Stage 1 Flight Test - Conditional Pass!

Flight #: 043
CFI: Richard O..
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.0hrs
Cumulative Time: 48.4hrs

Woot! Pass. Well, conditional pass. But, still. I'm psyched. This was a great flight. Felt really good throughout the whole thing. I was really on for this flight. I was a little anxious... but not nervous. I knew what I knew... and there was nothing that could have been done at that point... just focus on flying. So, what did the Stage 1 Flight Test consist of?

1. Pre-flight Weather Checks - It is up to me to make a good weather decision about the flight. After checking the weather it was pretty clear that today was a perfect day to fly. Calm, cool and sunny. Aced it.
   
2. Paperwork - Before each flight there is a maintenance folder that needs to be filled out. This consists of checking maintenance logs, hobbs timer, etc. All pretty easy, but it has to be done before the flight. Aced it.
   
3. Pre-flight - A nice checklist for you to follow to ensure the safe operation of the helicopter. Aced it.
   
4. Startup - And there is also a checklist to follow for startup. Aced it.
   
5. Lift-off - Once we are run up and ready to go, we start off in a hover. Aced it.
   
6. Gauge Checks - Always check gauges before doing anything of significance. Especially before takeoff. I asked Richard to do something for me in the cabin since I did not want to take my hand off the collective in a hover. He slyly did I what I asked and at the same time pulled an instrument fuse. I caught it on my gauge check. Sneaky Richard... Sneaky. Aced it.
   
7. Communications - There are certain items to communicate to the tower before departure. Today's was, "Hillsboro tower, helicopter 8361-November at HAI with information Echo request west departure." "Helicopter 61-November, Hillsboro tower, cleared to cross runway 02 for west departure." "cross 02, 61-November". And off we go. Aced it.
   
8. West Practice Area - We headed out to WPA for a few maneuvers. Very easy flight out. I had been taught to follow the roads out... but Richard mentioned that I really don't want to shadow the big roads... just in case. Stick to the less busy areas. Aced it.
   
9. Settling With Power - Settling with power is a state where the rotor tip vorticies get so large that you no longer have sufficient lift to keep the helicopter in the air. In this test, I climbed up to 2000ft, got in to a tailwind situation and slowed down to pretty much of a 2000ft hover. All of a sudden you get vibrations... and this is the beginning of ETL (Effective Translational Lift) disappearing... and the onset of SWP. I lowered collective to lessen the vorticies and pushed forward to get out of them. While I got out of SWP effectively, Richard thought I was being a "puss" and got out too early. So he asked for it again... and this time, he wanted me to wait for the "dirty vibrations". This is the actual onset of SWP... and the vibrations are much more significant. So, I did. And got out of it the same way. Miss on the first try, Aced it on the second.
   
10. Engine Failure - This is the what you practice for. Richard, in the middle of our conversation about wind at 1200ft, says "Engine Failure", and rolls off the throttle. I lower collective pitch and put us into an auto rotation. Missed it. As it turns out, this is part of my conditional pass for the stage check. As Richard told me afterwards, when I'm pulling over 20" of manifold pressure in flight, I have about 1 second to drop the collective before I lose engine RPM and get into a bad situation. The correct action is to "punch that fucker through the floor". I did, but slowly and smoothly. I need to be fast and abrupt.
    
11. Weather Check - Before we return into the airspace we need to check weather to make sure we are aware of conditions before we return. In this case, it was still Echo and no changes. Aced it. But...
    
12. Low RPM Recovery - Just as I switched back to tower frequency after checking weather Richard rolled the throttle down. I immediately noticed the change in noise and rolled throttle back on. Aced it.
    
13. Charlie Pattern - We headed back in to Charlie pattern. I needed to determine if there was other traffic in Charlie and which direction they were flying today. It just so happened there were two other helicopters and they were doing left traffic patterns. I noticed this and jumped in line. Aced it.
    
14. Normal Approach - As I have mentioned before, my biggest problem area is picking my descent point and hitting my landing point, so this was a real thing for me. I started early on my descent and started coming in a little shallow. I corrected my descent rate and hit my spot dead on. Aced it.
    
15. Straight-In Autorotation - After a normal takeoff, Richard asked for a straight-in autorotation. I set up for the approach and came in as I wanted to. Fought rotor RPM a little, but got things under control and came in to a nice hover. Aced it.
    
16. Steep Approach - Went around for another pattern in Charlie and came in for a steep approach. While this was executed well, it rushed the flare and it was a little jerky. Not bad, just not smooooth. Aced it.
    
17. Running Landing - Running landings are not hard... they are just a bit loud and violent. You come in over the taxiway or runway at 40 knots at 20 feet. Get low and level out. Then go slow until you drop out of ETL and plop on to the runway at about 10 knots. You come to a skidding halt, steering with your cyclic and pedals. My running landing was successful but I could have kept on course a little better. I ended up on the right side of the taxiway... a little more than I wanted, but success. Aced it.
18. Low RPM Recovery - I picked up from the running landing to a hover and started into a air taxi (20 ft, 40 knots) and Richard rolled down throttle on me... again. Again I caught it. Aced it.
    
19. Slope Landing - There is a man-made hill in Charlie pattern for use in slope landing practice. Executed this nicely, although it was a little slow. Aced it.
    
20. 180-Turning Autorotation - This is basically a maneuver where you enter an autorotation and need to turn in the opposite direction in order to safely land. This was the other area of my conditional pass. I entered nicely, completed the turn without too much concern over the RPM. Problem was, I bled off too much airspeed. I dropped to 50KIAS... which is just to slow. Missed it.
    
21. Max Performance Takeoff - As mentioned in an earlier blog entry... this is a procedure that I've done a number of times and so far have done quite well each time. This one was no different. Aced it.
    
22. Return to parking - After the final round in Charlie pattern Richard was happy with the Stage 1 and wanted to head back to base. I made the call; "Hillsboro tower, 61-November at the north taxiway, request HAI." "61-November, cross both runaways, proceed to parking.", "Cross both runways, 61-November". Off I went.
    
23. Low RPM recovery - On the way back to base, after crossing both runways, Richard rolled down the throttle on me during the air taxi... again, I caught it. Aced it.
    
24. Shutdown - Another nice checklist for one to follow during shutdown. Aced it.
    
25. Post-flight check - After each flight, the pilot in command is required to do a walk though on the helicopter to ensure that there were no issues during the flight. It's a fast process, check the teletemps (thermometer strips that show max temperatures that occurred), feel the bearings, etc. No issues. Aced it.
    
26. Debrief - This is a verbal walk-through of the flight between Richard and I. We went over the good and bad of the flight and this is where I got the signoff and conditional pass.
    

Flight was only 1.0 hrs... and we did a lot in that time. But, as I said, it felt good.

I've got to nail the Engine Failure/Collective issue and run a few more autorotations to maintain my airspeed. Other than that... we're green for solos!

I have to decide where to go now.