4th flight - It wasn't pretty..

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for another great write up. Man, you're sure bringing back memories
of those "off" days when I was in my primary training. The frustration is
completely understood. ;-) Just remember, you "might" have another hour or
so of marginal flying and then that day will arrive when it all comes
together. I look forward to hearing about that day too!

Best of luck to you Bubb......er, Kevin! :-D You know it may take you a
while to live that one down. You might want to just live with the gasoline
smell for a while. ;-)

Fly Safe,
Steve R.


"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz *AT* adelphia *DOT* net wrote in
message ...
Had another hop for another 1.3 this past Thursday. Not near as hot
as the previous flight so DA wasn't too bad. Pretty hazy out, but
ATIS reported 7 mile visibility. Sure didn't look like 7 from the
ground though.

I fill out my weight and balance and figure DA then check the squawk
sheet. No discrepancies so I fill out the white board in the hangar.
Aircraft, student, departure time, arrival time, where we're headed
and update the time to maintenance box. Grab my headset and checklist
and head out to the ship.

I usually pull on a pair of rubber gloves for the preflight so my
hands don't get all grungy and stink like gasoline the rest of the
day, but only had one so I slipped it on my right hand. I get through
the right cabin side, right engine, rear of engine, tail boom and tail
rotor section and am just starting the left engine side when my ground
school instructor walks up with another student and asks, "What's up
Thriller?"

I didn't catch the zinger at the time (it'll make sense in a sec here)
so I said "This here R22 will be up in about 15 minutes"

"You want some sequins to go with that glove Michael?"

Oh, ok, I get it.. Michael Jackson and the glove.. ha ha.. "Um the
glove is on the wrong hand."

"We're gonna get you some rhinestones and some sequins for that glove
Mike.. No wait.. You can't be Mike, you're still a monkey" (We mere
students are "monkeys") "we'll just call you Bubbles." Evidently
Michael Jackson has a monkey called "Bubbles" - I didn't know that.
I should get out more often. hehehe

Those two knuckleheads walk away and I finish my preflight. I'm gonna
need a quart of oil so I'm about to head back to the hangar to grab a
quart when my flight instructor comes walking out. "How's it going
Bubbles?" I tell him we're going to need a quart of oil so he says
he'll take care of it. I head back to the hangar to toss out my glove
and hit the can.

I get to the hangar and tell my ground instructor "Man, you suck." and
tell him what the other instructor just said. We all have a good
laugh and I head back to the ship with "Billy Jean" stuck in my head.
Great.. Just what I need. I head back out as my flight instructor is
headed back.. "You suck too." I say as we pass. He laughs and keeps
on going.

I get to the ship, hop in and buckle up. Instructor shows up a few
moments later and buckles in. Pre-start checklist good so I fire her
up. Starter light off, no warning lights, engine instruments in the
green so I flick on the clutch switch. We want a West takeoff with a
South departure to the practice area so I get a quick ATIS update - no
changes since I did my DA and W&B - so I call up the tower and get
clearance behind another of "our" ships that took off moments before.

I pick the ship up - little wobble at first but I get it reasonably
stable, clear the tail to the left and do a right pedal turn and begin
my air taxi. OK, this isn't too bad. I've got decent altitude
control and my speed control is good. We're cleared right to the
runway so I taxi to the center and pedal turn right. I see our other
ship just beginning it's climb out so I tell my instructor "I'm gonna
hold here for a few seconds and let them climb out a bit more" He
says ok and after about 15 seconds I give 'er a bit of forward cyclic
and pull power to a little over 22 inches. 22.9 is our max takeoff
limit for the conditions so I'm a smidge lower than that and headed
right down the centerline, looking for 60 knots.. (I love that
nose-down haulin' butt sensation on takeoff)

60 knots, some aft cyclic and I'm climbing at 500fpm.. Cool.. I hit
the numbers I was looking for. For all of about 10 seconds. Kinda
bumpy again so I do my best to establish a steady climb. Turn
crosswind and depart the area, finally leveling off at about 1,300 and
looking for 75kts. And I'm still looking.. Couldn't control my
airspeed worth a damn. I figured I was just a little rusty since it's
been a whopping 48 hours between flights.

I can see our other ship a couple miles in front of us headed to the
practice area. They call us up and tell us what they're going to be
doing - same thing as us - so we work out who's going to take which
end of our little concrete "pad" and then take turns flying patterns
and shooting approaches.

I'm doing ok flying the pattern, but can't get the damned approaches
down. I'm too hot, I'm too low, I'm too slow, I'm too high, you name
it, I was doing it. I fly one approach horribly and we end up about
100' high and very slow.. My instructor tells me to bail out of the
approach and go around the patch again. He wants to show me something
that might help.

I get around the patch and get set up on final and he takes the
controls with me following along.. We're going to do a steep
approach. He explains what he's doing and I'm lightly following him
on the controls.. We get slowed down to ETL and shimmy and shake all
the way down to a 5' hover where he hands the ship back over to me. I
hover there (If you can call it a hover) for a little bit while he
runs over the approach again. "ok, let's go around again"

Take off run is good, I'm climbing out at 50. Still having friggin'
airspeed control issues for some reason today... Finally get to 60
and push for 75 as I turn downwind and level at 1,200 feet (our "pad"
is about 700' MSL) Opposite the "threshold" I begin to slow us down
and establish a positive descent and turn base, then final.. I get
slowed down to ETL and am getting that vibration. Sinking too fast so
I add some power..

Crap, I've accelerated through ETL so back comes the nose to slow us
down. Damn, now I'm actually climbing so down comes the nose and I
reduce power a bit.. I feel like I'm on a friggin' rocking horse for
the 1st half of this approach.. I finally get it settled down and
manage to do a reasonable normal approach. Not what you were after
Kevin..

I don't know what's up with me today, but I'm just not flying well..
It's time to return to the field so I transmit I'm leaving the
practice area to the North and head for home. I climb out to 1,300
feet and hit 75 knots.. Jesus.. Now I can't control my altitude.
1,300 to 1,100 back to 1,300 then down to 1,200. Way to go Chuck
Yeager.. sheesh...

We're about 6 miles out and I call the tower and request landing.
They clear me for approach and landing at the intersection of a
taxiway and the active runway. Great, I don't know where the hell
that particular taxiway is. I ask my instructor where I'm supposed to
go so he gets me headed to the correct spot. I fly a ragged approach
to the spot and just before I get the ship stopped and into a hover,
we get hit with a gust of wind that spins the ship very quickly to the
right. I stab the left pedal and end up having to mash it all the way
down to stop the yaw and immediately have to add some right pedal to
get it stable.. I think I sucked a couple pounds of seat cushion up
my ass on that one.

We've been cleared to air taxi back to the ramp so I head that way. I
pick my pad and just when I think I'm settled down enough to set it
down nicely, my instructor says "xxxxx is watching, show him how it's
done." (names withheld to protect the innocent) Great, that's the
kiss of death, just like the "move us to that line" bit in the last
episode)

I get my pedal turn completed and get the ship centered over the pad
then can't get it settled down enough to set down and end up scooting
off the front of the pad. I finally get it under control and back it
up slowly and get it set down. Throttle down to 75%, governor off,
jiggle the cyclic to get the vibrations to smooth out and then pinch
it between my knees in that oh-so-feminine posture I've come to know
and love.

I set frictions with my right hand and start the 5 minute cool down.
CHTs are coming down nicely and after 5 mins I roll off the throttle
flick off the clutch and pull mixture, call for fuel and then shut off
the avionics and mags. Get the blades stopped then off goes the
strobe and the master. I secure the ship and check the Hobbs. 1.3
again.. I fill out the Hobbs log and head to the hangar. I'm not
pleased with how I flew today.

I end up taking a walk to the drink machine with my instructor and I
tell him I wasn't happy with how I did. He said I didn't do too bad
and mentioned my pickups were getting better. Much smoother and not
as much movement as the previous 2 flights. I got the "sometimes
you're just having an off day" talk as well.

I know when I flew fixed wing I'd have days like that and I know it's
part of the process. Hell, I have days like that playing my guitar
and I've been playing since the early 80s. Some days I can do no
wrong and I play really well. Other days I can't play for s**t. Same
with flying I guess.. Still, I think it was a good learning
experience and I did do 95% of the flying and I did have fun so it's
not like it was a waste of time. I guess I was just a little
frustrated/disappointed at not improving much on this flight.

Oh well, I've got 3 slots on the flight schedule next week That's
something to look forward to!

Now I've just got to get rid of that whole "Bubbles" thing.. ehhehe