, and not for the solo flight.

The day started off with a full cross country plan of the route to Carlisle. We worked out the headings to fly and how long to fly them. Scott came to help at one point, with a view how to plan it for the final exam to tick all the boxes. I went to do the checks and put some oil in G-MAVI. We had fuel for 2 hours and were good to go.

Once I’d started her up and got us nearly ready for the off, Steve came out and we did the final checks and we were on our way. Hold at Foxtrot, 07 takeoff, left turn after the fire station, and our first track of 310′ to the North of Ponteland (2 minutes). The weather was great at this point, although not quite great enough to fly the 1800′ we had planned, so we were down at 1400′.

Next was a 6-mile 272′ track to Stagshaw Masts and that went fine too. Finally the 17 mile 263′ track to Carlisle. I lost the heading by a few degrees quite a few times, but at our half-way point we were bang on where we should be, and with a nice tail-wind, we made Carlisle 25 minutes after departure from Newcastle. We then proceeded to do 35 minutes of circuits and autorotations, with me doing the last couple of circuits totally without input from Steve. I was pleased with my liftoffs, they had really improved, and they felt very smooth, and my circuits were generally ok. Not perfect 90′ turns and also, I forgot Carburettor Heat once and Steve gave a few coughs, and when they weren’t subtle enough, he looked down at the Carb Heat knob, and as I was concentrating so hard, I still didn’t get it, but when I did I was laughing !

So, with the circuits done, we taxi’ed to the fuel pump and while Mr Fuel Pump man filled her up, we went for a bacon buttie in Carlisle’s excellent little cafe. Cracking little airport Carlisle, scenery and wildlife (in the form of birds) are amazing !

Once we were refreshed, we checked the weather for Newcastle and it seemed to be getting worse, so Steve contacted another student who was going to come to Carlisle (Rupert) for some lessons to abort his lesson, so we could do what we had to do and then return before it got too bad. Weather-wise at that time, it was good for a return to Newcastle.

So, started Lesson 15, a Lesson I will never forget and probably the lesson I have learned the most valuable lessons from. Steve too I think.

So, I’m doing all the flying unless I say otherwise. Liftoff from the pump, taxi past Bravo to the grass hover triangle and then a few more circuits where Steve kept schtum. All good. One more autorotation (just in case the engine failed), I only entered it, Steve controlled the rotor speed and the final powered recovery. And then one last thing, before I went solo, we practiced an engine failure in the hover. We did about 3 of these, but Steve did them all, while I followed through. The way it works, we’re in the hover, Steve cuts the throttle, we apply pedal to counter the loss of torque and then a final pull on the collective to cushion the landing. Pedal-Something-Cushion. Pedal-Maintain stability-Cushion, something like that. Steve’ll remind me when I see him next.

So, with that done, it was solo time. I was as excited as a pig in sh+t. Gagging for it. So excited, I had forgot that the camera I had brought to ask Steve to record the moment for the blog was under the seat I was sitting on. Thankfully, Steve said he’d record it on his phone, which he did. So when I get the footage, I’ll post it on the blog. I reviewed it afterwards and some of it was great. He got my final landing and approached the copter with his camera video’ing and got the biggest smile on my face I have ever seen. The grin never ended. Can’t wait to see it again.

The solo’s were uneventful. Steve had said to do a circuit and if I felt comfortable with it, to do another couple if I wanted. He said not to worry about the spot turns, and just do 90′ turns to check we were clear, but I wanted to do them. He warned me that the heli would handle differently because of the different CoG. It did, the nose tended to lift up more if i recall correctly. I think the first liftoff was the worst, I seemed to spin round about 70 degrees, before I caught it, but once I’d sussed the differences, I was really pleased with how the 3 circuits went. A couple of the landings I did I was over the moon with, but the first one felt different (again, because of the CoG difference I suppose).

I didn’t forget Carb Heat once – result !

There were 3 helicopters doing flights around the airport at the time I was doing my solo. One taxi’ing, one inbound from the west.

Some nice R/T from when I was doing my solo bit….

Tower    :- Callsign, Approach from the west, caution the Robinson Helicopter doing his first solo left hand circuits to the left of (Runway) 07.
Callsign :- Approach from the west and good luck to the solo pilot. He’ll thoroughly enjoy it (or something like that).

Of course, I had to say thanks….I was genuinely chuffed…

dp :- Many Thanks, Northumbria01.

When I took off for the last circuit, I gave Steve a sign to say this was the last one. Each time, I’d picked a landing spot well away from Steve (who was in the Hover triangle), for safety, but also ‘cos I knew he would then know I was going up again. For the last one, I landed about 50m away from him. Thumbs up to Steve to show that I had the controls and it was safe to approach, and at this point, I became more aware of the surroundings. Once Steve was in, I noticed the fire engine was out and I pointed this out to Steve.

Steve :- Yes, that was for you.

And he was serious. Standard practice for first solo apparently.

So, with Steve back in, we headed off to the East and back to Newcastle and the most memorable flight of my 250 hours flying, bar none.

At Carlisle, the weather was ok. Cloudbase was about 1000′, if not a little higher. As we headed East, it got progressively lower and lower. Each time, we would have to fly lower and lower to maintain “Clear of Cloud” and “Visibile with the surface”. At some points we were flying at 3 to 500 feet. Forward visibility wasn’t brilliant at this stage, but it was a good 2 or 3km, which is fairly decent and very flyable in. One of the beauties about flying in a helicopter is that you can fly as slow as you want to stay safe. So, when we’d go through a patch of 1km forward visibility, we could slow to 50kts, or even slower.

Stagshaw Masts was in cloud, so we tried to head north of it, but the cloudbase was too low, so Steve (rightfully) felt it best to come through Hexham and follow the low ground in the valley, so we could keep under the cloud. I am flying at all times at this point, with Steve instructing me heights and speeds to fly.

We picked up the A69 at Hexham and followed that, both of us keeping a beady eye out for pylons. Suffice to say, we saw a few. Steve told me to fly directly over the pylon at an angle, so we knew we were over the wires. Good tip !!

So, here comes scary moment number ONE. 3 incidents occurred on the way back, they get increasingly scary. This was the least scary….

At one point, we were about 200 feet above the pylons, but starting to lose forward visibility because we were skirting the cloudbase. It’s important to remember that I am doing the flying at this point, for when scary moment number two comes. So, once over the pylon and having crossed it at an angle of about 60 degrees, I started to descend to increase the visibility. Once the visibility was back to “ok” and we could see again, we both sighed with relief and continued on. A second later, the pylons reappeared, they had changed direction and were crossing our path again !! This was scary moment number ONE. We had to skirt the clouds again to safely get past the pylon.

But, we made it and things seemed to improve after that, the forward visibility was fairly good at about 2-3km. As we continued to follow the A69, it seemed to worsen a little and come down to about 2km.

Now, although I am doing all the flying at this point, Steve had took on all the R/T, which was a welcome relief from my workload. But, because we are so low, we are only occasionally appearing on Newcastle Radar. So, quite often, Steve would report our position when they asked where we were. They were very helpful actually, relaying latest weather at Newcastle etc……

Scary moment two – So, we’re flying along with the visibility ok, but with us flying at 3 to 400 feet to get that visibility. All of a sudden, our helicopter is pulling 3G and turning to the left. Steve had instinctively grabbed the controls pulled full collective and yanked us right over to the left. I looked to Steve’s side and see a green military Merlin helicopter coming from the left, that is within FIFTY feet flying at 90′ to us but on a collision course. Instantly, without thinking I also pulled my collective lever up fully thinking we’d need more than Steve could pull (silly really). It was the closest miss I have ever had while flying. 50 feet may seem like an exaggeration. I can assure you it was not. As we were banking SHARPLY away, the Merlin helicopter was putting in a half-hearted turn to the left. It felt like Steve had seen it before they had seen us. Here’s what a Merlin looks like….(Thanks to Scott for pointing out that the first Merlin image (now removed) was NOT a Merlin, but a Sea King.) To give you some idea how close we were, it looked bigger than this when we saw it !! And coincidentally, the turn the Merlin pilot was pulling was in the same direction as this, but a little less severe.

merlin3

That was scary moment no. 2. Sighs of relief doesn’t really do justice to the relief that we had after that. But, the scariest moment was yet to come.

What made this last incident funny, was the R/T that followed. This was pretty much the conversation that ensued AFTER that incident.

Newcastle Radar   :- Merlin Helicopter, we have a Robinson Light Helicopter who has just appeared on our radar in your vicinity.
Merlin Helicopter :- Yes, we have seen the helicopter, I think we gave it quite a fright.

Steve and I were laughing. They would have had the shits put up them JUST as much as we had !

Even though this moment was hairy, it didn’t really phase us too much, at this point, we were starting to discuss putting down in a field somewhere as our real concern was the weather. We were SOOOO close to Newcastle, but it just seemed to be getting worse and worse. If you’re reading this blog entry, you might recall a recent flight where the weather at Newcastle was gorgeous and everywhere APART FROM Newcastle seemed to be having horrible weather. This time it was the reverse, it seemed that Newcastle was the epicentre of the bad weather, but we only know this in hindsight. The ATIS (a radio service telling us the weather), was saying the weather at Newcastle was ok to proceed. No LVPs (low visibility procedures) were in force. LVPs would have stopped us going any further.

So, we push on, and as we do, we seemed to be skirting cloud more and more at lower and lower heights above the ground. But, we were still in sight of the surface and clear of cloud, although, AT TIMES, lower than we would have liked. We were having to fly slower so that we could avoid pylons if they appeared. I was back on the flying at this point and followed the A69 all the way to the A1. As we approached the A1, it seemed to be improving, and we were both a little relieved ! We were able to fly at 500 feet, and at 50-60kts. As we turned north, following the A1, we were 2 miles from the airport and within sniffing distance of a cup of coffee.

Scary Moment 3.

Suddenly, from following the A1 by sight at about 400 feet, we could see virtually nothing. We had entered cloud. We could JUST make out ground beneath us, but not the detail of the ground. It was quite frightening. For the first time, I was anxious and I could hear same in Steve’s voice.

Steve :- This isn’t good.
dp    :- Let’s just do a 180′ and pick up the A1 again

Steve took over the flying and really took command…….

Steve :- Full Carb Heat (we had entered cloud, therefore more moisture in the air, more chance of carb icing)

dp :- Full Carb Heat Set

He then flew a 180′ on the instruments and to our great relief, 20 seconds later, we could see the surface again.  Within a further 20 seconds, we saw a green patch of land and there was no doubt that we had to put down. Steve landed us next to the A1 and a housing estate at Blakelaw. Steve got out as soon as we were down to stop the inevitable crowd of onlookers from endangering themselves by approaching this weird flying thing that doesn’t normally land on their grass next to their houses. He also rang the flying school, while I shut the heli down.

Suffice to say, in Steve’s words….

Steve :- David, we’ve shared a special moment together up there

I knew exactly what he meant. He need say no more.

Once the copter was shut down, I got out and we chatted about what we could have done differently. Things like this happen in aviation. I had similar experiences in my microlighting days. Sh+t happens. The most important thing is to learn from those experiences and work out what we could have done differently.

What did we learn ? Well, the weather at Newcastle (when we left and a good part of the way there) was ok for us to approach and land safely. But the trend was a bad one, it was getting worse and worse.

At the same time, we were getting closer and closer. And so, you get this “nearly there, nearly made it” kind of mental attitude. In hindsight, we should have paid more attention to the trend and less attention to how close we were. That’s what we learned. Would we do the same again ? I am 100% confident that neither of us would let the situation get so bad in the future.

We were down on the ground, and we were safe. Or so we thought…… ;-)

It turns out Blakelaw isn’t the most safest place from a crime perspective to park a £100k helicopter.

Before the blades had even stopped turning, people were coming from everywhere. It was just before the schools finished for the day, so once they were done, we were bombarded from all angles with school kids of all ages. Then the parents, passers-by etc etc….

If I had a 1p for every time someone asked one of these questions…..

Question 1 – Why have you landed here ?
Question 2 – When are you taking off ?
Question 3 – How fast does it go ?
Question 4 – Is it yours ?

etc etc….To be fair, even though Blakelaw might not have the lowest crime rate in the Tyne region, everyone who approached was friendly, but we did have to keep our eye on the kids.

At one point, when it was pouring down, Steve and I took shelter in the helicopter. All of a sudden, the helicopter starts bouncing up and down. Some kids were at the back of the copter, pulling down on the stinger (a black bar to stop the rotor hitting the ground).

We both jumped out and “asked” them not to do that. After that we were a bit more attentive.

So, very friendly people, but quite a few of them warned us NOT to keep the helicopter there over night, as it would be on bricks the following morning.

One bloke who lived in a nearby house, offered us the use of his bathroom and brought out some coffee for us, which was lovely and welcome. But where was the BRANDY !?!?!??!

About an hour after we had landed, Scott came out, and then a little later, the big boss Neil came out and we pretty much spent the whole afternoon (from 2.50pm until about 8pm) standing in the rain considering options. Discussed were taking off and flying 200 metres to the local car dealership and asking them to put it inside, or the local bus depot. But, after visits to both, they weren’t viable options.

So, it was left as waiting for the best visibility possible and then Scott and Steve took off and flew the final 2 miles to Newcastle, with me driving back in Scott’s wife’s car.

It was good we had all made it back in one piece.

So, a memorable day (to say the least). A VERY valuable one to me (and Steve probably) from a learning perspective. My first solo faded to insignificance from a learning perspective, but I didn’t mind. Flying a helicopter on your own is easier than with Steve’s weight on board anyway. He weighs a LOT ! ;-)

It wasn’t just us affected by the weather. I had recently got in touch with an old friend from my RAF days (Hamish Mitchell) (http://www.scotlandonfloats.com/). He is an Air Traffic Controller for the upper airways, but also runs a floatplane company in Scotland. He was flying from Norfolk back upto Scotland with his floatplane and we had arranged to meet at Kielder Reservoir, where he was going to land and we were going to have a cup of something and catch up. But, Kielder refused him permission to land, so we were going to meet up at Carlisle airport instead. But, by the time he was as far north as Carlisle, the weather had got so bad, he had to fly to the west of the Lake District and from the email I got, he was pleased to be back home too !!

So, an incredibly interesting, exciting and valuable day. The kind of day, money can’t buy and one I’ll never forget.

Roll on the next flying lesson !

Here’s a piccy of where we landed at Blakelaw. Note the visibility.

heligathering

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Lesson 13 – 23rd June 2009 – 1430 – 1hr 12mins – Total so far – 13hours 45 min

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Good Day today. No Solo, but still great day.

This morning, I did some last minute revision for the Meteorology exam. I was expecting a 40-question affair like the Aviation Law one, but it was only 20 questions. The revision paid off with a 100% pass mark. It makes a such a difference if you’re interested in the topic.

Today’s lesson was about emergencies. I thought it was going to be “the first solo”, but apparently, they are only done at Carlisle (cheaper landing fees), and less pressure on student (negative r/t). But today was very interesting nonetheless.

A lesson takes the form of a briefing, sometimes with some work on the whiteboard from the instructor, or sometimes we’ll go through one of the many manuals. Here is one of the pages that the manual said for today……

ex11b

Here is what was on the whiteboard…..

lesson100

As I rode into the GA part of the airport, the helicopter was taking off with another student, so I cracked on with the Meteorology exam. Once that was done, I went to the observation part of the flight school and watched the Harrier pilot mess on with his a/c. Apparently, 2 Harriers had been flying in the vicinity and one had a bird strike. It was over at the main terminal part of the airport. The one in the photo below is the one with no bird guts in the engine…..

harrier

Both a/c had a full set of ordinance onboard (a/g bombs and a/a missiles)…

It was intriguing to watch him do his checks and then he got in the cockpit and seemed to wait for something. Eventually a Newcastle Airport Fire Engine turned up and he started his engines. I assume, because it was loaded with bombs that they play it extra safe. It was great watching him taxi away and then takeoff in what must have been less than 300m.

Perfect timing for Steve returning with a student and “my turn”. :-)

Steve debriefed the other student and then briefted me for the lesson.

We wheeled it over to the bowser for some fuel and then wheeled it back and then Steve left to book us out and I did the checks. Here’s G-MAVI (or Callsign = Northumbria01)

weatherindistance

Checked over, I called for startup clearance, started her up and did all the checks bar the 2 where the rotor is going full pelt. I called for departure clearance and then awaited Steve. When he turned up, I did the last 2 checks with the rotor at full speed, called for taxi and we we’re off.

I did all the flying. In fact, assume I do all the flying now, unless I say otherwise. So, to the holding point, and then take off, left turn after the fire station and north to morpeth. The weather was absolutely perfect !!! And what was weird is that it seemed there was a circle around Newcastle of perfect weather, but Teeside and Alnwick areas were full of thunderstorms (Alnwick area visible in the photo above). When I say perfect, I mean perfect. The air was so still………..There wasn’t a bump of turbulence en route to the site.

We did a couple of autorotations en route, and then did one down to about 200 feet above the beach. I was desperately keen to do the whole “entering into autorotation” thing, as normally I don’t control the rotor speed, Steve beats me to it. With the exception of the first one, I did the rest and I was pleased with the whole thing.

Once they were done, we went over to the plateau and did some circuits (they were fine) with some fake landings/take offs ;-) . My takeoffs were much improved today throughout. My landings too, probably because the wind was only about 10-15 kts. We then did some more autorotations, but this time with turns to see the effect that had and Steve got me to follow him through as he controlled the end part where you recover with full power.

Fake Land/Takeoff, spot clearing turns to ensure no a/c in the vicinity (there was another fast jet today (RAF Hawk)), and then we flew back to Newcastle. Short wait for 1 landing and 1 departure a/c and then landing on 07. Hover taxi in. Not that graceful, but not bad and a nice enough landing apart from the position which was too far away from everything, my bad !!

All in all, a great lesson.

The next time it’s definitely solo. We’re going to Carlisle for the day on Friday (weather permitting). Full cross-country planning, flying, the works. Once there, cup of tea, and then circuits with Steve, and then he gets out, and it’s just lil’ole’me. Can’t wait. Then lunch, then plan flight back and it should be great :-)

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Lesson 12 – 18th June 2009 – 11.13am – 1hr 12mins – Total so far – 12hours 33 min

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

I really didn’t think today’s lesson would go ahead, but I’m glad it did.

The weather was in excess of the minimum required for me to fly solo (winds need to be less than 15 knots). Winds were at around 20knots, gusting to 30knots, which is quite blowy (35mph). But, Steve felt I would benefit from a lesson where the weather wasn’t quite as ideal and he was dead right.

First off was a cup of coffee and a brief. Dynamic Rollover was the topic of the day. I asked Steve if we could practice one of these, but it’s a “no” ;-)

So, I went out to check the helicopter over. Steve went to check us out with ATC. The helicopter needed oil and fuel, so I texted Steve to bring the oil when he came out, to save a trip back to the hangar. As he arrived at the helicopter, his phone went off with my message – doh !!  He is on the “3″ network, and we have quite a few family members on “3″ and they sometimes never get texts or get them ages later. Weird !

So, we went back to get the oil and it started raining, so we waited in the hangar as it’s not pleasant checking an a/c over while it’s p+ssing down. Once it had enough oil, I wheeled the copter over to the bowser (my first time pushing it) – surprisingly light. Note to self, get the rotor blade in line with helicopter before pushing it.

Steve filled her up and then we wheeled it back to a safe distance from the fuel bowser and continued checks.

Flying a helicopter for someone with my low experience is quite different in calm or low wind conditions than when it’s blowing like it was today. I was concerned about the takeoff as we were probably only about 10m from the fuel bowser. But, Steve let me do it remarkably. I taxi’ed to Holding Point F(oxtrot) got the “go” from ATC, (hover) taxi’ed her onto 25 and then transitioned us off. I did every bit of flying today again, which is quite a good feeling, but TOTALLY exhausting. 30 minutes flying a helicopter is quite draining. I _KNOW_ it will become effortless with time and experience, but right now, it’s like when you start driving abroad and at first, you’re quite tense, but by the end of a holiday, you don’t give it a second thought.

So, we flew north, past Morpeth to “the plateau” as Steve calls it. It’s an area by some working quarries where we can “land”. We can’t land per se, but near as damn it ;-)      So, in our heads, we look at the wind, and pretend the hover landing spot is at a certain spot and then do circuits. My circuits still need to be tighter. This is where it would be easier with a runway, because it’s easy to know when you’re going downwind, base leg etc…. ‘cos you can compare it to the runway. With a plateau of grass which has no distinct shape, it’s less easy, but I did my best. Everything went fine, and I was pleased because the last blowy day (less windy than today), had seen my hovers be ALL over the place, but today, they were “ok”.

Steve is a great instructor. He had me in stitches today and at a time where I needed to really relax. When a helicopter comes into land, you do a transition from forward descending flight to the hover, before putting the heli down. So, I did that, got us to the hover and then “landed”. So far, so good. Taking off is trickier than it sounds as you need to be in a hover before your skids leave the ground, failure to do this correctly and we get the Dynamic Rollover thing, which we don’t want. So, I take off and get us in the hover, all good.

Now, then what we need to is to do a 360′ turn whilst hovering to check that the sky is clear of any a/c before we start a “take off”. Even in calm winds, this can be tricky, but in calm winds, I can do it. In these winds, and it was showing as 35kts on the instruments whilst we were hovering, it’s not quite as easy. The tricky thing is that you need to keep the cyclic constantly with some pressure in the direction of the wind. Not too tricky by itself, but then you need to use the yaw pedals to do the turn, but when you initiate the turn the wind wants to blow the tail back to the same position (like a weather vane) , so you need quite a lot of foot pedal work. Also, once the tail goes across the wind, it catches the wind and then you need the opposite pedal to stop it from whizzing in the other direction. Foot pedal work (depending on the direction of the turn)  needs more or less collective. So, it’s quite a balancing act. So, here’s the funny bit…..

Imagine the most ungraceful 360′ turn you possibly can imagine. That’s the turn that I did. In fact, it was probably 480′ turn and then a correction back again. But it included a climb of 20 feet, a movement to the side of 40 feet. It was quite a nightmare. Once I’d got it back to the hover and Steve was adamant that I fix the problem I made (nice one Steve), he said……..

Steve :- So, did you see any aircraft ?

Well, of course, I wasn’t paying attention to anything but getting the hover back. I chuckled at the time, but on the way home in the car, I was reviewing what we’d done in my head and spontaneously burst out laughing thinking of that moment.

So, although this particularly 360/480′ turn was horrendous, there were some that were more controlled, I’m pleased to say, but FAR from graceful. But, I was pleased with my performance given the wind.

So, after about 4 or 5 circuits, we did 2 autorotations. They were both just about me getting into autorotation, not the full thing. EVERY time I do the autorotation, I can get us into autorotation fine, but EVERY time, I say I will try and stop the rotor from overspeeding, but for some reason, Steve does that bit before I get chance. Will have to ask him about this. One of the autorotations was to a powered recovery at about 300′. The other was a powered recovery at about 5 feet, which Steve did.

Once done, another less than graceful 360′ turn and then I flew us ALL the way back, down runway 25, lovely transition to a hover and then hover taxi’ed us back AND landed but NOT by the fuel bowser like the last time and I’m more than happy with that, given the winds.

All good.

Steve got out of the helicopter as soon as it landed and left me to shut it down. I really appreciate the trust this shows.

Once back, debrief and then we sat for about 90 minutes listening to one of the helicopter engineers tell us all about which are the best helis from a service perspective – very interesting. Schweizer 300′s sounds like they should be avoided from a cost point of view. Very interesting.

2200 hour service on a Robinson R22 (if you send it back to the USA to get it done) is about £60k, but it effectively comes back a new helicopter. Interesting stuff.

In summary, a very enjoyable lesson. The weird thing is, I probably didn’t “learn” a lot, but the experience was invaluable.

Next lesson booked for tomorrow, 9.30am.

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Lesson 11 – 12th June 2009 – 12.15pm – 1hr 20mins – Total so far – 11hours 21 min

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Well, first off, the Aviation Law exam. The first few questions were all about the Chicago Convention, and the very kind of questions I was dreading. So, not the best start, but after that, they were more practical and I enjoyed it. Well, perhaps “enjoy” is a little strong !

Anyway, 88.5% with a pass mark of 75%, so I am a happy bunny.

One of the examiners said something which made me think that my theory tests from when I had the PPL(A) (25 years ago), might still be valid and I needn’t have resit the exam. I was pleased on the one hand, ‘cos it meant I wouldn’t have to resit all the exams, but on the other hand, I learned so much by resitting this exam.

I rang the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on my return home, and I DO need to retake them ‘cos it’s been 10 years where I haven’t been current. So, strangely pleased at that AND disappointed.

After the exam, it was Lesson 11. Today was going to be more circuit work. It went brilliantly 90% of the time ;-) And with a cracking ending !!

Steve booked us out and told me that it was going to be a different model of Robinson R22. It was the HP model.

dp :- “High Performance ?”

Not quite !

It was a model which had less weight and less endurance. 20 gallon tank, compared to 30 (over 2 tanks). It also had the battery at the front of the helicopter. What difference does all that make ?

Quite a lot actually. The CoG is farther forward and as I found when I took off, It lifts off the back of the skids first and the front of the skids are the last thing to lift off. This affects takeoffs AND landings as I found out. It felt like we were doing 2 landings for every 1 real landing. Land the front skids, then the rear and then stop it leaning back. Very strange, but nice helicopter with little else different. This helicopter belonged to a pilot member at the club and he has an arrangement with the school so they can use it. I think one of this student’s headsets was in the helicopter as I could hear everything very clearly !!

Favourite Lesson so far. Hope that’s not going to be my new catchphrase !

So, Steve showed me the slightly different checks for this model. Without the extra fuel tank, I had a lot more visibility of the rotor gearbox and other bits’n'bobs. Once checks were complete. Steve left me to do all the checks and start her up.

I got the ATIS, called for startup. All going fine so far. But, I missed a critical step out of the checklist. Now, previously, I have been using a checklist on my phone where you tick when you’ve done them and I never missed a thing, but it’s a bit of a fart-on to get the phone out, secure it on the kneepad etc etc…. So, I had reverted to a paper one, but I kept losing my place.

Anyway, when it came to starting her up, she wouldn’t start, she’d tick over, sound like she was starting and then immediately conk out.  I can sense people reading this, shouting what I’d missed ! Yes, You’re right !!!

I hadn’t set the mixture to rich, so there was no fuel. And strangely, engines need fuel !

Steve gave a wry smile !

So, with Steve’s help, I took off. He came straight on the controls when it was getting light, as he knew this model lurched forward ‘cos of the CoG, but once he’d stablised the hover, it was all me. :-) Love it.

I hover taxi’ed to Holding Point F, called for departure. We were told to hold position pending a taxi’ing light a/c. And all this time, I am successfully hovering. This still amazes me ! Can’t believe I’ve cracked it given where I was 5 hours ago !!

Then we were given takeoff clearance and I transitioned it directly from the holding point straight across the runway and we were on our way north of Morpeth.

I made all the R/T calls. I misheard one thing, but steve kept me right.

And then we went to the plateau (next to a quarry) and I took us down, transitioned to the hover, and then we basically did circuit after circuit. Now, we’re not allowed to land away from a licensed aerodrome, so when I say we landed, I mean we got to a couple of feet above the ground (stationary) before taking off again. More circuits with some landings and takeoffs. And they all went great !! I was in total control.

Steve then picked a spot that I had to land on, and again then went fine.

After about circuit number 6 or 7, my concentration was going. I’d been up since 5.20am revising and I was a bit knackered. Steve (excellent instructor he is) sensed this and asked me if I was ok. Told him I was flagging and his response :-

Steve :- Take me home James.

Here comes the best bit. I flew us ALL the way home. Did all the R/T, transitioned onto the runway adjacent to the taxiway to the flying school and here’s the best bit………….

Hover-taxi’ed us back AND landed. Now, it gets better !!

The flying school has a fuel bowser, and 50 metres from the fuel bowser was another helicopter. I asked steve where he wanted it, thinking he would say miles from the bowser, but he said :-

Steve :- Put it between the bowser and the helicopter

And what finished the day off beautifully, was I did it and it was my best landing of the day !!

Awesome. Still on a high about it.

So, good day. 1 of 7 exams out of the way. Now to (re)learn Meteorology ready for a test next week. Thankfully weather is a topic I’m really interested in, so this should be easier.

I think I’ll be solo next trip. Think it would have been today, were it not for the medical, but that’s on Sunday.

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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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