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matt_as350
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Hallo,

Well another few days done and more hours in the good 'ol logbook and PTR,

Lets see, what have I been doing hmmmmm...... Refining Hovering on all 3 controls in IGE and OGE, doing turns while in the hover, descending and climbing and arresting a climb or descent in the hover and all those have been coming along well, and I am getting the feel for that "sweet spot" in the controls while in the hover, I think I will have to get lighter boots though, with the work boots I have now they are a little heavy and it's toying a little with my pedal work on a few instances. When I was hovering today, in IGE and OGE it was good, not as smooth as on friday, but still a hover with little to none pitching or rolling or yawing. The hover is really coming along, I can care to venture a guess maybe another 3-5 hours before my little R22 in the hover will look it's attached to a invisible pole in the ground (aka a really solid and steady hover with no movement at all), I know that sounds arrogant, and in No way do I mean it to for that to come across that way, just saying basically what I am going to work towards for my hovering work, my hovering on friday had a few instances where it was very stable, was quite happy with it.

 

I found the best way that works for me is to fix my eye to a point maybe 25-30 feet away from the machine and just use that to gauge if I am moving in any direction or if it is just stationary in my eye sight.

 

Also been following through on Take off's and landings, I have been shooting a few approaches as well, those are nothing too new too me since I have a PPL Fixed wing background, just instead of landing on pavement, I am aiming for a specific point.

 

And now for the surprise!................ dun dun dun

........................... dun dun dun.........................................

..............dun................dun....................dun...........

.................

 

 

:prop: :prop: :prop: :prop: :prop: :prop: :prop:

tehehe It's a rotor head!! muhahahah.

 

I have started entry to autorotations, my first few I was just observing my instructor, then I followed through on the controls on a few more, till I was confident on the entire procedure, then I done a few on my own.

 

So, we climb up to around 3500 ft, put put along and do the HASEL checks and then Enter into the auto, On the first few auto's the throttle was rolled off when the collective was bottomed, then a few more and then we were rolling the throttle off as the collective was going down, then If I recall correctly on one or two auto's the throttle was rolling off just as I was starting to bottom the collective, and WOW, does it feel weird, just the noise, not to much the feel of the machine other then it is a little more stiffer in an auto, and I found on the first few auto's I was putting in a little too much right pedal and we were out of trim for a few seconds, but after awhile I found the right speed and pressure to apply to my good ol' buddy right pedal who is so gracious to not let me yaw to the left! (Geez, with these "comedy" skills I have in writing I can be a comedian! HA! NOT :P) .

 

So the usual things in a auto, controlling speed with cyclic and rotor rpm with collective, and I can say I have been able to manage the air speed (So that we are at the correct auto speed for the R22) and manage the rotor rpm so we stay in the green, and after a few more I was feeling comfortable with the inital entry to the auto (The enitre rolling throttle and collective to the floor phase) as it felt alittle unnatural at first, and today I found I was able to control rotor rpm, by doing the quick glances inside to check air speed and rotor rpm but also by the sound of the blades, and if they were going faster (pull just a little collective) or slowing down (push down on the collective), then wait a few seconds, and glance inside to see if your action had the desired effect or not, so all in all I am comfortable with the entry to the auto rotation now.

 

I can also say that entry to auto's are a heck of a lot nicer then the scary stalls with the Cessna 172 (with the wing drop that would sometimes to pay a visit or when you had a gust of wind pick up one wing just as your were stalling)

 

So for the next few flights, just refining the hover (both in IGE and OGE, turns, and climbs/descents/arresting) and approaches, take off's and landings's and of course more entry into auto rotations!.

 

All in all it's going great, taking advantage of this great sunny weather we have been having in the West Coast! sure is nice for this time of year, it was 20 degrees when we lifted off around 1600 today (tuesday).

 

So, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next installment of Matt's Training Blog! Coming to you from the beauitiful west coast of BC starring......... R22 Helicopters!!!! (Wow, I could go into show business with this humor!......Not! haha)

 

 

Matt

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Sounds like things are going great down there Matt, keep up with the updates.

 

Wait until you throw everything out of wack and you put on a bucket for the first time and do all of those exercises that you mastered. Should be interesting :shock: :up: .

 

BTW is your time in stiff-wing helping you in the new found whirly world?

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can also say that entry to auto's are a heck of a lot nicer then the scary stalls with the Cessna 172 (with the wing drop that would sometimes to pay a visit or when you had a gust of wind pick up one wing just as your were stalling)

 

No kidding, did you see that 7 rotation spin video I sent you yesterday? (Guy puts it into a spin and cant get out, eventually has to put it into a sprial to recover.)

 

+1 on wanting to know if your plank time helped (would be nice if my hobby helped my career)

 

Everything is going well in the interior, Youngest licensed pilot in North America November 7th :up: :up: :up: Thinking about a night rating to stay current. Definately looking in to aerobatics (if I have to fly FW, it may aswell be inverted) Ironically, I tried to book my "N" driving test today and cant get it until at least the 12th :huh: (yep, that means someone has to drive me to the airport if they want to come for a ride :blink: )

 

Well, this isnt "Cole's life"

Been waiting all day to see this thread, keep em coming.

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Thanks for all the replies everyone :up: , they are very much appreciated and I look forward to reading them :punk:

 

Fish and Cole: You bet my fixed wing PPL (TT in F/W is 86) has helped me, I believe it was a young/wise pilot ( :P :up: ) that recommended that I do my PPL Fixed Wing before starting my CPL Heli just to get the ground school down pat and the radio work, etc, and it has helped me so much, I can concentrate on flying the helicopter and the helicopter only, as opposed to learning everything else AND trying to learn to fly the machine.

 

This week, I have been refining the hover some more, doing sidewards and backwards flight, pedal turns around the tail, and turns around the nose, take off's, landings and approaches and of course entry to auto's.

 

The hover is coming along, I ended up getting lighter boots as I found the work boots I have been wearing are quite heavy and have been screwing me up on my pedal work, so these new light shoes let me "feel" the pedals more and I have noticed somewhat of a improvement in the pedal work. The sidewards flight is coming along, just trying to get the "feel" of the cyclic and pedals, I am doing well on the sidewards flight to the right, but the sidewards flight to the left in my opinion needs refining, as the machine doesn't like to do that in the left direction. The pedal turns around the tail are fun and those are coming along quite nicely, the turns are at the right speed, and they have started to come along quite nicely since I started wearing the lighter shoes, because when I was wearing the work boots I was very "twitchy" and heavy and over compensated a few times to many on the pedals in the turns around the tail, and again, it is amazing how the machine doesn't like to do the turns to the left, and how you also have to compensate with cyclic as well, but on my last few pedal turns to the left it came along quite nicely, it could always be better, but I am working on perfecting all that and just getting the feel for the machine as well. At first, the rearward flight felt unnatural but I have gotten use to the feel and I have been able to perform that maneuver well, but something I would like to refine even more.

 

Started turns around the nose, and wow, those are a challenge haha, I was able to do maybe half of the circle i was circling around before I started to drift off, but I was told it is one of the more challenging maneuvers to start, I found I was over compensating a bit too much on the pedal and that screwed me up a few times. It is something that I definitely want to perfect.

 

Take Off's, Landings and Approaches, are coming along quite nicely I think, and 3 days ago, after doing take off's and landings in a field, I done the approach into the school (I usually do, and the instructor take's over just before final and does the landing) but I done my first "pavement" landing at the hanger, and it felt great, I came into a hover, fixed my eyes forward, slowly came down on collective, stayed at about 6 inches off the ground, then as soon as I know the skid was on the ground, lowered the collective about 1 inch or so to make sure I was down, I did have a little one little wobble in the hover, but the rest was smooth, boy did that feel good- My first landing on pavement/at the hanger. The approaches are coming along quite nicely, as I already know how to "gauge" my approaches (the focusing ahead and keeping a constant attitude and descent rate) from my fixed wing days. Take off's are coming along nicely, on a few of my take off's I lifted off quite well and their was no pitching or yawing and just stayed in the hover, this is starting to become the “normal” take off for me and I feel I am improving every time I practice it.

 

I also started doing transitions from hovering to forward flight and of course the transition from forward flight into hovering, I always enjoy those, and getting use to the change in control force required when going from forward flight to hovering, those are a satisfying maneuver to perfect when you come into the hover right in the spot that you planned your approach too, and the transitions from hovering to forward flight are fun to do, and those are coming along quite nicely as well.

 

The auto's are coming along now, with 180 turns to both the right and left, and I done a 360 auto to the right on one auto, those sure feel "interesting" and on my last few flights I have been basically bang on the right airspeed and keeping my RPM in the green arc on my trusty little R22.

 

Well That about covers it for this entry, I have around 10 hours in the past 2 weeks in training, as I finished my 2nd week of training, it's still hard to believe that I am actually doing this, I've looked forward to it for so long, and I am enjoying it quite alot, and alot of it is not new to me as I had the luck to be in the industry since I was 15, having a great time! learning lots and excited to go to class everyday!

 

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next edition of Matt's Training, as usual, coming to you Live from the beauitful west coast of British Columbia!!

 

 

 

 

 

Matt

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(quote)The auto's are coming along now, with 180 turns to both the right and left, and I done a 360 auto to the right on one auto, those sure feel "interesting" and on my last few flights I have been basically bang on the right airspeed and keeping my RPM in the green arc on my trusty little R22.(quote)

 

 

not meaning to stir anything up, i am just curious....how many of those auto's were full on's?

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