De la Soul..

...Me Myself and I!

Don't worry I won't start singing. However... All this time waiting and waiting patiently for the weather to be right to allow me to tackle the hurdle that is Solo Flight. Well today was that day. Now you might think it was all very straight forward, Rock up at bournemouth helicopters on a glorious sunny day without a care in the world and go flying on my own. hmmm not quite. The weather was good and had all the recipe for a good day for soloing. i had from 9am to 1pm booked and it was decided on my arrival that we would go out and have a quick practice session on some emergency skills that I might need during the solo should something happen to the aircraft or some fixed wing decided he was higher up the pecking order and forced me to do an aborted take off or taxi.
This was all conducted in a nice 8-9 knot breeze with clear skies and hot sun. Glorious!
we spent about 0.8hrs out practicing and a few circuits (which if I do say so my self had near perfect approaches, which makes a change for being too high or doing a 'hockey stick' approach) (hockey for those from across thesea in different directions is a game played where two teams run at each other brandishing wooden sticks chasing a small leather ball much like one from base ball and proceed to try to rearrange each others dentistry and break each others shins - See wiki here. Americans and Canadians do it on ice (no pun intended)).
I Digress. while a taster flight was taken up for half an hour I had a comfort break. Sadly in this time the wind had started to do the sneaky and rise progressively. The company's first solo pilot's limit, for insurance purposes, is 10 knots wind or under. it was blowing 11 then after half an hour it was 12, then 13 gusting up to 16 by 12:30. i was really preparing myself to go home without it. however the TAF's were saying it was going to be dropping come 13:00. I took this as a good sign and prepped my wife for a late return. She very kindly gave me shore leave to hang about for the calmer wind, and it paid off. At 15:30 the updated airport information read out 10 knots. We leapt into action like an emergency call, not wanting to miss this opportunity before it rose again. We spooled up and headed to the Helicopter Training Area where i landed and my Instructor Carl gave me a final pep talk and got out to loiter near a parked fixed wing wile i committed aviation. it was short lived as he had forgotten his hand held radio and had to walk back to me before i left to get it. Dramatic leaving of the instructor before solo flight - Take Two!
Now it was over to me. I have been waiting my whole life for this moment to come. Hours spent dreaming, hours taken up on the flight simulator and now it was all my my grasp. Man machine become one. No external influences from and Instructor, no one there to talk me through a tricky bit or aply a gently pressure to guide me through an awkward moment. No, it was all mine now. i had full control and was fully capable now to kill myself in one fell swoop. This sounds like the babbling of a mad man but it went through my head before committing to flight. I had to do it now.

Taking into account the lack of weight on the port/Left side, or should I say the greater weight now on the Starboard/right, I slowly lifted the collective till she was light on the skids and felt the difference immediately. Easing the collective up i brought her into the hover with one of my best take-offs.
 Now I had her flying I took the view that now would be a good time to practice landing on my own seeing as I would need the skill without a shadow of a doubt very soon. (yes i look very serious in the picture - because it was pretty hot in there and pretty nerve wracking!). She went down so sweetly. Now all I had to do was take off again and push my confidence and abilities. Off i went again only this time I did some maneuvers into wind, down wind, traversing with and against the wind and flying backwards with and against the wind. I thought it best to try the trickier maneuvers now and succeed rather than get nervous on my next solo. all went fantastically well with several landings and take offs in between.
on returning to the start point and collecting my patient Instructor, we headed back to Bournemouth Helicopters base where other members of staff were there ready to 'Christen' me in the age old traditional way for anyone completing their first solo. This is done in different ways around the world with the original method of cutting the pilots shirt tails (see here). Fortunately I was spared the scissor attack but got a bucket full of water and a hose turned on me. A very proud moment for me. So this now means i can go soloing in the circuit to begin with then latterly long distance.
Onwards and up wards.

A tight wee spot...

Confined space is a term that refers to an area whose enclosed conditions and limited access make it dangerous.


Sunday 24.07.11


So that is what was in the mix for the day. Initially it was planned, with the good weather, to finally get my first solo flight done. But alas as is the way of the world that was not meant to be. No chief Instructor on site as he was off on a charter so once again my hopes were dashed. I've only been waiting 15 hours of flying to get this done. Thanks to the crappy UK weather this has not been possible on so many lessons. Still it can't be helped. My time will come.
 with the good weather, good visibility, good cloud base, good humidity and all round goodness to the day, my instructor Carl decided I was more than ready to have a go at confined space landings and take offs. 

Going by the definition above, I was naturally a bit concerned with the ever present danger of Vortex ring and falling out the sky like a lump of lead.  Having said that as long as I remember that I can only ever get into Vortex ring state by having low forward speed, large rate of decent and large power demands on the collective. 

After a thorough pre flight briefing and a cuppa, then another 'scrappy' take off we headed out into the circuit then off to a near by location for confined space maneuvers. Sadly when we got to the planned location, due to a public footpath going right through the wooded are, we had to abort till it was totally clear in all directions. If we had continued there would have been a few startled Horses with riders and a couple dogs running wild. It was decided to try a different area, option B, which looked a lot shorter than the original zone. This is because it was. About half the length but a bit wider. 
It has to be said at this point the what is classed as confined space is, in the grand scheme of day to day life, not that confined however the afore mentioned statement does correctly say it is an area whose enclosed conditions and limited access make it dangerous. with an area about the size of a football pitch you would think it would be totally safe. but with trees all round and random air flows as a result of the high trees, there is a high risk of altered induced airflow. Incidentally I discovered today that if you master the understanding of induced air flow, you can understand and prevent most things that can go wrong mid flight. A comforting but also sobering thought. 
By the grace of God alone my first approach was spotless. I would like to say it was all by skill but I'm not arrogant enough to make that assumption. However I can confirm there was a lot of thought and fine motor skills (muscle movements, twitchy and often) to get us in. I have to remind my self when doing tight maneuvering and fine motor skills , to relax my legs and do all the work with my feet. I have found myself bracing with both my legs to try and get fine control but this only means each leg has to fight the other even harder to move the pedals. Wooossahhh! Relax!  I'll get into the groove soon enough I hope. 

After a good start we headed back to the original location only to find a load more walkers ambling through the woods. So we took option C - >>
After this tight spot we managed to get into the original location. (Below)

 Some walkers had made there way through the woods as we were making for our exit  but they kindly waited to watch us leave. It was a bit daunting at first the concept of confined space but it proved to be a lot easier than i had hoped. Not to get complacent though as it does have the risks already identified. 
That was the total for the day with a couple more approaches and then back home for tea and medals. Very enjoyable but a little frustrated at not getting to solo again. Such is life, and what is for me wont go past me. Until now I've not had the ability to edit the videos as Microsoft Movie Maker refuses to download. However, enter stage left - Pinnacle Studio 15 HD Ultimate Collection! A bit pricey but a must. Videos should start re appearing in the next posts 
until the next flight!


Safe flying

Behold, the Oracle...

Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to man. In this sense they were different from seers who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and other various methods.

Right so maybe no animal entrails but certainly lots of info. All in the form of Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA) PPL Training DVDs. 9 in total covering all aspects of the theoretical side to the PPL. I have had it on good authority and high recommendation that these training DVDs are very very good. So i've scrimped, saved and busked and managed to get myself the complete set.  

The training books that i got as part of the training package are by Pooleys which, I have no doubt, are respected publications. However the style in which the information is delivered, I have personally found hard to follow. The joys of being dyslexic. So the video based teaching is more suited to my learning. In the absence of time to do more ground school sessions this is the next best thing. I'll let you know how they go. 

Air sgiath a' seoladh nan neoil

Air sgiath a' seoladh nan neoil
'S an domhain liath
Mar dhealbh a' tighinn beo tro na sgothan
'S mi a' tilleadh gu tir

Translation

This flight is sailing through the clouds
And the blue heavens
The homeland appears like a developing photograph
Through the mists as I return to land                                        - Runrig - ALBA

Sunday 3rd July - 

Todays flight saw some changes to the field. a new instructor has descended on Bournemouth Helicopters in the form of a Carl Boyd. Today was my first flight with Carl and was important as he will be my lead instructor for the rest of my PPL training. Not an easy job for him to get to know where I'm at in a short period of time without eating into my flying/training time. After on of my better take offs and a taxi over to the HTA, we set about seeing what I could do. Fortunately i had the flight last week to refresh me after a long spell away from flying. After a few spotless spot turns (spotless as in no problems not spotless as in no spot achieved), we moved onto sloped landings and then into the circuit for a few rounds and approaches.

 - Nose High  

- To the right

When on the HTA it was incredibly hot with both doors on and only 4 knots of wind with ZERO cloud. once we got flying in the circuit it made things a lot more bearable. I should note at this point how much your attention can be strained when you're really really warm, sweating profusely and flying with someone you've never flown with before. 

With the last weekend flight there was the issue of the relay having a fault and causing cancellation of the second flight. At the end of this flight there was a fault on one of the doors as we left the aircraft. Not a problem as we could fly with Carl's door off.  This would have been ok had it not been for the fantastical speed at which the maintenance team threw resources at it to get it fully functional again. This did however mean we had to fly with the door on. Toasty for the second flight. The second flight had us taking a trip off site and out of 'The Zone' (twilight?). We headed up towards Compton Abbas and just before reaching the airfield at 1800 feet, we headed down to Fordingbridge ready for some other skills. Steep turns and Abnormal attitude recovery being the flavour of the day along with a chance to fly 'by the seat of my pants'. Yes i flew with my eyes shut relying purely on my sensations and instincts. Very Trippy! I did a 180 degree turn and climbed 100 feet while fluctuating my air speed from 70 to 35 to 60 to 40 back to 70 knots. A very valuable experience and lesson in trusting my instruments should I find myself in a restricted/zero vis situation. this should not happen though if i am a good pilot flying within my license and abilities, but there may be a once in a blue moon moment where it might.

So for a first flight with Carl it went well. As with all the Instructors at bournemouth helicopters, they bring a whole different mixing pot of experience and skills to the 'table' which makes for interesting learning and flying when I get to fly with a few of them. I look forward to future flying with him and have no doubt I will have masses to learn as I have already from Richard, Gary, Dave and Mike.

So as they say, onwards and upwards. TTFN

p.s - More random quotes to start the blogs to come. They might get more random as I go along

..40.000 rivets flying in close formation...

...That pretty much sums up most aircraft.

Sunday 26.06.2011

I had, after an epic time of withdrawal symptoms (cold sweats, shakes, restless nights and hallucinations), a flight in the beloved G-TSLC. Yes thats right, no flying since the 21st April. Partly because of an ear infection, which for obvious reasons, but also because of the wonderful temperate climate that 'Good Old Blighty' is located within. Rain Rain Rin, wind, wind, TOO MUCH WIND, some more rain, Glorious sunshine and no wind (at work!)... and so it went on.  This left, apart from a pang of 'separation', a worry that I had forgotten all the finer abilities I had become accustom to with the regular flights. I had two flights booked on the 26th and come hell or high water I was going to do them both. Well, almost.

The first flight with with Instructor Dave (see earlier posts), which was good to catch up with him having not flown together since about march time. We took to the HTA for some gentle 'get back in the saddle' skills. By the power of Grey Skull (note - sited form He-man Comics incase anyone gets funny over copy-write) I hadn't forgotten as much as I had thought. The finer details of some maneuvers and terminology had slipped a bit but I successfully managed to do all tasks set to the satisfaction of my Instructor. After a few circuits and auto rotations to power on recoveries, we came back for lunch before the next flight. While we waited for the next flight, two regulars at Bournemouth Helicopters were in the process of doing pre flight checks before taking G-TSLC for a spin. They came off the apron and reported the battery was flat. Not possible in such a short time. After a quick visit from an engineer and a failed cable change, it was concluded the relay had given up the ghost. So no more flying that day.
Here's hoping all is well with the aircraft and the weather for next weekends flight.
I can't get Windows movie maker to load and can't edit my videos meaning no vids for a wee while. Any suggestions for programs that can handle HD would be welcomed
Two other blogs of a similar vein that i have started to follow , and I would recommend them to anyone interested in all things PPL.
http://www.canadianpplexam.com/  and   http://dontdreamitjustdoit.blogspot.com/

Right thats all for this post. Till the next one