Simon Robbins wrote:

Today I started an intensive PPL(H) course. (I'm going to fly three times a
week, two hours a day.)

I did an hours trial lesson last year in an R22 which I enjoyed immensely
and cemented my determination to learn to fly these bizarre contraptions.

My nearest school flies Schweizer 300CBs, so I'm doing my PPL(H) on them. I
know everybody's got their views on the pro and cons of this compared to the
R22 but in the end for me it came down to local convenience.



The 300 is the aircraft I began in. Love it.

Happy with that we
then did climbs and descents, again with me do al the attitude, power, trim
inputs, overspeeding the engine a few times! I'm not having trouble with
knowing what inputs I need to make, the difficulty is knowing how much I
need to do and learning the "feel" for the machine.

Thank goodness for the overspeed governor. There were some that did the
same on their first solo. Picking the 300 up and accidentally adding
too much throttle. When the overspeed gov kicks the rpm back down the
student easily got confused and rolled the throttle the wrong way so the
aircraft was kicking around all over the sky. But somehow the ones we
watched were able to get the 300 back on the ground, where the
instructor climbed back in for some more hover work.

A couple of times I had
to think twice about which way the throttle works, and it caught me out at
least once when I lowered the collective, and the throttle and the engine
rpm increased, and I reacted by twisting the wrong way.


Many that drive motorcycles had a hard time getting used to the 300's
throttle direction.

The instructor thinks
I did really well and reckons if I do 4 to 5 hours a week I should breeze
through it. Not sure how much of that is genuine, and how much is
encouragement to a newbie, but I came away pleased with myself.
Unfortunately, I can't go up again until next Wednesday due to other
commitments, and I can't wait!!

Si



Usually an instructor will give some positive feedback to the student
but they would never say that you should "breeze through it" unless they
meant it. So it sounds very good for you.... AAkkk, today is Wednesday,
how did it go??????

--

boB,
SAG 70

U.S. Army Aviation (retired)
Central Texas - 5NM West of Gray Army Airfield (KGRK)