Circuits - tying it all together

Over the past few days we've been practicing emergencies in the hover, i.e. what to do if and when the engine quits during hovering or taxing. We then "transitioned" to transitions, i.e. initiating an acceleration along the ground to get more air moving over the blades. As you build up speed, the increase in flow over the blades generates what is termed "translational lift", similar to an aeroplane getting to a similar speed along the runway prior to lift off. For us in the 22 it's about 40 knots that we require before beginning the climb out at maximum power.

Since I've now learnt how to hover, transition, climb, turn, level off, do pre-landing checks, descend and transition back into a hover, everything is now place to do a circuit which essential ties it all in together in about 2 minutes. It's a very busy 2 minutes at this stage whilst I have to consciously think about everything I'm doing but as they say, practice makes perfect. We've been doing a tonne of circuits lately which has been good; I can see areas that I need to concentrate on more and it keeps everything from previous lessons nice and fresh.

I've also been learning steep take-offs and approaches, ideal for getting into tighter spots, and tomorrow we'll be doing vertical take-offs and landings. This is the sort of flying that reminds me I'm in a chopper and not a plane, this and hovering :) When the atmospheric conditions are right; not too hot or the atmospheric pressure is not too low, or we're not trying to fly at too high an elevation (essentially anything that will thin the air out) the helicopter performance can allow for some pretty cool stuff. To haul the weight of the chopper ~400kg, fuel and two normal sized adults vertically up into a fluid so thin you can wave your hand through it without noticeable resistance is damn mind boggling if you put your mind to it. But it does, and it is awesome!

The "text-book" circuit

The main rotor assembly. You don't want that top bolt to fail!

The nil-wind pilot

The breeze had been up since the end of last week and over the weekend. Even though it was only really 10-15 knots, trying to learn to hover in these conditions made everything very difficult because it is that extra element that must always be considered since it is always trying to move you away from the position you're aiming to hold. It can also help generate lift and get under the blades to try roll the machine. Today however the wind was variable to about 5 knots, very light. I was holding a good hover, was able to demonstrate "spot turns" (turns around the mast), turns around the nose, and a shaky turn around the tail.

Putting the machine on the ground and lifting off into a hover is also a skill that needs incredible finesse. You must be flying the aircraft before lift off, and you must fly the aircraft all the way to the ground. This means you're controlling it's position on the ground as if it were in the air so that when you become "light on the skids" (prior to lift off or just after touch down) you won't roll or catch on something on the ground - very dangerous! I started feeling more comfortable with these towards the end of the lesson.

Taxiing in a helicopter is done at a slow to fast walking pace forwards, or slow walking pace in any other direction. I was all over the place with this initially but again today's lack of wind showed me that neural pathways are being formed and the skill is becoming a motor skill. Of course when the wind decides to return I'll have to tackle the extra workload but the progress I've made was evident today. The next few lessons will focus on emergencies in the hover, i.e. engine failure or loss of tail rotor in the hover/taxi which are generally demonstrated with the skids about 5 feet off the ground. Having a failure so close to the ground doesn't leave much time to react so it's a matter of becoming familiar with the process and practicing over and over again to make it an ingrained reaction. Once familiar with the emergency procedures I'll be learning how to transition the helicopter from a hover into forward flight for take off.

I spent half of the day today in the hanger with the engineers who were pulling one of the machines apart for it's 100 hourly inspection, a significant routine inspection. It's good to see the different parts and how everything is connected and what their roles are. The more one knows about the machine they're flying the safer they'll be if something goes wrong.

R22 Cockpit and instrument panel

The grind of the hover

Three days in and I'm learning how to hover the aircraft. With straight and level flight, climbing/descending and turning whilst level/climbing/descending covered over previous days, we flew a couple of hours today trying the grasp the most difficult skill in all of my aviation training.

About seven to eight years ago I undertook my private fixed-wing pilots licence that I chipped away at when I could afford it. On a student budget, this allowed a flight lesson about once every week or two. The amount of time it took each lesson to familiarise myself with flight training inevitably stretched the training out longer than it needed to be. So as a lesson learned the hard way, I've approached my chopper license differently by getting the theory subjects out of the way before my flying, and taking time off work so as to fly every day. Yes, things are sinking in, but flying training is incredibly demanding on the brain. There are a lot of new motor skills and procedures to learn and today we attempted the hardest manoeuvre I've ever encountered on an aircraft.

To hover the aircraft, you have to ensure that it doesn't sink or lift (using the "collective"), doesn't yaw or twist left or right (with the pedals which control the tail rotor), and doesn't swing all over the place or move in any direction across the ground (using the "cyclic" or joystick-looking device). Left to itself, a helicopter is unstable and will crash whereas an aeroplane can be trimmed and glide hands free, therefore you must have hands-on control of the helicopter at all times. Since the chopper is a highly sensitive machine, all control inputs have to not only be extremely slight but must pre-empt what is going to happen next. I did manage to hover for short periods but after two hours of this my brain is nothing short of fried.

The picture below was taken this morning. It was a beautiful day with high cloud about and a slight easterly wind over the airport. Nil wind provides the best opportunity for learning the hover but since I'll have to be able to hover in all wind situations it was good to have a breeze today. The instructors keep saying that taking a while to nail the hover is normal so hopefully after some time for everything to sink into the brain it becomes a little bit easier at lift off tomorrow!

First day...

I barely slept last night with the excitement and anticipation that is felt at the beginning of a lifelong dream. Today I commenced the practical side of my license. After balancing study, work and a life on the side for the past year, the next 2 months off work are a welcome reward to focus on balancing the machine itself. I arrived at 07:30 at the hanger and it was straight to the chopper for the pre-flight checks. It was a damn cold morning (meteorologically correct term) and the chopper was colder still.

Today was more theory than flying (1.1 hours flight time logged) but the instructor was adamant that as the lessons become more familiar they tend to streamline toward tipping the scales the other way. Regardless, when we lifted onto the "cushion of air" in the hover and took flight for the training area I was reminded that this is going to be a hell of a lot of fun and incredibly rewarding.

The majority of the training is going to be done in the Robinson 22 (R22), a two seat helicopter predominantly used for training, mustering or private pilots. The R22 (pictured below) is a nimble yet difficult machine to master and the majority of the pilots I've spoken to suggest that if you can learn to fly this machine, you can fly any rotary aircraft. These pictures were taken after the flight, i.e. after descending from cloud 9 :)