Training Update...

[rainman]

Good ol Saltspring island fun.

 

Many PPC's to come there good buddy.

[duf]

Ryan,

What school are you at?

Thanks for the posts! Very interesting, relevant stuff for me!

[Ryan]

The school is Coast Helicopter College in Victoria BC. My instructor is Bob Reimer, who used to be Cheif Pilot for VIH for about 15 years. Bob has over 15,000 hours of time in helicopters and has a great reputation as an emergeny procedures instructor. :up:

[Ryan]

Hope everyone had a awesome holiday, ate too much and drank too much!

The week started off with more confined practice. Now the holes are getting really small, but not quite small enough to vertical into yet. My off-level landings are comming along too.

One favorite spot I've found is a little beach wedged among trees at the bottom of a very steep mountain inlet. It's very challenging to do the recon, having to ensure I also stay clear of the terrain. The water here is unusually calm for the pacific, and it's black being in the shadow of the mountain. Gives a very odd sensation when decending over it...almost like I'm not moving. Just gotta keep my eyes on my spot for all my references. Comming back out introduced me to another illusion I was warned about. As I gained speed out over the black flat water, I could swear it felt like I was decending a little. I knew I wasn't, but **** that was errie.

To finish off the week it was decided I was ready to start some Navigation flights. Talk about mentally exhausting! It felt like relearning how to fly, everything was new. There I am flying along, referencing the map for my track, having to nail my heading and altitude and speed, watching for traffic, writing crap down with one hand while flying with the other, and Bob's throwing all these mental nav calculations at me the whole time. But once I got all sorted out with the map and the work load I was fine. By the time we were heading back it was far easier.

Then yesterday I ran the same route in reverse, but solo this time. It went far better than the first time. For starters I could put the map on the vacant seat vs my lap...much better! Had an interesting call from tower on the way out too. I'm just puttering along and he comes on and says "FHSC, just so you know there is a C172 500' directly above you." I start cranning my neck trying to find it and sure enough I got to see the belly of a C172 from 500 feet. The rest of the trip went very well. It was a great confidence builder for sure. I was pretty pleased with my initial calculations too, only being off by 0.1 hour for the total elapsed time. Would have been dead on if I didn't have to orbit a little while over the inactive runway on the return trip. Oh well, if it saves a run in with a Dash-8 I'm all for it!

[Kristania]

Thanks for your great stories Ryan. I'm reminded of so many stories like them. What a great treat reading it all.

 

Happy flying

[Ryan]

Ah...yet another weekend. Time to sleep in baby!! These 12-14 hours days are exhausting. Luckily I don't feel it until I'm home on the couch. Sometimes I wish I didn't have a 100km seperating my house and the school, but the drive gives me a chance to wake up in the morning, and relax going home. Woah, that almost sounded like a complaint. Scratch that.

I love the 12-14 days spent around helicopters, flying helicopters and reading about helicopters!! I hate the **** drive that takes time away from me being around/flying/reading about helicopters! :up:

Okay enough of that, time for the goods on the week's progress. This week was pretty much all about navigation trips (weather permitting). It was just a small route again, only about 80nm. No airports in this one, just two tiny towns as way points. The first time was with Bob and was a great trip. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery and lots learned. He threw in a diversion enroute to the 2nd way point this time. Was interesting to find my way home by reading very vague land marks along my new heading.

Then Bob did what I though he might do at some point. We're flying along and he says "Hey, what's that on the dirt road there?" I look down thinking "Huh?" Then WOOOFFFFF! Off goes the power. **** he's sneaky.

A few days later when the weather co-operated I ran the route in reverse like the last solo trip. Again a great trip with lots learned. Things like how to get un-lost are great tricks to know. Well, not so much that I was lost, but my teeny tiny way point was totally covered by fog when I got there. I was a little North of where I should have been and the fact I couldn't see it anything on the ground up or down the coast didn't sit well. Luckily I was up at 4500' so the view was great. It had to be South of my so off I went, fingers crossed. I had a lucky break in the fog just as I passed over the little town and all was fine. Took advantage of the terrain on the way home to practice confined landings again and it all worked out pretty well.

Then today was a huge day for me too. I finally overcame my nemesis....off level landings. Bob and I went out and did them at all angles for an hour straight in a gusting 15kt wind. Having that kinda breeze blowing up my bum over a slope made me absolutely have to nail every single one of them. At first it was quite the spectacle I'm sure. I still respect the danger involved, and doubt I'll ever feel totally at ease doing them. But now I know that I can do it, they no longer scare me! It's about time too, it was almost time for me to start inventing new swear words.

Wanted to close this one with thanks to all the encouragment from the readers of this thread. So THANKS!!

Take care all, fly safe.

[twinstar_ca]

isn't it funny, ryan, how when you 1st started to post on this forum, you were the one who was asking what you thought were just pesky questions and didn't want to annoy anyone by asking all the time...

 

hope you realize now that there are a lot of us out here applauding you and watching your progress with keen interest and maybe even a little proud of the new guy who is walking the walk now...

 

you deserve from thanks from us for keeping us posted as to how it all goes... for the current drivers, no doubt you are bringing back some fond memories... for others of us, we get to see what it would have been like if we had taken the step...

 

keep the rev's up!!! :up: :up:

[Blackmac]

Great stories Ryan, keep it up.

 

Cheers, Don

[Ryan]

So here I am at the half way mark. There are two months behind me, and two months ahead. I've racked up an even 46 hours with 54 remaining. It's good, but it also sucks. This means I only have 2 more months left where I know I'll be flying every day. Then it's who knows how long untill I have a steady flying job. Oh well, might as well make the most of it!

This week has been a bit slow due to weather and a 100 hour inspection. The inpections are great, even though we aren't flying. The AME lets us look over his shoulder and pester him with a zillion questions and he just spits out the answers like a walking encyclopedia. I sort of felt like a kid watching him always asking "Whatcha do'in?" He didn't mind and like I said was full of answers.

When we did get to go flying it was a little review, and a little new. First off we were testing out a potential second CFI for the school. He seems like a great guy and with over 8000 hours is more than capable. And just like Bob he's a big fan of cutting that power anytime and anywhere.

The review for the week was some confined approaches and they're comming along quite nicely now. As for the new stuff, I started getting more indepth training in advanced take-offs and landings. The minimum power take-off is spooky and a hard feeling to get used to I think. I keep on expecting the toes of the skids to snag something and nose over. I'll get over it I'm sure. Then comes the no-hover landings which I love. A little tricky at the beginning, but much better now. After those were looking good I had a go at no-hover landings with minimum power. We started them at 24" power and worked down from there. By the end of the day I was getting it down with 22" and about a 5 foot ground run. Not too shabby since we needed 23.5" to hover IGE that day. It was tricky, but great practice for the real world.

Then I was introduced to the dreaded stuck pedal in flight. We only did them with left pedal stuck so far. Flying the R-22 on approach totally sideways was a new feeling to say the least. Instead of looking out the front window I'm now looking out my right window since that's the direction I'm going. Then sliding around to the left to slow it down into the hover with the nose low, the tail high and momentum almost making us go backwards.... what a handfull. After the tail kicks around and I kill the power to get it on the ground, the whole thing must look like quite the show from the ground. But after doing a few the recovery, in practice at least, isn't too scarey.

So on that note have a great Halloween. Don't forget to set your clock back tonight before bed-time!

[Firehawk]

Hey Ryan, I just started reading your posts, It all sure brings back memories.

It seems like yesterday when I finished my license.

Don't lose the drive you have now it will go along way.

I still look at the job I have and would'nt trade it for anything. Good work, good tours, and I still have a life with my family.

I wanted to fly helicopters from the age of 3, It was always a dream and would

make myself late for school as a kid just to watch the jetranger land at NOVA in Fort macleod.

I was amazed at them and to this day still love them and run out side when I hear one. Keep up the good work.