I'm a yellow helicopter
Sitting on the ground. These are my rotor-blades Slowly turning round.
Faster now, and faster...
They're spinning like a top. Take off...
Turn around
Touch down...
Stop.
Brian Thompson
(Don't know who he is but he wrote this...well done Brian)
I think this best describes the extent of my last flight although all of the above was stretched out over 0.9 of an hour.
Today was like yesterday only worse. By that i mean the weather was just despicable. That fine smirry rain that is almost not there but big enough to not be mist and prevalent enough to get EVERYTHING soaked in seconds. In short the rain was omni-present. Needless to say no flying so it was in for another spout of ground school. After spending half an hour going through some points on met and discovering I could remember some of my university studies when I had Meteorology as a unit for a year* almost 14 years ago (* it was on my weekly rota for Uni but I spent most of that year rock climbing at different venues and competitions around the country...ooops!). My Instructor folded up my books and cleared the desk and disappeared only to return with a Meteorology paper and answer sheet. " The time is 11:47, you've got 1 hour. Name and CAA number at the top, today's date is the 8th. Good luck".
I was a bit surprised but he knew what Iwas capable of so I let in to his trust and sat the paper. after taking almost the complete hour I was half and half whether I had done enough to get the 75% needed. Mostly as there were a couple I was unsure of how the questions were worded (almost in Latin in true CAA exam style) and as per every test I sit, at least one complete guess where I couldn't see through all the information to get the answer. Sadly the guess I could have got right if I had just read the question
RTFQ - Read The 'Flippen' Question.
To get the results back showing 85% was a total relief and a pleasant surprise. Another Exam done and now only the dreaded 'Performance and Planning' to go. Not looking forward to this one as, as much as my spelling is challenged, my numeracy is uber challenged and I'm guessing it will be sums heavy. Study study study!
Hopefully a flight on Thursday this week (10.11.11) weather depending and get my Cross Country Qualifier, 3 hour multi stop, flight done.
Right now for some R&R and light study on Bohemian interactive 'Take On helicopters' simulator. The eye candy version of FSX . Only way I'll get to fly an MD-500!
Well done on the MET exam, I'm studying that one now. It's the first one I've studied for that I actually enjoyed reading up on, and it's great to know all this new stuff about something I've been experiencing for all my life!
ReplyDeleteBefore MET, clouds were just clouds to me, now I look up in the sky and WOW!
(aka Garak)
Weather's been crap up here in the midlands too, so not much flying lately! Oh, how I long for those wonderful hot summer days flying with the doors off!
Hey, how's it going?
ReplyDeleteJust bought a book called 'Chickenhawk' by Robert Mason
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenhawk_(book)
It's about a guy who joins the US Army so he can learn to fly Helicopters, but unfortunately joins up right before the Vietnam war starts. He writes in really great detail about flying and gives quite a lot of technical detail about helis, it's a great read for a pilot!
Favourite bit so far is where he describes the Huey as having so much rotor inertia that his instructor could wind it up to 300rpm, cut the power then lift it into a 4' hover, turn it around completely and then land it before the rotors stopped!
Have a good xmas!
HI Mark Good to hear from you. Hows it going for you? Yeh weather pants here too. Good luck with the Met exam if you've not got round to doing it yet. Theses should be useful and the blog they are from is a good read - http://www.canadianpplexam.com/search/label/flashcards
ReplyDeleteOrdered the book and awiting on its arrival as we speak. Not flown since 26 Nov for lessons but turned up today and the weather was pants for Cross Country Flight which I need to do but picked up one of the Helos that was in for servcing at the other side of the airfield so I managed something. Roll on the better weather!!
Oh, great - you will love the book!
ReplyDeleteI think I flew on 28th Nov, and that was in a 24knot wind! Since then I've been too busy with work - so still on about 28 hours.
Weather not been so bad here, I was at the Airport on Saturday and it was perfect flying conditions and the airport was packed! We get 1 day of bad weather followed by 1 day of brilliant weather.
MET exam is on Friday, so been cramming my head with clouds, fronts, METARs and TAFs, which I'm sure has displaced all the stuff I previously crammed in for LAW and COMS!
Anyway, enjoy xmas, get drunk while you can and good luck for 2012 !!!