Newsgroup topics

Hi all, I too am sorry to see this newsgroup grind to a halt. I have
not posted in a long while so can take some of the blame! I love
helicopters and enjoy reading everyones posts. I have 8 hours flying
them and just love it when I do. My experience is only on vacations
or work trips. I call ahead to a school and set up an hour with an
instructor and have a blast. So far I have flown R22, 300CB and Turbo
Enstrom. I have been forunate to fly in cities all over such as San
Fransisco, Hillsbor,OR, Ft Lauderdale and Longmont, CO so far. All
the instructors have been great and let me try and hover at the end of
my flights. That was always fun and sometimes I actually held it for
a few seconds,lol It is one thing to read about all the interaction
of the flight controls, but to experience it is quite a lesson! I
have asked to be shown what it feels like to enter an auto and the
first time was a doozy of a feeling for sure. I live in Marion,IA and
we do have a small local school here with Enstroms, but it is pricey
and the scenery is not quite as exciting as elsewhere so that is why I
wait for trips. I would love to get my license someday and you never
know, but for now I will just get a small piece of my dream and that
is really neat.
I also try to get up to Oshkosh every couple of years. The local
airport has a daily shuttle to Fondulac(sp) and then hop a bus to the
airshow so I can spend a day up there and see everything. What a
wonderfull event that is! I spend a couple of hours up at the
ultralight and helicopter field and that is fun. I will post again and
do enjoy everything I have read and learned in this group. Jerry

Jerry: If you make it to Oshkosh this year look us up. We are parked with
the Canadian Home Rotors bunch and usually if we aren't around snapping
pictures, they know where we are. I'm thinking about taking my Baby Belle
there this year. I missed two years in the past 10.
BTW if you get a chance try a Brantly. I got a chance to hover a Brantly
before I took any dual and I kind of did it. As I remember it was much
easier to control than the Scwheitzer 300CB. But the best was a Huey. I
was able to hover with all the controls the first try and even made a pedal
turn. I thought I must be a "Natural" so dashed down to LA and got into a
R-22. Yep I was a "Natural". A "Natural Born Hazard" I lasted maybe 3-5
seconds before that dang thing tried to go to a zip code with a leading
digit much smaller than the one we were in. I now have around 300 hrs and I
need to try the R-22 again.

Stu

"Jerry" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I too am sorry to see this newsgroup grind to a halt. I have
not posted in a long while so can take some of the blame! I love
helicopters and enjoy reading everyones posts. I have 8 hours flying
them and just love it when I do. My experience is only on vacations
or work trips. I call ahead to a school and set up an hour with an
instructor and have a blast. So far I have flown R22, 300CB and Turbo
Enstrom. I have been forunate to fly in cities all over such as San
Fransisco, Hillsbor,OR, Ft Lauderdale and Longmont, CO so far. All
the instructors have been great and let me try and hover at the end of
my flights. That was always fun and sometimes I actually held it for
a few seconds,lol It is one thing to read about all the interaction
of the flight controls, but to experience it is quite a lesson! I
have asked to be shown what it feels like to enter an auto and the
first time was a doozy of a feeling for sure. I live in Marion,IA and
we do have a small local school here with Enstroms, but it is pricey
and the scenery is not quite as exciting as elsewhere so that is why I
wait for trips. I would love to get my license someday and you never
know, but for now I will just get a small piece of my dream and that
is really neat.
I also try to get up to Oshkosh every couple of years. The local
airport has a daily shuttle to Fondulac(sp) and then hop a bus to the
airshow so I can spend a day up there and see everything. What a
wonderfull event that is! I spend a couple of hours up at the
ultralight and helicopter field and that is fun. I will post again and
do enjoy everything I have read and learned in this group. Jerry

Stu,

I have 500+ hours in a 269A and about 20 in an R22. I never did get
comfortable in the thing plus the roof was too low. I didn't seem to be
able to get used to the "swinging" cyclic. I always wanted to bolt it
solid (no swivel) and try again.

A Brantly is probably the smoothest small helo I have ever been in.
Unfortunately, I only got one chance as the thing caught fire at the end
of my first flight - but that's another story. The Brantly did live to
fly again, but not with me. A Bell 47 was the easiest thing I ever
flew, especially for touchdown autos.

Gary

Stuart & Kathryn Fields wrote:
Jerry: If you make it to Oshkosh this year look us up. We are parked with
the Canadian Home Rotors bunch and usually if we aren't around snapping
pictures, they know where we are. I'm thinking about taking my Baby Belle
there this year. I missed two years in the past 10.
BTW if you get a chance try a Brantly. I got a chance to hover a Brantly
before I took any dual and I kind of did it. As I remember it was much
easier to control than the Scwheitzer 300CB. But the best was a Huey. I
was able to hover with all the controls the first try and even made a pedal
turn. I thought I must be a "Natural" so dashed down to LA and got into a
R-22. Yep I was a "Natural". A "Natural Born Hazard" I lasted maybe 3-5
seconds before that dang thing tried to go to a zip code with a leading
digit much smaller than the one we were in. I now have around 300 hrs and I
need to try the R-22 again.

Stu

"Jerry" wrote in message
...

Hi all, I too am sorry to see this newsgroup grind to a halt. I have
not posted in a long while so can take some of the blame! I love
helicopters and enjoy reading everyones posts. I have 8 hours flying
them and just love it when I do. My experience is only on vacations
or work trips. I call ahead to a school and set up an hour with an
instructor and have a blast. So far I have flown R22, 300CB and Turbo
Enstrom. I have been forunate to fly in cities all over such as San
Fransisco, Hillsbor,OR, Ft Lauderdale and Longmont, CO so far. All
the instructors have been great and let me try and hover at the end of
my flights. That was always fun and sometimes I actually held it for
a few seconds,lol It is one thing to read about all the interaction
of the flight controls, but to experience it is quite a lesson! I
have asked to be shown what it feels like to enter an auto and the
first time was a doozy of a feeling for sure. I live in Marion,IA and
we do have a small local school here with Enstroms, but it is pricey
and the scenery is not quite as exciting as elsewhere so that is why I
wait for trips. I would love to get my license someday and you never
know, but for now I will just get a small piece of my dream and that
is really neat.
I also try to get up to Oshkosh every couple of years. The local
airport has a daily shuttle to Fondulac(sp) and then hop a bus to the
airshow so I can spend a day up there and see everything. What a
wonderfull event that is! I spend a couple of hours up at the
ultralight and helicopter field and that is fun. I will post again and
do enjoy everything I have read and learned in this group. Jerry

Hi Stu, I am planning on going up again this year and I will indeed
look you up. It is such a great event and it seems all aviation shows
are also great places to talk to the owners or operators about
anything you can think of.
I would love to try a Brantly. I have read that they are very nice to
fly. I think my favorite so far is the Scwheitzer 300 CB followed be
the Enstrom(not sure of the model, but turbocharged). I like the
looks of the 300CB and the smooth ride and at 6'3 I fit just fine too.
Also the pre-flight seemed to be easier to go through with more
visibility.
I also used to attend the Rotor conventions in Mintone,IN back around
the 1998 range and they were also fun events. That was my first good
look at some nice Rotorways, Baby-Belles and a Mini-500. I was always
going to go back for another one, but have not made it.

Jerry

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:31:17 -0800, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields"
wrote:

Jerry: If you make it to Oshkosh this year look us up. We are parked with
the Canadian Home Rotors bunch and usually if we aren't around snapping
pictures, they know where we are. I'm thinking about taking my Baby Belle
there this year. I missed two years in the past 10.
BTW if you get a chance try a Brantly. I got a chance to hover a Brantly
before I took any dual and I kind of did it. As I remember it was much
easier to control than the Scwheitzer 300CB. But the best was a Huey. I
was able to hover with all the controls the first try and even made a pedal
turn. I thought I must be a "Natural" so dashed down to LA and got into a
R-22. Yep I was a "Natural". A "Natural Born Hazard" I lasted maybe 3-5
seconds before that dang thing tried to go to a zip code with a leading
digit much smaller than the one we were in. I now have around 300 hrs and I
need to try the R-22 again.

Stu