It has been two weeks since I last flew. I was pretty good on the controls today. As of today I have 16 hours of pilot time, at 20 hours I can begin flying solo. Alone with no passengers (I can't take passengers until I have my private license). I feel ready to fly solo, mostly. The next four hours of training will focus on all the emergency procedures I need to know so that if something happens while I am flying solo I will be able to land safely. We spent today practicing maneuvers to recover from situations like engine failures, settling with power or low rotor RPM.
It also means I need to make sure I review the emergency procedures a lot in the next couple of weeks.
In a helicopter you have very few seconds to react and begin to recover from emergency situations compared to fixed wing airplanes. In a fixed wing aircraft you have time to open the Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH) and look up what to do; in a helicopter, you don't. You have to know the emergency procedures by heart and be ready to execute them in an instant. Keeping the rotors spinning is critical to survival, it is the energy stored in the spinning rotors that allows you to create a cushion of air to slow your decent and safely land the helicopter.
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| Checking the main rotor blades during pre-flight. |
Nothing exciting really happened today. Performed the pre-flight, started the helicopter and the run up, listened to the weather for the Tallahassee airport, calculated max and takeoff power, contacted ground to obtain our squawk code and inform them of our intentions, tuned to the tower frequency to gain situational awareness of what is going on in the airspace, discussed what we were going to do today while waiting for the engine cylinder head temp needle to get the green area. When all gauges were green called the tower requesting takeoff clearance, obtained clearance and gently lifted off, gained airspeed and began our climb out over closed runway 18/36. After we climbed to around 1000 feet, I increased speed to about 90 knots and we flew to Quincy. Quincy (2J9) is about 15 miles (straight line) from Tallahassee Regional (KTLH) It takes about 10 minutes to get from Tallahassee to Quincy by air.
Since I am approaching solo flight, we flew mostly basic maneuvers so I would be able to safely perform my solo flights. We also worked on recovering from settling with power and low rotor RPM. We also did a lot of auto-rotations, about every other landing was an auto-rotation. Imagine going from 1200 feet to the ground in 45 seconds while trying to maintain safe rotor RPM, airspeed and fly the landing pattern. My goal is to be able to afford a Go Pro Hero camera next semester so I can capture what it looks like to do some of these maneuvers. (If I can get some OT at work, I might be able to afford one before I make my solo flight!)
The next four hours of flying will be spent doing flights like this. Basic maneuvers and emergency procedure and recovery reviews.
R48
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