Flight #: 039
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 0.8hrs
Cumulative Time: 42.8hrs
Again, we prepped for the stage 1 check flight. And, again we headed out to the WPA. On the way out, Kristie rolled down the throttle to check me on my Low RPM recovery... and I caught it. So that was good. We then went up to 1000ft MGL to do some autorotations. My entry was decent and I did a pitch pull. Was a little too much as the RPM dropped... to 90%. At this point the Low Rotor RPM light came on... but no horn. I corrected things and brought us to a decent steady state. Descended a bit further and rolled on and took us back to normal flight.
Problem. No Low Rotor RPM Horn. Part of our required equipment for an R22 is summed up with the GOAL acronym:
- G: Governor
- O: Outside Air Temperature
- A: Alternator
- L: Low RPM Warning System
And, without a fully functioning Low Rotor RPM system, we're not supposed to continue flight. So, I made the decision that we were not flying within the rules of flight and that we needed to head back home... which we did.
Kind of sucks to have to cut a short flight, but it's not worth falling out of the sky.
Flight #: 022
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 22.3hrs
We continued with Low RPM Recovery, VRS / Settle With Power and Autorotation practice. I think I'm getting better bit by bit. But...
...I got really flustered today and made a lot of stupid mistakes with my radio communications. When we are in the west practice area we are in an uncontrolled airspace with a lot of other helicopters. As such, we have to spend a lot of time telling everyone in the area where we are, what we're doing, and the like.
This is normally not an issue for me since Kristie has been telling me, "make your call and we're over the turning tree". At which point I say, "West practice area traffic, helicopter 8340-Siera at the turning-tree operating at 1500ft and below, west practice area." Now, since I'm further along in my training, all she tells me is, "make your call." Which means that I need to know where the hell I am at all times. Sounds pretty basic, but you'd be surprised how difficult it is to know where you are; especially in WPA since it is so large and covers parts of Forest Grove, Banks, Gaston and Cornelius, OR. Not only that, but after doing circles looking for landing spots and doing controlled falls out of the sky... I just get all turned around.
I hate being lost. It gets me flustered and throws me off my game. I get annoyed when driving on roads... imagine what it feels like to be lost in 3D space. Sucks.
Anyway, I get flustered, overly critical and I fumbled each and ever radio call I made. First I would forget to tell them I was a helicopter. Then I would say "over Forrest Grove"... which is useless since there are 2 other helicopters over Forrest Grove at the same time. I was supposed to say "2 miles west of Gaston", but I stammer out "NE of Banks". Why? I have no idea. Just making stupid mistakes.
Not only did I get my location wrong, I always forgot my current heading.
Stupid mistakes. I spent so much time thinking about what I was doing wrong, that I started doing other things wrong.
Ugh! Totally off my game.
