Passengers (as in I brought a sibling)

Today's flight (20JUL14) I brought a sibling from out of town with me and because I had a passenger we couldn't do some of the riskier maneuvers.  We didn't do autos or slopes, I can't remember if we did run on landings.  So it was mostly normal take-offs, normal landings, steep approaches and max performance take-offs.

I setup the GoPro and had configured it to record in 720 because my computer struggles with resolutions above that, but it defaults to time lapse so I got a time lapse sequence and I didn't think it showed anything interesting or was particularly neat.  I am almost done editing the videos from the only flight I have recorded.  In fact, a video is rendering right now!

I did pretty good with the flight today.  Having a passenger was a good experience as to how the balance and performance change.  Hovering took more power, which meant I was up to max continuous power quicker and even used into the power available for 5 minute take off.  What it translated into was that I had to fly more like an airplane than a helicopter.  The rotors produce lift but when the helicopter is moving the increased airflow across the rotor disc produces more lift.  It was something I can't remember experiencing; the other helicopter I had flown with passengers was fuel injected and had more horsepower available because of it.

I had to abort one of the max performance take-offs because I was the 5 minute take-off power and stopped climbing.  After slowly lowering back to the ground, I made a normal take-off.  I thought I was going to be nervous with my sibling riding along, but she was so quiet I basically forgot she was in the back.

Over all it was a good flight and I experienced a few things that I don't think I would have experienced until much later in my training.

R48