Slopes... my new thing.

Flight #: 061
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 70.4hrs

Lots of practice again today. Focus on slope landings.

Here is how a slope landing is done:

Position the helicopter across the slope at a stabilized hover headed into the wind over the spot of intended landing (Frame 1). Downward pressure on the collective starts the helicopter descending. As the upslope skid or wheel touches the ground, hesitate momentarily in a level attitude, then apply lateral cyclic in the direction of the slope (Frame 2). This holds the skid against the slope while you continue lowering the downslope skid with the collective. As you lower collective, continue to move the cyclic towards the slope to maintain a fixed position (Frame 3). The slope must be shallow enough so you can hold the helicopter against it with the cyclic during the entire landing. A slope of 15 degrees is considered maximum for normal operation of most helicopters, However check the POH of the particular helicopter being flown for the manufacturer's recommended limitation.

You should be aware of any abnormal vibration or mast bumping, that signals maximum cyclic deflection. If this occurs, abandon the landing because the slope is too steep. In most helicopters with a counterclockwise rotor system, landings can be made on steeper slopes when you are holding the cyclic to the right. When landing on slopes using left cyclic, some cyclic input must be used to overcome translating tendancy. If wind is not a factor, you should consider the drifting tendancy when determining landing direction.

After the downslope skid is on the surface, reduce the collective to the full down position, and neutralize the cyclic and pedals (Frame 4). Normal operating RPM should be maintained until the full weight of the helicopter is on the landing gear. This ensures adequate RPM for immeadiate takeoff in case the helicopter starts sliding down the slope. Use antitorque pedals as necessary throughout the landing for heading control. Before reducing RPM, move the cyclic as necessary to check that the helicopter is firmly on the ground.

And a slope pickup is done:

Begin the takeoff by increasing RPM to the normal range with the collective full down. Then, move the cyclic towards the slope (Frame 1). Holding cyclic towards the slope causes the downslope skid or wheel to rise as you slowly raise the collective (Frame 2). as the skid or wheel comes up, move the cyclic towards the neutral position. If properly coordinated, the helicopter should attain a level atttude as the cyclic reaches the neutral position. At the same time, use antitorque pedal pressure to maintain heading and throttle to maintain RPM. With the helicopter level and cyclic centered, pause momentarily to verify everything is correct, and then gradually raise the collective to complete the liftoff (Frame 3).

After reaching a hover, take care not to avoid hitting the ground with the tail rotor. If an upslope wind exists, excute a crosswind takeoff and then make a turn into the wind after clearing the ground with the tail rotor.

Simple, huh. :)

More practice...

Flight #: 060
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 1.0hrs
Cumulative Time: 69.1hrs

Some real crap weather the past few days. Finally got a chance to go up and really was in the groove. Getting better on my autorotations. Turns out that I'm very focused on the airspeed indicator and not paying enough attention to my attitude on entry. As such, I miss the sweet spot and end up spending my time chasing it.

Practice, practice, practice.

Practice maneuvers before the checkride.

Flight #: 059
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 1.4hrs
Cumulative Time: 68.1hrs

Now that I'm all done the solos, it is time to hone my maneuvers to a razor's edge. How does one do that? Well, first of all, you fly with Kristie. Every time I do something well, she resets my zero-point and won't let me continue until I repeat the maneuver and do a little better than last time. It's good... but what a hard ass! :)

Approaches are getting a lot better, and I'm really focusing on getting my autorotations down solid.

Might as well just threw my money in the toilet!

Flight #: 058
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8361N
Duration: 0.3hrs
As PIC: 0.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 66.7hrs

LAME!

I had to get my .3hrs today... which consisted of pre-flight, run-up, sitting on the ramp for 4 minutes, run-down, post-flight. Did not even get to hover.

Ugh, what a waste of time. I should have just sat at the center tie down yesterday and let the rotor spin for a few more minutes.

Last ramp solo... not.

Flight #: 057
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 0.9hrs
As PIC: 0.9hrs
Cumulative Time: 66.4hrs

Certification for the Private Pilot license requires 5.0 hours of solo time. Today's plan was to knock out the remaining 1.2 hours of solo time in Charlie pattern. Just so happened that Kristie was flying with another student in Charlie at the same time. Keeping an eye on me.

Weather was a bit iffy at the start... not pleasant, but definitely within my solo limitations. Did 4 pattern circuits and had a bit of a haze blow in. Not bad, but certainly not what I would call fun. Figured I would set it down on the taxiway and check weather to see if anything had changed.

I flipped frequencies. (which I learned is not something you are supposed to do... if the weather changes, the tower will come on and announce it to all. Never switch frequencies while in the airspace without permission to do so.) Weather sounded fine, and I assumed that it was a local / temporary thing and that it would blow by.

When I flipped back to Tower frequency, 119.3, I heard Kristie's voice:

Kristie: "...45 to talk with the student in 56-Tango."
Tower: "Frequency change approved."

Whoops, clearly Kristie is trying to reach me about something. I glance over, and see Kristie and her student hovering in the grass in my line of site while I'm sitting on the taxiway. I tried to flip over to a few common frequencies, but could not get her. (She was on 123.45, but I must have missed her.) I then asked the tower if they caught the frequency change, and they did not. At that point, Kristie and her student took off for another pattern, so it must not have been anything significant.

I looked into the pattern, and weather was fine... whatever it was had blown through and all looked good. I made my pattern and came in for a nice normal approach. Again, all well, so headed back up again. And there it was... fog/mist/haze/rain. At that point, I decided to head back... not going to chance things if I can't see 100%.

I requested clearance to get back to the center tie down, and set down. Spun down the helicopter and checked my Hobbs timer. 0.9hrs! All I needed was .3hrs more. Ugh. It takes, minimum, .1hrs to warm up and .1hrs to cool down the helicopter. (.1hrs = 6 minutes, BTW). That means I would have just enough time to lift off the ramp, back up, go to the hover cone and request clearance for Charlie. By that time, I'd have to come back and land again. Ugh. What a pain in the ass.

As a bit of a side note... as soon as everyone heard Kristie asking to talk to her student on another "private" frequency... they all switched over to hear me get yelled at, or something. Turns out, all she wanted to do is to tell me that if I wanted to continue this another time, then I should just head back early and we'll pick it up later. Apparently she also tried to text me on my phone... but I can't really get to that while I'm flying, so that was lost.

So, fine flight, although I've got to waste .3hrs tomorrow to get to my minimum.

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.

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)

Pre-Solo TOD

Flight #: 054
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2223P
Duration: 1.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 61.10hrs

Weather has been total crap for the last week. Hailstorms, almost daily. When it was not hailing, it was 25 knot winds. Of course, all this was with 500ft cloud ceilings too.

So, as you might guess, not a flight.

Today, however, was perfect. 50º, sunny, with calm winds. Perfect for my pre-solo "Triangle of Death" flight. Pretty uneventful flight, actually... but that is a good thing. Only issues were that I had the wrong frequencies in... twice. Stupid stuff that I caught as soon as I did not hear anybody on the channel... but still. 135.65 when it should have been 135.67, and 129.09 instead of 129.9. Just need to double, triple, quadruple check myself.

Oh, and apparently the common "report 1 mile south" reporting point used by the tower is not actually 1 mile south. I was about 2 miles south of that point and said "3 miles south" when giving my current position... and was promptly corrected that I was actually 4 miles south. Huh?


Here is how it all works. Portland Hillsboro Airport is a Class D airspace, which means there is a 3D cylindrical solid, centered on the tower, with a 4 mile radius, extending from ground level to 2500ft above ground. In this case, the airport is at 208ft sea level... so therefore it actually extends from ground level to 2700ft. Before you enter Class D airspace, you have to let them know you are coming... and what I told them was that I was already inside their airspace. Not cool. The sectional map shows it like this:





Obviously a map does not represent the real world perfectly... so if we were to draw the same airspace on a satellite map you would see something like this.



Anyway, the point here is, the 2 mile ring actually touches on something all the pilots and CFIs call "The Goal Posts". The goal posts are two cell towers that act as a great visual reference for your way back home from the south. From up close, they look like... well, goal posts. You can click on the image for a larger view, but they are there. And, they are pretty easy to see from a few miles out.

So, as you are headed north, back to HIO, you thread the goal posts and head straight in to the airport. You just follow the road in at 700ft and you will come right in line for an approach to the ramp. Nice and easy. Just like this:
All seems pretty easy, except that they call the goal posts, "1 Mile South". So, I reported where I was in reference to those goal posts... I was telling them that I was already in their airspace. Turns out, while I was reporting my position incorrectly, I was actually not violating their airspace at all... I was actually just on the edge.
See, the "1 Mile South" point is actually 2 miles south.

You learn something new every day. I suppose I should have picked up on this already. Nothing like a mistake to get you focused on getting it right next time.

So, all in all, fantastic flight. The proof? Kristie cleared me for my Solo Cross Country!

Hoping for nice weather tomorrow.

Lost in the clouds... well, not really.

Flight #: 053
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 59.6hrs

Back to the old TOD again, today. All went pretty well, except for the exit out of McMinneville. Took off in the direction of the green arrows. Came in for a long approach into McMinneville and came to a nice hover on the taxiway. On exit I started a turn and glanced up at the compass and off we headed in the wrong direction. (Red Arrows)


As I left, I saw in front of me a heavy cloud bank. Fact is, I was facing the wrong direction. Rather than re-checking my position I thought I knew where I was and tried to head to the left of the clouds without realizing exactly where I was. Once I figured it out, I looped around and headed back towards the Newberg VOR.

So, there we were... putting along at about 80 knots. I made all my position calls, and we continued on to Hillsboro. Just as I bent over to adjust radio frequencies I saw just at the edge of the cockpit window... a plane! A Fixed-Winger came out of nowhere. We just saw him... He was about 1000 ft above us. Not close enough to be a problem... but WTF! Lets hear some radio communications. How about position reports, dude!

Man, they really are trying to get us.

WX Fail!

Flight #: 052
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 0.5hrs
Cumulative Time: 58.4hrs

Took off this morning to finish off the TOD that was interrupted the day before due to weather. Only problem this time... weather.

Ugh. As we took off, Kristie diverted me to St. Paul... to pick up where we left off. SO, I headed to the Newberg VOR. In case you were curious, this is what Newberg VOR looks like from the sky.

Anyway, headed south and came up to the Newberg ridge, which is where they put the Newberg VOR... imagine that.

Completely covered in a nice puffy sheet of clouds - which, unfortunately, I don't fly through.

Oh well, back home.

In the groove...

Flight #: 051
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.2hrs
Cumulative Time: 57.9hrs

Today I was in the groove, too bad the weather was not on our side.

Another "Triangle" flight, except as we rolled out of Aurora and started to head west I saw, off in the distance, a rather mean looking cloud off in the distance. About 10 miles south of McMinneville. I did some quick guestimating and decided that I couldn't "beat the cloud" to the airport, even if I wanted to try something that stupid. Kristie gave me the ever sought after "Good Decision".

So, once I got abeam St. Paul, I pulled the trigger and headed north, back to Hillsboro.

Despite the diversion, it was a good flight. Good communications, good speed and altitude control.

Finish up this TOD another day.

Triangle of Lost - The full story.

Ok, so I was shaken, grumpy and pissed off after my last XC flight. I got lost, and I hate that. I suppose I really did not feel like talking about it too much. But, I thought about it a lot, and will guarantee that I will NOT get lost on that flight again. I've spent the last few days reading over the all the airports within a reasonable distance and looking both on the sectional map, and Google's satellite imagery.

So, here is the full story. How I got in, how I got out, etc. (Mainly for you, Bob. :)

The planned flight plan is as shown here:
HIO is at the 12 O'Clock position, Mulino at 4 O'Clock, McMinneville at the 7 O'Clock. The part I'm interested in here is at the lower portion of the triangle. So, lets zoom a bit:

So, it all started as I was entering the airspace for Mulino airport (green arrow). There was a 9 knot wind blowing from 130º (black arrow).

When you do your flight planning, you need to know about your airports. Their traffic patterns, runway lengths and directions, etc. Well, I did all that. I knew that Mulino had one runway strip, labeled Runway 14 and Runway 32. If you didn't know, they name the runways so that you can tell which direction they are facing. In this case, oriented to 140º and 320º, respectively.

So, anyway, I knew this. And since you want to land into the wind, whenever possible, the airports with a control tower will select the appropriate runway for you. In this case, there was no tower, so you have to rely on your knowledge, and the knowledge of the other people flying in the airport. The active runway is suppose to be Runway 14 with the wind coming from 130º. It just is. It also happens to be a right air traffic pattern runway. This means, that you are supposed to make right hand turns all the way to landing. Since I was coming in from the North West, I could have, technically come right in to the runway, almost straight on. But, that's not the cool thing to do. You are supposed to enter the downwind leg at 45º and make your right turns in. The image below shows a left pattern, but you get the idea. Just flip it so that you would land making right turns:

In my case, I would have to fly past the airport to the west, make a wide left turn so as to come in at 45º on the downwind leg and then enter the pattern. As a side note, while you always want to check the weather system broadcast in the area, you only trust what you can see. And luckily for me, there were a few wind indicators in the are for me to look at. Things like wind socks are always nice near an airport... but out west here, people tend to burn leaves and brush. And this day there were two fires going within about 1/2 mile of the runway. So, I was 100% sure of the wind. So, I broadcast my intention to "enter the right-downwind for Taxiway 14". We can land on taxiways or runways. It's cool of us not to take up runway space... and it is safer too.

Ok, enough background. So, I veer off to the right of runway 14 to make my wide left turn into the pattern when we see some dude in an airplane taking off on runway 32. The opposite direction on the runway. Taking off with a 9 knot tail wind. Not smart. Not to mention dangerous. So, I do a go around, and make a right hand turn to re-enter on the downwind. As I get about 270º in my turn, this dude that just took off cuts hard left and comes way too close to my flight path. Granted, I was at 800ft (as I'm suposed to be) and he was probably climbing past 1200, but still... not cool dude. So, I re-announce where I am, and what I'm doing. This wakes the airplane dude up, I guess, and he broadcast a quick "sorry about that, did not see you guys there". Huh? Really? I'm in a bright red helicopter with a giant rotating blade with my lights on... exactly where I said I would be. But, ok... fine. Stuff happens, and we were really not that close.

So, I do another go around. And we hear, on the radio another fixed winger come on the radio " at 1000ft, on the right downwind for runway 32." Kristy says "Screw this place, get us out of here." Basically another dude in an airplane was using the wrong runway, again. This time for a landing. But, rather than making left patterns for runway 32, as he is supposed to do, he's doing right ones. What a mess.

I turn off to the west and we just skip this approach at Mulino. In hindsight, we should have come on the radio with a "Mulino traffic, wind indicators clearly show that runway 14 should be in operation, not 32. Please check wind." But, we didn't. Totally one of those things you think of 5 minutes after you need it. But, all is well, and we're headed north west to Aurora with a bit of a tailwind.

A few minutes in to this leg Kristy says, "The FAA just called there is an accident in Aurora, divert to Lenhardt". Obviously the FAA did not call, she was just giving me a scenario to deal with. I didn't know where Lendhart was, so I had to look a little on the map. (To save you some time, it is the red arrow.)

So, I look it up on the map, estimate my course and direction and head to Lendhart. Eventually I see it off to the left, quite a ways away. I point it out to Kristy, and she gives me the OK to head to McMinneville. So, looking at the map, I head due west. I forgot to correct for wind... and this was my big flaw. I was heading NW. A lot more north than I expected, at least. I also think the wind had picked up a little, cause, as you will see, I was way off.

I was flying along to my next checkpoint, a significant bend in the river. What I was looking for is the blue circled area below. What I was flying over was the red circled area. I was way north of where I wanted to be. As I crossed the river, I saw this town... which, according to my plan, is not supposed to be there. As you can see, it was the town of Newberg. But, when I planned this out, I was not supposed to cross the river and see a town. So, wham, I'm lost.

The lost procedures are "the 5 C's". Calm, Climb, Circle, Calculate, Communicate. So, I take a deep breath, start climbing, and start doing a right hand circle. I start looking at the land, my map, etc. I find a significant feature on the ground below me, an island in the river. OK, great, there has to be an island on the map. So, I look, where I think I'm supposed to be... the blue circle. No island on the map. Shit. So, I conclude that either the island is not big enough to be on the map, or else I'm nowhere near this point on the map. First thing I do is look for an island in the river elsewhere on the map. And I don't see anything withing a reasonable flying distance. So, I'm now sure that this island I'm circling over, now at 3000ft, must not be big enough to show up.

So, screw this river, I think... now I'll look for a town. I should be seeing St. Paul to my south. (Remember, I think I'm in the blue, but am actually in the red circle). Nope, no St. Paul. Only this huge town to the north of the river. Could I be seeing Lafayette? Dayton? Where the F am I! Kristy is with me, of course, and being very calm. She knows exactly where we are... just wants me to struggle through. Which, is a great teaching tool, but it pissed me off. I'm now at 4000ft, circling like a moron, getting all twisted up.


Finally she speak up and says, "What are you using for your fix?" and I said, mention that I'm looking for the island in the river as well as the direction of the bend. "Are you looking for a 'C' to the east or a 'n' shaped bend to the south?". I believe I'm in the blue, so I'm looking for a 'C' to the east, but I'm actually in the red over a 'n' to the south.

This helps, obviously, and I suddenly realize I'm about 10nm north of where I need to be, and bolt to the south. I immediately identify my correct river bend, and see St. Paul and recognize what happened. I am now at about 4500ft and start to descend to my planned 2000ft altitude.

Once I get there I head west, this time, remembering the wind and make it to McMinneville as planned (the green arrow).

So, while not a total crisis, it really did throw me. In our post-flight review we went over what happened, and I had a real chance to look over the map.

Wanna see something? That friggin island in the river I was over? It is on the map, just under the text, "178". Right under the "7". If I had only seen that on the map... this would have been a "Huh? Where am I? Oh, here. Ok, no biggie."

Triangle of Lost

Flight #: 050
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N8340S
Duration: 1.5hrs

Cumulative Time: 56.7hrs

Same run through the triangle. Except this time, as we were leaving Mulino, Kristie diverted me to another airport about 15 nm south of Aurora. No problem, I got there... I just got lost leaving.

Ugh. I hate being lost. Found my way, eventually, but man, did that suck.

Triangle of Stress (a.k.a. Triangle of Death)

Flight #: 049
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 55.2hrs


WOAH, this was intense. The triangle of death consists of a cross country (XC) flight to three other airports. Portland-Mulino(4S6), Aurora State(KUAO), McMinnville (KMMV), and then back to Portland-Hillsboro (KHIO).

Round trip of about 70 nautical miles. The truth is, that is really not all that far, and when you are cooking along at 80 knots, things fly by pretty fast.

So, before you even start a XC flight, you need to prepare a flight plan. There is a standard form, and as you can see, it is filled with gobs of information. The one posted here is just the template I use, as it will change depending on wind conditions. But, this gives you a good idea of what is needed.

In flight, you actually fold it and store it in your kneeboard. This way you only look at the details you need to see in flight. Which is mainly the checkpoints, the heading, segment time, altitudes, and communication frequencies.

Once you get this form filled out, you call 1-800-WX-BRIEF, which will connect you with your Flight Service Station. It is a service operated by Lockheed Martin that maintains information, weather data, and other details for a given flight. It is not Air Traffic Control, but a service to give you weather details on your flight plan and to maintain a track of where you should be, and where you might be if something goes wrong. Safety service, really.

So, you call FSS and for our area, they will connect you with McMinneville FSS. You ask for a briefer and then give them details about your flight. They will verify your data; checking to make sure you have the fuel to make it, look into weather along the path of flight, etc. They will also let you know of any special reports that you might be concerned with.

Once you complete this, you can consider your flight plan filed.

Then, it is off to the helicopter. You pre-flight and run-up as normal. Rather than requesting a pattern, you request a departure. In this case we're heading SE, so in this case, I requested a East departure to take off into the wind.

Climb out as usual, and check my first compass heading, and start my timer. As we transition out of KHIO airspace, we call up our buddies at McMinneville FSS to let them know we want to open our flight plan. It goes something like this:

Kristie: "McMinneville radio, this is 2356-Tango on 122.45."
FSS: "2356-Tango, McMinneville radio, say full call-sign."
K: "November-2356-Tango."
FSS: "Afternoon, 2356-Tango, What can we do for you today?"
K: "I'd like to open my flightplan."
FSS: "2356-Tango, what is your departure airport?"
K: "Hotel-India-Oscar."
FSS: "OK, got you here. What was your departure time?"
K: "Approximately 5 minutes ago."
FSS: "OK, so departure at 2122 zulu, confirm?"
K: "Correct."
FSS: "2356-Tango, your flight plan is now open. We do request pilot reports on FlightWatch at 122.0 if you have them. Please make sure to close your flight plan upon landing. Have a nice flight."
K: "Thanks. 2356-Tango".

As this point, they know where we are, where we are headed, how much fuel have, and when we are expected back.

Then the fun begins. It is all about communicating when flying. Make sure everyone knows where you are, and you know where everyone else is. Rather than explain every little detail; look at the first image above. I'm flying the triangle, clockwise. Every time I'm 10, 5, 3, 2, 1 nm from an airport (the blue or magenta circles, with or without the handles) I'm talking. I'm also checking weather for each of the airports I intend on landing. Basically, constantly. When you get to an airport, you need to let everyone know your plans. Where are you coming from? What altitude are you at right now? Ascending, descending? What direction are you traveling in? What are your plans? Landing, approach, etc, etc. Lots of communication.

Keep in mind, I'm hauling ass too... not time to dilly dally and check out the scenery. I'm checking speed, altitude, traffic around me. Am I over my checkpoints? How's the fuel?

Anyway, there is a lot of stuff going on here. Granted, I'm stuffing a lot of action into a small 70 nm flight here... but the point is that this is supposed to be intense. It is supposed to give you a bit of stomach acid so that you know how to deal with stuff when it comes up for real.

Anyway, we got back, landed, and closed the flight plan.

It was really cool, but really stressful.

I got to be honest, I was feeling pretty big after all my solos the past week. Big man, flying a helicopter. Now, I've got my ass out of the baby pool and into the deep sea.

So much for the feeling of superiority. This is intense!




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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.