Ask a helicopter pilot anything
Discussion
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!
This has been a great thread to read over a couple of days, everyone's joint input has been fascinating.
If you are still in the mood for questions I have a few that don't seem to have been asked; probably because they are all more technical than mine which I suspect you are more likely to be asked by a child...
How realistic are the simulators you use? I am 100% civvie but I have managed to have a go in a Herc sim, which felt a bit Blue Peter, and an A400 sim which was incredible. I did a landing into Gibraltar, with a turn instead of a straight in approach so I could try lining it up. I (naively) decided I wanted to control the speed as well as heading and altitude, so whilst I did get it on the runway, there wasn't a chance in hell it was going to stop.
How long does it take from getting in the helicopter to being able to take off, and same question for landing to being fully switched off.
How would you route plan for military training flights? If you were going from Base A to Base B, could you get there however you wanted, taking into account NOTAMS etc?
Thanks in advance and all the best with your recovery!
If you are still in the mood for questions I have a few that don't seem to have been asked; probably because they are all more technical than mine which I suspect you are more likely to be asked by a child...
How realistic are the simulators you use? I am 100% civvie but I have managed to have a go in a Herc sim, which felt a bit Blue Peter, and an A400 sim which was incredible. I did a landing into Gibraltar, with a turn instead of a straight in approach so I could try lining it up. I (naively) decided I wanted to control the speed as well as heading and altitude, so whilst I did get it on the runway, there wasn't a chance in hell it was going to stop.
How long does it take from getting in the helicopter to being able to take off, and same question for landing to being fully switched off.
How would you route plan for military training flights? If you were going from Base A to Base B, could you get there however you wanted, taking into account NOTAMS etc?
Thanks in advance and all the best with your recovery!
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 Hi Siko,
This is probably a question where i pick up the phone and ask one of the companies that do the modular route, but how long do you think it would take someone with 0 experience to becoming a fully fledged (paperwork, not hours) pilot that was looking to gain employment?
Lets assume, loads of free time and not weekends only
Thanks
This is probably a question where i pick up the phone and ask one of the companies that do the modular route, but how long do you think it would take someone with 0 experience to becoming a fully fledged (paperwork, not hours) pilot that was looking to gain employment?
Lets assume, loads of free time and not weekends only
Thanks
lemmingjames said:
Hi Siko,
This is probably a question where i pick up the phone and ask one of the companies that do the modular route, but how long do you think it would take someone with 0 experience to becoming a fully fledged (paperwork, not hours) pilot that was looking to gain employment?
Lets assume, loads of free time and not weekends only
Thanks
Does the person only want to learn in the UK or would they be willing to go abroad where the weather is nicer?This is probably a question where i pick up the phone and ask one of the companies that do the modular route, but how long do you think it would take someone with 0 experience to becoming a fully fledged (paperwork, not hours) pilot that was looking to gain employment?
Lets assume, loads of free time and not weekends only
Thanks
48k said:
Does the person only want to learn in the UK or would they be willing to go abroad where the weather is nicer?
I guess you mean learn in SA/USA/Australia? Wouldnt be opposed to it, just depends on where the work would end up being?Been reading that you'd need to do a conversion course to be up to UK Standards if wanting to work in this country (or any country that you didnt get the license from).
TBH im looking to get out of the country for work anyway so open to ideas/suggestions
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
dorset_clive said:
Siko said:
Oh in other news I got the all clear from cancer
That’s really good news. Always a bit tremendous open one of these threads when a new post pops up after a few months break ?? For those that know George on RR ??Siko said:
Thanks mate - just shows what an diverse group of people we have here
Yeah it always throws you when a ship or even better, the oil rig is not where you think it is. I know you know, but most people don't know that a lot of oil rigs can move! I've landed on an oil rig under way at about 10kts and it's a really weird experience. The ones that move (that look like regular rigs) are called semi-submersibles (also jack-ups etc) and sail to their drilling location and anchor down. They look like a James Bond baddy's lair and move when you land on them...the most I've seen on deck was a rate of climb on the vertical speed indicator of 500 ft/min
Big rigs.Yeah it always throws you when a ship or even better, the oil rig is not where you think it is. I know you know, but most people don't know that a lot of oil rigs can move! I've landed on an oil rig under way at about 10kts and it's a really weird experience. The ones that move (that look like regular rigs) are called semi-submersibles (also jack-ups etc) and sail to their drilling location and anchor down. They look like a James Bond baddy's lair and move when you land on them...the most I've seen on deck was a rate of climb on the vertical speed indicator of 500 ft/min
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
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!”
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