Flight #: 041
CFI: Gareth E.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.6hrs
Cumulative Time: 46.2hrs
Got another chance to fly with Gareth this afternoon. Another good flight. Again focusing on the patterns, approaches and emergency procedures for the stage 1 flight, scheduled for the 28th.
It is really good to mix it up with instructors. Gives you a chance to get used to someone else's way of teaching and helps find the errors of your ways. Fact is, they are teaching the same thing... but with slightly different twists... sometimes it is that twist that hits home. It was the case this time too.
I have issues "hitting the spot" when coming in for a landing. I generally overshoot my spot cause I'm too high and too fast when I turn final. So, I mentioned this to Gareth before the flight just so that I could get some other eyes to help me work on it. Right before run-up, he ran in to the pilot lounge and grabbed a white board, dry erase marker and a stack of post it notes. Odd, thinks I.
Anyway, he asked me to fly a normal approach to golf intersection on alpha taxiway. On the way in, I did as I do normally... overshot my spot. So, he took controls on the next one, handed me a dry erase marker and told me to put a mark on the inside of the cockpit plastic just over the landing spot when he said we were lined up. So, I did just that. Little "x" on the screen. Then, we just did a go around.
At 700ft as I turned on the downwind leg. Out come the post-it notes and Gareth covers up the air speed indicator with a little "Now that's broken... so no point looking inside.". Great... clearly he and Kristie talk. :)
But, they are both exactly right... I look into the turn, keep my eye off my spot and either lose too much, or gain too much speed. And that is what kills me. So, I kept my eyes on the touchdown point... and wham, made it.
We continued the flight executing other maneuvers, but nothing too exciting to speak of. All pretty much on target... and feeling good.
I've got one more flight with Kristie before my Stage 1 Ground exam and flight. But right now, I'm feeling great about ground, and pretty good about the flight.
Flight #: 040
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.0hrs
Cumulative Time: 44.6hrs
I was feeling OK this morning. My sinus has cleared up a but, and the aches had pretty much gone away. I was ready for one last flight before my Stage 1 Check ride.
We got Alpha pattern and headed out for the pre-flight. It was an absolutely beautiful day. 3-5 knot wind, sun, cool air... perfect day for flight. Wind was out of the East, so runway 12 was active. The meant that Alpha taxiway was going to be in heavy use, but this is generally not a problem as the tower gives helicopters permission to do patterns even though airplanes are taxiing - we just don't fly over/near them.
Today was apparently different. I started off with a normal takeoff and an approach to Golf-intersection on Alpha Taxiway but were quickly blocked by a private plane. No problem, we deflected off into the grass for a bit as not to overfly him, and then vectored back on to the taxiway. At about 40ft, a jet turned on to the taxiway from a hanger and started towards us. Kristie grabbed the controls and got us back over the grass. Apparently this happens from time to time... they "just don't see us". I find this a little odd, since we do have a 20 foot spinning blender blade 8 feet off the ground... but hey, not everyone has good eyesight. So, I did a go around. As I passed the tower, I notified them of the go-around.
Ok, here we go again... normal pattern to land on Golf-intersection. A little congested, but no problem, and I came to a hover. I turned into the patter to check for traffic and off my right shoulder I saw a prop plane come off the runway and turn my direction. He's supposed to stop and wait for us to get out of the way... but no. Headed straight for us. Did not even hesitate. So, I pulled off, quickly into the grass to get away. Good thing, too... cause he had no intention of even slowing. Nice.
So, as I continue to hover there in the grass, we hear someone in Charlie pattern request normal pattern. No response from the tower. But, that's not unusual when there is lots of traffic in the air/ground, you just wait your turn. So, he waits... we wait. After a minute Kristie suggests that I just make my call to get in line. I do. Halfway through, I get stepped on by someone asking for takeoff clearance. The tower services his request and then continues on with someone else. Again, this happens... but it is rather odd that it is happening to us more than once in one session. The helicopter in Charlie requests again. No response. So, I request and get a response this time... only it is not very pleasant = "All helicopters, stand by."
W.T.F.?
Never heard that one before. So, I wait. And wait. And wait. Planes continue to get clearance to do whatever they request. Now it is about 7 minutes since my last request. I look over to Kristie to get the vibe and find out what to do next. She's pissed. So, I request, AGAIN. "40S, standby." And he continues to give clearance to aircraft to taxi, takeoff and land. One after another. Finally Kristy boils over and says "I have controls." and takes the helicopter. She moves it on to the taxiway and sets it down. Dead smack in the middle of the taxiway. Now, we have been assigned this pattern... so it is technically our space to use. And we sit.
Along comes a LARGE twin engine just... up the taxiway wanting to take off on runway 12. But, we're in the way. Clearly Kristie is trying to get the tower's attention. Still we sit. The jet comes to a stop, and we all sit. Then, over the radio, "40S, exit the taxiway immediately." So, we pick up, move to the grass and hover. When the jet passes, we go back and set down in the same spot. Meanwhile, other fixed wing traffic is making requests and getting clearance... no clearances to any helicopter, anywhere.
So, there we sit.
And again, along comes a fixed wing. And we get ordered off the taxiway again by the tower.
This time, Kristie gives me back the controls and says, "might as well request to go back home, if they will let us... we're just wasting money." She was absolutely right... burning fuel and cash just hovering in the grass.
So, I try one more time for a pattern. "40S request Alpha." Nothing from the tower. So, I request a path back home.... "40S request HAI". "40S, cross runway 2, precede to HAI".
Dick.
So, we went home. Before I shut down the helicopter, Kristie was out and on her way in to talk to the chief flight instructor for HAI. I shut down the helicopter and signed out... then headed home.
Clearly something was going on. And someone was getting their butt chewed out. Believe me, when I find out, I'll be sure to report back.
Flight #: 031
CFI: Garreth E.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 34.2hrs
My flight this morning was canceled due to Wx (weather) issues... icing mist at 0ft. So, so flight.
Later in the afternoon I got a SMS from Kristie asking if I was available, last minute, for a flight. I'm always ready for a flight! So, I sped over to HAI. When I got there Garreth, another CFI, was the one with a helicopter and training slot. So, it was Garreth and I today.
This was great practice for me... because not only did I have to prove myself to a new CFI, but I also had to get used to their method of training.
Now, I can't prove it, but I think Garreth was messing with me during the pre-flight. There were about 8 things which were out of their normal setting. For example, the transponder is normally set to 1200... this time it was at 1100. The clutch was engaged, the altimeter was set to 400ft below sea level, and a number of fuses were pulled. I caught 'em all. Which is, of course why they would test me.
Other than that the flight was pretty normal. Hovers, auto rotations, patterns, quick stops, etc. Garreth introduced slope landings which, as Garreth said, is where most landing occur. Rarely do you actually get to land on a flat surface. Good point.
All in all, a very good flight.
Flight #: 030
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 33.1hrs
In excellent CFI style, Kristie got me right back into hover autrotations next flight. And it was a good thing too.... they still un-nerve me a bit, but I no longer question what I'm doing. I know.
We did quite a lot today, straight-in, turning and hover autorotations. Running landings, running takeoffs and steep approaches. All good.
And, at the end Kristie told me she wants me solo'ing by end of January. WooHoo!
That does mean I need to pass my Stage 1 Check Ride. Essentially a 2-4 hour verbal exam with an hour flight with another CFI or the Chief Flight Instructor.
Means a lot of studying in my future, but I can't wait to fly on my own!
Flight #: 029
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 31.9hrs
Well, not really. But if it were not for her quick reaction, we certainly would have a few bruises. Here is what happened... we were doing straight-in autorotations along side of hover autos.
A straight in autorotation is set up 700ft MSL (500AGL) and 70 KIAS. When level, lower collective, right pedal, slight aft, and completely roll off throttle, then pitch pull to get your rotor RPM into the green. Then you continue your entrance to land safely. It is an advanced maneuver to get you safely to the ground without power. Really a beautiful thing when it is done right... you just sort of float in.
A hover autorotation is set up at about 1-2 ft AGL hover. When ready, you completly roll off throttle, hard right pedal, little right cyclic and pause... then hard and large pitch pull on collective. This is quite a bit more abrupt and is used when the engine cuts out in a hover. You have very little time to execute this... cause you are only 1-2 ft off the ground. Dropping a helicopter from 2 feet does not sound like much but 1400lbs can make a pretty big dent. That and you have a blender blade spinning above your head.
After about 4 hover autos in a row I got mixed up... and, I have to be honest here, hover autos freak me out a bit. I know practice makes perfect... and that fear and panic will eventually go away but not this day.
In short, I set up for the hover auto, rolled off throttle, lowered collective and threw in right pedal. The helicopter just dropped out of the sky. Kristie tore up the collective to reduce the fall but we hit hard... and bounced up about 8 inches and then slammed down again. An absolute mess. Where did I go wrong? I lowered collective. You never lower collective in a hover autorotation... never. You only lower in a straight-in or 180 auto rotation. I just got confused.
See, when you lower collective, you reduce the pitch of the main rotor blades... and lose lift. If you lower throttle you reduce the power to the blades... and you lose lift. If you do both and don't have airspeed and altitude... you got nothing left. And, in a hover auto you have neither airspeed nor altitude. So, you are in a helicopter, in the air, with nothing. That's why we fell.
When you do it right, you pause a little, then yank the hell out of the collective to soften your hit. If you do it perfectly, you just land with a little bump. But, that pitch pull slows down the rotors significantly... so you can only do it once. You have to wait till you need it at the last minute.
So, I suppose there is a silver lining here... I know how bad a 2ft fall can be and I will never do it again.
Other than that end-of-the-day mess, the rest of the day was good.
Flight #: 026
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 28.3hrs
First flight in two weeks! Been on vacation for the holidays and went to the Outer Banks with some friends over new years. Felt really good to get back into the pilot seat. Little bit of rust here and there, but not as much as before. You really do benefit from muscle memory. The day was really windy so I had a lot of pedal work to do on this flight, but it was good... right back in to the deep end of the pool.
We started a new lesson today... and that included a running landing. This is a maneuver necessary when you don't have sufficient power to hover and land normally. This can happen for a number of reasons. The most obvious of which would be extremely poor flight planning and not determining if you were able to hover at your intended landing site. There is something called IGE (In Ground Effect) hover. This is a condition where the helicopter is within one rotor distance of the ground and two components take effect. The first is the reduction of induced flow. Basically a reduction in induced drag and therefore the power needed to maintain the same vertical lift is reduced. And, second, the rotor-tip vorticies are reduced, increasing the efficiency of the rotor. The essentially generates a bit of a pillow of air and allows you hover with less power.
Anyway, you use this effect to help with landing. If for some reason you don't have the power to hover to get from OGE (Out of Ground Effect) into IGE, you will need to rely on your forward motion and the efficiencies of ETL to keep your lift until you are ready to land. If your poor planning has you landing at too high of an altitude, or you have a magneto failure and can't produce the required power to land safely, you will need to do a running landing.
You come in for a normal landing... and "go low" then "go slow". This means, you are at about 50 knots and a few feet off the ground. Then, you slow down. As you do, you will slowly drop out of your ETL efficiency and touch down... at about 20 knots. You use your tail rotor to steer your skidding helicopter to a stop.
It is a bit un-nerving at first... it just feels wrong to be going that fast that close to the ground and coming to a skidding halt. But, years of Big-Wheel skid turns finally pay off.
Flight #: 020
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 20.1hrs
First flight in a long time... and I'm thrilled to say that it came back fast. We did a few approaches in Alpha pattern and then moved over to Bravo and did about 25 sets of lift-off, hover/air taxi, and quickstop. I'm really glad we did that, because it was a very good way to tweak my skills.
One thing than Kristie mentioned a while back is that flying a helicopter requires constant input and control changes. The faster and more smooth you are at this... the better. Today's flight was a big step for me in this understanding.
Flight #: 013
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N7526S
Duration: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 13.6hrs
Not a good session at all. Actually Kristie did not say that it was horrible, but it felt all wrong. I just could not get into my groove. I really don't know what it was but this morning was a step backwards in my mind. I missed all of my approaches - too steep or too shallow. Every set-down was hard and bumpy. Each pick-up was one-skid-high... significantly too high. And, to top it all off, I don't think I anticipated ETL once.
Should have just stayed in bed this morning.
Lucky flight #13, I guess.
During our post-flight debrief Kristie commented on my miss of ETL. And that I was just (over) correcting and that it will come with practice. She said that I should really heed the pre-ETL vibration. Huh? "pre-ETL vibration"?!? I had not noticed that at all and had just been trying to correct it all after it happened. If there is a helicopter tell, then vibration is it.
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.
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.
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):
- Fly first, then communicate.
- Raise collective == Left Pedal / Lower collective == Right Pedal
- Pendular Motion is not a fun state to be in..
- You don't need the key to start the pre-flight.
- Wear a t-shirt. It gets hot in the cabin.
- Cyclic is pronounced "PSY-click" not "SICK-lick"
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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