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"