The ultimate test

The 28th of October started like any Wednesday with the sun rising in the east. That's about where the similarities ended for me though, I was awake at 5:45 with pre-test anticipation/anxiety/excitement. I arrived at the hanger at 7:00 and got stuck into a daily check of the machine I'd be taking my testing officer up in. I then checked the weather forecast and submitted a flight plan, did a weight and balance check for the aircraft, ordered the exact amount of fuel that would bring us up to the maximum all up weight aloud and washed the dead bugs off the windscreen. The time was approaching 9:00 and I was ready for my "client".

We then talked for a good couple of hours about the legislation and other important facts and figures that I should now have at the top of my head. By 11:00 the oral part of the exam was over and I was already starving so I shoved lunch down my throat and had a quick check of the forecast to see if things had changed. The forecast thunderstorms were to be east of our flight, but I was to expect isolated showers falling from cloud bases well above us. The forecast winds had changed so I had to recalculate my flight plan and by 11:45 I was giving my client a passenger brief before finally firing up the engine.

The temperature was approaching 30C and within the confined bubble of the R22 it was even warmer and beginning to rain from my forehead. This seemed to increase the pressure I was already feeling, similar to a pressure cooker on the stove. The departure from Jandakot was eventless and once airborne I opened the vents and the shower eased. The first leg to Beverley, east of hills, was generally as expected though I did have a momentary loss of position before locating the township to the west of my track. Either the SSW'ly wind wasn't as strong as forecast or I hadn't been holding my heading, I'm going with the first.

I was planning to land at Beverley but then my client asked to go to Northam. This wasn't a problem since I'd been there plenty of times prior but it was a diversion nonetheless and I had to figure out a new track to get there, amend my flight plan and make new radio calls that I hadn't planned. He then simulated an engine failure and I had to guide the machine towards a paddock in autorotation. This went well and I got out my "mayday" call and had us set up to land the machine safely enough to walk away from had it been a real emergency.

Up we came again and after overflying York township he asked if we could land in a little paddock next to some trees. I checked my power available, did my confined area checks and brought us down safely onto what was deceptively steep ground (it looked very flat from above). After taking off we (finally) landed at Northam and refuelled. He was putting the pressure on to get back in the air and since I essentially had to make new flight plans to return to Jandakot I was feeling rushed. It was apparently 20 minutes on the ground to refuel and get going again but as he said afterwards there was plenty of time en-route to make all these new plans.

Nonetheless stage two took us through controlled airspace (Victor 66) to the east of Perth and back towards the hills east of Jandakot. After exiting controlled airspace he pushed in the right pedal to simulate a tail rotor failure and I had to recover. I immediately put the machine into an autorotation but with no safe landing areas beneath me I elected to increase the speed and pull power to continue on to Jandakot since the vertical stabiliser helps with the anti-torque in forward flight. With this emergency out of the way I then had to perform a steep turn (> 45 degrees whilst level) before returning to Jandakot.

Once at Jandakot I performed an engine failure from 800ft all the way to the ground, an engine failure in the hover, tail rotor failure in the hover and a jammed control (only one!). We returned to the hanger and I was feeling that I must have stuffed up something so as not to simulate all of the jammed controls. I asked where I should land it and he said "just on the bitumen, we won't be flying again today". I took this to mean that we will by flying again soon, i.e. some remedial training and testing. During shutdown he jumped out of the helicopter and I was left to fill out the log book and empty the aircraft of my maps etc.

Once back inside I handed him the log book to show him the finality of the flight. He offered me his hand to shake and a grin as he said his congratulations :) I couldn't believe it, I honestly thought I'd stuffed up something. He said afterwards that I didn't need to show him every jammed control and was happy with what I had shown him.

We had a long chat afterwards and discussed the flight in detail. It wasn't perfect, there is much I can improve upon, but he was satisfied to the level CASA requires to issue my licence and did say that it was up there with some of the good tests he's seen. As an acknowledgement to my success Rotorvation also gave me a model R44 chopper that's going straight to the pool room! I left the hanger at about 5:30pm after the longest, hardest and most rewarding day of flying I've had to date. I got it!

All the money and hard work paid off when I received this baby!

It's been a hell of a journey. I've dedicated so much time over the past year and a half studying and then, in the past 3 months, flying. I've committed myself to it financially with every dollar I had saved and even had to borrow some doe off the folks to finish it off (thanks mum and dad!). Some dreams are worth throwing everything you have at it, because once you achieve them you are living on cloud 9 (for me it's almost literal!). My log book sits at 98.5 hours in an R22 now, and my licence is on the way from CASA. Happy days:)

Captain Grimes

The lumpy cumulus clouds in the background that developed over the hills provided the roof over my head for much of the flight

Wahoo!

The relief and exhilaration setting in