Patience... easy does it.

Flight #: 027
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 29.4hrs

Another good flight today. Continuing to practice basic maneuvers. As Kristie said, "You know how to fly this thing... now just get fast and accurate." She's right, of course... I do know how to fly. Hovering is no big thing anymore, I just need to get more focused on the details now.

For example when hovering down the end of the taxi way, I need to stick my heading. I tend to wobble and fishtail quite a bit. The is the side effect of wind, but I should be faster on the pedals to keep any significant movement from happening.

Also, she is referring to the fact that I tend to over correct with my collective to much. After lift off and ascent to pattern altitude (700ft MSL, 500ft AGL) I end up correcting too much and bouncing up and down around my target altitude. Test standards require that I'm with in 100ft of my target, so I'm skirting with that limit now... but I just should be better.

I think it all stems from the fact that the feedback is rather slow... meaning that when I'm happy with my altitude, I should just use the collective a little bit, and just let the helicopter react. I give a little nudge... then wait about 1/2 second. When I don't see correction, I hammer it, and we drop. I just need to be patient.

It's not all bad... I'm worrying about tuning things now... and not keeping aloft.

We started doing running takeoffs today as well. Feels wrong. This is one of those maneuvers that I should never be in. Basically it is how to squeek a liftoff when you can't hover. Basically it is getting light on the skids and then sliding forward, while still on the ground, until you hit ETL. Then, with that added lift component you are able to climb out with much less power than normal. You should never be attempting a take off when you don't have enough power... and should should not be landing in an area where you would get in this situation. But, none the less... it is something you should know... just in case.

We also started hover autorotations. This is when you lose power in a hover. You start out low and work your way up... as you get better. We started at "light on the skids" and worked our way up to about 2 inches off the ground. When Kristie demonstrated it, it was an abrupt but soft landing. When I tried it was like dropping the helicopter from 2 inches. Just like everything else... practice makes perfect.