One hour closer....

Kevin: If it makes you feel any better, Mike Zemlock, CFI, plus an examiner
with scads of hours, told me that people are surprised to learn that
hovering is NOT the hardest thing to learn. It is a normal approach!!. I
thought that I would never get it and I had been flying my Safari for a few
hours when I took the dual in a Bell 47 with Mike Zemlock in Chino. Hell I
still blow one every now and then if I'm not paying attention.
Stu Fields
"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz *AT* adelphia *DOT* net wrote in
message ...
Monday morning I got up early, got the kids dressed and fed and hauled
'em off to school. Dropped 'em off with the usual back seat
shenanigans (or however you spell it) and headed to the field. Having
been disappointed the past couple times down because of maintenance, I
call my wife and have her pull up the flight schedule and check the
numbers on the ship I'm scheduled in. Hours until maintenance looks
good so I keep on trucking.

It's a little after 8 and I'm not scheduled to fly until 10 so I stop
at the local 7-11 for coffee. Call my instructor to see if he wants a
cup and am informed I'll be flying with a different instructor since
he had to ferry one of the R44s to another location the night before
and he was "beat". Ok, no worries..

I arrive at the hangar and see "my" ship in the middle of it's 100
hour inspection. Lovely. 3 strikes and you're out. I wasn't angry I
wasn't going to fly, after all, when you've got dozens of monkies
flogging 4 ships 6 days a week, maintenance is going to be an issue.
I was a bit irritated at the time I'd spent driving down and the drive
back and the hours of work I could have put in instead.

The general manager walks in an I could tell immediately he wasn't
expecting to see this ship in an unflyable state. I swear I never saw
his cell phone move from his hip to his ear 'cuz within' 3.2
nanoseconds (it's a joke Mark!) he was on the phone with the A&P
asking what the deal was. As soon as he was off the phone we had a
short dicussion about my frustration and he told me to hang tight for
a couple minutes.

2 or 3 minutes later, he was back in the hangar, pointed to another
ship and said, "you'll be flying that one at 10". Sweet. I double
checked the status board and saw there was almost 35 hours until it's
next maintenance was due. it was only 8:30 so I had 90 minutes to
kill. I grabbed a chair and sat down to thumb through a nice stack of
Flying magazines - even found an article on a Raven II being compared
to a Porsche Cayenne. (Two vehicles I'd love to own myself)

About quarter to ten I enlist the help of one of the CFIs in getting
the ship rolled out to the flight line and start my preflight. About
halfway through, the "new" (well, new to me anyways) CFI comes out and
introduces himself and gives me his weight so I can run up my W&B when
I complete the preflight.

I notice during preflight the main rotor gearbox oil level looks like
it's right on the border of needing a splash so I pull the A&P off the
100 hour inspection and get his opinion. He says it's a bit low, but
still within limits. I'm about to urge him to put a few more ounces
in it when I notice the ship has it's left skid in a "dip" on the
tarmac and doesn't appear to be sitting level.. I take a few steps
back to take a look from the front and sure enough, it's leaned over
to the left a few degrees, accounting for the apparently borderline
fluid level. I get a pat on the back and a "good eye" from another
CFI who's been watching from the sidelines. I guess that previous
tail rotor gearbox leak has me really looking for issues during
preflights. (Funny, it was the same ship that was down this time for
it's 100 hour that had the leaking gearbox)

Preflight done, I call for fuel and get my usual load, less 3 gallons
as my "new" CFI is 15 lbs heavier than my usual one. Back in the
hangar I knock out my W&B in about 5 mins then get ATIS info and work
up density altitude. Slighty less than 1400' so we should have lots
of power. Have the CFI check my numbers - everything looks good - and
head to the ship.

I crawl in (I swear I'm gonna need a shoehorn if I ever eat before
flying) and get buckled up. A quick discussion about control handoffs
and acknowledgements and what I want to work on - more friggin'
approaches; dunno WTF my problem is with the initial setup - and I'm
off to the prestart checklist.. Soon the engine's running, guages in
the green and the main starts to spin. Smooth out the vibrations with
a little cyclic tweak and down through the last item on the checklist.

CFI asks if I've done pickups and setdowns before and I respond in the
affirmative. He shows me how he likes to see 'em and coincidently, he
does them very much like I do, slow and methodical. He pulls into a
4' hover then sets us back down. It's my turn and I'm a bit rusty -
it's been almost 2 weeks since my last flight - the initial pickup is
nice, but the ensuing hover isn't real steady at 1st. I get settled
down and ask which way we want to depart, assuming I'd be making the
radio calls.

His answer is included with his call to the tower so I proceed to taxi
out and take off. Kinda gusty crosswind so my feet are a little busy
until we begin the climbout at 60kts. Headed to the practice area and
I know the way so I make my turns appropriately and start heading in
the right direction. I pick up my favorite wind direction indicator -
the american flag on top of a really nice house on the side of a
mountain - and get my crab angle established.

Our normal "runway" has been declared off limits due to some safety
concerns so we head to the new landing spot and shoot some approaches.
I'm good up until setting up for the descent and turing base. For
some reason I'm still bleeding off airpseed too quickly, even thought
it feels like I'm really applying forward cyclic as I pull the power
off to get the descent going. Once i get through that point, I'm
pretty good..

Descent angle is good, rate is about 300 FPM and my sight picture is
rock solid. I adjust power to keep my touchdown point "glued" to the
windscreen and ride it all the way down. Get a little slow as I don't
add enough forward cyclic as I'm pulling power right at the end, but
it's one of my better approaches. The hover is a little shaky as I'm
fighting a right quartering headwind that's a little gusty but I soon
get it settled down. A quick scan of the instruments, engine guages
in the green, 2 in the green on the tach, carb air temp looks good and
we've got plenty of gas. Tiny bit of forward cyclic, resist the urge
to follow the descending terrain downhill and we're off again.

Once again the slowdown is a problem, but the rest of the approach is
good and I damn near end up directly over the patch of weeds I was
aiming for. Around and around we go, probably 3 or 4 patterns in all
and I kinda figure out my problem; I'm not extending downwind far
enough and getting rushed in my setup to base then final. I've got to
set down for a moment because last weekend's mosquito bites have
suddenly started screaming for attention. A quick scratch here and
there and we're off again.

I stretch the last few circuits out and finally have enough time to
get power and pitch settings in the ballpark and make a couple really
nice approaches and absolutely nail my spot on the last one. "Very
nice" I hear from the left seat" I think I'm finally getting this
part down. In an airplane it's a lot easier. Set power, trim for
proper pitch and just ride it down using throttle. Damned helo's got
me juggling 3 live cats and a running chainsaw while tap dancing one
legged while balancing on a bowling pin. Still, it's grand fun and
after a few weeks, I finally feel good about approaches.

Time's runnin' out so we've got to head back. Off we go, and it seems
like the wind has picked up a bit as we're getting blown around a
little bit. The trip back to the field took about 8 minutes, but it
felt more like 8 seconds. No sooner had we left the practice area
than we were making our 1 mile call and cleared for landing. I got
slowed down and started the descent - pretty clean this time. 30
knots at 300 fpm all the way down to about 100' up and started pulling
in the power and slowing us down.

With the wind like it was, I was expecting that same sudden yaw I'd
encountered the last time I flew this approach and while it wasn't as
severe, I was expecting it and corrected for it very quickly and
established a slow forward hover to the parking area. I'm getting
more comfortable air taxiing around other aircraft and had very little
difficulty getting the ship over the pad and set down right where I
wanted it with just a brief pause as I pushed through ground effect.

RPMs to 75% to cool down, governor off as I cover the pedals with my
left foot and pinch the cyclic between my knees in the "helo pilot
girly pose" then apply frictions and check the clock for the cool down
period. I call for fuel as we're cooling down and then shut down the
radio, transponder and GPS. 5 mins later I pull mixture and flick all
switches off. Once the mains are stopped I pop the buckle on my
seatbelt and off comes the headset. I glance at the Hobbs meter sure
I'd burned off another 1.3 or so. Nope. 1 hour exactly. Oh well,
that's one less hour to my solo, right?

I crawl out and secure the ship, make the appropriate entries in the
flight log and head back to the hangar. Update the board with the
time to next maintenance and grab my student folder from the bookcase
to update it as I make my logbook entries. I've got nothing else
planned for the day so I take a peek at the flight schedule to see if
anyone has been bumped for not passing a quiz or if there's been a
cancellation so I can squeeze in another block. Nope, all full.

I do see I'm on the schedule for Wednesday and Friday and on my way
out, run into my "normal" instructor who tells me he's got me down for
Thursday as well. Sweet! The potential for 4 flights this week,
including 3 days in a row. The wallet is gonna feel that one for
sure, but the logbook will be fat and happy by week's end. Getting
close to filling out another page and you know what that means. Yep,
a celebratory glass of 18 year old, single malt scotch for yours
truly. I'm salivating just thinking about it.