Kick The Tires And Light The Fires!

[Cole]

So its come to my attention that due to a lack of extended description some of my writing has been seen as overconfidence and arrogance.

 

Im sorry if this is how you see it and its certainly not how its intended.

 

In short, terms such as "No problem" and "Down to a science" etc. are meant in a case specific mannor and by no stretch of the imagination mean I am done learning.

 

For a much more in depth description of the breakdown in communication please see Rob and Rob's thread in the training section.

 

Im sorry for any confusion and want to stress that I dont believe anyone is ever done learning.

 

I intend to keep writing the training blog but will try to provide more details in order to avoid sounding to cocky.

 

Cole

[Phil Croucher]

Don't worry too much, Cole - those guys make valid points which needed making, just in case you hadn't taken them on board, but I have also found that in order to stand your ground with customers and some peers, and to be properly confident in your job, you have to be what most people would call big-headed, arrogant, or even cocky.

 

If I had a motto myself, it would be this one from Enoch Powell, a British politician:

 

"I have never taken disagreement as an indication that I am wrong"

 

Bigheaded? Maybe, but the guy was a Brigadier at 26.

 

Phil

[Zazu]

Don't worry too much Cole. Helicopters are like the ole six shooter way back when..."the equalizer". Only problem is you have to know how to aim! Same thing with helicopters. And the cool thing is you have to do it every day. And the even cooler thing is that only you know if you can do it or not. Talk is cheap and actions are louder than words. I for one had the context down considering your time and who you were training with. Good luck. This is only one knock of many that you will recieve. Above all fly safe

 

Aza Ehlers

 

Say hi to "Wendy" for me!

[Cole]

I think you said Hi yourself, I get that instructor looking over shoulder feeling, and hes on the other side of the valley. :boff:

 

Back in creston, the irony is I might be flying to Penticton in the morning. :eye:

I came back to "the next batch" tonight, the 3 students from the next semester are all living in the house I am, that makes 5 of us (the owner being #5). This'll be intresting.

 

I heard it was minus 20 here today, a good way to phase into being really cold I guess haha.

 

Cole :cold:

[Cole]

What can we say about yesterday?

 

In one word, Amazing!

 

Yesterday was my solo cross country requirement, Creston - Okanagan Falls - Penticton - Kelowna - Castlegar - Creston.

 

What an amazing flight, absolutely the perfect day for it, hardly a cloud in near 350NM!

 

Down to buisness though, all groundspeed checks I decided to do in my head befor confirming them with the e6b for some redundancy, I can do most numbers quickly with little hesitation, although I did accidently do one backwards and it had me mind boggled.

 

My first landing after the 1 hour 45 minute leg to Penticton was alot less smoothe then I would've prefered after a decent approach so I picked it up again and put it down nice and easy.

 

So post fueling I needed to move the helicopter for lunch and had prior parking arrangements with my old flight school, so I got in, went through the startup, and hit the starter. "TICK TICK TICK TICK"... well appearently the short flight from Ok Falls to Penticton was not enough to recover the battery enough for a start as well as leaving the lights and gyros on while the clutch disengaged fully and the blades stopped. Fair enough, so I asked the aeroshell, no such luck.

At this point I'd like to thank who I think was either Jim or Mel from CHL for giving me a boost and being such an awsome help!

So obviously I wasnt about to just taxi down 1 taxiway and shut off the machine, I flew 2 circuits befor I felt I would get a charge that would start the helicopter again.

So I go to start the helicopter after a brief lunch with some friends and it turns over just fine but didn't get the start.

At THIS point Id like to thank Mr. Stoof for his help in getting me on off the ground as he was immediately willing to lend me his APU.

The rest of the flight went well, such an amazing province to get to fly in, its so much fun too!

 

Today I did another small cross country flight, this one to a small like, more of a diversion style flight. Just a short one to a small lake to the north east about 20 minutes away.

 

I have this problem though, it's that I'm having so much fun haha. After today's flight I have 17.7 hours to go, which is kind of depressing in it's self because it could mean the end of helicopter flight for a while and certainly means an end of mountain flight for another while.

 

Thanks again to the guys in Penticton, because of you I made it home on time.

 

Cheers.

Very soon to be 100 hour unemployed pilot.

[bkstabr]

Well today we finished the jetranger exam but I didnt get any flying in unfortunately.

 

On the subject of short and tall guys... does anyone have a suggestion for the jetranger, im only about an inch or two to high after taking out the stock seat and using a new pad but it leaves the back feeling sore after a few hours of flying.

 

Removed stock seat and replaced it with a pad. How is that LSTC comeing along??????

[bkstabr]

So today started with a solo flight in the old 300 with the hay bail on a 150 foot line, while the other student went into the mountains with the jetranger and wendell.

 

I spent an hour doing that befor heading back to the pad for a splash of gas befor I was off to another hour of it going into tighter and tighter spots at higher altitudes and working on the approach and placement. Its good to see such dramatic improvement again, after you start going into confined areas and such the improvments are minor and not really all that noticeable so you dont get that feeling of accomplishment, but the difference between me now and me 3 days ago with an external load is unbelievable.

 

One area I went into had about a 4 foot circular cement block in the middle so I decided I was going to set down on it, I shot the approach and hit it smack in the middle first shot. I thought that must be a fluke so I moved it 20 feet to the side and then placed it back in the center again no problems. I can really respect the people who can place these things within inches and hold them there for a few minutes now though haha.

 

So after lunch as I suspected we pulled the bambi bucket out of the bag and learned all the functions and opperations of it befor the other student picked up the 300 and its hay bail and flew off. Now it was my turn to fly the jetbox.

 

We rigged up the bucket on a short line and I fired it up, the first time with Wendell sitting there not saying a word at all as he does when he expects you to be able to do something. Wendell acted as my N1 gauge for the startup as its been acting odd, not working until it wants to etc (gremlins I guess) and called out 15 and 58, thats about it.

 

So we picked up, flew to our source where Wendell showed me the basic water pickup technique and then drop. What a blast! Now it was my turn, I have a bit of a tendency to fade left in the hover over water with little reference straight down but corrected that fairly quickly and set myself up for the first drop. This one would be done in forward flight to spread the load over a longer stretch. I hit my target but was a bit long. The next one was in the hover, again made the target. And the third one we tried a different technique to pull out of the water, move forward and pull some power in and pick up as much as possible. Little did I realise this was to setup for the next lesson, dropping from the OGE hover when one cannot sustain the OGE hover. Basically you let the load go right as you move through translational lift (about 15-30 miles per hour depending on wind etc). Theres a bit of a trick to getting this one spot on but I managed to at the least splash my spot with a near miss (about 3 feet) befor I was instructed to set down with the bucket under the tail about 50 feet from the target.

 

I was wondering what this was leading to until I was just letting off the last inch or so of collective in the snow when Wendell opens his door and says the ever inspiring words "Don't crash in the river, it's cold". So he grabbed his camera and I picked up for my first solo external load in the jetranger. It hovers alot nose higher without my "ballast" up front and really makes for an easy flight.

 

With those words of wisdom in mind I set course for the river, a good approach and the bucket goes in. This time I manage again to hold directly over the bucket while it sinks and then I bring it back to make some drops.

 

The first one was a bit shakey but the other 3 were great. I can honestly say thats the most fun Ive had in the helicopter so far. Wendell should be glad I was running outta fuel, otherwise I probably would've just kept going haha.

 

So I wrapped up the day with another .8 solo in the 300 working to 4000 on cliffs putting it in wherever I could.

 

Tomorrow brings new challenges, like flying with an empty hook and longlining the bucket its self.

 

Once I can put the empty hook exactly where I want it we bring in the pickup truck.

 

Stay tuned. Pics to come soon.

 

Cole

 

 

Correct me if I am wrong. You started a turbine engine with a non functioning n1 guage. If n1 guage does not work reliably 12-15% depending on oat do not introduce fuel. I hope you do not think this is normal. Better to fix guage than engine.yikes.. :down: :down: :down:

[Cole]

Forgive me for my failure to eelaborate on that one sir, what was happening just turned out to be a loose wire, it wouldnt work till about 1 second after the button, the problem was fixed immediately after that flight and has had no malfunction to speak of since.

 

As for the 'pad' as I put it, its simply a slightly different seat that is more comfortable and is an inch or so lower, it is approved for use, but what I was asking was if there is one someone could easily slip into any machine they fly and take from place to place.

 

Thanks for your concern.

 

Recap- N1 gauge malfunctioned as I was adding fuel, I wouldnt have introduced fuel without it functioning and most definately wouldn't think about taking any action other then to have it inspected by a mechanic. The problem was a loose wire, I'm glad that this happend during my training as had it failed in the field I may not be sure of how to fix it. Now I know. The gauge was not completely failed but simply to the point where, as a lowtime pilot, I needed some reassurance. I would be the first to abort the start if it had dont the same thing alone.

 

I actually see things like this as an oppertunity to learn even more with a 16--- hour pilot rather then trying to figure out what happend should it take the same course in the future.

 

Cole

[Cole]

For future referance, for the people that still read this to improve there own training experience, as I did Matt's and Matt and I both did Ryan's, The best thing to improve the comfort in the jetranger, I find, is actually to use the stock seat with some lumbar support. After going through the cars trying to find anything that would allow a lumbar support the best I can find is that it is a temporary measure so using one you could find at a chiropractic center is perfectly legal.

 

From the PM's I recieved on the subject the best thing to do about jetranger comfort is order an Oregon Aero seat kit, that being said theres some serious cash being put forth for that. (cash I dont have, otherwise I would have one already)

 

Is there an STC for any sort of lumbar support? I havent found one so far.

[sirlandsalot]

ha ha I just took a peice of 2x4 and slid it behind the cusion behind the lumbar, made a big difference, used the same 2x4 for leaning my drums too!