Flying, just because I can!

So, I guess I lied a little about never spending any more money at Hillsboro Aviation. I needed to fly, so over the past month or so, I grabbed a few hours in the sky with their helicopters.


Anyway, had some fantastic flights. Nothing fancy, just tooling around up there flying one of the most complex machines man has ever dreamed up. :)


Look, let me be clear on one thing.  I don't resent HAI, I don't hate them. Really.  They taught me an incredible skill.  They taught me well.  The school is filled with excellent CFIs.  My issue comes in where they decided to rotate out the high-time instructors.  Just makes no sense for people at the end of their Commercial training. 


If you have questions... ask, I'd be happy to explain further.

0.0 PIC Remaining - Commercial Requirements - Complete

Flight #: 141 Commercial
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration, as PIC: 3.7hrs
Cumulative Time: 183.8hrs

Well, I've done it. Made it to the end of my Commercial Helicopter rating. You need 100 PiC (Pilot in command) hours for your commercial... and I had 3.7 yet to go. Well, as of tonight... done!

I really enjoy night flying. Night has to be great, since your margin for error gets pretty small at night, but when it is good... it is great. Tonight was perfectly clear, full moon, all goodness.

Nothing out of the ordinary to speak of on this flight. Only thing to note is how bored the PDX tower / controllers get at night. Really nothing landing or taking off at 12:30 am... so they like to talk and help out. In fact, I got VFR flight following from PDX most of the way since they had nothing better to do.

Now comes the FAA test.

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

Night Cross-Country Solo - a.k.a Heaven & Hell

Flight #: 125 Commercial VFR61
Aircraft: Robinson R22
Aircraft ID: N2223p
Duration, as PIC: 3.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 157.4hrs

First of all, I love night flying. On a clear night you can see incredible distances and you get to see amazing views of the city, towns and roads. Purely awe inspiring.

There are, obviously, negatives to night flight:

• emergency landing spots - hard to see good ones... simple as that.
• clouds / mist - again, hard to see them.
• obstacles - yet again, can't to see them in time.
  
• distance estimation - at night, your depth perception is off... so it is hard to judge distances and altitudes. Coming in to land is rather tricky as you can't really tell where the ground is. All you get to see is two hyper-bright spots where your headlights meet the ground. I happen to come in to a high hover each time. Practice.
• weird wind patterns - as the earth cools down, you get some changes in wind... and as I found out on this flight... it can be a really big deal.
  

So, lets talk about the flight... in general a really good flight. The flight down had great visibility, a little bit of turbulence in the known spot where 26E meets 217S, but nothing to write home about. Kept the helicopter controls loose and under 60kias, went right on through just fine.

On the way down I decided to make a quick approach at Aurora (KUAO) airport. I've had a few approaches here in the past, but this was my first at night, so I felt relatively comfortable with the layout of the airfield.

I have to mention one of my favorite things about night flights... pilot controlled lighting. Basically, airport landing lights are just for aircraft landing at that local airport. No other reason for them. So, when there are no aircraft, no point for them to be on. Most airports will power down their lighting systems after XX minutes of innactivity on the radio. Basically, everything goes dark. (Except the airport beacon... you can see that flashing white-green from miles away.)

So, at night, on a speficic communications frequency, you can click your mic and turn on/off the airport lights. 3-clicks within 5 seconds = low intensity. 5 clicks within 5 seconds = medium intensity. 7 clicks within 5 seconds = high intensity.

There is something incredibly cool to be flying along... know the general location of the airport (from the rotating beacon), clicking your mic 7 times, then all of a sudden a full airport lighting system comes on to welcome you. Obviously the bigger the airport, the cooler it is... but still, even at a little airport like Aurora... it is cool.

So, as long as nobody is near the airport with me... I will put the lights on full for an approach. After I turn downwind, put them on low (or off), then put them back on high as I turn base. Kind of childish, I suppose. But it is really cool to turn final and click on the lights and see it just jump up out of nowhere.

Cheap date.

After departure, I headed down to Salem (KSLE). Salem is a Class-Delta airspace, so you are required to get permission to enter their airspace. It is good practice to enter these airspace from time to time. Luckily, Hillsboro is also a Delta airspace, so I'm used to the back and forth communications. On the way in they had me come in rather close to the runway and I obliged. They then told me that if I could make it, I was able to do a quick / hard right turn... followed by a hard left to make a direct in approach to the runway. Being a helicopter, this was no issue. I did a few approaches, and then headed down to Albany (KSLE)

This is where the fun began. Another Hillsboro student / CFI were doing their first night cross country flight here, and I could recognize their voices. I joined the pattern and made a few appraoches, but also noticed that there was another helicopter on the ground, in front of the 24 hr, self-serve fuel pump. No big deal... happens all the time. I'd just wait my turn.

Well, as it turns out, this person happened to have an overspeed. A serious overspeed during the run-up after getting fuel and could not fly the helicopter from that point on. Why? Well, lemme tell you. Pull up a chair, sit back...

The main rotor blades are mounted to the mast via a series of bearings and hinges. The outward force, directed along the length of the blade, is proportional to the speed at which the blades rotate around the central hub. The faster the rotation, the more force there is trying to pull the blades out of the hub. To allow the pilot to still be able to conrol the pitch of the rotor blades with the cyclic, there have to be bearings at that rotor/hub junction. Apply too much force at that joint, you could have blade seperation (rare) or serious damage to the bearing itself (common). This damage is called Brinelling. Think of it as the internal hub bearings being stressed to the point where they either crush, or dent the inner/outer surfaces of the bearing itself. Basically... bad. Real bad thing to have happen to you.

If you get an overspeed with 100% - 104% rotor RPM, things are egenerally fine. The helcopter (Robinson R22) can take it... and you don't have much to be concerned about. 104% - 110%, you need to shut down, and have the helicopter inspected. >110%... is really bad. Basically, the aircraft it completly torn down, and sometimes requires that the ship be sent back to the factory for an overhaul. At that speed, they have to check, not only the rotor blades, bearings and hub, but they have to check every bit of the drive train as well. Everything has to be going over-max speed to get the rotors going that fast.

Lets just say, you do not want an overspeed of any kind. Definitely not one >110%. This one was "well above 110%". The result of all of this... that helicopter was not going to be moving from the spot that it was in... directly in front of the refueling station. Which meant... I was not going to be refueling the helicopter at Albany as planned.

So, I headed back to Salem to refuel. Certain Delta airports close down at certain times... Salem shuts down, converts to Echo airspace, at 10:30pm. The first time I was here, it was a Delta airspace, now it was Echo. Basically, no tower to help me find the fuel pump.

So, being a helicopter, it really is not that big of a deal... you just go searching. Off in the distance I found a nice, bit BP sign and headed that way. As it turns out, this is a mega-self-service pump with multiple hoses, and the other student/CFI who I saw in Albany were there doing the same thing. We chatted a bit, stretched and refueled.

By the way, the seats in the R22 suck. After about 90 minutes, your ass is numb. But, you are flying a helicopter... so things could be worse.

I finished up first, and headed out... back to Hillsboro. Back with the pilot controlled lighting. But, this time, I was at a big airport, with real lights and approach lighting systems. So, 7-clicks, and the world just lit up. Taxiway lights, approach lighting systems, all kinds of cool stuff. Thrills!

Headed north, as usual. Now, as I mentioned before, wind gets a little weird at night around here. I expected to run into a few bumps on my way back when I hit the 217N & I5N intersection. And boy did I.

I am, in general, not a motion sick kind of person. I have been on plenty of boats, car rides, airplane rides to know what turbulence is... how you just have to take your knocks... and move on. This was different. I was sick as a dog - this was horrible. I can honestly say, I have never been in such a bad batch of turbulence in my life... let along behind the stick at the time. After the fact I checked the wind in the area (local airports had minimal wind), but right at that spot... 20knot gusts. PDX, after I landed, had 30 knot gusts. Now, that kind of wind sucks in general... let alone in a tiny R22.

I swear I was getting knocked around like I was in a inflatable raft on the open ocean. I would yaw 30º in either direction. +50 feet, -50 feet in altitude. My speed would jump from 60kias to 40kias in a second.... then jump up to 75kias. Really, sucked. About halfway in, I had to make a real decision about what I was going to do. Would I make an emergency landing? What if I puked? Finally I decided to pick out two points of decent spot for an emergency landing. If I made it to the first, I would pick one just on the other side of the second and limp my way along. If I puked... I would just do it right in my own lap, and clean up afterwards. Twice I thought... "Ok, this is it... I'm going to boot."

Now, everyone knows that fresh air helps when you are nauseous. What about 2º air at approximately 60 knots? Sure, it helps, but you freeze too. So, I opted for uncontrollable shivering rather than puking on myself. Nice choices.

Anyway, I made it back to the airport safe... which, in the end, is all that matters. But, it sucked.

I landed, post-flighted the helicopter, and stuffed the helicopter log-book into a door slot and went home. Sandy greeted me at the door and said I looked "really green, are you OK?".

As Sandy pointed out, there is a good thing as a result of the last 15 minutes of flight... "You know your limit now... you can do it again if you had to, and you know the outcome." She is absolutely right.

I would certainly never intentionally go through that again, but if circumstances forced me there again, I'd make it through. Puke / Emergency free.












View Larger Map

Solo, Live ATC Streaming Radio, GPS Tracks

Flight #: 114 [Commercial VFR61]
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2304W
Duration, as PIC: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 136.5hrs

Been quite a while since a blog post. It's not that I'm losing interest in flying or anything, it is purely a perfect storm of Oregon weather, holidays and maintenance.

Oregon weather this time of year just plain sucks. Really, it is the inconsistency that gets you. Some days, like right now, it is cool and sunny. Others, rain. Others, pure white-out of clouds. Blech!

Holidays... friends, family and just fun take up time - and they get priority.

Maintenance... there had been a few times where friends or family wanted to go up for a spin, but depending on out combined weight, we would only be able to fly in the "Flying Tractor" a.k.a. the Schewizer 300CB. That sucker went in for its 100hr maintenance rebuild. There are very few people that fly the tractor, so it does not get priority... and so it sat. Almost 8 weeks.

Solo:
Anyway, I FINALLY got up the other day. Kind of a crazy day, actually. The weather was cold, a little windy, but relatively clear.

Headed out to, what is now a pretty common and mindless run for me, Portland Mulino Airport. 25nm South East of the airport. Takes you over some nice areas... and this is generally the flight I take friends on. The less "work" I have to do to fly, the more I can relax. A new place... I need 100% concentration and I can't answer any of the "hey, what is that?" type questions from passengers. It is their first flight, they could care less where we are going.

Anyway, good flight out. Ran in to some nimrod fixed wing dude who got his runways mixed up and was landing the wrong direction... wind at his tail. So, I had to loop around and wait for him to figure it out - with some help from me. Did a few patterns, headed back. As soon as I started looking North West, I noticed a serious weather cell coming in... and it appeared to be about 20nm west of HIO. I tried to tune in ATIS (Weather Reporting) for KHIO, but was getting too much static, so had to climb a little to listen in. Things sounded fine, so I headed back, via UAO, like I normally would. About 10nm from Mulio, I tried ATIS again, but things had not yet changed... however, the cell seemed to be quite a bit closer and looked really ominous. I tuned in to the tower frequency and heard them talking about gusts etc.

It was at this point where I decided to high-tail it back to the airport to see if I could stay ahead of the weather. I figured I had about 15 minutes before it hit... and I needed less than 10 to get there. Nosed 04W down, and brought it up to about 90kias and headed in. I was rather high at the time, 2500ft, and I started to encounter some precipitation, not freezing yet, but close. Then a few flakes started to hit the windscreen. We've been taught to have a real eye for ice. Not only does ice add extra weight to an aircraft... it spoils the aerodynamics. If you get build-up on the rotors... bad news. The last thing you want is your rotor lift efficiency to decrease.

So, we're taught to keep an eye on droplets on the window... do they freeze? Then, you also continually look at your skids. They are easily visible from the pilot seat, are direct into the wind, cold metal, and will get ice (most of the time) before any other part... especially any moving part. No ice, but I did not feel like taking any chances so I descended to about 700ft. The lower you go the warmer it should be... but the less time you have if you run in to an engine issue and need to execute an emergency landing. Hunch paid off, and things started to warm up and I was left with a little bit of spitting rain.

So, not going to ice up, but that weather cell was getting really serious. I was on Tower Frequency and they started talking about wind changing directions, gusts to 15knots. Not really dangerous stuff... yet, but it was certainly not the best choice of landing weather.

I requested access to the airspace, was granted and came in. On my way in, I started hearing chatter on the radio about the field "going IFR" (weather conditions bad enough to require special instrumentation and training). Luckily I was in a hover right off the end of my landing spot when the field did go IFR.

So, little bit of excitement.

Couple cool things as a result of this flight. I found Live ATC broadcasts, and recordings. This site broadcasts tower communications over net radio. So, you can listen in to the chatter for almost any towered airport. fly-geek, I know, but still cool. If you want to listen in to Portland-Hillsboro Airport (KHIO), you just search, or click this link.

The really cool part of it is that they archive the streams as MP3 files for up to 30 days. And, well, here is the audio from the 2nd half of the flight - the return. Apparently the feed was down for the first part, but that's fine since I was just requesting a south departure.

@3:20
Me: "Hillsboro Tower, Helicopter 2304W, 7 miles south with Siera. Request parking."
Tower: "Winds calm. Correction, Wind 260 at 15. Helicopter 2304W, Hillsboro Tower. Report 1 mile south."
Me: "Report 1 south, 04W."

@5:49
Me: "04W is 1 mile south."
Tower: "Helicopter 04W, not in sight, proceed to HAI"
Me: "Proceed to HAI, 04W."

If you are interested, take a listen. I've noted (above) the approximate time into the MP3 file these comms happen. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be downloading ALL my flights recordings from now on.
Live ATC Streaming Radio


GPS Tracks:
So far, I've been estimating my flight tracks with Google Maps, and their ability to superimpose a line over a particular map. I've done that here with this flight:

View Larger Map

The fun thing is that I've just purchased ($7.99) a great little iPhone Application, MotionX GPS. (iTunes Download) Anyway, it allows you to track, to a very high accuracy, the location of your phone, save the points, and then post them up on Google Maps to provide a very accurate map of where you have been. So, I set it up, throw it in my jacket pocket, and off I go.

Now, it would be really cool if I knew how to use the application before this flight... cause I have a really impressive GPS track of me walking out to the aircraft. Next time, I know what to do, and it will be sooooo cool.

Solo X/C to Kelso - Just for fun.

Flight #: 111 [Commercial VFR61]
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N227SH
Duration, as PIC: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 135.4hrs

Got a call this morning that told me there was an open helicopter - if I wanted it. Hell, yea!

So, did my pre-flight planning (Weight and Balance, Weather Check, Flight Manifest, and filed my flight plan with Seattle Flight Service) and sped out the door. 227SH was sitting there waiting for me with 47.5 hours left before maintenance - so it was in prime condition.

Day was perfect; cold, little bit of wind from the west and clear to 25k ft.

Nothing particular to speak of, other than the fact that I know understand the frustration our CFIs go though listening to us murder communications - particularly in uncontrolled airports. It is pretty bad. I felt, however, pretty damn good since I was noticing the problems.

You just can't beat the feeling of flying.

Morning Solo

Flight #: 085 [Commercial VFR61]
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2548S
Duration, as PIC: 1.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 103.0hrs

Wanted to get some solo time in... so I just signed up for it. See, I get to do that now that I'm certified as a helicopter pilot. I get a real kick out of saying that; I'm a helicopter pilot. :)

No thrills, no surprises. Just a 8:00am flight through some beautiful Oregon countryside with the sunrise.

I tell ya, one hell of a way to start the say.

Solo to Washington...

Flight #: 082 [Commercial VFR61]
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N956SH
Duration, PiC: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 99.0hrs

Ho, hummm... another cross country solo flight into Washington state's Kelso-Longview airport.

Actually, I really like the morning flights like this. Beautiful weather, cool air, not much traffic in the sky. Followed the river all the way up. Beauty!

X/C Solo - Total Success!

Flight #: 055
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N7526S
Duration: 1.4hrs
As PIC: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 62.5hrs

Well, I did it. A fantastic solo cross country flight in the "Triangle of Death". Since I was not with Kristie for this, I typed up a debrief for her... so rather than re-typing it all... here it is.

From: Chris
Subject: X/C Solo - Triangle of Death
Date: April 2, 2008 10:58:10 PM PDT
To: Kristie

Kristie-

Wanted to give you the full details of the flight today. In general, it was a great flight, but I really did not have the time to tell you all the details - coming back so late and all and stepping on your next flight.

So, here are all the details:

• Preflight. No issues, although I want to have you run me through the transponder in 7526S. It is different than the others and I want to make sure I know how to flip it over in case I need to squawk 7600. I'm sure I could muddle through it, but I did not want to screw around this time.
• Lift off. No issues, all good.
• Hover at cone. No issues, all good.
• Takeoff. Glad we talked about this the other day, since it was the exact situation we discussed. Wind from the north and I wanted to head south. So, crossed 30, got to 700ft and then looped around to my heading once I was out of the airspace.
• Return to HAI. It was exactly at this point where I noticed I had the old flight plan in my kneeboard, and the one you "cleared" was in my folder under the chair seat. So, got to be honest here, I really thought about flying on the old one as it really had all the details that I needed for the flight. Stupid mistake, I know. But hey... I ended up doing the right thing. Actually, it was a good experience in and of itself. I contacted the tower and requested an approach to HAI. Immediately the controller asked "Is this a return back to the airport?". I said yes, and then a prompt, "Do you need any assistance?". That was kinda nice... since it was clear he was ready to help if there was an issue. I didn't tell him I was just a retard and forgot to take my new flightplan out from under my seat. Approach was normal, no issues at all on the way in. Thanks for checking in tho to make sure it was not a big deal.
• Takeoff - Take 2. Same as before, same wind, same north departure.
• 1st Leg. Stayed at pattern altitude for the 1-2 miles out, and then climbed up to 2000ft. As I crossed the ridge I flopped over to FSS and activated the flight plan. Dude was a little chatty, and I was not in the mood to have a conversation, but no issues. It was at this point where I realized I was clipping along at just under 90 knots. Man those things act differently when you are without a passenger.
• Checkpoint: 5 & 205: Came in a little to the south, but was able to correct my angle a bit so that I crossed right over. I also switched over to Aurora's CTAF. Wow, it was busy. Took a few minutes before I could get a word in.
• Checkpoint: River-bend crossing: I was keeping it between 80-90 knots for the whole flight. It was a little faster than on the flight plan, but then again, I did start a little late. I "last call"'d Aurora and checked weather one last time before switching over to Mulino CTAF.
• Checkpoint: Mulino: Pretty busy here as well. No communication issues. Came in a little low to the pattern, 700ft, but decided not to correct since I was already on a nice approach. As I was entering the downwind a F/W was just landing on 32. I announced that I was coming in for a landing on Taxiway 32. As I turned final, the F/W was taxiing at me, so I corrected announced the change and corrected to the runway. Was a bit of the "race car swerve" you hassle me about, but I was not sure what else to do in that situation. Go around would have been an option, but since it was all clear I just went for it.
• Hover Taxi @ Mulino: Rather gusty, actually, once I got down. I hovered over to the taxiway and set down to deal with the carb-heat and then immediately headed out on taxiway 32.
• Checkpoint: Aurora: It was insanely busy, as you had mentioned. Lots of traffic, and chatter, but it was rather organized actually. Crossed midfield at 2000, no issues.
• Checkpoint: St. Paul: Switched over to McMinneville and quickly heard that this was going to be the craziest part of the whole flight. People were being idiots. A number of people were making approaches to Runway 35. I heard someone ask about the active runway, and it was clear that it was Runway 4. Someone, not sure who, but someone with a very authoritative sounding voice went in to a rather long discussion about why runway 35 was not being used and that 4 was the active. Literally seconds after the woman stopped talking, some F/W said they were turning final for 35. Christ.
• Checkpoint: McMinneville: I did as we did before, got to 700 ft as soon as I could see the airport. Announced and crossed the extended centerline of runway 22. Still people were bickering about which runway to use. Some dude finally came on and said "I assume everyone understands that 4 is the active and not 35 and will be correcting their patterns so that we don't have two intersecting active runways." At this point I was about to enter the downwind for 4 and just let the rest of the world know. It is really clear when you hear HAI students and CFIs on the radio... they all speak the same way. Kind of nice where you here some dude "taking off on the runway". I came in for a hover, and since I was not in carb-heat yellow, just took right off again without a set down, knowing that time was tight.
• Checkpoint: Newberg VOR: Headed off for the VOR, way off to the west. Spotted Chehalem's barn right away... thanks for that trick. Flubbed my call here. Reported East and not South West. But, caught it right away and corrected. It was about here where I realized that I was never going to make it back on time and tried to call base on 122.85. I guess i was out of range, cause my first two calls did not get answered, so I just figured I was either doing it completely wrong and needed a different frequency, or had to wait till I crossed the ridge. As I was checking weather at HIO, I looked over the flight plan to see if there was any notation on this situation. Nope. Soon as I crossed the ridge I tried it again, and got DC. So, must have been in the radio-shadow of the ridge.
• Checkpoint: Twin Oaks: Spent some time talking to Twin Oaks, while being far off to the west. No issues, all good.
• Checkpoint; Goal Posts: As soon as I was abeam Twin Oaks, and there was not traffic on the radio / in sight, I did as you suggested and got on to HIO's Tower. Announced when I was 6 miles out... just to be safe. Hit the goal posts, dead on this time... knowing that I had to correct west a bit, followed the road up to the church.
• Approach: All good, no issues here.
• Landing: A tad skewed on the set-down, but did not bother to correct. Purely a rushed choice here. Only a few degrees, not awful; would have corrected if I had more time.

So, a pretty good flight in my mind. Felt a bit rushed... cause I was. Felt a bit stupid about the return to base thing, but really did not want to fly with the wrong flight plan. Plus I know I would have gotten hit if I tried it with you there. Surprisingly, it was not stressful at all. We'd done this a few times, and I felt pretty confident. Once I got past the forgotten flight plan, which I corrected, there was nothing else to be concerned about.

That's it... did I miss anything you want to hear about?

See you tomorrow for the night flight... 730pm. I'll have both flight plans ready and filed.

Later,

-c

Looking forward to the night flight. HIO to Albany, OR (S12)

Ramp Solo. Nothing but net.

Flight #: 048
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N956SH
Duration: 1.4hrs
As PIC: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 53.9hrs

Today was the 100% solo. It is called a ramp solo since it starts and ends on the ramp. Good name, eh?

Anyway, I did it all. Kristie showed up at 7:30am to sign the board (part of the rules), and headed home. Funny to see her out of her flight gear. Kind of like seeing your teacher at the store... just out of place. A woman walking up in a hooded sweatshirt... almost didn't recognize her.

Flight was the same as all the other Charlie pattern flight, except for one thing. I was the only one there. Just me. Zipping around at 60knots in the cool morning sky.

I can't really describe it. It was fun and I was pumped full of adrenaline the whole flight. Even though I was excited, it was relaxing at the same time. Only other time I felt something similar was being with my friends on vacation; out in our individual kayaks on a still and calm lake at sunset up in Canada. You are supremely aware of everything going on around you. Everything looks different, even though you have seen it all before. Things are calm, but you are alert and full of energy.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about... that's ok. We'll go on a flight some time, and I'll show you.

1st Solo Flight - Pictures

Apparently there is a tradition at HAI where they take a Polaroid of all students completing their 1st Solo flight. They then post the photo in the school up on a large board. There are probably hundreds of these already. Nice tradition.

Well, as you may know, Polaroid stopped making their instant film. Sad, I know. It just so happens that all the film was used up by the day I did my solo. So, I get to be the first digital 1st Solo pic.

2nd Solo

Flight #: 047
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.1hrs
As PIC: 0.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 52.5hrs

The second solo... beautiful. This time Kristy got a chance to take some video... which you probably already saw below. Beautiful day.

I got a few questions about the details behind a "supervised solo". Basically what happens is this:

• I complete the pre-fligh check.
• I sign us up on the flight board.
• I run-up, lift off into a hover, and then head over to Charlie pattern. Kristie is along for the ride, but not on the controls.
• We execute a few patterns, usually 3, and then set down on the taxiway.
• Kristie then radios the tower, and the other two helicopters in Charlie pattern that "8340S is a student solo for the next 30 minutes." If cleared by the tower, she jumps out and sits down in the grass just outside the pattern in Charlie. She bring a hand-held radio to keep track of my tower communications, etc... to make sure I don't request clearance to fly to Brazil, I guess.
  
• I then lift off into a hover, request Charlie, and fly patterns for the next 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, or when Kristie flags me down, I settle back on the taxiway, pick her up, and then head back to the ramp.
• I then to the shutdown, post-flight check, and sign us off the board.
  

That's it. The point of it all is to give me PIC (Pilot in Command) time in a safe environment that I already know.

Next flight... 100% pure solo.

2nd Solo w/ Video

Flight #: 048
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.1hrs
As PIC: 0.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 52.5hrs

1st Solo!

Flight #: 047
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.2hrs
As PIC: 0.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 51.4hrs

Nothing to say but... it was awesome! Same feeling you get when you first have your learner's permit and your dad tells you he's going to jump out and has you run a few circuits in the high school parking lot. "I can't believe I'm doing this on my own!"

Kristie snapped a bunch of digital pictures... which I'll share as soon as I get them.

Feels really good.

Supervised Solo - Wind FAIL

Flight #: 046
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 0.8hrs
Cumulative Time: 50.2hrs

Friggin wind!

I'm allowed to only fly a solo, at this point, if the wind is under 5 knots. And, it was... when we left the ramp. We bolted over to Charlie pattern, did a few circuits and set down on the taxiway. Kristie had her foot out of the door, ready to leave me to my solo, when the tower came on with "Wind 260 at 7".

WHAT!

It was just 3. No way. As I went down to listen to the ATIS weather frequency, they came back on with "Wind 260 at 9".

MFer!

And that was the end of the supervised solo.

Punk ass wind. You suck.