Performance

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Flight 40 – 28th January 2010 – 1210 – 1 hour 6 minutes – Total so far – 40 hours 46 mins

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

It’s good to get back in the saddle. Was surprised how much I missed my helicopter lessons.

Thankfully, the weather was perfect for it. Nice cold temperatures meaning high performance from the engine, and good visibility, with no precipitation.

I had in mind what I wanted to get out of today’s lesson. I wanted to leave it thinking “Oh yes, I can still fly a helicopter” and I achieved that, so am happy.

I arrived at the flying school early (10am) for my 11am lesson. I had decided to take a couple of exams today, the last 2 theory ones. I did some last minute revision, but was surprised about how much I had remembered from previous revision. Scores on the doors :-

Human Performance – 95%

Radiotelephony – 93.33333%

Well pleased with that. All theory exams done, just the radiotelephony practical exam to do PLUS the helicopter equivalent of the driving test ! The end is in sight.

So, today’s helicopter was G-DOGI (Doggy as it’s affectionately known). It was in a hangar next to where the police helicopter operates from, so a bit of a trek in the cold to get to it.

The great thing was I got to fly it from there around to the flying school at no cost to me ! So, takeoff, some precision transitioning (or fast taxi at least) and then landing. Loved it.

The takeoff went “ok”, but then the initial hover showed my lack of experience for the last 3 months, but I was pleased at how quickly I got the knack again.

Once filled up, I started her up again or at least tried to. But it wouldn’t start AT ALL. Steve was booking us out, and I couldn’t work it what I was doing wrong. I knew it was something stupid, but just couldn’t figure it out ! I rang Steve and he said he’d be there shortly.

Well, before Steve returned I realised that the rotor brake was still on, and that was the cause of it not starting. It started fine without the brake on ;-)

Once I’d started it and all the checks were done and I had the clearance, Steve returned and we headed off north. Past Morpeth, we did a vortex ring exercise. We were at about 2300 feet, and Steve asked me to enter a hover. Once in the hover, we entered vortex ring and then came out of it by gently increasing speed and powering away. Then onto the plateau where we did some autos, some quickstops, quite a bit of precision transitioning (fast low stuff, love it). We finished off with an auto to powered recovery into the hover. It went “ok”, but I could tell I was out of practice and Steve could too. But, I wasn’t disappointed, in fact, I was quite pleased that so much of his training was still in me.

I have a tendency when doing “autos to a hover just above the ground” to keep the nose high for too long, whereas I should be levelling out. I know why, but it’s only just dawned on me. At no point, am I thinking of landing it, and although we don’t ever land it (when practising an auto), I need to think and do everything as if I was going to land it. With that in my mind, I feel sure I’ll do it to Steve’s (and my) satisfaction next time. On the way back, we had a good catchup. Steve also slipped in a “small criticism”. Apparently, I’ve been hovering too low. Wasn’t aware of it, but he wants it about waist height for added safety, so I’ll work on that next time too.

So, all in all, a fruitful lesson. My helicopter head is nearly fully back on, more practice required.

I’ll try and get a lesson in next week (weather permitting).

I took video of both flights (PLUS atc), so all being well over the next couple of days, I’ll edit and upload that.

How Bizarre !

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Been prepping for the next exams (Human Performance & Communications).

Mock Test Results are in…….

Human Performance = 67.6%
Communications = 67.7%

.1% of a difference !

Both are fails, so more work needed.

I had forgot that it’s my wife’s birthday tomorrow (OUCH!), so tomorrow’s lesson is a no-go. Ringing on thursday/friday mornings to see if they can fit me in. Fingers crossed. Getting withdrawal symptoms.

Mr Wind is out in force today

Friday, September 25th, 2009

I checked the METAR/TAF at 7am and it looked “Go Go Go”. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be…….Mr Wind is showing his face today.

So, no flying until next week (weather permitting). Need to get stuck into “Human Factors and Pilot Performance” in preparation for the next exam, but it’s not the funnest topic in the world to motivate myself to read.

Come on David !

dp

Sadly no lesson

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

There were no lessons booked in for me today, despite me booking them last week. Wasn’t until just before I left that I realised I had been booked in for next tuesday and wednesday at 2pm :-(

But, I’m still glad I went, ‘cos I took TWO exams !!!

I had been really struggling with Principles of Flight and Performance Planning. I now realise why these subjects had took me so long !! They were TWO Exams !!! Silly me !!!!! For some reason, I thought they were one.

So, I took the first one, dreading a near fail, and achieved an 82.5%. When I’d done that and the realisation of there was no lesson booked came, I thought I’d do the other exam too and got 90%. Well happy with that !!

Which leaves me only 2 exams – yay !!! Human Performance (how drunk you’re allowed to be to fly ;-) and Radio Telephony Communications.

Really pleased at getting these 2 exams behind me, because it means I can ratchet up the rate of ppl lessons and make the most of the rest of the Summer.

Unfortunately, next week, I can only get one lesson in because it’s jam packed with kp stuff. But full steam ahead after that.