First A$$ View

[kloner]

had a bunch of turbulence today doing high speed stalls, was a kick in the pants,,, my stomach was in my throat for a while there.... did some 55kts flying,,, 5 over Vs1, took so much throw and reaction time to keep it flying along flat and level..... i pretty much got the high speed 45 degree banks dialed in, getting orientation more and more, i can really see the horizon yaw around now.... can feel if rudder in/out was perfect or off, can feel it slip along in forward flight.... he said i'm trucking right along doing wise,,,, i really suck at reading and learning books. my memorizing sucks.... never was good with it but it's even harder now later in life.

All them little helis scare the crap out of me. we worked on md's and i've never been in or trusted them piston rotors..... i'd really have to get comfy doing this to take it on, but that's usually how i roll.

Tell me about it Bart, I'm all in and yea, not exactly looking like the geico motorcycle dude dropping money as he rolls..... But i'm still here.... it's either so highly addictive it's blinding us or it's gonna be alright,,, just can't tell which yet

next lesson i get to the good stuff,,, side and forward slips..... we get to go down near the border and lineup on a smaller field that has a huge dirt approach so we get some goes at it. my instructor keeps doing them on me when i screw up the approach... nothing like looking out the side window a hundred feet up going sideways,,,,good stuff

 

[kloner]

this is my instructors bio

Barry Bardack
Barry Bardack has a degree in mechanical engineering and is semi-retired from a
diverse career including air taxi/commuter pilot, aerospace engineer and
manufacturing management. He has worked on engineering projects that span
from cruise missiles to commercial transport aircraft. He managed a small
manufacturing company in Santee, managed an engineering technical services
department, owned an air charter business and owned an engineering consulting
business. Barry has lived in El Cajon since 1977 and is a past president of
Gillespie Pilots Association. He is presently the Chief Flight Instructor at Golden
State Flying Club. He currently serves on the Gillespie Field Development
Council and the San Diego County Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan Technical
Advisory Group. He enjoys flying, repairing airplanes and training horses.

He's really into the noise abatement thing and the surrounding communities. Super down to earth, does a very good job of putting enough pressure on things i have to understand without stomping me too hard but at the same time showing me stuff a ways out so when we get to it, i already half way understand what he's saying..... kinda throws alot at me at once, i'm absorbing it as fast as i can but can see this is gonna take a while. One of the other instructors there was talking about how he did his private class from my instructor and that he was 500 hours in when he got certified. Had rehearsed all his cross countries, etc. I can't drag this out that long, but will be making sure i get it before they just tell me i'm good to go....

 

[Bartman]

my instructor had me do my first solo cross-country to an airport that I had already been to so it would be easier to complete it without any major problems. after that though I told him I wanted to fly to places I hadn't been to yet. after all, it's supposed to be an adventure, right?

rehearsing every cross country shouldn't be necessary but you'll know that when you're at that point. either you'll be itching to get it over with and comfortable with going where you want to go or you won't be. if not then your guy will be good for you. if you're anxious to keep it moving though and he's holding you back then there will come a time where the relationship will suffer and you'll know it's time to move on. if at any point you feel like the guy is just too conservative then that's the point where you make an attempt to discuss it with him or you go to the flight school manager and discuss it with him/her. people change instructors all the time so it's not a big deal. if the manager responds like you're the problem then you move on to a different flight school.

we had an old timer like your guy at the school i taught at and that guy was a menace. he scared away new students and the students that flew with him all seemed to have a look of fear when they were hanging around the flight school. trust your instincts, if it doesn't feel right then that's what ought to guide you.

 

[kloner]

he's told me that too and told me how, said he won't get mad or hold anything against me..... I could see how if you can't learn by watching he wouldn't be the best to teach me, but so far he talks in kloner and that's amazing.... i'm actually remembering stuff he tells me. He likes to make you at ease with things that you act to be weird, like stalls, told him i was scared to crap to get in em, next thing i know he asked if i was scared cause were stalled..... christ.... but he makes alot of since. i've only gone hands to the cockpit ceiling/floor once so far.... like that was gonna do something.....

The best part is he is small, 5'6 and probably 130 wet, looks like a horse jockey size. it sure makes it easy to get around the cockpit and to share controls with him. the other two guys are bigger than me, ones 6-'2 nd the other is more like 6-8,,,, both well into 250. But i get along with them too...... Theres only one guy flying for hours, he's the youngest, seems alright too.... im only another 2 weeks away from solos if work doesn't get in the way to much... were busy the next few days, makes it hard to study when your driving,,,, gigin, drivin

 

[Bartman]

regarding stalls, resist the urge to respond to the nose breaking left or right with aileron inputs, it only makes things worse by deepening the stall on the low wing causing it to drop more. learn to be aggressive and quick with your rudder pedals as you enter the stall and the nose will stay straight as you lower it AND THEN use ailerons to level the wings. he's probably beat that into you already but it's worth repeating. it's a good pilot that can use the rudder pedals for stuff other than steering the plane around on the ramp.

by the way, in a low wing Piper, if you're getting bounced around in turbulence try pressing on both rudder pedals simultaneously to smooth out the ride. the nose can have a tendency to wander so the rudder pedals trick will reduce it a little bit.

 

[kloner]

I deal with em really well.... worst ones so far was flaps down Vso..... it really broke over when i'd hit the stops....

I'll have to try the rudder trick, thanks.. im consistantly using them pretty well, we do them lazy 8's i think he called, roll side to side as fast as it'll go and keep the nose still, we do a few minutes of that on the way to the training area every lesson, last time out got a NICE.... When we walk in and people ask how it went, he always replies Steves fun to teach.... The other day i got hit with my first oral question out of the blue of something we hit the first lesson,,,, i knew the reasons but i couldn't spit it out in aviation talk... What causes left hand tenancy,,,, p factor, engine torque and spiral slip stream...... arghhh. He really went overboard on gyroscopic percussion, i'm sure thats coming at me in the same manner, gonna nail it this time. doesn't help to be there at 7am and get hit with questions like that, i'm still trying to get my coffee down before we go

 

[Bartman]

............we do them lazy 8's i think he called, roll side to side as fast as it'll go and keep the nose still........

pretty sure they're called Dutch Rolls.......gotta admit, i'm heading to the local flight school this week to get current in a 172...it's been so long i'll have to do an hour with an instructor to get current again. my sister was asking for a ride not too long ago and my daughter (who flew with me when she was five) hasn't exactly said no when I asked if she'd like to go flying this summer. thanks steve, you just cost me a bunch of money!

 

[kloner]

that's them

hey, what are friends for.... hahaha, god knows this place has costed me piles of it

 

[DennyR]

IMO you can't put Schweitzer 300 and RoBos R22 as you call them in the same league. A Schweitzer 300, is a "real" helicopter. I consider the R22 the YUGO of helicopters - non-standard controls, the illusion of agility until you get into a negative G (unloaded Rotor) situation. If I remember correctly, 24 kt winds is the max for the R22.

Where are you getting that statistic? "You are 4x more likely to die in one of these compared to a Cessna"? I've had one full and one partial engine failure in the 300. Since you're always flying in IFR (I Follow Roads [and railroad tracks]) mode, all you need is about a 60' diameter circle to land (read auto-rotate) into. In a fixed wing, you can glide for miles, but eventually, you need something long enough without obstructions to land on. It's not the flying that kills you, its hitting the ground, uncontrollably.

Actually you don't even have to hit the ground to die.
About twelve years ago my good friend, who was probably the number one aerial filming pilot in the world (Denis Kenyon), he had three Schwitzers and had just taught his son to fly. One crashed at Shoreham Airport and the other killed his son (Denis Jnr). The lad took off with his girlfriend and climbed out to 1500 feet when one of the boom brackets broke at the sub frame joint. The tailboom then swung around and went up into the main rotor. Those inside were ripped through the seat belts and thrown out, they were then cut in half by the rotor blades at 1500 feet. It turned out that there had been 15 such cases previously but at the time no AD was ever issued by the manufacturer. They were dead long before hitting the ground. It took the police two weeks to find everything. I have survived three engine failures and the loss of a primary control surface (both ailerons) and am still here to talk about it. You are one of the lucky ones, or you are not. It comes down to that at the end of the day. The pleasure that flying brings is worth that risk, that risk is minimized by your skill level and your experience with all things mechanical. But when the day comes that it is no longer the rush that it was, then that is the time to stop. If I were to tell you all of the horror stories you probably wouldn't fly again and miss the enormous fun and enjoyment, and that would be a shame. Just be careful and especially cautious of the weather.

BTW a 300 is a toy. If you want to live a long and happy life check the rear subframe boom brackets for cracks every flight. A 500E on the other hand is a proper helicopter. Hot dogging one of those (with a fresh Turbine) in the mountains and valleys at low level is definitely a rush.

 

[Vortex]

Hey Kloner, Good on you. I did the very same thing as you're doing but a few years ago now. Started with models and was seduced by helis and still fly model helis today......My favorite is powered by a Wren44 Gas turbine

I went all the way to a Commercial License and now fly Warbirds every Sunday and take passengers out for a thrill. There's endless opportunities out there providing you put in the hard work.

My latest ride is an L-39 Albatross and this is really really good fun!!

Blue skies and bottoms up.

Regards,

Lance

View attachment 17589

 

[Bartman]

Hey Kloner, Good on you. I did the very same thing as you're doing but a few years ago now. Started with models and was seduced by helis and still fly model helis today......My favorite is powered by a Wren44 Gas turbine

I went all the way to a Commercial License and now fly Warbirds every Sunday and take passengers out for a thrill. There's endless opportunities out there providing you put in the hard work.

My latest ride is an L-39 Albatross and this is really really good fun!!

Blue skies and bottoms up.

Regards,

Lance

View attachment 21683

I have fantasies of flying warbirds for a foundation or someone after I retire. At the moment though I'd settle for a nice Decathlon or Pitts S1...... :upset:

 

[kloner]

after the weather got out of here i finally got back up... 3 sessions turned into ground school so that sucked, but we got all my club quizes graded, got through unit 4 in the gleim faa quiz book, all that's left to cut me free solo is landings, and i've been practicing like a mofo on my simulator.... sides lips, forward slips, approaches in general, touch and goes using the noise abatement paths.... Still have some extra classes coming up for weather and weight and balance.... my instructor teaches the ifr ground school and invited me to those sessions to get a grasp on it... Tuesday i finally made it through the first page in my log book

Head back up this morning, think i get to dual land today... he tried giving it to me tuesday but i tripped out and couldn't coordinate a side slip to save my life..... it was a stressful flight, super turbulent with a bunch of new stuff thrown at me after being grounded a week. I'm so glad the cherokee isn't rated for spin training,,,,, the thought of the world spinning around with me starring at the ground might be a bit much at this point.... Got my ATC phraseology pretty much sorted, gets easier and easier when the words mean something.... i still remember that first flight thinking theres no way i'm ever gonna remember all this, then it becomes "normal talk"

 

[Bartman]

congrats and keep it up.

Solo Prep-talk
ideally, you should be able to glide to a landing from any point in the traffic pattern. busy traffic patterns can force you to adapt and sometimes it just is what it is but to be safe the maximum amount of the time you're approaching an airport to land, ask yourself if you have glide performance to the runway and if you don't then you're too low (descended too much, too soon). With students I'd pull the power to idle in the pattern to see if they could make the runway and sometimes they would and sometimes they wouldn't but it's a good way to learn glide performance for planning pattern positioning.

 

[kloner]

landed her today, woohoo... alot less stressful than i needed to make it for myself, none the less, kissed the ground when i got out.... 3 flights from my first stage check,,,, then i get to solo.... Unbenounced to him, last week i picked up a yoke and pedals.... already had x-plane and been practicing

 

[kloner]

today made 8 touch and go's, 1 to stop all by myself..... i was killing it till the last one had a gust hit me in ground affect starting my roll and it shot me up 10 feet, kinda tripped me out, but stuck with it and got her down on the main gear,,,, i'm a lesson or two from solo.

For whatever reason the hardest part has been radio coms, and not that i can't remember what to say, i either forget or choke on the repeat.... any suggestions there bart?

My uav logs are sure looking nice and legit now..... amazing what a little learning gets ya

 

[Bartman]

maybe a rule of thumb for radio comm's would be to include

who you're calling
who you are
where you are
what you want to do
ATIS if necessary


example would be

Heathrow Tower, Continental 34, at stand 68, ready to taxi with ATIS B
or
Sacramento Ground, Cessna 92996 at the flight school ramp, request taxi for closed pattern with ATIS Z
Sacramento Tower, Cessna 92996 (the 152 I did my first solo in), at Runway 18 intersection G, ready for takeoff, staying in the pattern (No ATIS necessary)

think it out before you click the mic to talk, practice it once or twice then nail it for all in range to hear. and try not to make your radio calls on the PA channel or the company frequency.

when you do read-backs NEVER use the word ROGER. read back the clearance so the controller can hear it and verify you're going to do the correct thing. ROGER is a four letter word! read it back if you understood it or ask for clarification if you weren't sure what the clearance/directions were.

don't wear a good t-shirt the day of your first solo. you've got to let your wings spread out from under that shirt you'll be wearing.

 

[kloner]

the readbacks are my problem,,, were in a class D airport in a narrow ave to classB and Miramar think is class A..... it's never easy what they ask, today was Gillespie Tower, 8441bravo ready for takeoff 27R with something about a left turn into the pattern that crossed us in 27L departure so they threw back a bunch of stuff, they read it all back and i froze,,, there was so much going through my head i was in a daze. By the time i figured out what all was said i couldn't repeat it to save my butt..... I'm just getting to them and was the second time, one before was simpler, 27R ready to take off eastbound departure.... Come to think of it, help to understand what the hell they say. This one today threw me off cause i was cleared to take off but he had some weird part in the middle i didn't get, if i was without an instructor i;d of needed a repeat. once i was where i'd enter the left pattern was when he threw out the ok to cross the other departure, but at the time, first time, it may as well of been spoken in chinese. Makes it really hard to repeat

this was my first time to just fly patterns so it was a bunch of new again, seems like every time is a bunch of new

yea, i'm a wet dude anyways, it's 95 out there, brutal

 

[SoCal Blur]

maybe a rule of thumb for radio comm's would be to include

who you're calling
who you are
where you are
what you want to do
ATIS if necessary

This is my most memerable tower communication:

Me:
Los Angeles Helicopter control:
Helicopter Novermber Seven Five Zero Four Zulu, Over:

Tower:
Zero Four Zulu

Me:
Zero Four Zulu is Five miles out requesting a North/South mid field crossing - Landing Helipad Four

Tower:
Zero Four Zulu - Proceed as requested - Notify at One Mile

Me:
Zero Four Zulu notify at One mile

Me:
Los Angeles Helicopter Control - November Seven Five Zero Four Zulu is at One Mile

Tower:
Zero Four Zulu - Cleared to cross runnways Two Three and Two Four - Maintain an altiude of one thousand feet

Me:
Zero Four Zulu - Cleared to cross runways Two Three and Two Four - Maintaining 1000


As I was just crossing the runways....

Tower:
Zero Four Zulu - Use Best Speed to Helipad Four- Traffic is a 737 on approach at your Nine - Cleared to land Helipad Four


Me: (after staring the 737 in the face)

Zero Four Zulu - Best Speed Cleared to Land helipad Four

 

[Vortex]

We all look back and reflect upon out time when training and it still brings a smile to my face......Enjoy it whilst you can Kloner!!

 

[Bartman]

............Use Best Speed to Helipad Four- Traffic is a 737 on approach at your Nine -......

a 737 approaching LAX? that could have been me!

good times indeed!