the other kevin in san diego

Picked up another 1.3 today and I had a friggin' blast. Friggin' hot
today at the field and I had mental flatulence in working up the
density altitude. I couldn't for the life of me rememeber how to do
it. Probably 'cuz my head was still full of info from the previous
night's test at ground school. Finally got it done with a little
prompting from my instructor.

I got the ship preflighted, strapped in and got her fired up. I don't
think I'll ever get used to the "grinding" sound the ship makes as the
belts are engaged.. Sounds like something's gonna come off.. RPMs to
75% and down through the checklist.

Mag and carb heat checks are good and all instruments are in the
green. My instructor tells me to call the tower and tell 'em we want
a southwest departure. Huh? I haven't been on the radio since 1996.
I stumble my way through it and it takes the tower a few moments to
clear us to the runway and our departure. Guess it was a little busy.

We get out to the runway - I'm following along on the controls and we
start our run. It still amazes me how fast these little bumblebees
accelerate once you feed in forward cyclic. Climb established and my
instructor hands the ship over to me. I climb out at 60 (well, ok,
55-70 hehe) knots and about 500 fpm until we hit 1,400 feet then I
level out, accelerate to 70 kts and head to the practice area.

On the way out, we fly over a hill with a really cool lookin' house on
it. I notice the flag pole on the roof and see we've got a slight
crosswind from about 2 o'clock. It's also kinda bumpy and a few
moments after I see the flag, it feels like the bottom falls out of
the helicopter. I thought something had gone wrong and my eyes are
darting over the panel looking for anything not in the green. Nothing
wrong, just an air pocket.. Newbie jitters I guess.. hehe

We get to the practice and work on hovers. Takes me a few minutes to
settle down and I manage to hover in the same general county for a few
minutes at a time. For some reason I have a tendency to creep forward
and I swear these machines do not like to fly to the left.. The wind
isn't helping either. I creep to the right of this little patch of
concrete we're over and actually manage to back up to where I want the
ship to go. I may get this stuff down yet! I'm feeling pretty good
about it and my instructor kills my buzz with one small request:

"See that line to the left, point us right down that line and hover
there."

That buggers up my brain and I'm all over the friggin' place and
again, I swear these things do NOT like to fly to the left, regardless
of how much cyclic I apply.. I finally get us stable and over the
line and the instuctor asked "Have you done setdowns?" I answer in
the affirmative and he says, "ok, set it down". I grease one on and
the question "Can you pick us up?' comes over the headset. "Yep" I
reply and he says, "ok, do it." I check the instruments real quick -
everything's in the green and I get it light on the skids, find the
"center" and lift her up. Cool. Right into a nice stable hover.

"Ok, set it down again". I think, 'sure, no problem'. PLOP.

"Well, that wasn't pretty" I mumbled.

My instructor turns to me and says "Here's my feelings on landings; I
don't care if you set 'em down nice and easy or with a little bump
like you just did. As long as they're safe landings, I'm happy with
them. Get to a steady hover and keep it still as you set down"

Easier said than done, but makes me feel more at ease.

Another check of the instruments and I pick it up again. Now we start
on pedal turns. Wind is right into our face as I clear the tail rotor
right and apply some left pedal. I'm shooting for a 90 degree turn.
Nail that and the right crosswind gets me all squirrely again. I get
settled again and go for the next 90 degrees.

I now know what Gregory Hines must have gone through when he was first
learning to dance. The tailwind had my feet going so much I felt like
I was running in place. Never did get it absolutely steady, but
settled it down enough to make the next 90 degree turn.

OK, left crosswind hovering sucks. I felt like I was going to put my
foot through the bubble each time I had to apply more pedal. LTE
indeed! Whoever invented Vortex Ring State should be shot. hehehe
I never even came close to keeping it steady and my instructor "flung"
the helicopter back over the line we started at and did the whole
series as I watched. OK, so it's not just me - you gotta be all over
the pedals.. Mental note taken. I'll be better next time up.asked


Back to a hover, controls over to me and I get asked, "You ever take
off before?" I answered "yep" and he said, "ok, let's fly a pattern."
Perfect timing as we'd just discussed pattern speeds and altitudes at
ground school the night before.

Got the ship back in a stable hover, a little forward cyclic and a
little collective and we're cookin'. Get the shudder at ETL and
accelerate to 50kts and start the climb, headed to 1,000 feet. I hit
60kts and actually hold it pretty close and climb at 500 fpm. Clear
traffic left and make a left crosswind and climb to 1,200 feet and
accelerate to 75 kts as we hit the downwind.

Our groundspeed is smokin' fast - got a nice tailwind - and before I
have the opportunity to get all outta whack, it's time to slart a
descent, slow to 60 and turn base. Takes me a few seconds to get set
up and I turn base then final. Wow, gotta dump a lot of collective
to establish a good descent rate! As we slow I'm feeding in power and
pedal to keep our descent rate at 300fpm.. I get slowed down too fast
and way too high so the instuctor takes it and finishes final to a
hover.

I get the controls back and go around again. This time my approach is
pretty decent. I'm aiming right for the "front" edge of our little
concrete patch and get a tad slow about 100yds out. Now I'm really
pouring on the power, but looking good. I get into a nice 5' hover
right where I was aiming. sweet! That was friggin' fun!

Around we go one more time and this time final looks good and I'm not
touching a thing. Just like I remember from my fixed wing days 8
years ago.. Get it set up and just ride it down. (Ten bucks says
next time I go up I can't repeat it. heheeh) Back to a stable hover
and it's time to head back to the field. Off we go and I climb out -
getting better at this part - I'm able to hold real close to 60kts and
500fpm. Up to 1200 feet to clear a ridge and I've got the airport in
sight about 5 miles out.

Again, I've got to get on the radio and I manage to call the tower,
request entry into the traffic pattern and not stomp on my tongue in
the process. Tower clears us to enter the downwind at midfield,
number 2 behind a Cessna. I pick up the traffic coming from our left
and slip in about a 1/2 mile behind him. Man, what a cool view.
75kts, 1200 feet and a little above the Cessna. I never got to see
that view in a fixed wing. I can see his control surfaces wiggling
around as he turns base. Too cool.

We turn base a few moments later and keep the speed and altitude up.
My instructor wants to do an auto. Cool! He takes the ship, turns
final and sets up. Lower collective, 75kts, roll off the throttle.
Slight disappointment on my part; I was hoping for a little bit more
of that "heart in your throat" feeling like when you hit the 1st drop
on a roller coaster. One thing I really noticed was how smooth and
quiet the descent was. The flare was a bit more abrupt that I'd
thought it would be and the racket of the power coming back on was
quite loud.
Very cool stuff!

Off we went again for another auto, only this time I would follow
along on the controls. I fly the entire pattern up until final and
then I'm along for the ride.. OK, I can see it's gonna take a lot of
dual to get these things down. But still, I think it's the one part
I'm looking forward to the most as I prepare to solo. Approaches and
autos. I think I like them because you have to fly precisely. I
loved doing short field approaches in fixed wing for that very reason.

Auto finished, we're in hover and cleared to air taxi down a crossing
runway back to our parking area. I'm at the "wheel" and creeping
along and I turn left to the inactive runway and holy smokes! There's
a Huey comin' right at us. "I didn't make a wrong turn did I?" I ask
my instructor, thinking I hadn't heard the clearance correctly.

"No, you're good. He's gonna go over the top of us."

Just then I hear the tower call us and warn us of possible wake
turbulence from the Huey. Ya think!?? Just a slight burble as he
goes over us a couple hundred feet up and offset to the right a bit.
I turn to the parking area and, feeling pretty good about my air taxi,
ask which parking spot we're headed to. I get up to it ok and then I
fall apart. I can't get the dang ship steady enough to set down to
save my life. After a couple minutes of it I surrender. My brain is
fried and my body english isn't doing a thing so I hand the ship over
to the instructor who sets us down and we begin the cool down.

A few humorous comments about my body english and then I call up for
fuel. The truck arrives before we're shut down and the driver's gotta
wait about 5 mins for me to get everything off the the aircraft
secure. My back is dripping wet and I've got a diagonal stripe of
sweat across the front of my shirt where the seatbelt was. Funny, I
didn't feel warm at all up in the air.

Rotor blades stopped and I shut down the ship, unbuckle and climb out.
Man is it hot on the ramp.. Before I've even got the blades tied down
and grabbed my gear from under the seat I'm drenched with sweat. I
look at the Hobbs thinking I *MAYBE* got an hour. Cool, 1.3! Seemed
like it was just a few minutes.

I learned a lot, felt like I flew pretty well and didn't hurt the
ship. Mission accomplished.

Man I love this stuff!!

davdirect

Thanks for the update...I'm enjoying reading about your journey, and your
enthusiasm is infective!
davdirect