Solo X/C - Day - South

Flight #: 127 Commercial VFR61
Aircraft: Robinson R22
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration, as PIC: 1.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 160.6hrs

Another cross country solo flight... this time during the day. It was a beautiful day and just there just happened to be an open helicopter for me.

No real special stuff to note on the trip, except this time I decided that I wanted to circle some things to look at later. And, as you can see from the map below... I did.

You'll see a prison, a logging yard where the logs are stacked radially, and this really odd building up on a hill - in the middle of nowhere. I think it might be an insane asylum or possible a rehab for movie stars. Who knows.




View Larger Map

Commercial Night Flight - South

Flight #: 120 Commercial VFR61
CFI: Kristie E.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N227SH
Duration, as PIC: 3.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 149.8hrs

Part of commercial training is flying in normal, everyday, situations for a commercial pilot. This mean being redirected to a new location during flight, and flying at night, etc. Today was training for both situations.

We headed south to Albany, OR via Route 26E, 217S and I-5S. You really would be amazed at the stuff you can see from 1500ft. Especially when following a major road. I'd say we saw 3 cops hiding behind road embankments/signs along the way. Actually got to see someone get pulled over.

This was not my first night flight, that was back in April of 2008. This is really just prep for my 5.0 Solo Night hour requirement for Commercial. Since the rule is that you only fly over lighted areas... we are pretty limited to where we can go. I-5 is the biggest, and most traveled road around that would allow us to go more than 25nm. This trip was South. Next one is North to Chehalis (KCLS).



View Larger Map

I own the night...

Flight #: 56
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2223P
Duration: 3.0hrs Night
Cumulative Time: 65.5.hrs

Last night was my first real night flight. Kristie actually took me out for a night-ish run into Portland as a "tour". But, I was really a passenger only, as that was my 2nd flight.

This was all me, and it was breathtaking. No other word for the experience. Not only am I flying a helicopter... I'm flying it at night, and looking at some fantastic scenery at the same time. Kristie had mentioned that night flying was cool, and the navigation was pretty simple when over populated areas... "you just follow roads".

And she was right. The image above is not mine, and it is not from this flight - it was just ripped from the web, but this is exactly what it looked like. Roads are very visible from the air. Street lights, yes... but the car lights are perfect. Red, they are going away from you. White, headed your direction. Kind of obvious, but it lets you know exactly what side of the road you are on.

Towns show up as pretty well defined clusters of light. Airports and other aircraft are very visible. Just a great experience.

There were three distinct parts to this journey:

Part 1: South - Hillsboro (KHIO) to Albany, OR (S12)
We left Hillsboro at 8:13pm (end of civil twilight), which when a night flight officially can start. Wind was calm and traffic was pretty light. We headed north to Rt. 26 and followed that East. I had completed a flight plan, and that had me flying all the way east to I-5, which we would then follow south to Albany, but, as we crossed 217 South Kristie diverted me down 217. Not a problem, they both meet up, and I knew that.

It was incredibly cool to follow the traffic like that. Roads were very visible and it was obvious where we were headed. I had chose to fly at 1500ft for the trip, mainly cause I thought it would have been easier to see features, lights, etc... but I could have been at 5000ft and not missed a thing. I stuck to 1500ft anyway. It was amazing what I could see... a few cops busting people for speeding, etc. No wonder they use aircraft to catch speeders... EASY, and and they never know you are there.

Radio communication as perfect this flight for me... no flubs at all.

As we passed Aurora (KUAO) we got to try out the pilot activated lighting system. This is feature of may airports that allows the pilot to tune to the common traffic frequency and then turn on/off/up/down the runway lights. All you have to do is to toggle your mic on/off.

3 clicks in 5 seconds = Lights on Low
5 clicks in 5 seconds = Lights on Medium
7 clicks in 5 seconds = Lights on High

It is pretty cool to flying along and then click you mic 7 times and have a runway appear out of nowhere. Chasing "rabbit" lights and all.

Did a few patterns on Albany on the way in. Night certainly messes with your depth perception, I came in too high for two approaches. Finally figured it out, but took me two go-arounds.



View Larger Map

Part 2: Refueling in Albany, OR (S12)

Don't know why I thought this was so cool, but I do. Self service helicopter refueling. Albany, shown here, has their own self-service fuel service.

You just follow the blue signs that say "Fuel" and land in front of the pump, shut down and head on over with your credit card.

It asks you to first ground the helicopter, then to verify the fuel type. Once you verify this, you enter the # of gallons you want, and you are off to the races. Pretty much the same as a standard gas pump, except you have a 75 foot hose to use.

When you are done with the fill-up, you press a button to retract the heavy spool of hose, hang up the nozzle, and then unhook the grounding wire. That's it. Simple, fast... and fun.









Part 3: North - Albany, OR (S12) to Portland Downtown Heliport (61J) to Hillsboro (KHIO)

The flight back was pretty uneventful. Straight and level for most of the flight, until we got to the edge of downtown Portland. You need a 3 hour night flight for your certification, and we would have made it back in about 2.6hrs... so Kristie diverted me to the downtown heliport. Flying over the city at night is about 50x more impressive than flying over towns. Plus Portland has the river and 5 bridges to look at.

The approach to the heliport is a little tricky as it is located on the roof of a paring garage. So, it's not like you have 2000ft to pick your spot. You have a 50ft circle you need to land in.

I came in too high... surprise, and we did a go around. It is a little different in downtown Portland, since you don't want to be over the river, and you want to avoid buildings and cranes. So, it took a little distance for us to get in the right setup again. But, I did, and we landed nicely.

Takeoff was also different. Kind of feels like you are jumping off a cliff... the heliport disappears from underneath you after about 2 seconds. So, we did a max-performance takeoff and headed back to Hillsboro.

Ride back was quiet and simple. Straight in to runway 20, and hover taxi over Alpha taxiway to parking. Very quiet at the airport... nobody home. We were the only ones there. It was 11:20 after all.


View Larger Map



Night flying is absolutely amazing. Coolest thing I've done in a helicopter to date.

Have to knock out another 1.2 hrs of ramp-solo flying soon. That is going to be boring after all the cool stuff in the past few flights.

The coolest brother in the world!

You know, what they say... it is good to have friends in high places. It is actually even better to have them in geeky places.

If you remember, I asked my brother for a feature to be added to Google's SMS toolkit - a METAR keyword. This would allow anybody with a SMS capable phone to check weather before a flight... basically something every pilot does. Now it happens either via radio in the cockpit right before a flight... but it is nice to know before you have the engine running. You may not be able to fly.

Currently, many of the HIO pilots use some PCs in the dispatch room to do this check. It is kind of a pain... this would make things much faster and more efficient. Google's primary reason for existing.

Well, he did it... it's live!

Thanks Charlie!

How cool is that?



Being a geek... Charlie had to hide a few easter eggs in this.
Every time it references an airport in an example or as as the usage statement in an error response, it will use my local airport, KHIO or EHAM. I understand KHIO... but EHAM? That is Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. It is often wise to not question the mind of a geek... but hey, brotherly privilege. So, at 11:59pm I speak to Charlie and ask:

Chris: "Hey Char, what's with EHAM? I get KHIO, thanks... but EHAM."
Charlie: "Yea, I picked that."
Chris: "Why EHAM, have you ever been to Amsterdam?"
Charlie: "No, I like bacon. So, ham... EHAM."

At 12:01 AM it went live to the world... adding an amazingly valuable feature to Google SMS and proclaiming by brother's love for Ham.

Spread it around. People need to know about this... it is awesome.

Thanks bro!

Hillboro Patterns

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.




View Larger Map