Long flight today...

Hi Kevin,

Great write up as usual!

You've been talking about hoping to go solo in the past couple of posts
you've made. I'd say you're almost there. This one sounds like the classic
"backslide" in skill level right before everything comes together. Don't
let it get you down!

Also, you may not have been feeling it before or while you were flying but
I'd almost guarantee that your "cold" was effecting you this day. Been
there, done that! As hard as it might be, take your time and give yourself
a chance to get over this. Your last few posts make it sound like the
training has been relatively intense lately. That's not uncommon when
building the last few hours toward the first solo. A few extra days off
will probably do you a lot of good right now, not only to give you time to
recover from your illness, but also to give your mind time to absorb
everything you've learned in the cockpit. Hope you start feeling better
soon. Best of luck & keep the stories coming! :-)

Fly Safe,
Steve R.


"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz *AT* adelphia *DOT* net wrote in
message ...
On the book at 10 today, but got a call from my instructor (let's call
him "Q" from now on 'cuz I'm too lazy to type "my instructor") called
me last night to let me know the ship I was scheduled in might not be
ready to fly as it was down for maintenance.

Called him at 8 sharp and he said he'd call the A&P and find out WTF
was up. I got a call back a few minutes later and was told it "should
be ready". I asked him if it was school "should be ready" or real
life "should be ready." He laughed and told me he was told by the
mechanic it'd be ready and the A&P in question was a good one.

Hey, any day at the field is better than working, so I hit the road.
Sure enough, when I got there, the ship was out on the tarmac with two
mechs messin' with it. I went ahead and did up my paperwork just in
case it was ready to go. Hell, I had almost 90 minutes to kill so why
not be productive?

About 30 mins later, I'm enjoying a fine cup of 7-11 coffee in a very
patriotic "Bush" election cup and I see the helo being wheeled down to
the maintenance hangar. I ran out to ask the A&Ps if it was going to
live and was told it was good to go and they just needed to "remove
the gear". I gave 'em a big thanks and told 'em they were my heroes
then ran back to the hangar to find Q so I could ask him where we were
going today..

Didn't see his truck out front and his new digs were locked and dark
so I went back to my coffee and my chair and studied the LA Sectional
a bit.. A few mins later Q walks by and doesn't even acknowledge me.
Probably 'cuz I didn't notice him until he'd walked past me and when I
did see him, I had a mouthful of coffee..

He disappeared out the rear door to the hangar and one of the
mechanics came up from behind me and dropped the ship's binder on the
table next to me. I thanked him again for his fine work and headed to
the ship to begin my preflight. Q was out at the ship wiping it down
so I asked him where we were going. Nowhere special, just the
practice area.. Hangar scuttlebutt says that's where solo flights are
conducted so I was a little excited/nervous when I heard that. Maybe
today's the day!?

Preflight is good but I have to wait for fuel and then have to draw my
samples before I go pay the rent on my coffee and wash the helo crud
off my hands. Strap in, run down the checklist and pretty soon we're
ready to go. I pick it up, hover taxi to the hold short line at the
taxiway and request my departure.. I'm cleared and we're off..

Halfway out Q calls for the controls so I hand 'em off and he flicks
off the governor. Ok, some more governor off flight.. I can do that.
Nope. It's low rotor RPM time.. The one thing that's got me very
nervous in these flying eggbeaters. Q demonstrates it by flying along
with the collective in his armpit and the RPM right around 90% then
demonstrates a recovery.

My turn to try.. I roll off the throttle *VERY* slowly with my eyes
glued to the tach. I don't apply enough collective so we start to
descend and all the while the low rotor horn is bleating like a
sheep.. (Silence of the Lambs, my ass hehehe) My recovery is..
umm.. well, not real good. I roll on the throttle ok, but neglect to
lower the collective and the MAP gauge damn near hits redline. Oops..

I try again and this time it's a little better, but I don't roll in
enough power as the collective is lowered. It takes me a few tries to
figure out the control inputs to recover properly and then it's back
to normal flight with the governor flicked back on..

I reach the practice area a few minutes later and turn downwind for an
approach the "pad" that's out there. Q asks "where would you go if
the engine quit right now?" I spy a nice flat area at about my 1
o'clock and indicate it. "That spot looks good".

"You want to do an auto with a tailwind?" Good thing Q is sittin'
next to me.

"Uhh,, yeah, not a good idea." One more moment of feeling pretty
stupid in the helicopter.. I turn base then final and all off a
sudden it gets really quiet. Q has chopped the throttle on me.. My
right foot reacts to the yaw instantly, but my response on the
collective is about a 1/2 second delayed. I think Q and I dumped
collective right at the same time cuz I don't remember feeling any
resistance on the way down.

RPM starts to spike so I pull in collective and add some forward
cyclic.

"get the entry established and then pick your spot."

I get it reasonably set up and pick a spot between a couple of small
shrubs and then spend the next few seconds chasing the needles on the
tachs before Q recovers. Jeezus Kevin, did you forget how to fly or
what?? I know what I did wrong and verbalize it as I do a climbing
360 to shoot my approach to the "pad".

I'm still too fast on the approach and still get the nose down. That
damned 1996 airplane gene just won't go away.. I eventually get it
sorted out and get us over the spot I was aiming for, but am not at
all happy with how I got us there. "Too hot, too shallow and then too
slow and too steep again."

"That's the problem with you airplane guys"

I'm hovering as we're talking and I decide to set us down. I swear I
never even felt the skids touch and it didn't move a friggin'
millimeter when they did. I think to myself, "now THAT was a sweet
setdown" and go on talking about my approach issues with Q.

He tells me to go ahead and pick it up and go around again, this time
for a steep approach.. OK, these are a little easier for me 'cuz I
can feel the proper attitude and airspeed - or so I thought.. As soon
as I pick the ship up, I ask "How about that set down. Pretty smooth,
huh?

Q looks over and says "Yeah, it was nice, but I wasn't gonna say
anything." Bubble bursted again..

I hit the pattern and turn final. The entry is once again too fast
and it takes quite a bit of aft cyclic to slow down enough to get the
attitude correct. I hit the ETL rumble and once again, Captain Cessna
takes over my hands and I bugger it up. Halfway down the approach I
say out loud "What the hell is wrong with me??" I thought I had this
part pretty much licked.. Frustrating to say the least..

I get us down and Q asks for the controls. He flicks off the governor
and rolls the throttle down until the tach is hovering just above
80%.. I have visions of blade stall running through my head until the
skids touch and he lowers the collective and sets the throttle at
idle.

I ask about blade stall at 80% and he says we'd probably touch down
before it happened in that low hover then tells me to pick it up,
establish a hover and then roll the throttle off until the tachs read
80%.. Ok, he's the boss.. I throttle up to about 85-90% then start
pulling collective and have to roll off the throttle a bit to keep the
correlator from over speeding the engine. needles in the green and I
pick us up to about 3', get stabilized and then start rolling off the
throttle..

The Low RPM horn starts blaring and I find myself really pulling pitch
to maintain a hover and the engine sounds like it's really lugging
hard.. Just as I hit 80%, I run out of collective and the ship
touches down.. I lower collective and roll throttle to idle again.

This time I'm to hit 90% and then recover. I get the hover
established and then get the RPMs to 90 and then attempt a recovery.
I forget to lower the collective a bit as I roll on the throttle and
the MAP gauge really spikes until the rotor rpm comes up. I know what
I did wrong as soon as I did it and explain to Q and then try again.
This time I'm better at it but will need some more practice for sure.

Q asks me to depart to the South and climb to about 1200 feet. Ok, no
problem so off we go. I end up over a relatively flat patch of ground
and I see Q's left hand go to his side and his feet cover the pedals.
I know the throttle chop is coming so I ready myself. About the time
I mentally say "throttle chop", it happens. Even though I'm ready for
it, I'm still surprised by it. This time the entry is better except
for me being a bit slow pulling some collective to stop the RPM
"spike".

Once that's corrected, I'm on the ball all the way down.. At 100',
RPM, airspeed and rate of descent look ok and about 40' up, I start a
slow flare then before I stand it on it's tail, Q recovers and moves
us to a flat spot.. Time for some quick stops.

1st one is ugly.. Collective down way too far and I split the needles
on the flare.. 2nd one is better, but in the flare, I'm dickin' with
the collective and mucking it all up. I realize what I'm doing and go
shoot another one. This time, I don't touch the collective at all
until recovery. Not only does it feel much better, but it's much
easier to recover..

Time to head back so it's off to the North and back to the field. I
shoot the approach to the runway and I feel like I'm flying like I did
2 weeks ago. Too hot, too high etc etc.. Grrr... Once in the hover,
I force myself to take a few deep breaths and try to purge the
airplane gene once again. Too many hours playing flight simulators
here at home.. hhehe

Around once again and it's time to try a steep approach.. Entry is
too fast again, but I get that corrected and get into the ETL rumble.
Ok, I can ride this all the way down. Uh huh, right. Halfway down I
feel like I'm too slow again and let the effing nose drop.. sigh.. I
end up doing a steep entry to a normal approach and since I'm cleared
for the option, I don't even stop for the hover. Quick check of the
instruments and I'm off..

Q wants me at 1200' to do some autos.. OK, maybe I can do those
correctly over here.. My entry is ok, but I'm still a bit flustered
over my approaches and let the airspeed decay too much.. Nose down to
gain some airspeed and then I flare too high. Q recovers us at about
20' and takes us right off.. He explains the procedure again and I'm
kicking myself for flying like crap. He hands me the controls and
tells me to climb to 1,500' for the next one..

To say my entry to this auto sucked would be a gross understatement..
WAY slow on the right pedal and the nose was way too high.. I'd like
to think I corrected the problem, but I'm pretty sure I didn't. Once
the nose was pointed in the right direction, I was able to hold
everything nice all the way down to the flare and then we were off
again.

Q requested a short approach as he wanted to demonstrate 180 autos.
Tower approved the approach so Q shrunk up the pattern and just a
little past abeam the numbers, he entered the auto and began a tight
left turn.. I wasn't following along but I was watching his hands,
head and feet. He was describing the approach and it felt like the
nose was pointed straight down and I could see him glance at the tach
every couple of seconds. He recovered at a hover and handed the ship
over to me.

I said "I think I'll just work on the straight ones for now" and was
told we'd do a couple more, but throw some turns in on the way down.
Back to 1500' and around the pattern I went. Entered the auto ok and
did a couple shallow turns on the way down and recovered to a hover.
Around again and this time Q threw in some steep turns with enough
cyclic to bang the grip off my legs a couple times. I'm going to have
to learn to fly with the grip a bit "higher" than I do now..

No more autos for today so it was off to the compass rose. I air
taxied down and did a quick stop to the rose. Hit some wind towards
the end and ballooned a bit. Time for hover autos. 1st one was ok,
but I completely forgot to move the cyclic forward and to the right so
the ship slid sideways a couple inches at touchdown.

The next couple were better, but I was still a tad late on the right
cyclic. Last one was good. The nose barely yawed and if there was
any movement on the touchdown, I didn't see and/or feel it.

Now it was truly time to head back.. The timer on the console said
1:35.. Wow. time flies when you're.. umm.. flyin'..

Got back to the pad and set it down with little fuss.. I don't seem
to have an issue with that last foot or so anymore.. All that night
hovering practice seems to have helped.

Looking back, I'm wondering if my excitement about a potential solo
had me all worked up. I have to admit I was kind of expecting Q to
step out at some point and turn me loose. Looking back, I'm glad he
didn't and frankly, until I'm satisfied with my approaches, I'm not
going to solo. It will happen when it happens.

I'm supposed to fly tomorrow, but at some point between landing for
the day and driving home, I picked up a cold. I feel like crap right
now and I'm hoping a serious dosing of Echanasea (or however the hell
you spell it) and Alka Seltzer Cough & Cold will have me feeling
better in the morning. Doubtful, but I'm not calling to scrub the
flight until I wake up and can assess my condition.

Does anyone know if 18 year old Glenlivet will cure a cold overnight??
I could sure use a drink...

"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz *AT* adelphia *DOT* net wrote in
message ...
On the book at 10 today, but got a call from my instructor (let's call
him "Q" from now on 'cuz I'm too lazy to type "my instructor") called
me last night to let me know the ship I was scheduled in might not be
ready to fly as it was down for maintenance.
snipped

I'm constantly amazed at the level of detail you remember from your flights.
When I was doing fixed-wing PPL (though I didn't complete it) I would
struggle to walk away from the lesson with any memory of what it was I'd
need to work on, let alone the clarity to analyse it for next time. (I'd
just have to rely on my subconscious to do that and perfect it for me!)

Thanks for another great post. I fear you're contributing in no small part
to me selling my house and becoming penniless...

Si