A strange falling Feeling...

Saturday 5^th March. An interesting day to say the least. The weather was looking much against us with cloud base at around 1000’, which doesn’t sound like much of a problem but the skills I was going to be doing would require at least 2000’ to play with. I was introduced to my Instructor for the day who I had not flown with before. Mike O’Donoghue, a very interesting gentleman with incredible skill and knowledge about flying. More to follow shortly.

As the weather was not conducive to the main aim for the first flight we moved to the next set of skills which was engine emergencies at low altitude. Primarily from a hover height of 4 foot. This involved very quick reaction times and taking in some key skills and actions that could not be taught at a slow and manageable pace. All in all very tricky. I think I have got the hang of it. As for feedback I appear to have got the hang of it albeit with some learning points even though I’m not sure if I have got it. That sounds very damming of myself so in defence of myself from…myself, I should say that I know what to do and when to do it when I analyze it at slow pace but I find it hard to see whether I did the right thing at the right time when it came to the crunch of a split second reaction to what could go horrible wrong if I didn’t get it right. So in short I must have but hey that’s for my instructor to assess so …erm…what was I saying? Ah yes death destruction and mayhem lessons.

We looked at emergency landings when taxiing in the hover. Essentially at 4 foot high and at a brisk walking or slow jogging pace. When the engine fails you have the same characteristic events as in the straight hover. The revs drop off the alarm sounds to tell you the revs have dropped off (the do or die alarm as I’m starting to see it) the height from the ground degreases thus presenting a closer view of the grass, there is a yaw to the left as you have left peddle applied to counteract the torque effects of the previously working engine which is now no longer producing torque and there is also a lean to the left as you are applying left cyclic (stick between your legs) to counteract the lateral drift effects of the tail rotor that was previously being used to counteract the effects of the torque from the engine which as discussed a moment ago is…no longer functioning and therefore not producing torque. Now in light of all this information it is a fair assumption that the actions one must take is, apart from finding an appropriate deity to pray to, to make sure your engine doesn’t fail to ensure none of the above actions being required as the engine and its subsequent torque is a pivotal factor in this whole flying thing (it doesn’t all happen because of PFM (Pure Flipping Magic).

With a push on the right peddle and a raise of the collective (Remember the uppy downey leaver from my earlier post?) and a wiggle of the Cyclic towards the right-ish, then all should be well with the world. Even from 4 foot there is little chance of any major damage to yourself or even the aircraft due to its construction. On top of all os this you add in the fact that you are possible hover taxiing with that walking/Jogging pace, then you would think there is more risk of damage. Strangely not. On grass the landing is a lot smoother when moving than when doing a straight hover. If you do it on concrete/asphalt/tarmac/etc, then it will almost be better again as the skids (long thin horizontal legs that the helicopter sits on when on the ground) will slide better on the concrete/asphalt/tarmac/etc than the grass meaning a slow deceleration and a comfier landing. All very dodgy feeling at the beginning but not too bad in the end. The later part of the flight involved climbing to 2000’ when the clouds hard cleared enough, and getting into a state where the aircraft can no longer hold itself in the air. This is caused by turbulence from the rotors being ‘recycled’ by the rotors and grip on the air being lost. We then get back to a ‘Bowling Ball’ moment. This one is recoverable if you do it at 2000’ as you drop out of the sky at an alarming rate. However if you did it at 200’ then it’s probably fair to say its ‘Good night Vienna’. The key is not to fly in a manner that is conducive with Vortex Ring. And it is actually not that hard to avoid with good airmanship.

My head is currently like a bowl of jelly. I’ve been on a sensory rollercoaster since Friday’s flight with Gary and today’s flight has not helped. As I’ve garbled on too much and probably lost the interest of most, I’ll stop here and let the video do the talking. 


13.1 hrs flying at this stag