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