Ask a helicopter pilot anything
Discussion
DannyScene said:
I suspect you're one of the 'taxis' my mate who works offshore is always talking about
You certainly fly in some adverse weather if you are, well played sir
Something I've always wondered about helicopters, if the tail blades stop spinning does the helicopter just go into some mental corkscrew type affair only stopping when it hits the floor?
You certainly fly in some adverse weather if you are, well played sir
Something I've always wondered about helicopters, if the tail blades stop spinning does the helicopter just go into some mental corkscrew type affair only stopping when it hits the floor?
well it depends on what you were doing when the tail rotor stops, you can also get partial failures or malfunctions where it sticks at a certain power setting. Most of them are ok to deal with (in the simulator 
) but the worst case is probably a high hover or at a low airspeed and high weight where you tail rotor is at max power. A total failure at that stage is normally terminal (see the Leicester City chairman’s accident sadly). A total failure in the high speed cruise isn’t too bad as the aircraft gets some help from the fin, so the tr isn’t actually producing as much power as you might think. Certainly in the sim there is enough time to recognise it, enter autorotation and cut the throttles….Good Morning all,
I thought a brief update might be worthwhile as I have a had a couple of PMs from people interested in a career as a helicopter pilot who have found this thread through the search function. I have been asked about the merits of throwing a bucket of cash at outfits offering a modular route to becoming a helicopter pilot, such as Helicentre etc. Whilst I can't promise anyone a job (!) from investing a small mortgage in obtaining a CPL H (IR), I can say it does seem a very good time to be going through training and you would stand a good chance of getting fulltime paid employment as a pilot, in the offshore world at least. Obviously there are many hoops to jump through to get there - but timing is everything and I think it's good right now.
There are several reasons for this - firstly Brexit and believe me, I am not going down that rabbithole
so I will just report what I have been told by friends of mine who are senior trainers at some of our rivals. They have noticed the supply of european pilots CVs steadily drying up, as there are costs/complications involved from converting EASA > CAA licences and of course going back again, as many of those pilots don't want to permanently fly in the UK. At the base I managed a few years back, from around 45 pilots I would estimate about 15 were Europeans (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Germans etc and lots of Dutch....all great guys and girls). Whilst you can still convert your licence the barriers in place (and vice versa of course) are putting Europeans off. That is bad for them but good for UK pilots and my opinion is that it is a great shame as they were some of our best pilots, but I appreciate if you are a new British trainee pilot then your job prospects got a lot better.
Secondly the supply of pilots from the military has 'dried' up according to the flying schools. Whilst I take this claim with a pinch of salt as I don't see any drastic reduction in the size of the UK military helicopter forces, my personal experience is that I can't remember the last new joiner at my company direct from the military and a few years back there was a steady drip of one or two very few months. This is also reported by my colleagues at other companies that they are getting very few CVs from current or retiring military pilots, so I do think there is some truth in it for whatever reason. Just to add to this - along with the squeeze on supply, outflow is still going - we have seen a steady drain of pilots going abroad, retiring, getting sick or moving elsewhere in the UK, all of whom need replacing.
Lastly the work is picking up and particularly so in the offshore world. Whilst I have my own opinions on the SNP/Greens in Scotland, they did their best to court the offshore industry when the oil price was sky high as it paid for independence, but since the oil price crashed around 2015 they have done their best to finish us off in whatever form they could - opposing new licences, new development etc which has affected the industry. Whilst energy is a UK reserved matter the SNP does carry a lot of weight on the matter in Scotland and companies have backed out of new developments after intervention from the SNP and their Green friends. However, what happened of course was the end of Covid restrictions increasing demand for oil, combined with Putin's war on Ukraine....I think more sensible heads than the SNP etc have realised the UK needs energy independence rather than relying on Russian Gas or even LNG from the ME/USA. Whilst I see in 2030 only net zero cars will be on sale it is quite clear that we as a country are not remotely ready for that move and I suspect the oil industry will be pumping North Sea oil for a long time to come. So - business is picking up in offshore and lots of other areas look like they are booming too - SAR have just signed a new 10 year contract with extra bases, so overall I do honestly think it is a good time to train as a helicopter pilot.
Finally - as a personal update I looked at the date of my last post in here and about 12 days afterwards I was diagnosed with cancer and grounded (count me as one of those sickies!). I have had extensive surgery, 6 weeks radio/chemotherapy in the autumn and am currently waiting for my big scan in Feb to (touch wood) confirm it has all gone. The prognosis was very positive (about 90% chance of success - again touch wood!) but all bets are off until they have completed a PET scan on the body. I'm still grounded and hopeful of a return to flying but other friends who have undergone cancer treatment have been grounded for upto 3 years, so this year might see some fairly large lifestyle changes, but we'll see. For anyone still awake, thanks for reading and have a great 2023
I thought a brief update might be worthwhile as I have a had a couple of PMs from people interested in a career as a helicopter pilot who have found this thread through the search function. I have been asked about the merits of throwing a bucket of cash at outfits offering a modular route to becoming a helicopter pilot, such as Helicentre etc. Whilst I can't promise anyone a job (!) from investing a small mortgage in obtaining a CPL H (IR), I can say it does seem a very good time to be going through training and you would stand a good chance of getting fulltime paid employment as a pilot, in the offshore world at least. Obviously there are many hoops to jump through to get there - but timing is everything and I think it's good right now.
There are several reasons for this - firstly Brexit and believe me, I am not going down that rabbithole
so I will just report what I have been told by friends of mine who are senior trainers at some of our rivals. They have noticed the supply of european pilots CVs steadily drying up, as there are costs/complications involved from converting EASA > CAA licences and of course going back again, as many of those pilots don't want to permanently fly in the UK. At the base I managed a few years back, from around 45 pilots I would estimate about 15 were Europeans (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Germans etc and lots of Dutch....all great guys and girls). Whilst you can still convert your licence the barriers in place (and vice versa of course) are putting Europeans off. That is bad for them but good for UK pilots and my opinion is that it is a great shame as they were some of our best pilots, but I appreciate if you are a new British trainee pilot then your job prospects got a lot better.Secondly the supply of pilots from the military has 'dried' up according to the flying schools. Whilst I take this claim with a pinch of salt as I don't see any drastic reduction in the size of the UK military helicopter forces, my personal experience is that I can't remember the last new joiner at my company direct from the military and a few years back there was a steady drip of one or two very few months. This is also reported by my colleagues at other companies that they are getting very few CVs from current or retiring military pilots, so I do think there is some truth in it for whatever reason. Just to add to this - along with the squeeze on supply, outflow is still going - we have seen a steady drain of pilots going abroad, retiring, getting sick or moving elsewhere in the UK, all of whom need replacing.
Lastly the work is picking up and particularly so in the offshore world. Whilst I have my own opinions on the SNP/Greens in Scotland, they did their best to court the offshore industry when the oil price was sky high as it paid for independence, but since the oil price crashed around 2015 they have done their best to finish us off in whatever form they could - opposing new licences, new development etc which has affected the industry. Whilst energy is a UK reserved matter the SNP does carry a lot of weight on the matter in Scotland and companies have backed out of new developments after intervention from the SNP and their Green friends. However, what happened of course was the end of Covid restrictions increasing demand for oil, combined with Putin's war on Ukraine....I think more sensible heads than the SNP etc have realised the UK needs energy independence rather than relying on Russian Gas or even LNG from the ME/USA. Whilst I see in 2030 only net zero cars will be on sale it is quite clear that we as a country are not remotely ready for that move and I suspect the oil industry will be pumping North Sea oil for a long time to come. So - business is picking up in offshore and lots of other areas look like they are booming too - SAR have just signed a new 10 year contract with extra bases, so overall I do honestly think it is a good time to train as a helicopter pilot.
Finally - as a personal update I looked at the date of my last post in here and about 12 days afterwards I was diagnosed with cancer and grounded (count me as one of those sickies!). I have had extensive surgery, 6 weeks radio/chemotherapy in the autumn and am currently waiting for my big scan in Feb to (touch wood) confirm it has all gone. The prognosis was very positive (about 90% chance of success - again touch wood!) but all bets are off until they have completed a PET scan on the body. I'm still grounded and hopeful of a return to flying but other friends who have undergone cancer treatment have been grounded for upto 3 years, so this year might see some fairly large lifestyle changes, but we'll see. For anyone still awake, thanks for reading and have a great 2023
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 11th January 09:28
Thanks buddy - yeah it's been a truly horrific experience having cancer, but like anything there is good and bad, even if the bad vastly outweighs the good (time off at home and critical illness cover)
Funny but shortly before the diagnosis my boss had told me that I needed to return to the office (I work in Aberdeen and live in Shropshire - long story!). He was happy for me to work a week in the office and a week at home, but I was spending every weekend driving 7hrs on a Sunday or Friday night and rapidly getting very fed up with it. During Covid I had just driven upto work to go flying once or twice a month or so, as my job is mainly office-based nowadays.
Since May I have been at home (or the hospitals) and returning to the office/flying is still a while off. We'll see what happens anyway but I haven't missed flying, anal probing in the sim, line checks, currencies, night offshore landings in cruddy weather and 0430 starts on dark Aberdeen mornings. I'm at the age that I've done all the fun flying I need to, but I still depend on the salary with youngish kids and a large mortgage, so who knows what will happen next. I must admit to pondering a lifestyle change, downsizing and doing some fun flying or even do up an old house. Cheers all.
Funny but shortly before the diagnosis my boss had told me that I needed to return to the office (I work in Aberdeen and live in Shropshire - long story!). He was happy for me to work a week in the office and a week at home, but I was spending every weekend driving 7hrs on a Sunday or Friday night and rapidly getting very fed up with it. During Covid I had just driven upto work to go flying once or twice a month or so, as my job is mainly office-based nowadays.
Since May I have been at home (or the hospitals
) and returning to the office/flying is still a while off. We'll see what happens anyway but I haven't missed flying, anal probing in the sim, line checks, currencies, night offshore landings in cruddy weather and 0430 starts on dark Aberdeen mornings. I'm at the age that I've done all the fun flying I need to, but I still depend on the salary with youngish kids and a large mortgage, so who knows what will happen next. I must admit to pondering a lifestyle change, downsizing and doing some fun flying or even do up an old house. Cheers all.Thanks again for the kind words - that’s very encouraging to know about your CAA chum mate. A friend of mine who had early stage lung cancer which was cured by surgery - no radio/chemotherapy is grounded for 3 years. Obviously I’m just focussed on getting clear first and foremost but anticipating a fight when I do (touch wood….again!).
jamiem555 said:
Aww, bloody hell Si, I'm sorry to hear that. I had a brush with cancer in 2008 but luckily it was spotted very early and just the surgery sorted it out! Give me a shout next time your in Abz and we'll see if we can meet for a coffee or something. Jamie
Thanks Jamie - never knew you had it too, getting it treated early is key to it all of course. Beer sounds great when I’m back oop north - hoping to return to work if all goes well in Feb or Mar dependent of course on what the caa says….Lost ranger said:
If someone wants to learn to fly a helicopter for fun, what's best to learn on? Assuming budget is not unlimited but would stretch to something pricier than an R22 if it was worth it.
Well it depends on how deep your pockets are but anything rotary is bloody expensive! This is well out of date and no doubt others in here have more upto date information but when I did my CPL H IR in 2012, an hour in an R22 was about £250 or so. I went from nothing to a type rated Agusta 109C pilot with a CPL H and then IR in 7 hours 35 mins That was some going and as I was paying for it mostly myself (the military paid about £2k as part of my resettlement) that made it a lot less painful - the hourly rate I was paying for the A109C was £1800. To go vaguely back to answering your question iirc back in 2012 a nice gas turbine aircraft like an AS350 was circa £6-700hr. I think if I was learning to fly a helicopter and had deep pockets I would go for a cheap gas turbine like the AS350 Squirrel, but I have nothing against R22s and everyone I know who has flown them seems to love them which says it all I guess. An AS350 is a generation ahead of an R22 and significantly easier to fly too - like comparing a BMW 320d with a Morris Minor…
Thanks again for all the nice comments and great to hear more good news about friends getting their licence back...there is hope assuming this horrible illness has gone (touch wood!).
Great post McGee and I won't quotepost you but thanks for taking the time to write that out, I really enjoyed reading it and I am sure others will have too. Your story about the Lynx made me smile as it is one of the few helicopters that can do "aerobatics" without instantly destructing so I have no doubt your pilot did exactly that. I've never got quite that far myself but even in a Puma you could (allegedly - not me!) do the same.
To answer your question I have never taken a pleasure flight as a passenger, although I have of course done a few as a pilot I would personally be very careful about a pleasure flight in a third world country which might not have the same standards as a western one, that said there are plenty of accidents in the US and recently in Australia too, so if your time's up it doesn't make much difference if you have a well-educated Yank/Brit on the sticks or a self-taught local from a third world country!
Of all the nice flights I have done in the military none really sticks out that much TBH, other than flying through the London Helilanes on a glorious sunny friday evening with the M25 at a standstill The one I'd probably think of is when I was flying out of the Shetlands and it was actually on an airtest. There is a manual for airtesting and it is very specific, eg do this at this speed, select this button and make your speed x etc. There is only one airtest item that has no specific requirement and it is a handling check - basically it's go and fly the aircraft and check it all is normal. The engineers asked me to do a 30 minute handling check one day which is "here's the aircraft, go fly it legally where the hell you want, do what you want and don't crash it, be back in 30 mins for a brew".
We used to love those flights and I went off one day around the northern part of Shetland and just went sightseeing with no pressure. I found this deserted beach, near a derelict village which was fascinating in itself and the beach was covered in absolutely huge stickmen drawn in the sand in all sorts of poses. We never flew over that part of the Island, in fact almost nobody did and whoever did it must have known nobody would ever see it before the tide washed it away....it was beautiful and a work of art which must have been almost impossible to see properly from the ground. Anyway we left there and continued our little tour finding another glorious deserted beach, like a sandbar, which was covered in hundreds and hundreds of seals who all rushed into the water as we approached in a massive throng, then as we rounded a headland on the North-west of the island there was a gushing torrent coming out of a cliff hundreds of feet up. The wind from the North was so strong that as it hit the cliff, it went vertically upwards and stopped the torrent falling to earth. I have never seen anything like it before, but all the water was blown vertically straight up into the sky like a hosepipe.
Final boring story and it wasn't me but my gran she went abroad for the first time in her life at age 85 on her own to visit my brother in NZ. They booked a tour onto Fox Glacier for Day 1 and the pilot landed them all there and departed for a while. At which point with the helicopter disappearing she just keeled over flat on her face into the snow and my brother assumed she was dead and wondered what the hell to do next. Luckily she had just passed out, living another 5 years afterwards, but that was also her first helicopter flight too - maybe it was all a bit exciting for her
Great post McGee and I won't quotepost you but thanks for taking the time to write that out, I really enjoyed reading it and I am sure others will have too. Your story about the Lynx made me smile as it is one of the few helicopters that can do "aerobatics" without instantly destructing
so I have no doubt your pilot did exactly that. I've never got quite that far myself but even in a Puma you could (allegedly - not me!) do the same.To answer your question I have never taken a pleasure flight as a passenger, although I have of course done a few as a pilot
I would personally be very careful about a pleasure flight in a third world country which might not have the same standards as a western one, that said there are plenty of accidents in the US and recently in Australia too, so if your time's up it doesn't make much difference if you have a well-educated Yank/Brit on the sticks or a self-taught local from a third world country!Of all the nice flights I have done in the military none really sticks out that much TBH, other than flying through the London Helilanes on a glorious sunny friday evening with the M25 at a standstill
The one I'd probably think of is when I was flying out of the Shetlands and it was actually on an airtest. There is a manual for airtesting and it is very specific, eg do this at this speed, select this button and make your speed x etc. There is only one airtest item that has no specific requirement and it is a handling check - basically it's go and fly the aircraft and check it all is normal. The engineers asked me to do a 30 minute handling check one day which is "here's the aircraft, go fly it legally where the hell you want, do what you want and don't crash it, be back in 30 mins for a brew". We used to love those flights and I went off one day around the northern part of Shetland and just went sightseeing with no pressure. I found this deserted beach, near a derelict village which was fascinating in itself and the beach was covered in absolutely huge stickmen drawn in the sand in all sorts of poses. We never flew over that part of the Island, in fact almost nobody did and whoever did it must have known nobody would ever see it before the tide washed it away....it was beautiful and a work of art which must have been almost impossible to see properly from the ground. Anyway we left there and continued our little tour finding another glorious deserted beach, like a sandbar, which was covered in hundreds and hundreds of seals who all rushed into the water as we approached in a massive throng, then as we rounded a headland on the North-west of the island there was a gushing torrent coming out of a cliff hundreds of feet up. The wind from the North was so strong that as it hit the cliff, it went vertically upwards and stopped the torrent falling to earth. I have never seen anything like it before, but all the water was blown vertically straight up into the sky like a hosepipe.
Final boring story and it wasn't me but my gran
she went abroad for the first time in her life at age 85 on her own to visit my brother in NZ. They booked a tour onto Fox Glacier for Day 1 and the pilot landed them all there and departed for a while. At which point with the helicopter disappearing she just keeled over flat on her face into the snow and my brother assumed she was dead and wondered what the hell to do next. Luckily she had just passed out, living another 5 years afterwards, but that was also her first helicopter flight too - maybe it was all a bit exciting for her Edited by Siko on Monday 16th January 10:45
Edited by Siko on Monday 16th January 10:46
dukeboy749r said:
This!
Plus, what is the pyramidal little 'toggle' device that I have seen on the top of the control stick (not cyclic) in a Lynx?
Wishing you the very best!
Thanks mate - I have flown the Lynx, I got a few hours hands-on in the LHS when I was at the Test Pilot School (as a tea-boy!). It's a truly lovely helicoper and great fun to fly, I can't remember the switch you refer to, but I had a quick google and it looks like the 4-way trim? You are constantly trimming in a helicopter and I think the switch you mean is a "fine-trim" for adjusting a few degrees pitch/roll here or there, mainly used in cruise flight. I could well be wrong though Plus, what is the pyramidal little 'toggle' device that I have seen on the top of the control stick (not cyclic) in a Lynx?
Wishing you the very best!
Hello Vipersz and thanks for the great comments - really appreciate it
Some really good questions too - funnily enough I’ve also flown an Airbus (in the sim-well duh!) into Gib although was a lickle A320 but great fun to do. The sims are amazing nowadays and whilst the graphical fidelity is variable, the flight models are really good - I think our sim is a DAL Level B which is pretty good. I’m not a trainer in my current life but the type rating was done wholly in the sim, plus all our recurrent training is done in the sim too, so it’s pretty damn good. The graphics are pretty pants in mine and it’s really like Flight Sim 2005 but it’s good enough for visual circuits although you’d be a bit miffed if you tried to find your house like in Flight Simulator 2020
To start and takeoff a helicopter is really simple and I think the SAR boys can do it in 2 mins or so. To start mine is a piece of old wee - battery on, APU on and 30s later APU generator on which gives you elec power. Switch on all the electrical stuff (FMS etc), get start clearance and put fuel supply to engines on, then rotor brake off, press start switch and at 24% NG (engine speed), throttle to ground idle and let the head start turning, advance the rotor head with the throttle to 50% nr (rotor speed) then repeat for other engine. When both up at 50%, advance to 105% nr and bring main generators on at 95%. With rotor at 105, APU off and lurch into the skies You can do that easily in 5 minutes if you are slick and that’s for a regular commercial air transport flight.
Shutting down takes about the same as just closing the engines can induce shock cooling on compressor blades, so we have to sit with the engines at 50% nr for 2 mins. Then it’s just a case of close the engines down, stop the head and APU off (we turn it on for closedown) and electrics off again, followed by battery and head in for tea and medals. Honestly my kids could do it.
To answer your final question in the military it depended what you were doing and where you were going. If we wanted to go somewhere quickly or in bad weather we’d go IFR (not I follow roads) and usually a LARS transit - which meant going from military base to base using the radar to keep you clear of other traffic. If there were no bases to fly through you could use airways but the height of them is more for airlines and struggling upto FL85 to just get in the way of everything faster wasn’t always great airmanship. I’ve done it and flown IFR across Europe easily enough but it doesn’t always work for us in the U.K. If you wanted to go low level you’d just plan a fun route that vaguely went in the direction you wanted to be going and normally joining the dots of girlfriends and parents houses Great fun - there was a big low flying handbook you had to examine with loads of avoids and one way systems etc but it was easy enough to plot a route - the hood thing about helicopters was that you were allowed to fly the wrong way to a one-way system as you could go underneath the jets
Some really good questions too - funnily enough I’ve also flown an Airbus (in the sim-well duh!) into Gib although was a lickle A320 but great fun to do. The sims are amazing nowadays and whilst the graphical fidelity is variable, the flight models are really good - I think our sim is a DAL Level B which is pretty good. I’m not a trainer in my current life but the type rating was done wholly in the sim, plus all our recurrent training is done in the sim too, so it’s pretty damn good. The graphics are pretty pants in mine and it’s really like Flight Sim 2005 but it’s good enough for visual circuits although you’d be a bit miffed if you tried to find your house like in Flight Simulator 2020
To start and takeoff a helicopter is really simple and I think the SAR boys can do it in 2 mins or so. To start mine is a piece of old wee - battery on, APU on and 30s later APU generator on which gives you elec power. Switch on all the electrical stuff (FMS etc), get start clearance and put fuel supply to engines on, then rotor brake off, press start switch and at 24% NG (engine speed), throttle to ground idle and let the head start turning, advance the rotor head with the throttle to 50% nr (rotor speed) then repeat for other engine. When both up at 50%, advance to 105% nr and bring main generators on at 95%. With rotor at 105, APU off and lurch into the skies
You can do that easily in 5 minutes if you are slick and that’s for a regular commercial air transport flight. Shutting down takes about the same as just closing the engines can induce shock cooling on compressor blades, so we have to sit with the engines at 50% nr for 2 mins. Then it’s just a case of close the engines down, stop the head and APU off (we turn it on for closedown) and electrics off again, followed by battery and head in for tea and medals. Honestly my kids could do it.
To answer your final question in the military it depended what you were doing and where you were going. If we wanted to go somewhere quickly or in bad weather we’d go IFR (not I follow roads
) and usually a LARS transit - which meant going from military base to base using the radar to keep you clear of other traffic. If there were no bases to fly through you could use airways but the height of them is more for airlines and struggling upto FL85 to just get in the way of everything faster wasn’t always great airmanship. I’ve done it and flown IFR across Europe easily enough but it doesn’t always work for us in the U.K. If you wanted to go low level you’d just plan a fun route that vaguely went in the direction you wanted to be going and normally joining the dots of girlfriends and parents houses Great fun - there was a big low flying handbook you had to examine with loads of avoids and one way systems etc but it was easy enough to plot a route - the hood thing about helicopters was that you were allowed to fly the wrong way to a one-way system as you could go underneath the jets This is only very rough but I think the time consuming bit is the exams - Bristol Groundschool quote 6-18 months and that’s zero flying! A quick google of the various fixed-wing academies shows around 70 weeks so I think 18 months fulltime is realistic.
Oh in other news I got the all clear from cancer
Oh in other news I got the all clear from cancer
numtumfutunch said:
Apologies in advance for this one, also for potential repetition as the thread is somewhat large now.....
What is the risk of flying in a helicopter compared to watching TV all evening?
Tongue in cheek however we are off to Vegas in a couple of weeks and deserve a treat after years of no holiday and am considering a family heli trip to the Grand Canyon not having flown in one before
I am mindful and respectful of a number of celebrity helicopter fatalities mostly including adverse weather (Bryant, Harding) and some involving pure bad luck in Leicester
Cheers
You’ll be fine! It will be an awesome, once in a lifetime experience and you will love it. I’ve flown over Vegas in the tourist experience too and it was worth it. To answer your question I have 6500 flying hours mostly doing dangerous stuff in the military or hostile environments (miles out to sea!). Clearly I am still alive and would put my kids in the back of a helicopter in Vegas tomorrow. The high profile accidents you mention would not happen to a public passenger helicopter such as the one you will fly in. The corporate world is an interesting place and knowing friends who have done it and left in disgust at some of the risks they had to take if they wanted to keep their job, I think the pressure from a high profile client, either open or self-induced must be huge “If I don’t get him to location x he’ll never use me/the company again”. A friend of mine flies a billionaire and he is renowned as a nice guy who puts no pressure on his pilots, he is very much not the norm, which is why corporate helicopters crash more than normal and are always very public news when they do.What is the risk of flying in a helicopter compared to watching TV all evening?
Tongue in cheek however we are off to Vegas in a couple of weeks and deserve a treat after years of no holiday and am considering a family heli trip to the Grand Canyon not having flown in one before
I am mindful and respectful of a number of celebrity helicopter fatalities mostly including adverse weather (Bryant, Harding) and some involving pure bad luck in Leicester
Cheers
This is not a situation you will find yourself in and pottering around vegas in perfect gin clear weather is minimal stress for the pilot and aircraft too
Enjoy and tell us in here how you got on
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 5th April 00:37
Just to add I did a bit of digging on accident rates and it is very difficult to compare like for like. In general though airlines are the safest in aviation, followed by helicopters in the middle of the pack and light general aviation (Cessnas flown by PPLs) way out there.
Of the helicopter stats the safest were police/news/sight seeing such as you are thinking of doing, with corporate in the middle and personal helicopter flights (PPL H) responsible for a disproportionate amount of incidents. So it is pretty safe in the aviation world and about as safe as a helicopter gets, what you are thinking of doing.
Of the helicopter stats the safest were police/news/sight seeing such as you are thinking of doing, with corporate in the middle and personal helicopter flights (PPL H) responsible for a disproportionate amount of incidents. So it is pretty safe in the aviation world and about as safe as a helicopter gets, what you are thinking of doing.
Earl of Hazzard said:
Got my first (and possibly only) lesson with an R44 later today
Was on the bucket list to try a chopper.
Awesome! Ask the instructor to show you vortex ring and retreating blade stall for the lolz Was on the bucket list to try a chopper.
On a serious point - enjoy it and don’t worry that you won’t (probably) be able to hover it first time. When I taught flying we started one control at a time and the best bit of advice to learn to fly a helicopter is to very carefully sort your seating position. You want to be able to hold the cyclic (joystick thing) while resting your right forearm on your right leg - which is why most helo pilots sit very slightly slumped over on the right side. That position minimises jerkiness of control movements and smoothed out your inputs. As a previous instructor once told me “hold the cyclic like you’d hold your best mates c*ck!”
normalbloke said:
I’ve always been gobsmacked that some of the least experienced pilots in the industry are instructors.
Yeah I get that and agree entirely but it seems to work - in the military fixed-wing world “creamies” (newly graduated student sent back to teach the course they just passed) were exactly the same thing at Basic and Advanced flying training. Weirdly in military helicopter training we didn’t have creamies, no idea why although I believe it was due to the intricacies and complexities of helicopter flying over plank wings requiring more knowledge/experience. Possibly 
fiatpower said:
I’ve always wanted to try out flying a helicopter but a bit wary of going for one of the virgin experience type places.
Any recommendations for somewhere in the midlands or the north west?
Sorry I don’t - but you can’t go too far wrong by just popping into your nearest club and chatting to them. You’ll quickly get a feel for if you want to throw money at them or not. Just pop in and tell them you’re thinking about a trial flight or getting your ppl h and see what you get back, good luck Any recommendations for somewhere in the midlands or the north west?
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