Initial Training Help

Skyking wrote:
Well, I had my CPL,Multi,CFI and transitioned to Comm. Rotor-Helo,CFI-Helo
in less than 50 hours. Of course maybe my total time and experience may
have had something to do with it. I allocated two weeks for this project.

Skyking

Having no prior flight experience they cut me loose at about 16 hours in
a million dollar helicopter. I have little doubt that I could have
passed an FAA exam at that point as well. None of it means diddley.
When I soloed that helicopter I had three things going for me;
fear, pride, and little knowledge of my limitations. In hindsight
I can't believe that at the skill level I had then that I had the balls
to let them make me solo.

A couple years and a few hundred hours later I went back and took a week
long "Advanced Airmanship" class where they teach real-world emergency
procs. and decision making (eg. 0 A/S 300ft autos). The IP and I didn't
hit it off at a personal level, which was good because he really went
out of his way to demonstrate how little I really knew. The guy really
knew his stuff though, and I learned a whole lot more and gained a new
appreciation for how much I still didn't know. At one point during
this experience I seriously botched a recovery and we found ourselves
engine-out at 15-20 ft flying sideways at about 50 knots. I thought for
sure we were gonna ball it up. Nope, he turned it into a perfectly
executed no-run landing. The real lesson was that as long as the machine
was operating within my limitations it was all-good and I looked and
flew like an expert helicopter pilot, but if events compounded that
took me outside my range of experience then it could get really exciting
really fast.

The reason I came down so hard on the guy who said you could do it in 16
hours was related to something I'm going through right now; A friend of
mine who has way-way more money than brains is a collector of type
ratings and old warbirds. He's somehow managed to get people to sign
him off on some seriously powerful hardware which he then goes out and
buys. He's also pretty arrogant and cocksure esp. when everyone who's
flown with him says that he's a terrible pilot and his attitude is gonna
kill him. ( I've personally seen him take off 3 times with the speed
brakes on in his most recent 1800 HP acquisition. )

The only rating this guy doesn't have now is "Rotorcraft." So the other
day he walks up and tells me (brags actually) that he's gonna go out and
buy a MD500 and get his Rotorcraft ticket. He also says he should be
able to do it in less than a week. Sure enough, a couple days later
I see him flying backwards 200agl with a MD500 operator/CFI who I'm
guessing needed the money badly. Now I'm absolutely sure that my friend
is gonna go out and do exactly what he said. The trouble is that the
skills required to pass the FAA exam are so marginal that I'm sure he'll
pass in the minimum time. I'm also equally sure that he'll make some
kind of mistake equivalent to taking off with speed brakes. Hopefully
it happens early and the gods are smiling on him enough to just scare
the living crap outa him.

Bart

"Bart" wrote in message
...


Skyking wrote:
Well, I had my CPL,Multi,CFI and transitioned to Comm.
Rotor-Helo,CFI-Helo
in less than 50 hours. Of course maybe my total time and experience may
have had something to do with it. I allocated two weeks for this
project.

Skyking




The only rating this guy doesn't have now is "Rotorcraft." So the other
day he walks up and tells me (brags actually) that he's gonna go out and
buy a MD500 and get his Rotorcraft ticket. He also says he should be
able to do it in less than a week. Sure enough, a couple days later

Bart

Thanks for a very interesting post Bart! Could you tell us how much
harder an MD 500 is to fly than some other turbine ships? I understand the
Jetranger is very forgiving and the MD 500 is on the other end of the
spectrum. How close to right am I?G Thanks again. Larry

Steve: The orginal method of tracking the blade on the Safar was to loosen
the pinch bolt on the pitch arm where it contacted the blade grip and slip
the pitch arm and re-tighten and torque the pinch bolt. The bolt got
installed and safetied but not properly torqued. We discovered this in a
post crash investigation. At any rate, there I was with about 30hrs Total
Helo time at lift off and about 40' and 40mph when the pitch arm slipped,
the blade went out of track(pitching up) and the ship began shaking hard
enough so that I couldn't read the tach. I decided to put it down and my
fixed wing training had me reducing the throttle. Almost instantly the
rotor speed decayed, the ship yawed left inspite of full pedal and rolled
left inspite of full opposite cyclic and became a Lawn Dart. The two
seconds I had to analyze the problem were not enough. I have since
ingrained it into my head (I hope) that when everything turns to crap:KEEP
THE ROTOR SPEED.
Like Bart said, up until something ocurred outside of my skill level, I
looked like a pro. I could hover like an angel, play with the traffic cones
etc. As long as every thing worked right I was OK. Ididn't have the skills
to handle the problem I encountered. BTW the present pitch arm desigh has
an indicating ball that will not allow the pitch arm to slip. The tracking
adjustments are done with the pitch link and it's opposing threaded rod
ends.
"Steve R." wrote in message
...

"Stu Fields" wrote in message
...
Bart is so right that the only way he could be so right is to have the
Tshirt, Shorts, Sox , anc Jock Strap for having Been There and Done
That.
I
soloed my Safari and was flying about OK as long as nothing went wrong.
One
day it did and I reacted like a well trained fixed wing pilot and nearly
got
killed. There certainly are some serious fixed wing trainings that need
to
be erased the moment you start up with the collective. If I had done
what
I
know now to be the proper response, I wouldn't have rolled my Safari up
in
a
very little ball and dinged my body up. I've done the add-on training
and
still feel like I got a license to learn and have to be very careful. I
taught myself to fly a Benson Gyrocopter in the 60's when dual was not
available. I never dinged a thing. The helicopter is another story. I
can't imagine even after having several beers teaching myself to fly a
helo. I'm sure that I don't have enough dual to achieve the safety
level
I
would like to have yet. I have more than 200hrs. now. The only 16hr
helo
pilots that I would ride with are Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover and I
would
have a dialogue with them first.
Stu Fields.

Hi Stu,

Interesting response to Bart's comments. Out of curiosity, would you care
to elaborate on the error(s) you made with your Safari? If you'd rather
not, that's Ok, but I "am" curious! ;-)

Your comments on teaching one's self to fly a helicopter is also well
taken.
Kind of put's in perspective what Igor Sikorski did when he taught himself
to fly "and" design a helicopter all at the same time, doesn't it? :-o

Fly Safe,
Steve R.

LM Scott wrote:
Thanks for a very interesting post Bart! Could you tell us how much

harder an MD 500 is to fly than some other turbine ships? I understand the
Jetranger is very forgiving and the MD 500 is on the other end of the
spectrum. How close to right am I?G Thanks again. Larry


If the two were cars, I'd say that its like comparing a Buick to a
Pontiac.

I only have a little bit of time in the 500, so my opinion isn't
worth that much. It certainly does come out of the sky faster than
the 'Ranger but its not bad or scary. The 500 is very nimble and
responsive in contrast to the Jet Ranger's more docile handling.
I don't think the 500 is more difficult to fly, if anything I had
an initial tough time with the Jet Ranger's overboosted hydraulics
because the cyclic is so totally devoid of tactile feedback.

I got to fly a 500 near Donner Pass at about 12,000ft in the
mountains and was impressed. The owner demonstrated a confined
pinnacle departure there that I was certain was impossible.

In spite of its few minor foibles, there's a whole lot of reasons
why I'd still rather be in a Jet Ranger.

Bart

"Stu Fields" wrote in message
...
Steve: The orginal method of tracking the blade on the Safar was to loosen
the pinch bolt on the pitch arm where it contacted the blade grip and slip
the pitch arm and re-tighten and torque the pinch bolt. The bolt got
installed and safetied but not properly torqued. We discovered this in a
post crash investigation. At any rate, there I was with about 30hrs Total
Helo time at lift off and about 40' and 40mph when the pitch arm slipped,
the blade went out of track(pitching up) and the ship began shaking hard
enough so that I couldn't read the tach. I decided to put it down and my
fixed wing training had me reducing the throttle. Almost instantly the
rotor speed decayed, the ship yawed left inspite of full pedal and rolled
left inspite of full opposite cyclic and became a Lawn Dart. The two
seconds I had to analyze the problem were not enough. I have since
ingrained it into my head (I hope) that when everything turns to crap:KEEP
THE ROTOR SPEED.

Hi Stu,

Thanks for the story. Keep the rotor speed? Amen to that!

I'm glad you survived to learn the lesson and were able to pinpoint the
problem so you could avoid it in the future. The one's I hate are the one's
that they never fully identify an overriding cause which just leaves
everyone guessing as to what happened. At least you can avoid this one in
the future.

Fly Safe,
Steve R.

"Bart" wrote in message
.

In spite of its few minor foibles, there's a whole lot of reasons
why I'd still rather be in a Jet Ranger.

Bart

Thanks Bart. I've not read very many complaints about a Jetranger and
most all of the ships in my area are 206s of one model or another. I'm sorry
to say I've never seen an MD 500 flying or ready for operation at any of our
local airports. I've been curious as to why it is a less popular helo if
that's even the caseG We do have some NOTARS
working Lifeflight here but the venerable Bell is still well represented.
Larry

Bart wrote:


Skyking wrote:

Well, I had my CPL,Multi,CFI and transitioned to Comm.
Rotor-Helo,CFI-Helo
in less than 50 hours. Of course maybe my total time and experience may
have had something to do with it. I allocated two weeks for this project.

Skyking


Having no prior flight experience they cut me loose at about 16 hours in
a million dollar helicopter. I have little doubt that I could have
passed an FAA exam at that point as well. None of it means diddley.
When I soloed that helicopter I had three things going for me;
fear, pride, and little knowledge of my limitations. In hindsight
I can't believe that at the skill level I had then that I had the balls
to let them make me solo.

A couple years and a few hundred hours later I went back and took a week
long "Advanced Airmanship" class where they teach real-world emergency
procs. and decision making (eg. 0 A/S 300ft autos). The IP and I didn't
hit it off at a personal level, which was good because he really went
out of his way to demonstrate how little I really knew. The guy really
knew his stuff though, and I learned a whole lot more and gained a new
appreciation for how much I still didn't know. At one point during
this experience I seriously botched a recovery and we found ourselves
engine-out at 15-20 ft flying sideways at about 50 knots. I thought for
sure we were gonna ball it up. Nope, he turned it into a perfectly
executed no-run landing. The real lesson was that as long as the machine
was operating within my limitations it was all-good and I looked and
flew like an expert helicopter pilot, but if events compounded that
took me outside my range of experience then it could get really exciting
really fast.

The reason I came down so hard on the guy who said you could do it in 16
hours was related to something I'm going through right now; A friend of
mine who has way-way more money than brains is a collector of type
ratings and old warbirds. He's somehow managed to get people to sign
him off on some seriously powerful hardware which he then goes out and
buys. He's also pretty arrogant and cocksure esp. when everyone who's
flown with him says that he's a terrible pilot and his attitude is gonna
kill him. ( I've personally seen him take off 3 times with the speed
brakes

What a speed brake?

ref



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"El Gran Cantinflas" wrote in message
...



What a speed brake?

A speed brake is a device that pops up out of the wing on a fixed wing
aircraft. It's purpose is to add lots of drag and partially kill lift to
assist an aerodymically clean aircraft to slow down and/or descend more
steeply without gaining unwanted airspeed.

I found some pictures of a speed brake at
http://www.express-builder.com/gallery/album09/aaj. In this case it's an
installation on an experimental aircraft but it'll give you a little idea of
what the assembly looks like.

Fly Safe,
Steve R.