03 June 2012
As I prepare for flying solo one of the things I needed to accomplish was a full review of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) I need to know for passing the oral and written exam for my private pilot license. The FAR tells what you can and can not do as a pilot, when aircraft have to be inspected, when you can/can't fly, what type of repair/alteration is major or minor and who can/can't perform that work. I spent about 4 hours today going over the FAR, highlighting, making notes, putting tags in, etc. There are only a few sections I have to know by heart, but I have to know just about where everything is at, which part gives the requirements to earn a private license, which parts talk about maintenance, etc. (I should probably be reading and reviewing those instead of writing this!).
After dredging through the FAR it was finally time to fly. Performed the pre-flight and noted we were low on fuel. The weather was 34C (about 94F), I would have liked to take the doors off but we were going to stop in town somewhere and get something to eat. Locking our gear in the helicopter and others out took priority over having a cool flight. I start the engine, engage the clutch, the blades start spinning and while waiting for the Cylinder Head Temp (CHT) to enter the green, listen to ATIS and call Ground control.
Talking on the radio is not hard, sounding like you know what you are doing on the radio is. Every call entails the same four items, Who you are calling, Who you are, Where you are at and what you want to do. Simple to do while sitting on the ground but when you add flying, scanning for traffic, checking gages and warning lights it gets a bit tougher.
After the CHT was in the green, increased throttle to 75%, checked the magnetos and sprague clutch, turned the governor on and increased 102% blade RPM. No strange noises, contacted the tower and requested take off clearance. Clearance was granted and with the wind blowing from the South we lifted off into a hover and made a left pedal turn into the wind and began to build airspeed, make a climbing turn over the central ramp, turned to follow Capital Circle. Traveling at 60 knots we made a turn to the Northwest towards Quincy, flew over closed RWY 18/36 gaining altitude. I missed the fact that the pedals were moved all the way forward, which made using them difficult because the angle was off. I would correct that during our fuel stop.
Because of the wind RWY 14 was active in Quincy, I made some radio calls and landed. My hovering was poor because I missed a week of flying. Made a normal take off, was flying the pattern while the Jump plane was taxiing to the Runway. I was nearing the end of the downwind leg and preparing to turn base when Jump 1 called he was taking off. Glancing over my shoulder and seeing the plane on the runway I wanted to extend the downwind leg to ensure we didn't come close to each other. Soon Jump 1 was in the air and making a right turn to climb to 8500 feet with two jumpers. I made the turn to base, then to final, made my radio call and landed. We needed fuel so we taxied over to the fuel pump.
While fueling up we were approached by a guy who wanted to parachute out of the helicopter. We agreed to take him, he took off to get his gear on and we went inside for a break. As we were walking into the building the two jumpers were making their landing. As we were headed back to the helicopter, he met up with us and we all got in. Got the helicopter started, safety checks made, picked up into a hover and moved away from the fuel ramp. Jump 1 was landing on the grass runway, we waited for him to clear, made our radio call and began to take off. Now that we were full on fuel and people, we pulled full power and began a slow climb to 3500 feet. We turned to the south and continued to climb, turning west after a while staying close to the airport. We approached 3500 feet and began to maneuver to where the jumper wanted to bail at. After he bailed and the door was closed, we continued to climb to 4000 feet, watching, waiting for his parachute to open. His chute opened and we made a clearing turn to prepare for an autorotation! I forgot to correct the pedal position. This made it feel like I was just smashing the pedals to get them to move.
We are flying 70 knots at 4000 feet and entered autorotation. Descending at nearly 2000 feet per minute, we have just under two minutes before we would be at the ground! After entering an autorotation and maintaining the correct rotor RPM and airspeed, you have to look around below you and pick a landing spot (in a real emergency we would have landed there). After you pick a landing spot you have to determine if you can make it there and maybe pick a different landing zone. We could make it and made our turns and control adjustments to maintain airspeed and rotor RPM. At about 500 feet we begin to flare, this reduces the decent rate and speed of the helicopter. Using the energy stored in the main rotor allows this to happen. At 400 feet (about 200 feet Above Ground Level (AGL)) you level the ship and begin to raise the collective to further slow your decent. While the helicopter is slowing, the throttle is reapplied to maintain rotor RPM and we ended up in a hover about 150 feet AGL. Doing most everything correctly (I get stuck looking at the airspeed and rotor RPM, instead of most of my focus being outside) we climbed to about 1200 feet and flew towards the East.
We flew over the now closed commercial airport, Lake Jackson, over a bunch of houses and made a North turn to follow Thomasville Road. I knew we were going to land and get something to eat, but I didn't know where we were landing. It sounded like there was a place that it was common for people to fly in and eat. Well this was nothing like that. Here is a picture of where we landed! (Coordinates if you want to map it yourself! 30.565430, -84.216878)
The red arrow shows the landing zone and the orange arrow shows where we met up with some of the flight instructors friends and ate food. It was fun, both the landing and hanging out with friends. After eating we went back to the helicopter, which was attracting spectators, started up and took off (there was a small child in the one car that stopped to watch us takeoff). I fixed the pedals this stop, and we took off, flew over the restaurant and headed back to the airport. We flew over downtown past a club that is usually busy, but no one was in the club when we flew by. After landing we shutdown and discussed what I did good at and what I need to practice on the next few flights so I am ready for solo flight.
It had been a long day, almost 12 hours of driving, learning and flying. I was headed home and ready to relax.
R48
As I prepare for flying solo one of the things I needed to accomplish was a full review of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) I need to know for passing the oral and written exam for my private pilot license. The FAR tells what you can and can not do as a pilot, when aircraft have to be inspected, when you can/can't fly, what type of repair/alteration is major or minor and who can/can't perform that work. I spent about 4 hours today going over the FAR, highlighting, making notes, putting tags in, etc. There are only a few sections I have to know by heart, but I have to know just about where everything is at, which part gives the requirements to earn a private license, which parts talk about maintenance, etc. (I should probably be reading and reviewing those instead of writing this!).
After dredging through the FAR it was finally time to fly. Performed the pre-flight and noted we were low on fuel. The weather was 34C (about 94F), I would have liked to take the doors off but we were going to stop in town somewhere and get something to eat. Locking our gear in the helicopter and others out took priority over having a cool flight. I start the engine, engage the clutch, the blades start spinning and while waiting for the Cylinder Head Temp (CHT) to enter the green, listen to ATIS and call Ground control.
Talking on the radio is not hard, sounding like you know what you are doing on the radio is. Every call entails the same four items, Who you are calling, Who you are, Where you are at and what you want to do. Simple to do while sitting on the ground but when you add flying, scanning for traffic, checking gages and warning lights it gets a bit tougher.
After the CHT was in the green, increased throttle to 75%, checked the magnetos and sprague clutch, turned the governor on and increased 102% blade RPM. No strange noises, contacted the tower and requested take off clearance. Clearance was granted and with the wind blowing from the South we lifted off into a hover and made a left pedal turn into the wind and began to build airspeed, make a climbing turn over the central ramp, turned to follow Capital Circle. Traveling at 60 knots we made a turn to the Northwest towards Quincy, flew over closed RWY 18/36 gaining altitude. I missed the fact that the pedals were moved all the way forward, which made using them difficult because the angle was off. I would correct that during our fuel stop.
Because of the wind RWY 14 was active in Quincy, I made some radio calls and landed. My hovering was poor because I missed a week of flying. Made a normal take off, was flying the pattern while the Jump plane was taxiing to the Runway. I was nearing the end of the downwind leg and preparing to turn base when Jump 1 called he was taking off. Glancing over my shoulder and seeing the plane on the runway I wanted to extend the downwind leg to ensure we didn't come close to each other. Soon Jump 1 was in the air and making a right turn to climb to 8500 feet with two jumpers. I made the turn to base, then to final, made my radio call and landed. We needed fuel so we taxied over to the fuel pump.
While fueling up we were approached by a guy who wanted to parachute out of the helicopter. We agreed to take him, he took off to get his gear on and we went inside for a break. As we were walking into the building the two jumpers were making their landing. As we were headed back to the helicopter, he met up with us and we all got in. Got the helicopter started, safety checks made, picked up into a hover and moved away from the fuel ramp. Jump 1 was landing on the grass runway, we waited for him to clear, made our radio call and began to take off. Now that we were full on fuel and people, we pulled full power and began a slow climb to 3500 feet. We turned to the south and continued to climb, turning west after a while staying close to the airport. We approached 3500 feet and began to maneuver to where the jumper wanted to bail at. After he bailed and the door was closed, we continued to climb to 4000 feet, watching, waiting for his parachute to open. His chute opened and we made a clearing turn to prepare for an autorotation! I forgot to correct the pedal position. This made it feel like I was just smashing the pedals to get them to move.
We are flying 70 knots at 4000 feet and entered autorotation. Descending at nearly 2000 feet per minute, we have just under two minutes before we would be at the ground! After entering an autorotation and maintaining the correct rotor RPM and airspeed, you have to look around below you and pick a landing spot (in a real emergency we would have landed there). After you pick a landing spot you have to determine if you can make it there and maybe pick a different landing zone. We could make it and made our turns and control adjustments to maintain airspeed and rotor RPM. At about 500 feet we begin to flare, this reduces the decent rate and speed of the helicopter. Using the energy stored in the main rotor allows this to happen. At 400 feet (about 200 feet Above Ground Level (AGL)) you level the ship and begin to raise the collective to further slow your decent. While the helicopter is slowing, the throttle is reapplied to maintain rotor RPM and we ended up in a hover about 150 feet AGL. Doing most everything correctly (I get stuck looking at the airspeed and rotor RPM, instead of most of my focus being outside) we climbed to about 1200 feet and flew towards the East.
We flew over the now closed commercial airport, Lake Jackson, over a bunch of houses and made a North turn to follow Thomasville Road. I knew we were going to land and get something to eat, but I didn't know where we were landing. It sounded like there was a place that it was common for people to fly in and eat. Well this was nothing like that. Here is a picture of where we landed! (Coordinates if you want to map it yourself! 30.565430, -84.216878)
The red arrow shows the landing zone and the orange arrow shows where we met up with some of the flight instructors friends and ate food. It was fun, both the landing and hanging out with friends. After eating we went back to the helicopter, which was attracting spectators, started up and took off (there was a small child in the one car that stopped to watch us takeoff). I fixed the pedals this stop, and we took off, flew over the restaurant and headed back to the airport. We flew over downtown past a club that is usually busy, but no one was in the club when we flew by. After landing we shutdown and discussed what I did good at and what I need to practice on the next few flights so I am ready for solo flight.
It had been a long day, almost 12 hours of driving, learning and flying. I was headed home and ready to relax.
R48
I suppose it's different when you are at the controls but that autorotation before eating just sounds wrong. How do you taxi a helicopter any way?
ReplyDeleteThere are a few ways to move a helicopter: 1) Hover Taxi - you lift off into a hover and manuver the helicopter where you want to go. 2) Ground handling wheels - Used when the helicopter is shutdown and you are in an area where you can not use hover taxi. The wheels lift the skids off the ground and you can move it around by hand or tow with a cart.
ReplyDeleteThose are the most common. Very large helicopters have wheels instead of skids, so they taxi around like a plane does.
R48