turn

...now browsing by tag

 
approach area auto autorotation autos carlisle couple day fingers Flight fly friday headset heli helicopter hover Instructor instrument land Lesson liftoff mavi mayday newcastle Northumbria Performance r22 robinson rpm runway Scott solo Steve takeoff test time today Tower transition trip way weather week wind work
 

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.

Posted in Helicopter Training | No Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lesson 28 – 2nd September 2009 – 1330 – 1 hour 6 minutes – Total so far – 29 hours 10 mins

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Today was Quickstops, Autos, Simulated Engine Failure, Emergency Turns

G-MAVI was getting its 100 hour service, so G-BZBU was the bird of choice (HP variant), aka Northumbria02.

It has a David Clark Headset and was a much better experience on the R/T front than the old school headset in MAVI. I didn’t need Steve’s help with any R/T today, which is a bit of a change.

As per usual, I went out to do the checks and start her up. I used the new checklist that I’d done from the R22 manual after Scott’s comments from the previous lesson. It seemed easier for some reason.

When it came to starting her up, it was clear the starter motor wasn’t engaging and she wouldn’t start. After each attempt, I’d wait a while and try again, but nothing.

I got out and had a look and it looked ok to me, so I tried started it whilst I was outside the a/c and it turned over ?!?!?! Weird !!! I got back in to start it properly.

With Steve in and all the checks done, it was a Runway 25 departure, right turn out to Morpeth. En route to the practice area, we did a couple of autos to a powered recovery at 500feet with me doing throttle and controlling rpm, they went fine :-)

Then we did a steep descent to the plateau, but it was a bit too steep and to keep it safe, I overshot by 30 feet, rather than risk Vortex Ring.

Once in the hover at the plateau, we did 25 minutes of quickstops, precision transitions and clearing turn practice. The winds were quite strong on the plateau so the clearing turns were interesting, but I was pleased with them.

The quicksteps started off being too quick, my bad. But, as Steve said, they should be a gradual steepening nose high attitude to stop quickly (when you’re practicing them anyway). In real life, I expect you’d do them as steep as they need to be to stop before you hit whatever it was that caused you to have to do it in the first place.

By the 4th attempt, I was doing them ok and was happy with them. Between each couple of attempts, we were doing precision transitioning, which is seat-of-the-pants helicopter flying at its best. Whizzing along with a groundspeed of 50/60 knots, whilst being <50 feet above the ground is awesome. I _DID_ take the camera and set it all up, but because of the different headset in this a/c, it didn’t keep the camera angle, so all I have (footage-wise) is a couple of minutes of initial heli checks and then 1 hour PLUS of the ceiling of the helicopter. :-(   Gutted !!!! Because it would have been great footage.

On the way back, Steve surprised me with a simulated engine failure and it was definitely a surprise. But after a few surprise remarks, I pushed it down firmly and the first bit went well. Steve suggested a turn to get to a certain field and it worked out great. The last 5 seconds are full on, because about 50 feet from the ground, there’s a flare, collective, throttle and pedal work. It was over in a flash. I didn’t think I’d done anything at the end, but Steve said I’d done a fair bit, but definitely not the whole thing.

Absolutely bloody gutted that the camera was pointing at the ceiling, ‘cos I’d have learned so much by watching it back !!! And it would have been fun viewing too (for Karen).

Damn and blast it !

That aside, was a great lesson.

Posted in Helicopter Training | No Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lesson 27 – 24th August 2009 – 1450 – 60 minutes – Total so far – 28 hours 4 mins

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Well, my head was buzzing and in overload after this lesson.

It wasn’t so much a lesson, although I did learn stacks, rather a mini trial practical test with the senior instructor (soon to be examiner) Scott.

To say I wasn’t ready for the onslaught that is Scott is probably an understatement. A very different style to Steve, but not in a bad way. Steve had said that I’d benefit from some time with another instructor and as per usual, he was right.

Steve has a very easy going relaxed way. He never comes on the controls these days unless he’s demonstrating a maneuvre and is subtle when I cockup, staring at a button I’d forgot to click, or something along those lines. Scott, on the other hand, was very full on. But, it really challenged me and I liked that. It gave me a new perspective and I certainly learned a lot. There was one downside, I got flustered which translated into what I thought was a poor performance.

I’ll not remember everything that happened in the hour, but I’ll try……

Scott wanted to be there when I started her up. I’m glad about this, because I think I’ve been doing the startup procedures in a bit of a non-standard way. Note to self…..

Consult the Flight Manual to work out how much manifold pressure I can pull continuously and at max, given temperature and pressure altitude.
Before starting, turn the radio off.
After starting and checking starter motor has disengaged, flick all the switches on (incl clutch)
Scott gets the clearance when he’s ready to go, whereas I’d been doing it while waiting for the clutch to fully engage.

So, with the engine started, I lifted off. I don’t think he helped at this point, so that was a good sign. Post liftoff checks were done. All fine so far.

Taxi to Foxtrot ensued, and then I called that we’re ready for departure. Cleared to depart north, I headed off (as I normally do), but Scott later pointed out that I should have done some pre-departure checks. I was too flustered to remember what they were. I’ll have to ask next time.

Normally, I don’t forget trim and transponder at 500ft, but it was 800ft before I remembered. God help me for the real test !!

He suggested FREDATT checks (Fuel, Radio, Engine, Direction, Altitude, Trim and Transponder) at 500 feet, which normally I’ve only been doing approaching the airfield on return.

So, we did them. He asked me what altitude I was going to fly…2300 feet I told him.

Which I kept initially, but I think I lost it later on.

Once out of the zone, we did a set of maneuvres. REAL BASIC STUFF !!! STUFF I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO WITHOUT A PROBLEM. First off, was a turn. 15′ degree rate of turn in one direction through 360′. Well, I gained or lost (can’t remember) 200 feet during the turn. Come on David, get a grip !!!

Scott explained a few things and then I did the same turn but in the other direction. This time, it was much better, but there could have been less error.

Oh, before I forget !! I had been using the slip ball for seeing if we were in balance or not. Scott explained that it doesn’t work !!! And it’s not a problem with the helicopter, it’s because the heli is set to show balanced when on the ground, but an R22 flies left skid low, so it doesn’t read correctly in flight !! So, I need to get used to using the string on the bubble. Note to self…..

Pedal to the window with no string in !!!!

So, of course, that threw me completely, because all this time I’d been using the balance ball thing. In fact, in hindsight, that was the thing that probably made me flustered for the whole thing, because all my flying was requiring this new skill of “watching the string” ! ;-)

We then did some climbs and descents. For the climbs, I went over the manifold pressure I should have a few times, until I understood that I shouldn’t go over 23. For all the descents I remembered Carb Heat 50% of the time. 50% of the time would definitely be a fail !!! You need to rememeber it 100% of the time. The risk of icing today was particularly bad, because we went through rain a few times !!

Another interesting thing he said was if there is any rain, no questions, apply Full Carb Heat !!

We then did an autorotation to lose height ie a gradual lowering of the collective. I remembered Carb Heat this time !! :-) That went fine. But of course, I was watching the string which caused me to have to think too hard to worry about everything else (rotor rpm), but thankfully either Scott did rotor rpm, or I did it without thinking. Can’t remember, I was too flummoxed ! ;-)

Apparently, an auto is not complete until you look upwards (for the climb away) and cancel carb heat (NOTE TO SELF!)

We then did an autorotation for range as if the engine failed (75 knots). Faster lowering of the collective and maintaining 75knots went ok, but then I was thrown when he asked me to keep the throttle closed. I’ve never done any throttle work in the autorotation before, but pleased I got a chance to do it. It’s started me thinking on new trains of thought.

I think we then did another one. They felt ok.

By this stage, it was time to return and the rain was falling heavily over EGNT.

Scott made lots of R/T calls because I couldn’t understand things. I really must get my own headset. It was much worse today, and I’m normally comfortable with the Newcastle R/T so either the headset’s at fault (or more likely I was too flustered).

We were asked to hold at the northern airport boundary for 2 inbounds. And then we were asked to nip in before another big jet. Scott asked what would I do if asked to expedite when I was solo. I had previously expedited solo, so I suspected that that wasn’t the right answer and I was right. Don’t expedite solo !! Shame, ‘cos it’s lots of fun, but I knew where he was coming from !

Taxi next to the bowser and then I was gagging for another perfect landing like the other day, but it was messy. Not a 30-second messy dp special that I have previously done consistently, but it wasn’t like the beauties that I’d managed at Carlisle and Eshott.

I did a couple of attempts, but aborted them. Scott then demo’ed one and explained something which has now been lost in fluster land, but it stayed with me enough to do a half decent final landing based on whatever he’d said.

After we’d shut it down, he took me around the helicopter asking me what bits and bobs were. That was very interesting. I think I got 1 or 2 things right, but the other 6 were half-decent guesses that were wrong !! ;-) WHY DIDN’T HE ASK ME WHAT THE THING THAT GOES ROUND ON THE TOP IS ? OR THE FAN THING AT THE BACK END !? He probably didn’t know himself I expect ! :-)

So, all in all, a huge learning experience, but I left feeling a bit bamboozled. It’s that feeling where I know I’ve learned LOADS, but it’s not all sunk in yet. I’m pretty sure that, tomorrow, things will keep coming back to me, with a “oh yes” kind of moment as they sink in.

Thoroughly enjoyable and extremely valuable lesson in terms of things learned, but not showing my best skills ‘cos of being flummoxed. But, no pain, no gain. If I hadn’t learned the countless things I did, I may have flown better because I wasn’t flummoxed, but not have been a better pilot because of it (if that makes sense). I know what I mean ! :-)

But, to end on a positive, and to my big surprise, as the whole lesson felt like I was doing things wrong, Scott was very complementary. He asked me how many hours I’d done, and said I was “well ahead of the game and flying excellently” or something like that.

Video to follow when time permits

Posted in Helicopter Training | No Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,