"JohnO" wrote in message
oups.com...

Steve R wrote:
"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net wrote in
message ...
On 13 Oct 2006 10:53:45 -0700, "Mike" wrote:

...to get a little stick time? I'm a newbie (about 180 hours split
between the 300C and the R22) and I would dearly like to buy a
helicopter. No justification at all -- just a huge fascination with
helicopters. I think my short list includes a Robinson or a Bell 47.
But I've never flown a Bell and don't know a lot about them, such as
real operating costs, onerous ADs, availability of parts and mechanics
who really know them (in northern California). I'm not even sure where
to start. I did take a 1-hour lesson in an F28 but the instructor
seemed like a goof, and I'm not sure I got a good intro to that ship.
I'm in the SF Bay Area at the moment, though I will end up in far
northern California in a couple years.

Twin Air in Van Nuys (Los Angeles area) has a Bell 47 that they train
in. Give 'em a call and ask for Bob or Yo-Yo.



Uhhhh, Yo-Yo????

Goes up and down a lot?


Maybe? Reminds me of a flight I made many years ago. I was enjoying a
lovely night flight, totally CAVU after a good frontal line cleaned all the
smog out of the area earlier that afternoon. Anyway, I was tooling around
monitoring Houston Approach on the south side of town. This was before
Hobby and Ellington were under the Class B (then called a TCA) airspace and
I wasn't in an area where I needed to talk to them but I still liked to
listen in on the frequency.

There was some guy who contacted ATC with something like "Houston approach,
this is Piper 123 Yo-Yo." Houston approach came back with "Piper 123
Yankee-Yankee, Houston approach, go ahead....." The pilot came back and
identified himself as Piper 123 Yo-Yo again and made his request. The
controller responded with "now I've heard everything!" and gave the dude a
squawk code with heading and altitude instructions. It took me a while to
regain my composure. It's probably one of those situations where you really
needed to be there but to me, it was funny as hell at the time.

Fly Safe,
Steve R.