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#1
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First 2 1/2 hours PPL(H) today!
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. Finally, nearly a year later I've got the finances sorted out and I'm going for it. (I'm actually supposed to be in the US doing a full CPL course, but I couldn't sell my house in time so had to drop the place.) So I'm doing the JAA PPL(H) in the UK as a first step before deciding on my next course of action. 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. So, it's a fine Oxfordshire autumn morning and I turn up for the first lesson, hoping to get a second in today if there's an aircraft's available. The sun's out, wind is 5 kts, and barring a bit of low haze it looks like it's going to be a nice day. The instructor does the initial pre-flight, startup and climb-out to the west as I shadow him on the checklists and controls. We rise through a turbulent layer (could be a small temperature inversion as the haze is suddenly clear), and it's over to me for control familiarisation. Cyclic is instantly familiar, and I do some turns while trying to keep the airspeed constant by adjusting the nose attitude. Not too bad, but the instructor knows I've a lot of r/c heli, a few hours of fixed-wing, and a lot of sim time. Next I'm given the collective and make the power adjustments as the instructor demos climbs and descents. Easy enough. Then I've got the pedals and things are a little more complicated. As the instructor changes the power I'm having to compensate on the anti-torque, at this point over-correcting and occasionally getting into a bit of a yawing oscillation, but I get it under control. I try a bit of control co-ordination. I can see it's going to be a challenge mastering them all at once, throughout the flight envelope. We land, grab a sarnie and de-brief. He's happy, says I did really well. I didn't find any of it too taxing, and I've still got a grin on my face 20 minutes later. The 300's free until late afternoon, so we head out again. This time I do the checklists and startup, and do the pick-up to where we're light on the skids. The instructor hover-taxies us out across the active to the heli practice area on the field, and from there takes us west again away from the airport. This is where it got interesting! I did turns again, this time handling the collective, pedals and throttle on my own. 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. 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. No hassle though, only slightly above the red, and I corrected once I'm mentally kiced myself. Climbs and descents went well, so on to climbing and descending turns. This was 2 hours into the days flying and I was starting to feel a bit full. Still as enthusiastic as hell, but I began to realise the values of breaks to let it all sink in. Still, I got the hang of them, and got to the point where I don't need to think attitude, power, trim, and just do it, otherwise I too busy thinking about the order in which to do things rather than watching what's actually happening. Anyway, back to base for a coffee and debrief again. 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 |
#2
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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) |
#3
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I know that it give me fits at first, in the little bit of instruction I've
received in helicopters. Adding throttle is opposite of what it is on a motorcycle. It's also the wrong hand which I think, actually helped me a bit. Since I'm not used to operating the throttle with my left hand, the fact that the throttle's movement was also backwards didn't seem to be as big a deal as it might have been if I'd had the collective in my right hand. FWIW! :-) Fly Safe, Steve R. "boB" wrote in message .. . Many that drive motorcycles had a hard time getting used to the 300's throttle direction. boB, SAG 70 U.S. Army Aviation (retired) Central Texas - 5NM West of Gray Army Airfield (KGRK) |
#4
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"Steve R" wrote in message
... I know that it give me fits at first, in the little bit of instruction I've received in helicopters. Adding throttle is opposite of what it is on a motorcycle. It's also the wrong hand which I think, actually helped me a bit. Since I'm not used to operating the throttle with my left hand, the fact that the throttle's movement was also backwards didn't seem to be as big a deal as it might have been if I'd had the collective in my right hand. Actually, I don't have to think about which way to turn the throttle until some other effect does the opposite to what I'm expecting with the engine RPM. It's bloody awkward trying to turn it the wrong way when raising the collective, so despite my motorcycle history, I'm hoping it wont give me too much trouble! Si |
#5
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"boB" wrote in message
.. . 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.... Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I know there'll be times when something just doesn't come together and I struggle. I'm doing this for the challenge, so to be honest, that's what I want! The hardest part for me is probably going to be doing all the study that JAA insists on. I'm not good at studying anymore. My day job is all sitting down, thinking and concentrating hard, so I don't have a lot of mental energy left at the end of the day. And I hope sooner or later that the gibberish I hear over the headphones begins to sound legible, cos it doesn't at the moment! Si |
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