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Calling it a day

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Well, I think it’s dawned on me that I don’t want to continue on the road to Commercial Helicopter Pilot. I’ve lost the mojo for it all. I love flying helicopters, but I’ve come to realise I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve, which is to be able to fly a helicopter. Another life experience in the bank and one I’m very grateful I’ve done. Big thanks to Steve and Scott at Northumbria Helicopters for putting up with me. It was a privilege and an honour to fly with you both. You’re very brave !!

Onwards and Upwards for me, or “Onwards and Downwards” – Skydiving is my next pursuit. :-)

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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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Fantastic Day’s Flying – Solo Qualifying Cross Country completed

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Flight 37 – 8th October 2009 – 1210 – 42 minutes – Total so far – 38 hours 4 mins
Flight 38 – 8th October 2009 – 1335 – 1 hour 6 minutes – Total so far – 39 hours 10 mins
Flight 39 – 8th October 2009 – 1530 – 36 minutes – Total so far – 39 hours 40 mins

I had a lesson booked for 12.30pm today, but when I looked at the weather forecast, it was crying out to complete the solo qualifying cross country I have to do as part of the PPL(H).

When I did my PPL(A) 20+ years ago, I remember waiting MONTHS to get the weather fit for these solo flights, so I rang Scott to see if it would be possible and he rang back after checking the weather and it was GO GO GO !!!

I was in the flying school for 9.30am to plan the routes. Scott advised me the route to take and left me to work out all the headings/speeds/timings given the 290/20 spot winds at 2000′.

The legs involved were Newcastle to Durham Tees, Durham Tees to Carlisle and then Carlisle back to Newcastle. Weather was CAVOK with occasional FEW at 3000 feet.

I filmed all 3 flights and got ATC recorded for two of them (cocked up the first one), so hopefully I’ll sort the video tomorrow and get that posted to the interweb.

After planning the legs, Scott had a big checklist to go through which left me feeling very prepared for the whole flight.

He offered me a choice of aircraft. G-MAVI (old faithful) or G-DOGI (new helicopter). I opted for G-MAVI because I’m more familiar with it.

We filled her to the top with fuel and pushed her 1/2 a mile from the bowser (it felt like 1/2 mile) to Papa West helipad. I rang Carlisle and Durham Tees to get PPR (prior permission required), Scott booked me out and I was ready to go after checking her over.

It took me 10 minutes to get all the kit setup and get the flight in my head. Runway 25, LEFT hand turnout (for a change), flying over Newcastle City Centre, the Tyne Bridge, aiming for Testos roundabout. Unfortunately the GPS was unserviceable. I was half pleased about that as it’s a truer test of navigation, but it would have been nice to have it from a peace of mind perspective. Ironically, it actually came back to life for the last 8 miles of the 135 mile trip. Great !!! ;-)

I found the first leg the hardest. It’s a leg I’ve not flown before, and my heading didn’t take me to Testos roundabout, but to the Nissan Car Factory (near Sunderland). It didn’t matter, I knew where I was. I managed to find 3 or 4 indicators to show exactly where I was and in no time I was above Sedgefield racecourse. The R/T side of things took me from Newcastle Tower to Newcastle Radar, to Durham Radar and then Durham Tower. No problems at all with the R/T on this leg.

I was given a landing clearance at Durham Tees Airport to land north of the runway and at the same time, another aircraft was landing on the main runway 200 yards from me, which was fun :-)

I was asked to park at Stand 9, and as I approached Stand 9, they asked me to reposition to the very corner of Stand 9 as another a/c was coming in. Fine by me :-)

As I shut down the helicopter, a van came to pick me up and take me to the Tower. I went up and took this photo……You can just see G-MAVI in the background.

egnvfromtower

Here’s the view from G-MAVI….

egnvtowerfrommavi

On the solo qualifying cross country, the air traffic controller grades your airmanship and your landing. The results of the Durham ATC controller was …….

Airmanship :- Good
Landing :- Good

Wahey !

I was happy with that. I would have graded my first landing as an 8/10 and the approach was very good for my first landing at Durham Tees. I was well pleased (SO FAR!).

After a trip to the tower, the lady drove me to the passenger terminal where I paid the landing fee (£29). Ouch!

She then took me back to the helicopter and it was time for the next (and longest) leg of the trip. Scott had told me that this was the hardest leg from a navigation perspective, but because it was flying over the Durham area (where i live), it was the easiest for me. I’d tipped Karen (wife) off that I’d be flying over the house and I could see her waving from the front.

At Carlisle, things didn’t go quite so well. There was a LOT of fast jet activity around Spadeadam, so I stayed high (3000 feet). About 20 miles from Carlisle, I came down to 2000′. I kept Tower informed at all times about my position and altitude. When I got to about 15 miles out, I was asked to stay north of the 25 centreline as both circuits were in operation and I would be landing on the 19 threshold. I did just that , but for some reason I didn’t  come down to circuit height (1000′) until about 2 miles out. So when I called in that I was 5 miles away at 2000 feet, they asked me to descend to NOT ABOVE 500 feet. Fine by me. I pretty much auto-rotated down to 500 feet, not wanting to conflict with the circuit traffic. All fine so far. The 19 threshold transition was spot on and I was asked to taxi to 1B, which I did. All hunky dorey (or so I thought).

Here’s MAVI with the control tower in the background…….

egnctowerfrommavi

When I walked in to get my grading, the Air Traffic controller wanted to speak to me on the phone. GULP. He said I should have joined the circuit at 1000 feet and not 2000 feet. He was right of course. I apologised and explained why I’d done what I had done, but acknowledged that I SHOULD have joined at 1000 feet. I’m really not too sure why I stayed high for so long. I think I had a mental picture of a very busy Carlisle (which it was), with both right-hand and left-hand circuits in operation and in my head I was staying clear of it. Dumb really, because I have to get to the ground to land, but it was my bad and I’ve been kicking myself since yesterday about it.

This time, the Carlisle scores………

Airmanship :- Satisfactory
Landing :- Satisfactory

Well, I’m not very happy with that, but it’s enough for a pass. The landing was actually good (7/10), but I think I’d ticked him off. He WAS right about the airmanship score, that’s my bad !!

Anyway…..time for a bacon buttie and a cup of coffee. Whilst I was ordering my refreshments, I noticed that Prince Harry had flown in a few days earlier (probably in an RAF helicopter) and had signed the guest book…….

Here’s the picture of him in the guest book with the cafe ladies :-)

princeharry

The last leg from Carlisle to Newcastle went very fast, because of the 20 knot tailwind. It’s a leg I’ve flown a few times and the one time I didn’t need the GPS, it sprang back to life. Sod’s Law !

As I approached Newcastle, they were changing the runways from 25 to 07 and I was told to expect 07. The wind was coming directly from the north, so it was a cross-wind landing. I tried to get as much a northerly direction on my approach to minimise the cross-wind element. But, although it felt right, I wasn’t sure if there’s a certain way I should have approached, so I’ll need to check this with Scott next time.

All in all, a great day’s flying with a dp cockup which is still bugging me. I have to accept that I will make mistakes, but it bugs me that this was such a basic one. Heigh Ho !

Onwards and upwards.

Here’s MAVI back at Papa East Helipad at Newcastle…..
egnt_backatpapaeast

Video to follow when done (hopefully today, but not sure how to combine ATC comms with video clips at the moment).

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Lesson 35 – 28th September 2009 – 1110 – 1 hour – Total so far – 36 hours 28 mins

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Didn’t expect to be flying today, but I managed to get a lesson in.

The weather looked bad for lunchtime and afternoon, but Steve rang and said we could fit one in, in the morning. And we did ! Quite a challenging and fun lesson.

Order of the Day was :-

  • some VOR work
  • Autos to Powered Termination at 5 feet
  • 180′ Autos
  • Confined Area Practice

When I went out to check G-MAVI over, the windsock was limp. Surface Wind = Variable, less than 3 knots. Boy, would that change !!!!

The Lightspeed Zulu headset is really paying dividends these days. Today was a good example of it being worth the money. I heard everything that was said, not needing to ask Steve “what did they say ?” at any point.

So, 25 departure, right turn to Morpeth. The winds may have been calm on the surface, but it was like riding a bucking bronco at 1000 feet. I normally like to go upto 2300′, but the cloud prevented us going higher than about 1500′. At times we skirted the cloud, which is so much fun !!

With VORs, what you’re supposed to do is to TIT.

T une
I dentify
T rack

Once past Morpeth, Steve Tuned the VOR to St Abbs VOR, and we tried to listen to the morse code to Identify it was St Abbs and then we tracked some radial. This went fine. Conveniently, this led us to the plateau where we did a 180′ auto to a powered termination at 5 feet. By this time, the wind had really picked up. Over the plateau, it was showing as 20 to 30 knots, which makes for a much easier ending to an autorotation. It’s the first auto I’ve done which felt good – NOT perfect, but it felt good. We’d have been alive at the end of it, for sure, although Steve may have chipped one of his nails ;-)    Would the helicopter have been ok, well, not too sure about that ?! 50/50 !

I felt I did the entering fine, the throttle fine, maintaining rotor rpm fine, hitting the spot fine, the flare went really well, AND the pop too. The only negative is once I’d done the final flare and POP (of the collective), I didn’t push the cyclic enough forward to get us level for the final (cushion to the ground). In hindsight, I think this is because I know we’re not going to land, so I’m doing it with a view to ending in a hover. But I need to do the steps as if we were going to do the final level and cushion that we would do if the engine quit for real. Will work on this next time.

With that done, we did a very entertaining 360′ turn. The wind doesn’t half make it hard !!!  Steve spotted some fast jets in the distance. My mind was too much on the 360′ turn to see ANYTHING. We did another 360 and I could see them this time.

With them in sight, we headed off to do some confined area approaches. We did two, each to a different confined area. They went fine, although the surface wind was no quite turbulent, so it made for quite challenging moving around the confined areas once down.

With the confined areas complete, we headed back with a view to doing some more autos on the way back. Not one of the autos did I remember to do the fake Mayday call. It’s not that I forgot, more that I was concentrating on the actual flying of the autos. Will try and get the Maydays in next time.

These remaining autos were to a 500 feet recovery. We did two max range ones. That’s where we take rotor rpm to 90% (gulp) and maintain 75 knots. Slight change to the recovery in that Steve said to lower the collective, do a little flare to bring rotor rpm back up and then power away. Worked ok I think.

With all of that behind us, we side stepped back to the field and we rode the horse as it jostled us around the sky. It really was quite a ride. :-) We were asked to do some orbits to allow Tower to get some flights away and 1 flight in. Here is a gps track of the whole flight and you can see the 2 orbits on the right hand side (just to the North west of Seaton Burn (bottom right). These were 2 turns in the air, but you can really see how the wind made them 2 turns in totally different spots. Shows the wind direction quite well.

Screen shot 2009-09-28 at 15.11.10

Once the last flight was in, we headed closer to the field and did another orbit waiting for a departure and then we were given our cue.

The windsock, that was previously limp, was now horizontal and the wind was nicely down the centre of the runway (very kind of it), so it took about a minute (or two) to fly from one end of the runway to the end !!

The taxi’ing back from the runway to the parking spot was a riot !!!!  You’d think I’d been drinking (it should be on the video !). It was like the helicopter had a mind of its own. But, Steve let me take it all the way back in and the landing wasn’t bad considering. 7/10, better than some of the ones I’ve done with NO wind (and they’re easier).

Great lesson. Felt like a lot of stuff really came together.

There may be a chance on Thursday of a cheap lesson as we pick up a brand new helicopter (for the school) from somewhere near Stratford and bring it up. Fingers crossed for that. Be nice to see a different part of the UK (from the air).

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Lesson 31 – 15th September 2009 – 1005 – 1 hour – Total so far – 33 hours 22 mins

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Another great lesson today.

We started with a discussion about what to do. It was clear I need to get my solo hours up as I’ve only got about 2.25. The prospect of going to X and back without landing didn’t really appeal to me, so I suggested a trip to Carlisle and back to land away and Steve said that was ok. Sadly, the weather precluded the trip, but it’s an exciting thought for the future :-)

Instead we did some more instrument work (I need to get instrument hours up too) and some confined area landings which made out for an excellent and fun lesson.

Steve came out with me today to see how I was checking her over. That was good because it was some reassurance that I was doing 90% correct, but also reaffirmed and refreshed some of the names of helicopter parts and their function and things to check. I was quite surprised to find out that this isn’t tested in the General Flying Test (GFT). But, I expect it’ll be needed for the commercial test, so all is not lost and this is essential stuff anyway.

We started her up and we’re off to Foxtrot to hold for a 07 departure. Quite busy for departures so we held in the light aircraft warm-up area. Here I was presented with the choice of hover practice or putting her down. I felt the need for some landing practice, so whilst we waited, we did some landing/liftoff combos, probably about 3 or 4. I did a 10/10 one which always leaves me feeling warm inside, and a couple of 6/7′s. We were then asked to line up and wait.

No sooner had we “lined up” we were given the go and off we jolly well..….

Once at level flight, Steve had me don the instrument goggles so I could only see the instrument pedestal. He asked me to …..

  • Hold a heading
  • Climb 300 feet
  • Descend 300 feet
  • Turn 90′ to the left
  • Turn 90′ to the right
  • Do a 180′ descending turn

All on the way to the confined area.

It all went well.

Then we approached a different, more confined area than previously.

The wind was a Northerly wind, but the area was naturally west-east, which meant it was a bit of a challenge. The wind was also quite light about 5 knots, so given the direction that was probably a plus.

We did the powering back to 53knots level to find the available MAP. We had 6.5 in hand. This reminds me, before I forget, a joke from yesterday. We had the same amount of MAP available yesterday (6.5 inches).

Steve :- So, you have 6.5 inches in your hand, I mean “in hand”

LONG 5 SECOND PAUSE as dp is concentrating so hard.

The joke hits. Late laughter ensues !

Steve finds the time it took for the joke to work funny. I’m laughing at the joke etc etc…..We have a laugh for sure !

Anyway, back to today. After doing the S’s checks and with our 6.5 inches IN HAND, we were spoilt for choice for the approaches. We initially tried a west to east approach to make the most of a gap in the trees and the more lengthy runway-like shape of the confined area, but at the decision altitude, it didn’t feel right so I suggested going around. The wind was more northerly than forecast.

With the wind being so light, Steve suggested a southerly approach as there were less trees on the last few yards of the approach. This made it a downwind approach which always gets my heckles up, but Steve (as always) was bang on. The lack of trees (small shrubs instead) allowed us to get lower and use the confined area for more of a flare. It worked well.

So, once in the confined area in the hover, we did the “move to the right, turn right” routine and then taxi’ed to a point close to the edge of the area. We had enough power for a towering takeoff and Steve had me pick a 12pm, 3pm reference. Once I had them, we pulled 24.5 MAP and we shot up. Once clear of the trees, we transitioned away. It should look great on the video.

We did another orbit and approach and picked a different location in the confined area for the towering takeoff. For the second one, I started the transition a little early, but you live and learn.

We then headed back to EGNT. Steve did an “Engine Failure Engine Failure etc” on the way back. Did the “entering” fine, totally forgot the Mayday call which come to think of it, I forgot yesterday too. It was a 180′ auto, and the field I picked wasn’t as good as the one Steve had picked, so we changed to his one. It was a big field of newly harvested wheat awaiting the farmer to come round with his combine.  Steve said to go to “powered termination” so we went right down to 5 feet or so. The flare went really well and the pop of the collective and subsequent recovery are a bit of a blur, but there was a lot of yawing, but we made it back into a hover. Still need lots of work on the powered termination and the Mayday call. But, I’ll get there. Steve looked back as we transitioned off and said we’d made a mess of all the nicely rowed hay and that the farmer wouldn’t be best pleased and we should give it some wellie. It made me laugh. We had made a big circle of hay. Hope it shows on the video.

We then headed back home.

I made the call to rejoin the Zone quite late (my bad), so we started doing an orbit as there was so much radio chatter going on, I couldn’t get a word in edge ways. But, half way through the orbit, we were cleared to join.

The trip back was uneventful. The landing was a 6/10.

Next lesson is Friday and I may be going solo to Carlisle (weather and machines permitting). Looking forward to the most expensive bacon buttie you can buy. That’s not because the cafe is expensive at Carlisle….It’s a poor helicopter costs joke.

While I remember, I’m already starting to put my training head on. When I used to be an IT trainer, I used to have to think of ways to get concepts across to students in an easy to visualize/remember way. Subconsciously, I’m already starting to think about how to get helicopter concepts across. I’m sharing this in case it will help others with a problem I had. Occasionally, we fly in the HP model of the R22. It lifts off and lands differently to the non-HP variant because of it’s more forward CoG. I was sharing this with Steve as it helped me get my head around the difference. To experience the difference, try the following…..

  • Take your shoes off and put them together in front of you while you sit down, toes facing away.
  • Grab both shoes with one hand in such a way that when you lift them gently and slowly off the floor, the toes of the shoes are the last thing to leave the floor.
  • You now have your own R22 HP.

As you lift them off the floor each time, analyse the angle of the shoes.  When the heels are 1 inch off the ground and the toes still touching, how would you get the shoes level again, what movement of your hand (cyclic stick) would be needed to get the (shoes) heli level.

Also, you can mirror the double landing of the R22 HP. Lower the shoes until the toes are touching, think about what movements are needed as you get the heels down, to stop the helicopter moving backwards. Hard to explain in a blog post, but have a play.

Here’s the video from yesterday’s confined area…….Today’s will be tomorrow.

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Lesson 30 – 11th September 2009 – 1134 – 1 hour 6 minutes – Total so far – 31 hours 22 mins

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Yesterday, after the lesson with Steve I was confident that I could have done another lesson had I booked it. I was refreshed and ready to fly more.

So today, I had booked 2 lessons but I was so exhausted after one, that I called it a day. Why ? Because we did Confined Area Landings, and I found it VERY mentally draining.

Today’s lesson was with Scott. I normally fly with Steve. Scott and Steve have quite different training styles. Steve’s cool, calm (and fun) approach gets the best flying out of me (Yes Steve, that’s my best ! ;-) . Scott’s full-on approach is more challenging and although I probably learn more, I get flustered and don’t fly at my best, but I do enjoy the challenge immensely.

So, today’s lesson and another beautiful day for it. Hardly any wind at EGNT. Scott was there as I did the pre-startup,post-start checks. I was doing his checklist flow, but forgot about switching the radio off before starting. A good habit to get into in case I fly an older model where the starting current can blow the radio.

For some reason, Tower had a problem hearing me. We weren’t sure if it was my headset or Tower was doing something else when I called for clearance. Later transmissions seemed to be heard fine. Although, Scott had problems hearing me. Will need to keep an eye on that. Or probably better to keep an ear on it !! I think we sorted it later by me pushing my volume up, but it’s a bit of a blur.

We taxi’ed to Foxtrot and were asked to Line up and Wait on 25. That’s a first for me in a helicopter.

No sooner had we got in position than we were given the “GO”. Once we were on the climb after the initial turnout, it was instrument time. We’d forgot the goggles, but to be honest it didn’t make any perceivable difference. Once you focus solely on the instruments, the scanning you need to do stops you looking out anyway. The only downside is you don’t know how much your peripheral vision is helping you out, but I didn’t feel like it was helping much.

So, we did climbs, turns by instruments and they went fine. I think I stayed within 100 feet of any altitude and the headings were +/- 15′, so I was happy with that. At this point, I was feeling in control of everything and on top form mentally.

As the flight progressed, the headset problems left Scott a bit frustrated. I was struggling to hear him over the radio banter. I think I needed to tweak some headset knob, but we were too engrossed to bottom it out, or at least I was. His frustration with my headset, started getting me on edge and my performance started to wane a little.

Once we’d done the instrument flying, we concentrated on Confined Area Landings. Scott had done an excellent and extremely thorough briefing before we even took off and I felt full with information, overflowing even. But, often, things are easier when you actually do them.

So, confined area landing as far as I can remember, involved a recce circuit to work out angles of approach the confined area, and possible departure angles. Then a lower circuit (approx. 1,000 feet) to look for any obstructions etc..….

Then an approach with an abort decision altitude to attempt a landing, but with a decision to abort if anything untoward is spotted.

On one of the downwind legs, we rolled back to 53 knots, maintaining level flight and recorded the power required, which I think was 17.5 MAP. Take that away from 23.5 MAP (max continuous for today), gave us 6inches MAP to play with. Ample for a confined area approach. The first attempt, I had misunderstood and thought we were going to go around, so I was too high to get in, which is what Scott wanted. With me now understanding we were going all the way in to a 5 foot hover, we did a tight circuit for a second attempt.

It felt quite a shallow approach given the steep approaches I did with Steve yesterday. My understanding after yesterday’s lesson was that it was a steep approach, but Scott had me come in quite shallow. But, we made it this time, although I did lose balance which nearly required Scott’s intervention. He was at full alert for a second before I got it under control. Not even sure why it got out of balance. Weird. I was pulling collective, which normally requires left pedal, but I had needed to give right. Bizarre !

Anyway, we came to the hover in this kind of dip in a hill and we had raised ground all around us. It was great. We then did some pedal turns, but cleverly, he had me move the helicopter to the right, before giving right pedal. In this way, we’re sure that the tail rotor isn’t going to hit anything as we’ve just come from the place the tail rotor is going to turn through. Then when we’ve done 90′ turn, we rinse and repeat until we’ve scanned the whole area. It worked a treat and the tail rotor didn’t hit anything ;-)

With the area now clear for departure, we needed to work out how much power we had available. I think we were showing 23.5 to to hover in ground effect (IGE), leaving only 1inch of MAP to spare, so we ideally needed to do an on-the-skids takeoff. But as we hadn’t landed, this wasn’t possible, so we had to do an IGE transition. It worked a treat and we headed back to Newcastle :-)

On the way back, we had a nice view of a Tornado streaking past. Hopefully, I caught it on video. Will check tomorrow if I get time. Steve was with his student at the plateau at the same time we were there and both helicopters were flying back at the same time. And I think Steve’s student had the better view of the Tornado, which isn’t necessarily a good thing ! ;-)

We followed Steve’s helicopter back and although it wasn’t quite a formation landing, we were only half a mile behind them on Base Leg and down the runway which was neat.

We taxi’ed back and then I did a shitty landing, rating of 4/10 on the dp landing scale. There was sideway’s movement at the just wrong moment, so I had to lower the collective to plant us on firmly, avoiding Dynamic Rollover.

All in all, a hectic, very taxing, but thoroughly enjoyable experience. I’ll need much more practice at these, but Scott was very complimentary about the first attempt, which was well received. I always think I’m doing worse than I am. I think it’s because I’m not flying my best with Scott generally. I haven’t done a good landing with him yet !

I’m writing this and sense myself being far too self-critical, but that’s me. It’s the way I improve I think by critiquing myself harshly. Always nice to be told that it’s gone well though.

Lesson booked for everyday next week apart from Thursday.

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Lesson 29 – 10th September 2009 – 1125 – 1 hour 6 minutes – Total so far – 30 hours 16 mins

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The whole of the UK enjoyed a magnificent day of September sunshine today due to a massive high pressure system. It was gorgeous for flying. As smooth as a mill pond !

The order of the day was mainly instrument flying. It’s an area I feel quite comfortable with, probably due to my fixed wing days.

So, slightly different start to the flight as Steve accompanied me out so I could test my headset in various different helicopters and different radio/helicopter headset combos. It worked swimmingly in each. With that complete, he headed in and I did the startup checks.

The Lightspeed Zulu headset felt great on, a real comfy fit and when ANR is switched on, a lovely calm settles in your ears, quite an eery silence. Even with the rotors turning, it was a huge improvement on a school headset.

Usual startup done, the headset had their first real test. Normally, I am straining so much to hear what’s being said, that there is a sense of slight panic as I try and catch every word Tower is saying to me. Today, I could hear them so clearly, I could actually _listen_ to what they are saying even if it was different to what I was expecting. And that happened..…

I had got the QNH from the ATIS, and it was a very high 1038mb. When Tower gave it me with the taxi clearance, they gave it me as 1033mb. Now, normally, I would just be so grateful to have understood what they said that I would have repeated it back to them. But today, I had the wherewithal to ask them to confirm the QNH was 1033mb. They corrected the QNH to 1038mb and I was chuffed that the painful purchase was already paying dividends.

As Steve did his final walkaround under the fast-spinning rotor, I did the final “Low RPM Horn” checks and we were ready for off once he’d took his seat.

Steve wanted me to do all the checks once in the hover (lights out, temps etc in the green) and then record “power required to hover” and state “CoG and Controls feel fine”. I did that. Before I even took off, he checked I knew the maximum Manifold Pressure we could tax the engine to. It was 24.5 for 5 minutes, because of the high pressure system.

Short Taxi to Foxtrot with Steve now onboard. The hover lift was fine, and so it should have been with the Surface Wind less than 5kts. Today, I had decided I was going to do things more by the book. Hold altitudes, follow taxi lines etc etc…. Normally, I don’t tax myself too much and enjoy the moment. But, as I found today, I can do both.

For the first time, once we were cleared for takeoff, I didn’t skip the corner (over the grass) as I normally do, we did a precision transition, akin to fast taxi following the taxiway line (ish), turn into wind and off we went. It was so smooth today. Today’s are the kind of days you don’t want to come down.

At 500 feet, I had Scott’s FREDATT (Fuel, Radion, Engine, Direction, Altimeter, Trim & Transponder) checks running in my ears, so I did them.  And then off we flew to the North. Initially 2300ft but once out of the zone, it was instrument time. We first did a couple of turns (180 degree at 15′ rate). They went fine, and then it was time to put the goggles on. They are goggles that allow you only to see the instruments and a bit of land either side of the instrument pedestal, but nothing that would help you fly. I suppose if you see blue sky either side of the pedestal column, it’s a clue to commence panicking.

I had to remove my headset to put the goggles on – WHAT A RACKET !!!!! I’ve never removed any headset before in a helicopter, and blimey, you can tell why you need them. So with the goggles (and headset) on, Steve gave instructions. First off a 180′ turn to the right (15′ rate), whilst maintaining the current height. And then same in the other direction. They went fine.

Then we did a climbing 180′ turn and a descending 180′ turn. Again, they went fine, although I did notice they were getting sloppier and I could sense I was losing concentration. But, they were safe.

We ended up at about 3200 feet and Steve suggested we leave it there as he didn’t foresee any difficulties with instruments and for us to do some autos, but first he suggested going upto 4000 feet to see what it looks like from that altitude.  Off we jolly well went to 4000 feet and WOW !!!!!! There were a few clouds about and we were above them. That’s a first for me in a helicopter.  It felt awesome. I suggested to Steve that we land on one as they were nice firmly shaped puffy ones, but he didn’t seem keen. :-)

Once past the clouds, we did a 180′ autorotation with me doing the throttle again. They still feel so new to me (autos). Whereas it doesn’t tax me much to fly the helicopter generally, even to hover now is RELATIVELY stress free, but autos seem to need 100% cpu cycles. So, HASEL checks then collective down and roll off the throttle. I rolled it off, but they crept back on because I hadn’t rolled off enough and the governor was kicking in. But, eventually I got it to a steady 70-75% rpm. We were nicely in autorotation, now the turn. Whilst the turn was under way I called the fake mayday. I seemed to get everything out. Pretend to turn the fuel off, the magnetos, the master switch after first pushing the ident button and we were down to picking a field to land in. With that picked, we came out of the auto at about 1000 feet and proceeded to the plateau. Just as I write this, I have remembered that I forgot to “check above” (for the climb away) which is the last thing I’m supposed to do in an auto. I did remember cancelling carb heat. Note to self!

So, once at the plateau we practiced a steep approach. 30 knots indicated and a steep angle of approach. I was aiming for a certain point, but overshot it by about 50 yards, but I’m good with that. It was good practice keeping 30 knots and the high angle of approach. Apparently, these skills will be used shortly for Confined Area Landings shortly.

Once in the hover at the plateau we did a hover taxi back along the plateau, a 180′ yaw and then we did a practice quickstop. That went ok. It was then time to head back to the airport.

An uneventful trip back (we like them) and a chance to catch up with a bit of chatting. We were asked to report overhead Stannington, which I did, and then to report base leg. A bit farther on and before I had chance to report base leg, Tower advised us we were number 1 to land, to report finals and be aware of an Easyjet who was entering the zone from the south and who would be coming in behind us.  So we kept on the speed (about 90kts). I said to Steve, it would have been better if they’d let us join midway.

Steve :- Ask them Dave. Say “Northumbria01 request midjoin”
dp :- Tower, Northumbria01 request midjoin

And we got it, which basically meant we didn’t have to cross the numbers at the bottom of the runway,and we could cut the corner and “land” midway up the runway. We did that and transitioned to a taxi just before Foxtrot and then taxi in. We didn’t even get chance to fully vacate before Tower was granting the Easyjet landing clearance.  All good though !

The landing was ok. It wasn’t a dp spesh i.e. up and down 10 times, but neither was it a 10/10 like I have done before. It was an 8/10 in my book. I went down to land and sensed sideways movement and then pulled up and went down again for a toe landing. It felt like the front skids touched down first and then the rest gently touched down after that. It felt very safe and I was pleased.

So, great lesson. Days like today are meant for flying. I would have had another lesson, but they were fully booked. I’ve turned my single lesson tomorrow into a double. Already looking forward to it !!!

Video to follow

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Nearly got to fly

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Went to EGNT and waited, and waited……

But it was too gusty.

But, worth the trip in, as Steve ran through some things with me. Also loads of good helicopter crack.

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Saturday 22nd August 2009

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Lesson 24 – 22nd August 2009 – 1045 – 54 minutes – Total so far – 26 hours 8 mins
Lesson 25 – 22nd August 2009 – 1630 – 32 minutes – Total so far – 26 hours 40 mins
Lesson 26 – 22nd August 2009 – 1820 – 24 minutes – Total so far – 27 hours 4 mins

The opportunity for some cheap flying presented itself today. Steve had suggested coming to Carlisle with him as he had to take the helicopter there anyway for some trial lessons. Because the helicopter had to go there anyway, I would get the trip at cost and as I would be flying the hours would count towards the Commercial Pilot’s licence. My kind of deal. :-)

Early start. I’d had a bad night’s sleep and wasn’t as bright and bushy tailed as I would have liked, but normally when I start focussing on piloting a heli, it all comes together and to a great extent it did today, but there were also moments where my lack of concentration made for a cockup and I got a berating from ATC (more detail later). Ironically, the current exam I am studying for is “Human Factors and Pilot Performance”, which is pretty much about the effects of various things (incl. tiredness) on flying. So, talk about living the book !!

G-MAVI (Northumbria01) was the bird of choice today. It needed some oil, so I put a pint or so in. It also needed fuel, so I took the initiative and pushed it to the bowser. I’m sure I’d done this before, but I think this was the first time I’d done it without Steve there to add some welly. Need to work on a technique I think, ‘cos he can do it no bother, and there’s nee meat on Steve.

I did the usual pre-flight, startup checks routine. Steve joined me and we we’re off. Runway 25 today (very much a westerly wind), but I was thrown a bit when they asked us to depart directly north. I had to ask Steve what they’d said. In fact, a lot of today’s R/T on my part has been poor, 95% of it because I can’t make out what they are saying. It’s quite frustrating. I think it’s a combination of the headset quality (school headset) and me not knowing what they’re going to say. I find when I know what they should be saying, I can work it out, but if I have to listen to something new, I get thrown !!! Maybe time to invest in a headset !

We did some instrument flying on the way over there. It’s an area I feel quite comfortable with. To be honest, I do a lot of normal flying with lots of reference to the instruments, so after about 5 minutes of only looking at the instruments, I was happy to say “enough’s enough” and proceed visually.

The flight over there was uneventful. Steve took some photos for me, thanks Steve.

dp + Steve….

dpsteve
River near Hexham…..

riverhex

Spadeadam was closed, so no fast jets to see, sod’s law when I have a camera attached to my head.

As we closed in on Carlisle, the R/T banter increased and again, I really struggled to understand what was said. Here’s my recollection of the conversation that ensued……

Carlisle Tower :- …………..Runway 25……………..19…………Left base…………..

dp :- ?

Now, what I _SHOULD_ do is to ask them to “say again”, but idiot me………….

dp :- Join left base runway 25, Northumbria01.

Steve told me that what they’d said was to “stay north of the centreline for Runway 25, and join left base for Runway 19″.

Needless to say, Carlisle Tower were back on the blower clarifying the instruction. In no time, we were at Carlisle and I hadn’t thought the approach through enough !!  I also had my fixed wing head on, and I was going to do a left-base approach for runway 19 as a fixed wing would do, bearing in mind the winds are westerly, which would have been a crosswind landing !!!!

So, Steve corrected me and explained that we could approach runway 19 but against the wind, so what we should have been doing was ending up over the numbers of Runway 19, but approaching into wind. It didn’t sink in, tiredness being the reason I think :-(

So, although I approached Runway 19 numbers in the right direction, I overshot the approach and ended up in the helicopter practice area that I have been in before.

I can’t remember verbatim what happened next, but it went something like this….

Carlisle Tower :- Northumbria01, you have entered the helicopter practice area and your instructions were to land on Runway 19.
dp :- Sorry, my bad.

Well, I was kicking myself ! :-(

Carlisle Tower :- In future, if you are not going to follow my instructions, please let me know.
dp :- Understood, Affirm, sorry again.

I felt as guilty as sin !! Steve was mildly amused.

So, we were cleared to taxi “to the ‘H’”. So, I taxi’ed us over and then the best bit of the whole day came !!!!!!

I’d been reading up on helicopter principles of flight for the recent exams and something I had read had really helped me learn how to land without farting on up and down for 30 seconds, so here was my first chance to put it into practice.

When a helicopter is close to the ground, you get this cushion of air underneath which gets bigger as you get closer to the ground (effectively). So, in a very slight way, a continual lowering of the collective is required to land in one go. Previously, I had been going down in stages and at each stage trying to maintain the perfect hover. So, I put into practice what I had learned in the book and what resulted was in my opinion the perfect landing. There was no movement in any direction and the vertical speed at touch down was a beautiful kiss. I was so excited, I shouted out “OH BEAUTIFUL !!!” or something like that. It’ll be on the video (tomorrow or later today for the video) it was that loud. Steve was pleased at my joy. It really was spot on. There was only one complaint I have with it, is that it wasn’t on the “H”, it was to one side. Which come to think of it, makes the whole thing not as impressive, but I wasn’t intending to land on the “H” so not too worried about that. I was on a total high after that.

Steve got out while I shut it down. 5 minutes later when it was time to exit the helicopter, it dawned on me that the ATC tower was right next to the “H” and I may be getting stern looks for my earlier antics.

As I exited the helicopter, I gave them a wave and I got a friendly wave back, so I think I’d been forgiven.

Steve then did 3 trial lessons whilst I read “Human Factors and Pilot Performance”. At one point, we had some refreshments in the excellent cafe there. It was then time for Lesson 25.

I started her up and Steve got in, and we had to wait 5 minutes whilst an R44 was refuelling and then a quick hover over to the pumps, another successful landing with my new technique, although not as perfect as previously. Shut down, refuel, restart and we we’re off to Eshott for the fly-in event for “Help for Heroes” charity. This was the first ever time I had flown an a/c without reference to a map, and WITH reference to a GPS. In my previous flying time about 15 years ago, I don’t think GPS systems were as abundant. It makes life so much easier than consulting a map ! So much safer too !

So, with a tailwind, we were there about 20 minutes later. It was _busy_ ! Lots of a/c in the circuit and again I _STILL_ had my fixed wing head on. Steve suggested doing a low, tight circuit
and advising Eshott radio that we would stay clear of the active runway. Of course, it allowed us to get straight-in, nipping to the front of the “queue”. We transitioned into the hover taxi next to the active runway and we then followed another runway to a marshaller who told us where to land. Lots of people watching as I made this landing, which was a bit offputting, but one last turn back into wind, and another BEAUTIFUL landing. This new technique was really paying off !!! And better still, I hadn’t embarassed myself with one of my “up and down for 30 seconds” jobs !!!

Steve got out to make sure noone endangered themself, I shut it down and then we went to sign in. Lots of chatting to fellow pilots ensued.

I took a few photos at Eshott….
Some of the other a/c at Eshott….
eshott1

Here’s where we parked…..

gmavi

Really good to chat to other pilots. Some very interesting stuff. I spoke to one chap who was a microlight owner and he also flew model helicopters. He was thinking about doing a trial lesson and was remarking how he thought he’d find hovering easy because of his time with model helicopters. I couldn’t help think that NOTHING will help you for your first hover practice, but I didn’t have the heart to quash his enthusiasm.

After about 2 hours at Eshott and a stiff coke (we were offered Vodka in it, but we had one more leg to fly, so it wasn’t as stiff as we’d have liked), it was tme to fly back to EGNT. I went to check the heli over, and then a mini airshow started. The heli was right next to the runway, so I was right underneath this very fast biplane type of a/c. He did some great stuff (video to follow).

Once he’d done his thing and flown off, I finished the checks and Steve came out. I started her up and he maintained a vigil on the tail rotor to make sure noone strayed into it. It’s easily damaged ;-)

We then went flew to a very quite/calm Newcastle. So quiet, Steve had chance to have a chat with the ATC chap on duty. I _STILL_ did a fixed wing approach, very shallow glide angle, lots of speed. It’s obviously more inbrained into me than I think. Need to work on that BIG TIME !!

But, it was safe, short taxi and then an “ok” landing at the Bowser. I still employed my new technique, but instead of the straight-down repeat of my last 3 landings, I aborted once, but got it down the second time.

All in all, a good and cheap(ish) day’s flying. Poor approach at Carlisle, BAD TIMES !!  Excellent landing improvements generally, GOOD TIMES !!

An exhausted dp resulted and I only just made it through the night’s tv and food !  No sooner had I hit the pillow, I was fast asleep !!

I’ll do the video asap, but may not be today.

Only one lesson booked for this week (monday), due to busy week with kp. Intend to book a lot more for the following week to maximise British “summer”. :-)

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Revise Revise Revise

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Been doing some working out. If all goes to plan and I am ready for the PPL(H) practical test by 45 hours, I am over half way through the flying side of things. That’s the good news.

The bad news is I am therefore behind on the theory side of things, having sat only 3 of the theory exams out of 7. So, I’ve decided to throttle back on the practical side until I’m evened up. Which is a shame, ‘cos today was perfect flying weather :-( And I’ve been revising Helicopter Technical I think it’s called this week, basically how helicopter’s manage to fly, how the engine works, weights and balance and things like that.

But, I still need my fix, so hopefully tomorrow’s lesson will provide that.

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