Greetings! It has been a while since I have posted. I haven't been flying much because of work and school. I have however determined that I need help paying for flight training. I setup a GoFundMe page and ask that if you are able to and willing, please make a donation. My goal is to get enough money so I can get my commercial license. This money will help me finish flight school in a reasonable amount of time so I can begin to build hours towards becoming a pilot for an air ambulance service.
With out these funds it will take longer to achieve my goal and there is a possibility that I will have to stop flying altogether. Air ambulance services provide quick transport for patients who need to get to a treatment facility. I want to help people get the help they need so they can begin to get better. The first step for me is earning my commercial pilot license. After I get my commercial pilot license, I will have to build hours and gain experience flying. I will have an array of jobs before I will meet the common qualifications to be hired by an air ambulance provider, but getting my commercial license is the first step. This first step is what I need help with.
Please share this with your friends and families. I will continue writing about my flight experiences as I complete flight school and begin flying and gaining experience. Thanks for the help and support.
Here is the link to my GoFundMe page.
R48
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Monday, August 25, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014
Prep (as in Check-ride prep)
I am a little late this week with this post; school and work have been taking all my free time.
Today's flight (29JUN14) was longer and it was working on maneuvers for the check ride. Working on the maneuvers that I can do well to maintain the skills I do have and improve the others. Overall, I am getting better at doing the maneuver on the first try. I brought and mounted my GoPro camera (Full disclosure: I own GoPro stock); I was able to capture video of the flight, but because we had the doors off and I haven't bought an adapter cable, you can only hear the audio when the engine is idle and airspeed zero. I will eventually buy an adapter cable that will capture all the intercom and radio communications.
After getting the helicopter started, we headed out toward the TV station again. Being the only off-airport location they have permission to land at, we went there to practice off-airport operations. I made my assessment of the area and began my approach. I wasn't descending like I needed to, so I went around again. I made a better approach the second time and landed as needed in the field. The field at the TV station has some slopes that are not as steep compared to the Quincy airport, so we tried a new technique for landing on slopes. I did better at slopes on the first try and the new technique helped overall. I made a max. performance takeoff from the field and headed towards Quincy.
As we were approaching Quincy we heard the jump plane call "4 parachutes out over Quincy", so we flew towards town and climbed up to 2000 feet for some turning auto-rotation practice. I entered the auto, established the glide and properly managed the RPMs as we entered and exited the turn. I rolled the throttle back on and flew towards the airport. The jumpers were on the ground, so we made a normal approach.
I did the approach fine on my first attempt. I took off again and landed with a steep approach. Performed an air taxi, followed by a quick stop. A trip around the pattern for a running landing. A running (sometimes called a run-on) landing is used when you don't think the helicopter can hover. Maybe one magneto is malfunctioning, you are at a high gross weight, or at a location with high density altitude. A running landing is also one of the components used if I had to make a real forced landing; after the auto-rotation you flare to reduce descent and airspeed, then you let the helicopter settle to ground and touchdown with the skids level, running on them until the helicopter stops.
After running landing, we moved to the slopes. The slopes at Quincy are pretty steep, nothing outside the limits of the helicopter, but probably close to them. I did OK, on the slopes at Quincy, better than the last time.
After slopes, we waited for the jump plane to take off, then I went around the pattern and setup for a straight in auto-rotation. I entered the auto slower than normal and lost additional airspeed as I descended. You need the airspeed to have energy to use at the end for the flare and touchdown. I got the airspeed back, but I lost RPMs. The maneuver was recoverable, but in the interest of safety, both C2 and I at nearly the same instance said to add throttle and go around. Went around again and had a successful auto.
I setup for a turning auto. Sometimes the best place to land isn't in front of you, so you have to turn to land safely. The first one went OK, I did pretty good. I turned kind of tight so I had to adjust to make my spot. The second one was good, but I turned very steep, which drove the rotor RPM almost to max. With jumpers on their way up we taxied to the fuel pump, shutdown and got fuel. After a short break, we started up with an airplane really close to the tail rotor. It made us kind of nervous, so we quickly started and hovered away from the fuel pumps.
I did another running landing in preparation for a hydraulics off landing. The R44 has hydraulics to reduce the force from the pilot needed to control the helicopter. When the hydraulics fail, hovering will be practically impossible. After a successful running landing, I took off for the pattern and once I was in the downwind leg, the hydraulics went off. Controlling the helicopter without hydraulics is not hard, sort of like driving a car without power steering. Fine until you need to travel through a parking lot at low speed. The camera battery ran out as I was on final. I landed perfectly and was happy to have the hydraulics back.
After this, I am pretty sure we took off and went back to Tallahassee.
R48
Today's flight (29JUN14) was longer and it was working on maneuvers for the check ride. Working on the maneuvers that I can do well to maintain the skills I do have and improve the others. Overall, I am getting better at doing the maneuver on the first try. I brought and mounted my GoPro camera (Full disclosure: I own GoPro stock); I was able to capture video of the flight, but because we had the doors off and I haven't bought an adapter cable, you can only hear the audio when the engine is idle and airspeed zero. I will eventually buy an adapter cable that will capture all the intercom and radio communications.
After getting the helicopter started, we headed out toward the TV station again. Being the only off-airport location they have permission to land at, we went there to practice off-airport operations. I made my assessment of the area and began my approach. I wasn't descending like I needed to, so I went around again. I made a better approach the second time and landed as needed in the field. The field at the TV station has some slopes that are not as steep compared to the Quincy airport, so we tried a new technique for landing on slopes. I did better at slopes on the first try and the new technique helped overall. I made a max. performance takeoff from the field and headed towards Quincy.
As we were approaching Quincy we heard the jump plane call "4 parachutes out over Quincy", so we flew towards town and climbed up to 2000 feet for some turning auto-rotation practice. I entered the auto, established the glide and properly managed the RPMs as we entered and exited the turn. I rolled the throttle back on and flew towards the airport. The jumpers were on the ground, so we made a normal approach.
I did the approach fine on my first attempt. I took off again and landed with a steep approach. Performed an air taxi, followed by a quick stop. A trip around the pattern for a running landing. A running (sometimes called a run-on) landing is used when you don't think the helicopter can hover. Maybe one magneto is malfunctioning, you are at a high gross weight, or at a location with high density altitude. A running landing is also one of the components used if I had to make a real forced landing; after the auto-rotation you flare to reduce descent and airspeed, then you let the helicopter settle to ground and touchdown with the skids level, running on them until the helicopter stops.
After running landing, we moved to the slopes. The slopes at Quincy are pretty steep, nothing outside the limits of the helicopter, but probably close to them. I did OK, on the slopes at Quincy, better than the last time.
After slopes, we waited for the jump plane to take off, then I went around the pattern and setup for a straight in auto-rotation. I entered the auto slower than normal and lost additional airspeed as I descended. You need the airspeed to have energy to use at the end for the flare and touchdown. I got the airspeed back, but I lost RPMs. The maneuver was recoverable, but in the interest of safety, both C2 and I at nearly the same instance said to add throttle and go around. Went around again and had a successful auto.
I setup for a turning auto. Sometimes the best place to land isn't in front of you, so you have to turn to land safely. The first one went OK, I did pretty good. I turned kind of tight so I had to adjust to make my spot. The second one was good, but I turned very steep, which drove the rotor RPM almost to max. With jumpers on their way up we taxied to the fuel pump, shutdown and got fuel. After a short break, we started up with an airplane really close to the tail rotor. It made us kind of nervous, so we quickly started and hovered away from the fuel pumps.
I did another running landing in preparation for a hydraulics off landing. The R44 has hydraulics to reduce the force from the pilot needed to control the helicopter. When the hydraulics fail, hovering will be practically impossible. After a successful running landing, I took off for the pattern and once I was in the downwind leg, the hydraulics went off. Controlling the helicopter without hydraulics is not hard, sort of like driving a car without power steering. Fine until you need to travel through a parking lot at low speed. The camera battery ran out as I was on final. I landed perfectly and was happy to have the hydraulics back.
After this, I am pretty sure we took off and went back to Tallahassee.
R48
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Objects (as in Operating near Objects is Stressful Regardless of the Actual Threat the Object Possessiveness!)
17 June 2012
Today's flight was pretty much a repeat of last week. The focus was mainly on the maneuvers I need to be able to perform while flying alone. Normal take off, landing, hovering, hover taxi, pick up, set down and auto rotation.
I am doing pretty much all the radio calls now since I will have to do them when I am flying solo. No instructor in the cabin to prompt or complete the call. Just me. I am confident enough to be maybe a bit over cautious. My dream is to fly helicopters not die in a helicopter crash.
Today we flew out to the old commercial airport just North of KTLH. The runway is closed but it makes a nice place to practice with no other traffic. The runway is not very long and has trees on all sides. Trees on the left or right side don't really bother me, it is when I have to land flying over trees or take off with trees in the departure path. I'm not really sure why it bothers me so much, I know I can maintain altitude until I clear the trees when landing and I can climb fast enough to clear the trees on departure.
While practicing pick ups, set downs and hovering I got close to an old set of traffic cones that were positioned on either side of the runway. I noticed them as I would pick up, move forward a bit, hover to a spot, stop and set down (again opening the door to get some cooler air). These are the larger cones that come up to about the middle of your thigh, 30 - 36 inches tall. For whatever reason, I did not want to get near them. They couldn't damage the main rotor, it is 12 feet off the ground. The tail rotor is about 5 feet above the ground, so no real threat to that, but as I moved closer to them I could feel my self starting to get nervous about them being there. I did fly past them a couple of times before while doing landings and take offs before I even noticed them when I started practicing hovering maneuvers.
I had a hard time getting my landing profile correct. My approach was too steep most of the time, I was too slow or too fast, but mostly I was too high and was not descending as I should. This matters because of something called the "Dead Man's Curve". There is a chart published by the helicopter manufacturer that outlines flight conditions that if you are operating in those regions you will not have time or aircraft performance to safely land in the event of an engine or other failure. When you are low and moving slow, you will not be able to enter an auto rotation that will provide the performance needed to safely set the helicopter down. If you are operating in the Dead Man's Curve and you have a failure of any kind, you can bet on being dead.
I did pretty good overall and it was time to go back to KTLH. Once again my approach was too steep, but I managed to land and hover to the parking spot and made a decent set down. On Saturday, my instructor and I will get in the helicopter, fly over to Quincy (2J9), review the basic maneuvers and after about 30 minutes of flying together, we will land and he will get out of the helicopter. Then I head off on my own for 30-45 minutes, landing to pick up my instructor and fly back to KTLH.
Then I start learning about navigation methods and cross country flight planning. Then comes a few cross country flights, night flights, solo cross country flights and probably a solo night flight. My goal is to have my private license by my birthday (which is in October) and my instructor says that should not be a problem.
I am still working on getting a GoPro Hero camera to record my adventures, hopefully I will be able to afford it soon. I know that reading about something and seeing that same thing are different. I really want to be able to contrast the decent rate of a normal approach versus an auto rotation!
R48
Today's flight was pretty much a repeat of last week. The focus was mainly on the maneuvers I need to be able to perform while flying alone. Normal take off, landing, hovering, hover taxi, pick up, set down and auto rotation.
I am doing pretty much all the radio calls now since I will have to do them when I am flying solo. No instructor in the cabin to prompt or complete the call. Just me. I am confident enough to be maybe a bit over cautious. My dream is to fly helicopters not die in a helicopter crash.
Today we flew out to the old commercial airport just North of KTLH. The runway is closed but it makes a nice place to practice with no other traffic. The runway is not very long and has trees on all sides. Trees on the left or right side don't really bother me, it is when I have to land flying over trees or take off with trees in the departure path. I'm not really sure why it bothers me so much, I know I can maintain altitude until I clear the trees when landing and I can climb fast enough to clear the trees on departure.
While practicing pick ups, set downs and hovering I got close to an old set of traffic cones that were positioned on either side of the runway. I noticed them as I would pick up, move forward a bit, hover to a spot, stop and set down (again opening the door to get some cooler air). These are the larger cones that come up to about the middle of your thigh, 30 - 36 inches tall. For whatever reason, I did not want to get near them. They couldn't damage the main rotor, it is 12 feet off the ground. The tail rotor is about 5 feet above the ground, so no real threat to that, but as I moved closer to them I could feel my self starting to get nervous about them being there. I did fly past them a couple of times before while doing landings and take offs before I even noticed them when I started practicing hovering maneuvers.
I had a hard time getting my landing profile correct. My approach was too steep most of the time, I was too slow or too fast, but mostly I was too high and was not descending as I should. This matters because of something called the "Dead Man's Curve". There is a chart published by the helicopter manufacturer that outlines flight conditions that if you are operating in those regions you will not have time or aircraft performance to safely land in the event of an engine or other failure. When you are low and moving slow, you will not be able to enter an auto rotation that will provide the performance needed to safely set the helicopter down. If you are operating in the Dead Man's Curve and you have a failure of any kind, you can bet on being dead.
I did pretty good overall and it was time to go back to KTLH. Once again my approach was too steep, but I managed to land and hover to the parking spot and made a decent set down. On Saturday, my instructor and I will get in the helicopter, fly over to Quincy (2J9), review the basic maneuvers and after about 30 minutes of flying together, we will land and he will get out of the helicopter. Then I head off on my own for 30-45 minutes, landing to pick up my instructor and fly back to KTLH.
Then I start learning about navigation methods and cross country flight planning. Then comes a few cross country flights, night flights, solo cross country flights and probably a solo night flight. My goal is to have my private license by my birthday (which is in October) and my instructor says that should not be a problem.
I am still working on getting a GoPro Hero camera to record my adventures, hopefully I will be able to afford it soon. I know that reading about something and seeing that same thing are different. I really want to be able to contrast the decent rate of a normal approach versus an auto rotation!
R48
Monday, June 11, 2012
Oh! (as in Oh! Why wasn't I told this earlier?!)
10 June 2012
Since I am getting close to having enough hours to fly solo, today's flight focused mostly on the maneuvers that I need to know to fly safely with out my flight instructor and all the information in case I encounter an emergency. It was hot today; 30C (86F) with dew point at 24C (75F) meant the Relative Humidity was 80%. After pre-flight and run up I made the radio calls to get clearance and took us up. The wind was from the South so we had to fly out over the central ramp, up over Capital Circle and then across the airport to the Northwest towards Quincy.
In Quincy we did a lot of the basic maneuvers, regular approach, regular takeoff, flying the pattern, self-announcing on the CTAF. We also spent a lot of time practicing hovering, pick-ups and set-downs. Quincy was practically void of any other air traffic. I didn't even see anyone at the jump school! I was able to maneuver all over the runway surface and not have to stop for in or out bound traffic.
I have not been using the pedals enough while hovering, I could hover sufficiently, but after I started using the pedals as I should be today, hovering was outstanding! To hone my skills I would hover to a spot, set down, pick up, hover forward one stripe, hover over the spot and set down again. I did this down most of the runway pausing every few set downs to open the door and get some air because it was so hot. Now that I was using the pedals as I should, my ability to maneuver while hovering was markedly improved. I was pretty excited about my new knowledge and skills, until it was time to get fuel.
We also did some straight in auto-rotations to practice, but I didn't do very good today. There isn't a lot of time when you enter auto-rotation at 900 feet. I did note that I didn't get stuck staring at the gauges and spent most of the time looking out side, watching where I was going.
It's not that I didn't want to get fuel, it's that I am still a little shy about flying near other objects. Not to mention a huge fuel tank! Putting my reservations aside I maneuvered us towards the fuel ramp and set us down (I am sure I had some help, but I was so focused on not damaging the helicopter or us that I didn't notice). After a short break in the air conditioning of the airport office, we started up and flew back to KTLH.
Next week we will do more of the same, making sure that my flight instructor feels confident I can take off and fly by myself and land safely.
R48
Since I am getting close to having enough hours to fly solo, today's flight focused mostly on the maneuvers that I need to know to fly safely with out my flight instructor and all the information in case I encounter an emergency. It was hot today; 30C (86F) with dew point at 24C (75F) meant the Relative Humidity was 80%. After pre-flight and run up I made the radio calls to get clearance and took us up. The wind was from the South so we had to fly out over the central ramp, up over Capital Circle and then across the airport to the Northwest towards Quincy.
In Quincy we did a lot of the basic maneuvers, regular approach, regular takeoff, flying the pattern, self-announcing on the CTAF. We also spent a lot of time practicing hovering, pick-ups and set-downs. Quincy was practically void of any other air traffic. I didn't even see anyone at the jump school! I was able to maneuver all over the runway surface and not have to stop for in or out bound traffic.
I have not been using the pedals enough while hovering, I could hover sufficiently, but after I started using the pedals as I should be today, hovering was outstanding! To hone my skills I would hover to a spot, set down, pick up, hover forward one stripe, hover over the spot and set down again. I did this down most of the runway pausing every few set downs to open the door and get some air because it was so hot. Now that I was using the pedals as I should, my ability to maneuver while hovering was markedly improved. I was pretty excited about my new knowledge and skills, until it was time to get fuel.
We also did some straight in auto-rotations to practice, but I didn't do very good today. There isn't a lot of time when you enter auto-rotation at 900 feet. I did note that I didn't get stuck staring at the gauges and spent most of the time looking out side, watching where I was going.
It's not that I didn't want to get fuel, it's that I am still a little shy about flying near other objects. Not to mention a huge fuel tank! Putting my reservations aside I maneuvered us towards the fuel ramp and set us down (I am sure I had some help, but I was so focused on not damaging the helicopter or us that I didn't notice). After a short break in the air conditioning of the airport office, we started up and flew back to KTLH.
Next week we will do more of the same, making sure that my flight instructor feels confident I can take off and fly by myself and land safely.
R48
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Pilot (as in, "This is your Captain speaking.")
Monday began the first day of college for me. I have been to college before but now I am going to learn something new. I will be earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Aviation, emphasis in Aviation Administration. I will also be learning to fly helicopters and becoming a commercial helicopter pilot. This is a change from my current career as an IT Professional.
Why? Well, I don't like computers new like I did 10 years ago. Sure they are great for playing games, surfing the internet, writing a college paper and what not, but I don't like fixing them anymore, saving them from viruses, troubleshooting home wireless networks, building my own server, or trying some new architecture. Computers now days are pretty much a throw away device. Network cards and video cards are built into motherboards so if one goes bad you have to replace the motherboard, but the cost of the motherboard is almost the cost of a new computer.
Flying gets my brain active; I can not stop learning about anything that deals with flying. The different jobs, the cool things they do, everything. Especially with helicopters. Saw a video on YouTube where a power company is using a helicopter to lift their linemen to the top of the high power transmission lines to check and service the electrical tower. The helicopter can lift the men and supplies to the top of the tower in less than a minute, where it would have taken them over an hour just to climb to the top! How cool is that?!? Very cool!
I know there are parts to every job that are boring or mundane, but with flying there seems to always be something new. A different craft, a new type of craft, a different mission to fly.
College is taking more time than I remember, the first go round seemed like it didn't require a lot of time. This week alone I have spent over 2 hours each night studying, reading and taking quizzes. (I should be doing more of than rather than writing here now!) After my financial aid arrives, I will also begin flight school. So I will be working full time (40 hours/week minimum), going to school full time (12 credit hours) and attending flight school (not sure of the time requirement yet, but I have to drive 90 minutes one way to get to the school) all at the same time, plus my regular life and family. My goal here is to document my adventures in flying and regular life here for my friends and family to read about. I expect to have time to post here on a regular basis. How regular, I don't know. That will be determined after I start flight school and get in a groove with everything else.
Here starts a brand new adventure!
R48
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