Off airport to Sportsman, no wait, McMinnville.

Flight #: 011
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N7526S
Duration: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 10.7hrs

Off airport flight to Sportsman (2S6) then McMinnville Airport (MMV).


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I was unable to grab a pattern this morning, so we had to do our work elsewhere. The north looked a little hazy so we opted to head to a new airport, Sportsman, which is to the south a bit to try some approaches. The flight out was nice... different areas, but when we got there they were doing lawn maintenance, etc, and there were tractors all over the runway. Rather tangle with them, Kristie decicided to jump us down to McMinnville Airport. Usually it is too far to fly on a single 2 hour block, but since we were already 25 minutes south, we just kept going.

Interestingly enough, I recognized McMinnville from the air... mainly because of the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum buildings. We went there last year with my dad to see the Spruce Goose aka Hughes Flying Boat, H-4, HK-1 - the largest airplane ever constructed.

In any case, you can imagine the museum building that is needed to house this monster. To give some idea, all the other planes in the museum fit (more or less) within the area it covers. Not little planes, mind you, big ones like the SR71 Blackbird, etc. Anyway, worth the visit.

Since we had to fly about 50 miles to get here, we ended up doing only a few patterns and had to head back. School rule, you need to return with 1/4 tank of fuel. And, we were going to push that limit as it was. I've been losing weight, but still we're only taking 16gal of 100LL fuel with us. The more I lose, the more fuel we can take.

Overall, decent flight and enjoyable, although I can't say I stretched myself at all on this... straight level flight is pretty easy these days. More of a tour than a lesson. Suppose that is why I need to get myself a pattern!

Airport Operations

Today was a ground training day. Mainly we went over the FAR/AIM. Discussed transponder codes, airport signs and markings and tower communications.

Early morning clouds on the ridge...

Flight #: 010
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N7526S
Duration: 0.9hrs
Cumulative Time: 9.8hrs

Could not get a pattern today... again, so we had to head up to SPB (Scappoose airport code) for some flight time. SPB is an uncontrolled airport - which means there is no air traffic control tower to regulate flights in, around, out. This is primarily because the airport is low use and is used mostly by private pilots with their own planes. This also means, that you have to be on your toes and constantly be on the radio telling everyone what you want/plan to do. You also need to listen for the same communication. By far the most important thing at this airport is your visual sweep... apparently there are quite a few pilot that use this airport that are not up on their radio communications - some don't even have them turned on. So, very important to keep an eye open for them.

Flight to SPB was normal, but there was some low level clouds coming over one of the ridges along the way. We were at 2000ft, with plenty of visibility, so this was not a proble, but it was amazing to see the clouds spill over and into the small gorges in the area.

After some good pattern practice and even better hovering practice we did some "quick stops". This is the act of "coming in hot" (fast) towards your landing spot and landing in much less of a distance than would be necessary for a normal approach. (BTW, airplanes can't do this... obviously... only us. :) The procedure is basically this - aft cyclic to flare up a tad and lower collective pitch while applying right pedal. Kind of like sliding to a stop in wool socks on a kitchen floor. Or a sliding stop on skis. You are "leaning back" to direct as much force in front of you to slow down. As you sink down you ride ETL (Effective Translational Lift) to the ground and at the last few feet you raise collective and apply left pedal to come to a nice clean hover. That is the theory anyway. My first few were a little less graceful. Mainly in the hover at the end. I could come down, raise too much collective too quickly, yaw right and bounce back up in the air. Towards the end I think I figured it out, maybe B-?

One thing which I can take a way is that helicopters are dynamic beasts... they change their operation under various situations. Not just a little... significantly. So, what feels right at 3knots, no longer feels right at 10knots, etc. You need to adjust and anticipate what is about to happen so that you are ready to correct for it.

For example, when you are in your car... accelerating from 0 to 60 over a mile. You hold on to the wheel... keep it straight... and press on the accelerator.

Pretty simple. In a helicopter you start in a steady hover, transition to forward flight. If you remain at this speed you are taxiing and things are pretty much constant.

Above a certain forward speed, say 10knots, you enter ETL. This is the state where the froward motion of your rotors is such that you are entering clean and undisturbed air... not just chopping up your own rotor wash.
This causes you to get more lift and reduce drag. As a result, you pop up... and I mean pop up rather quickly. The helicopter yaws left because not not only does the MR (main rotor) have better efficiency, the TR (tail rotor) does as well.

Since this always will happen, you need to correct for it if you want to stay in flight. Lower collective, forward on the cyclic and right pedal.

Kristie is good at it... I did not know there was even an effect of ETL like that... because she always anticipated it was coming and corrected instantly. That is, of course, until she told me that it was there and that she would stop correcting this time. Popped up, like a cork, flared back and spun 45º left. Rather quickly, I may add.

I've gotten to the point where I can correct it pretty quickly... just not anticipate it yet.

It will come with time, I know.

Scappoose Hover

Flight #: 009
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 8.5hrs


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Apparently all that wind last flight payed off. I had a perfect hover day. Amazing that when it clicks, it clicks!

Wind+ Hover = Frustration

Flight #: 008
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2548S
Duration: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 7.3hrs

Alpha patterns & hovering again. But this time, with a pretty steady 7-10 knot winds... hovering was a %!^@#. Pendular motion all over the place. It's a shame the helicopter does not respond to intense squeezing pressure on the cyclic. I definitely have a, as Kristie calls it, "death grip" when I get into rough motion.

We happened to be practicing near the end of runway 30 where there is a large (25ft high) rock and stone noise abatement wall. I did fine hovering when in the lee of this wall, but pop up a little to high, and it was all over.

Frustrating day... but I suppose it is all practice and it is real to have wind.

Patterns, Hover, Touchdown, Takeoff

Flight #: 007
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2548S
Duration: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 6.0hrs

Really nice evening flight. Moon was full and we had great visibility. Spent all our time doing approaches, take-offs, hovers, touchdowns and landings. Made progress again, and really think I'm getting it. Hovering is getting easier, but I really need to be light on the controls. Too much input.

All dressed up and no place to go.

Today was a beautiful sunny and cool day... except, of course for wind gusts of 18knots.

The short of it is... we did the pre-flight and start-up procedures, rolled the engine up to 100%, did our final check for weather and found out that there was too much wind. Actually, Kristie thought that it would have just been a waste of time to try to learn hover control in such a wind. Why waste the money and time for her to have to keep me from floating off into the breeze.

I agreed.

We scrapped it and powered down.

Ground Training - Emergency Procedures

The last two sessions were both 2hr ground training blocks focused on Aerodynamics of Hazardous Flight. Sounds kind of intense, but the point of it all is to make sure that when (not if) something unexpected happens I know what to do. Makes good sense - be prepared.

These are the topics we covered:

Dynamic Rollover:
Description: Uncontrollable roll of helicopter under power.
Requirements:
1) Pivot point
2) Rolling moment
3) Main rotor (MR) or tail rotor (TR) thrust
Example: During a hover your skid gets caught on a runway landing light.

Static Rollover
Description: Uncontrollable roll of helicopter.
Requirements:
1) Pivot point
2) Rolling moment
Example: Landing on a slope where the settling angle of the helicopter exceeded the critical rollover angle. Basically, falling over.

Retreating Blade Stall
Description: Unintended and dangerous motion in forward flight at hight speed. Because the advancing and retreating blades will have different relative airflow, certain conditions can cause turbulence in the outer region of the retreating blade.
Factors:
1) Too hight of an airspeed. Above helicopter design limitations.
2) Over / High total weight
3) Low rotor RPM
4) High density altitude
5) Turbulence
6) Abrupt turns
Example: High speed causes low frequency vibration, pitch up and roll.

Low Rotor RPM / Blade Stall
Description: Total failure of main rotor blades resulting from low RPM
Factors:
1) too high of a pitch angle on MR blades
2) governor failure
3) high density altitude
4) pilot error
5) heavy, hot, humid & high
Example: The engine is under too much stress because of the force needed to drive the rotors and drop below acceptable ranges.
Recovery: Lower collective & Roll up throttle

Settling with Power / Vortex Ring States
Description: Full power cannot prevent descent. Due to the MR blade tip vortices, that occur normally, the helicopter gets caught in it's own downdraft and cannot maintain altitude.
Requirement Triad:
1) Power of at least 18' manifold pressure
2) Airspeed less than ETL
3) Descent rate > 300 feet / minute
Example: Coming in for a landing and not maintaining appropriate airspeed with too fast of a descent.
Recovery: Lower collective to reduce vorticies and increase airspeed (to get out of down-wash)

Low G
Description: When climbing a sudden pitch down removes all weight load from the main rotor causing excessive roll to the right. Significant possibility for mast bumping and main rotor separation.
Recovery: Re-load the main rotor with aft cyclic.

LTE (Loss of Tail-Rotor Effectiveness)
Description: The anti-torque rotor no long is providing the thrust to prevent intense yaw.
Types:
1) Main Rotor Disc Interference: If a wind is blowing at the helicopter from the front left, the turbulence generated from the MR can be directed into the TR - reducing its thrust.
2) Weather-Vane Effect: If there is a strong tail wing, the helicopter will tend to act like a weather vane (just like on top of a barn) and point head-in to the wind.
3) TR Vortex Ring State: Similar to "Settling with Power", a strong wind opposite the thrust of the TR will force it's own turbulent air into its path... decreasing the overall thrust.


Lots of bad things here... obviously. There will be plenty of test situations during real flight to practice the recovery procedures. Kristie mentioned that at points later in the training she will covertly be bringing power down and looking for me to recover. That will be interesting.

Hover!

Flight #: 006
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 4.9hrs


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Well, I've hit a milestone... hover. And it was amazing. It felt like 3 minutes, but it was more likely 30 seconds. Who cares... it was incredible.

We also did quite a few patterns in Alpha today... practice in picking a landing spot and sticking it. I was consistently high and would pass our mark.

I've been keeping up with running, every other day. It's late, I'm tired, but hover happy.

Mystery Fog / Ground Training

Today was planned as a flight, but we were grounded due to very heavy fog. Odd thing is that the fog was only around the airport. The drive to the airport was beautiful... I could actually see early morning stars.

Perhaps it was the fact that we were not scheduled on 61N, perhaps just unlucky. I did get a chance to do the pre-flight tho... which is certainly helping my part-location-accuracy and efficiency getting things completed correctly.

Afterwards we grabbed about an 1.5 hrs of ground training. Topics were around aerodynamics, and emergency recovery.

We have an evening slot planned for some flights... since today looks both calm and clear.

Alpha & Bravo / Hovering

Flight #: 005
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 3.7hrs


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Today's flights were in Alpha & Bravo patterns. These two patterns are reserved areas in/around HIO for maneuvers - both real and practice. In my case, all practice. We actually could not get space in the patterns officially, so Kristie bargained with another CFI & student for some time... which I have to say was pretty cool of them to share.

After pre-flight check, which I'm proud to say I did today all by myself and within a decent amount of time, we headed out to Alpha Pattern for some pattern practice. The point was to run through procedures and to practice descents and turning in real space. While I did not get it down too well this time, I think I grasp what we're after here. It is all about doing everything I have learned already, but withing real boundaries... like taxiways, ATC towers, etc. I think I followed the ground tracks Kristie gave me, but I was never at the correct altitude. Most often, too high. First time, I know.

During one of my passes at a practice take-off I was climbing a little too slowly and not turning quickly enough... Kristie calmly said, "You'll want to turn now, before the tower". Translation: "Turn now, before you clip the tower." Practice makes perfect, I guess.

After a few more turns, Kristie crossed the runway and took us into Bravo pattern for a starter lesson in hovering. This is, by far, the hardest thing I've done. This seems to fit with what everyone says... but still. Kristie broke the lesson down into 4 distinct parts:

• Part 1 - Pedals. She gave me control of the pedals. The exercise here was for me to yaw the helicopter right and left to point at a particular landmark of Kristie's choosing. This, honestly, was not too hard. Just have to remember to cancel out the movement, when you were getting close, with the opposite pedal. We did a few 90º left/right turns. Not bad. The R22 pivots quite quickly and you really have to be light on the pedals. A few gusts of wind made it interesting at points, but I think I got this one.
• Part 2 - Collective. This time I had control of only the collective. My job was to raise/lower us while in hover. ±10ft up or down. Again, this was not so bad... and I think I got this one down pretty well too.
• Part 3 - Collective & Pedals. She ratcheted things up a little by giving me both pedals and collective this time. The trick here is to remember all that you know about Part 1 & 2, but also remember that as you change the pitch of the blades (by changes to the collective) you also increase/decrease the load on the engine. This results in a change of torque and causes the helicopter to yaw. The rule is, when you raise the collective you are increasing the angle of attack (AOA) of the blades. The produces more lift and causes the helicopter to ascend. It also increases the torque and you yaw to the right. To counteract this, you need to put in left pedal to prevent this yaw. Raise collective, left pedal. After a few cycles of up and down... I think I also got this down.
• Part 4 - Cyclic. Wow... this is tricky. I suppose I should have known when Kristie took control of collective and pedals. Best way for me to describe this is by an analogy; remember the little wooden maze toy where you had two knobs controlling two axis of the game board? Your job was to guide a ball along a maze by tilting the playing deck and rolling the ball from start to finish. Hovering a helicopter is very much like that game. You start drifting one direction and you counteract with the opposite motion. Too much over correction and you go the other way... fast. Not enough, well, you don't stop soon enough. It took me significantly longer to understand what I really needed to do here, but I think I'm getting it. It is all about the instant reaction to a motion followed by small corrective inputs. Due to something called pendular action, the path you trace out when you over-correct a movement looks much like motion of a pendulum. The helicopter acts as if it were suspended by a single point, the rotor mast, and you appear to swing back and forth. It is a little un-nerving, but it is predictable so you know which direction you are going to swing next... and can correct quickly. I had a few nice corrections after getting us into this state. But, you really should not be in this state begin with. While I need a lot of work here, I understand what I need to do... just practice. One thing which Kristie did which I really thought was interesting was to give me control over the cyclic and then let me hover in place. She would then give a little pedal and yaw us in one direction. I'd have to compensate and keep us hovering. Tricky, but it was all about keeping your eyes outside.
  

We ate up lots of time hovering... and I am sure we'll be doing lots more. Clearly a tough thing to master.

Wrap-Up (a.k.a. Things I learned today):

1. Fly first, then communicate.
2. Raise collective == Left Pedal / Lower collective == Right Pedal
3. Pendular Motion is not a fun state to be in..
4. You don't need the key to start the pre-flight.
5. Wear a t-shirt. It gets hot in the cabin.
6. Cyclic is pronounced "PSY-click" not "SICK-lick"

"Keep your eyes outside"

Flight #: 004
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.7hrs
Cumulative Time: 2.5hrs


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I think I'm getting it... I really do. This morning's flight was fantastic. Weather was a little rough this morning on the way in, but winds and rain stopped during my pre-flight check. I completed 100% of the pre-flight today, and I think I'm getting pretty good at it - if I do say so myself. Basically it is a confidence around knowing that I am looking at the yoke flanges when I'm really supposed to.

After we powered up we actually decided to hold back and let the Jet Ranger, turbine chopper used by the local Fox news network land first. I was surprised at the effect of their down wash... felt like we were going to get blown away.

We got clearance for the WPA and headed out for some maneuvers. Plan was to set the floor at 1000ft and act as if we were executing a series of approaches.

Kristie keeps telling me to keep my eyes off the instruments and look outside. You do this, obviously, in a car when you drive, but I'm just not used to the feel of the helicopter yet... so I keep checking altitude, speed, manifold pressure and carburetter temperature. Fact is, if you jut glance down, every so often, as you do now with your rear-view mirror and speedometer you are much better off. She was telling me that she uses the position of the compass / compass mount in relation to a point on the horizon to estimate the pitch angle (nose down) of the helicopter - this is related to the speed when in forward motion.

This is, obviously different for everybody and every helicopter, but it turned out to be a pearl of wisdom... because I stopped fixating on the gauges.

My flight was sooo much better. I stopped wobbling and executing rapid speed changes, etc.

She really knows some good tricks and I enjoyed the flight a lot more... not only can you focus on what you are trying to do... turns, climbs, etc... but you enjoy scenery too.

At this point, turns... that's the coolest part of flight. The banking.

Flight back was uneventful, but interesting because thre were so many people coming back to base. Lots of radio chatter.

Frasca TruFlight H (aka Flight Sim)

Due to a pretty nasty weather front in the area we took some time on the flight simulator. More or less to run over startup and shutdown procedures for the R22. Definitely an interesting lesson, but very different from the real thing. Actually, to be more fair, the instruments look/act pretty much the same as the real thing, but flight is definitely odd. First of all, there is no mass or motion... so accurate muscle memory is lost. So, while worth the time to go over the checklists, it definitely has a lot to be desired. I did get into a good hover tho. But again, does not really count for much.

We also squeezed in about an hour of ground training - primarily on airfoils and aerodynamics. Did a bit of review and will dive in to the lift equation next time.

Another flight (I hope) tomorrow.

West Practice Area & Drama

Flight #: 003
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 0.7hrs
Cumulative Time: 1.4hrs



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Today's flight was into the western practice area, aka WPA for some basic flight maneuvers.

I did all of the pre-flight check on my own this time... Kristie, of course, did a follow up at the end to make sure I did not skip / miss anything. The checklist does include the nuts that hold on the main rotor (aka Jesus Nut) - you need to make sure they are tight.


When complete we jumped in and began the start-up sequence. I ran through most of the steps which did not involve throttle or collective control; Kristie handles that for now.

We got clearance for a west departure and headed out to the west practice area - an airspace above and around Hillsboro that is used by the HAI students. As you can see from the rough path in the map above, it was to do a series of turns to get comfortable with the controls. Kristie asked me to do things like:

• 90º turns and maintain airspeed
• 90º turns and maintain altitude
• 90º climbing or descending turns
• 180º turns maintaining airspeed and altitude

The R22 is a small helicopter, but it is not under powered at all. I think the toughest part for me was maintaining airspeed. While a helicopter can stay in a motionless hover at any altitude, there are certain aerodynamic forces which come in to play when in forward motion... namely lift. Basically, the rotor disc, under significant forward motion gains additional lift, beyond what is generated by rotation. When you stop moving forward, you lose (lessen) this component. For this very reason the airspeed indicator has a green zone where you want to keep the needle:

I was all over the place! When you pitch forward, you both increase airspeed and descend. Pitch aft, you decrease airspeed and ascend. I was at 40 knots then at 60, back to 50, then up to 80. Remember when you were learning to drive and didn't figure out the accelerator pedal... the lurch feeling. That... only at 1500ft.

I did get a little better at it... but I kept focusing inside the cabin and not outside... which, apparently, is a newbie thing to do... but I'm not yet comfortable with the feel of things yet. SO, got plenty of stuff to work on.

Then at about 18:30, and here comes the drama, we got a call from another HAI helicopter in the northern part of the WPA. Basically looking for any/all HAI flights in the WPA to report in. We happened to be the only other ones out there and we were asked to help out. Apparently a third helicopter was doing off airport landings and was doing some in a field in the WPA. In the middle of the landing, one of the anti-torque pedals locked up and they started to yaw. The CFI safely landed, and radioed maintenance back at HAI. A fourth helicopter came out, bringing the mechanic and taking the student back to the school. Turned out that this was not an in-the-field fix and it was getting dark. So, we were asked to high-tail it back to base, drop me off, and then Kristie and another helicopter with another CFI were to fly back to pick up the mechanic and original pilot. All before it got dark. Mind you, it was already pretty dark.

Kristie took the controls and pointed us back towards home. She gave me the controls back to see if I wanted to take it home.... I did, and we headed back. About 1 minute after she politely pointed out that I was back at 50 knots airspeed and wanted to get back a little faster. I gave controls and she powered back to the airport. She landed very quickly (but softly) and left power on while I grabbed my stuff and headed in. As soon as I was clear, and they were both ready to go, both helicopters took off like a shot.

Turns out, everything was fine and the pilot / mechanic were picked up in time. No major issue... but some drama, no doubt.

KHIO 151722Z 00000KT 1 1/2SM -RA BR BKN003 BKN030 OVC075 11/11 A2978 RMK AO2 P0002

The VFR (Visual Flight Rules) require that we have 3SM (Statute Mile) visibility and a 1000ft cloud level before we can fly. And, well... we didn't get that this morning. If you look at the Title above, you can see a METAR for KHIO you will see:

1 1/2SM : 1.5 Statute Mile Visibility
RA BR BKN003: Rain, Mist, Broken Cloud Layer @ 300ft

Basically... no fly.

We did, however, get in 2.0 hrs of ground instruction in. While not as thrilling as flying, I need this time. Apparently it can be really ugly if all the flight training is done up front. Not only will you have to catch up with 35 hrs of ground time in a row, but you will most likely have to put in extra flight time at then end to brush up before your FAA test. So, every rainy, grey Oregon cloud has a silver lining.

In the interim, I asked my bro, Charlie to add something for me to Google's SMS toolset. You may already know that you can send SMS messages to GOOGLE (466453) with a bunch of keywords... and it will SMS you back the answer.

Since all pilots have to check the weather, how cool would it be to SMS Google with a metar khio and have it send you an SMS:
KHIO 151722Z 00000KT 1 1/2SM -RA BR BKN003 BKN030 OVC075 11/11 A2978 RMK AO2 P0002

Every pilot would use it!

Please Charlie! You OWE me.

Flashback: 2003

A bunch of "MLP" friends went to London in February, 2003. One of the many things we saw while we were there was an emergency services helicopter land and lift off between buildings in front of St. Paul's Cathedral. Happened to dig it up to show my CFI.

Hillboro Patterns

Today was a ground training day. 2.5hrs of ground training, to be exact. Most of the lesson covered basic helicopter controls, basic flight principles, aviation communications, and Hillsboro Airport pattern layouts, among other things.

There is a rather old photo copy of these patterns hanging in the pilot lounge, so I decided that I needed to update it a bit. Now publicly available via Google Maps, by the way.

A little explanation:

• blue shaded area is 'A' or 'Alpha Pattern'; basically a practice area to fly in,
• green shaded area is 'B' or 'Bravo Pattern',
• purple shaded area is 'C' or 'Charlie Pattern',
  
• red shaded areas are noise sensitive areas where you need to be very conscious of your altitude. Better to just avoid them all toether.
• the yellow line is runway 30 (heading NW) or 12 (heading SE)
• the orange line is runway 20 (heading SW) or 02 (heading NE)
• green lines are hovering taxiway areas
• the 'i' is the air traffic control tower

An interesting fact I learned today is the runway naming convention. Append a '0' to the end of the runway number and you have the compass direction. So, runway 30 is pointing at 300º. Pretty convenient when you need to know how to line up for landing.




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Family visit.

Was a rather overcast Saturday so I took the opportunity to take Sandy and Zoe out to the airport to show them around a little.

Flight 002: Downtown Portland Helipad

Flight #: 002
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 0.7hrs
Cumulative Time: 0.7hrs

Absolutely incredible. Today's flight was from HIO to Portland's downtown public heliport.

Click and drag the map to explore more of the flight.



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This was one of the most incredible things I have done in my life so far. Feelings were all over the map. I was pumped full of adrenaline both from excitement and also from fear - just being honest here. It is not often that you are 1500 ft in the air zipping through radio/HDTV towers at 70 nmph towards a city.

You can see a rough estimate of the flight path above, but we essentially left HIO, northbound, and followed route 26 east to downtown Portland. I would say that I actually controlled the cyclic for about 90% of the distance on Rt. 26. Kristie had both the anti-torque pedals and the collective at this point. She actually made the approach into downtown and flew a northerly course along the river. If you look at this leg in the map above, you will see a private helipad on the left. You need special permission to even make an approach at this pad, so we just zipped on by. About a mile further north we saw the public heliport on our left, and did a slow flyby to check the wind socks for wind direction. Conveniently there was no wind. She continued north with a large, lazy counter clockwise loop around Portland's Union Station. We lined up for an approach to the heliport and started to descend. The landing was soft and direct and we just sat for a few minutes to check weather.

After some instrument checks, we powered up and lifted off. This heliport is actually on top of a downtown parking garage. I'm sure we've even parked there before (right near the Portland Saturday Market) but never knew. Seems that the rule is, if you get out of the helicopter or power down, you need to pay a landing fee. A touch-and-go, like this, is free since there is no point doing it unless you are training. After we got to about 500 ft, Kristie gave me both the cyclic and the collective control. As one might expect, there is a protocol for doing a control hand-off:

Kristie: "You have the cyclic and the collective."
Kristie is in full control. I've got my hands on the controls loosely so at to feel her adjustments.

Chris: "I have the cyclic and the collective."
I hold the controls completely.

Kristie: "You have the cyclic and the collective."
Kristie lets go completely.

Same idea as the submarine "dive, dive, dive" command. Everybody knows and agrees to what is happening next.

At this point, Kristie told me to follow 26 west, back to the airport by heading between two clumps of radio / HDTV towers. As with any new venture, there is a change in vocabulary and acronyms. They call those clumps the Antenna Farm.

The flight back was a little more relaxed and I got to enjoy myself a little more. Navigation was purely by sight and we just followed the highway all the way to The Stadium (Hillsboro's football stadium). Within a 5 mile radius of the airport Kristie radioed the tower and we were given an approach on runway 20.

We hover taxied to the hover-cone and then took position on the helicopter taxiway. She set us down nice and gently. We did a quick post-flight check and clocked out.

Only the second flight, I know... but this is incredible.

Squawk or Trend?

S q u a w k !

For a bit of background:

A squawk is the term for a maintenance issue of significant size to effect the air worthiness of an aircraft. Think, fuel line leak or crack/dent in the tail boom. Basically, a big deal.
A trend is a maintenance issue to note that does not effect anything significant on the aircraft. A rattle in the cockpit or night-time running lights being out during daytime operation.

Anyway, today was rather messy weather-wise - lots of ground fog. The entire airport was grounded at 7am. So, while we were waiting for things to clear up, Kristie ran me through the pre-flight check procedures for a Robinson R22. This involves checking and touching every control surface for cracks and deformations, testing each and every flight control fastener, and sampling fuel at various stages in the fuel system. It also involves reviewing the maintenance folder for the helicopter. This particular helicopter had 2 trend forms attached. See if you can guess why we chose not to fly today:

Trend #1: "Cracks in main rotor belt. Felt nail underneath."

Trend #2: "Main engine gasket leaking oil. Oil spraying all over carburettor and electrical system. Possible electrical system and/or engine fire."

First of all, we noticed nothing like this in the pre-flight inspection. Not even a hint of a leak or a crack. However, someone chose to notify maintenance of this, and we were not about to fly with that type of trend. Second, and more importantly, this is clearly not a trend at all... this is a major squawk and the aircraft should not be flying. This was confirmed in 5 seconds from the maintenance crew chief after reading the records. Someone is going to get their butt chewed over this.

Anyway, I did get about 1 hour of ground training out of this. Unfortunately I did not get to fly to the PDX heliport. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon. We did get up on the big board.



I did, however, test out my new headset. It is quite obvious that the best is the best for a reason. In the off position, headset decreased ambient noise by about 75%. When I switched on the ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) circuit I might as well have been on the moon. Silence.

I made weight!

I've made it... I'm under the maximum weight for the Robinson R22 helicopter. Success! I still have to lose some more, but talk about a reward for the effort.

I got this news today during my first meet with my Certified Flight Instructor, Kristie. While I did not get a chance to fly today, I did get the full walk through on the inner workings of the flight school. It really felt like the first days of school... books, supplies and even a new backpack. Well, not a backpack, actually - a flight bag.

While I'm sure I will need other books and supplies as I move through the program, here is what I needed:

• Rotating navigation plotter
• Paper flight computer
• Private Pilot Rotorcraft Practical Test Standards
• Standard Pilot Logbook
• Robinson R22 Pilot's Guide
• Robinson R22 Pilot's Operational Handbook (POH)
  
• FAA Manual - FAR/AIM
• 2008 Private Pilot Test Prep
• Hillsboro Aviation Syllabus
• and, the big ticket item, Bose Aviation Headset X

Today I got a glimpse of the internal, light hearted, jabs between fixed wing and rotor craft pilots. Weather was pretty rough today and the field was covered with some mid-level clouds. As a result, all the student fixed wing flights were grounded until it lifted. The helicopters were still cleared to fly since they usually fly between 500 - 700ft. All the students and instructors were milling around in the dispatch room waiting for clearance. One of the instructors was explaining this fact to his student and said, "Nothing flying but the 'copters".

Kristie, responded back, "Yea, well, that is what we do... fly."

:)


Tomorrow morning is my first official 1-on-1 instruction... in the R22. Flight plan consists of a flight along Route 26 into downtown Portland, and a landing on one of the downtown heliports. It should be especially interesting as I will be doing this during morning rush-hour.

Stay tuned for the actual flight plan.

Scheduled and ready to go.

Got a call today from my instructor, Kristie H. and we started to plan out some times for flights. Not really sure how Hillsboro Aviation does there class scheduling normally, but this seems a little odd. At this point, I've got up to 6 windows a week alloted to me - unfortunately, they are all at 7:00am. I suppose it is not that bad after all, as this will not interfere with the rest of my life. We'll see how things work out, but going into winter here in Portland does not bode too will for clear skies.


Here is the plan, we meet this Wednesday @ 11:00am to get paperwork and course materials all settled. Possibly have time for a flight - all depends on timing and weather. Then, Thursday morning, 7:00am at HIO for our first Instructor/Student lesson.

And, of course, a running update - Now doing 3.75m in the last 2 running sessions. I've been keeping a pretty good record, although I skipped Friday and Sunday. I am down one notch on the belt, tho. Progress.

Next steps

Now I'm in a bit of a waiting pattern until I can get scheduled flight times and match that with an instructor. I expect to have a plan in the next few days.

It is interesting, now that I'm very interested in flying, I'm noticing a lot more helicopters in the air. I'm sure it is cause I have them on-the-brain, but still.

Also, I'm able to recognize a few from their profile. A whole new world of jargon and tech-talk, people.

I'm medically fit!

...or so the FAA says.

I passed my Class II FAA Medical exam today. Which means that I'm technically allowed to fly.

I suppose it makes sense, since the pilot is a single point of failure, but this was a pretty serious physical. They checked:

• height / weight
• distance and closeup vision
• color perception
• focus and eye movement
  
• urine protein and sugar
• heart
• breathing
  
• reflexes
• balance
• hernia
• medical history
• previous prescriptions

I dunno what I expected, honestly, something less "turn your head and cough-y", I guess.

Interestingly, my previous history of migraines was a big deal. The FAA form asked quite a lot of questions along the lines of "Have you ever had any heart disease?", "Have you ever been treated for depression?", "Have you ever has a substance abuse problem?" and "Have you ever had frequent or severe headaches?". I used to get migraine headaches quite often in college and graduate school... so I answered truthfully... "Yes".

Well, apparently there is a whole different scale I was not aware of in defining migraine headaches. It turns out I did not have "severe" headaches at all... but "moderate" ones. Could have fooled me! Anyway, "severe" is defined as prevents all activities. In my case, I would have preferred not to have been doing anything and just gone to bed... but if I had to do something, I could. And that is the definition of "moderate migraines" - inhibits, but does not wholly prevent usual activities.

After a bit of further explanation on the severity and infrequent nature of my headaches the doc cleared me.

So, I'm cleared. Classes start the week of October 8th. I've been reading the books... I'm ready to go.

Ask and ye shall receive.

A lot of people have been asking how one actually controls a helicopter. I've been doing a lot of reading on the mechanics of flight controls... so let me share what I've learned so far.

There are three basic types of movement in a flight; yaw, pitch and roll.

yaw: is the rotation around the axis of the main rotor blades. Think, turning your head right or left. That's yaw.

pitch: is the change in the angle of the nose. Nose up, nose down. Again, think looking up and looking down.

roll: is the only other motion you can do with your head... tilt is right or left. Banking the helicopter to the right or left.


Now, the interesting part is how this is all done inside the cockpit.

The cyclic is joystick like control between your knees that moves the helicopter forward, backwards, left and right - or any combination of these. It actually deforms the main rotor in such a way where the whole blade plane tilts in the direction you want to go.

The collective looks like an emergency hand brake in your car. Except in this case, it's job is to change the angle of the rotating main rotor blades. The more you pull up on the collective, the greater the angle of blade twist - and therefore the more bite the blade takes out of the air. This increases the lift on the blades and the helicopter rises. A side effect of changing the angle is that this increases the load on the engine and you need to compensate by increasing the throttle. The throttle is a twist handle on the collective.

The anti-torque petals control the pitch of the tail rotor, either increasing or decreasing the thrust at the back of the tail boom. This thrust effects the yaw of the helicopter. A lot of things can result in the need to step on the pedals; changing throttle, turning, wind, etc. The biggest reason you need the tail rotor in the first place is to counteract the rotational torque caused by the spinning main rotor. As the blades turn counter-clockwise, the body of the helicopter will want to rotate clockwise. Obviously, you don't want this... so you need to make sure there is enough thrust keeping you pointed in the direction you really want to go.

Flight is a combination of all three controls... cyclic, collective and pedals. With these you can move in any direction you want.

...and that is how Airwolf and Blue Thunder fly.