Ask a helicopter pilot anything

[normalbloke]

Siko said:

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

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!”

I’ve always been gobsmacked that some of the least experienced pilots in the industry are instructors.

[Earl of Hazzard]

Siko said:

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

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!”

Cheers for the advice!
Incoming bad weather means that my lesson's been pushed back to tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on.

Oh and congrats on the cancer all clear

[fiatpower]

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?

[Penny Whistle]

Siko said:

As a previous instructor once told me “hold the cyclic like you’d hold your best mates c*ck!”

I wonder if he said that to his female students ?

[TGCOTF-dewey]

Siko said:

As a previous instructor once told me “hold the cyclic like you’d hold your best mates c*ck!”

Not sure how being drunk, wearing a set of marigolds, and holding a paintbrush covered in smurf-blue paint helps, but you're the expert.

[Siko]

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

[Siko]

Earl of Hazzard said:

Cheers for the advice!
Incoming bad weather means that my lesson's been pushed back to tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on.

Oh and congrats on the cancer all clear

Thank you Enjoy the flight, you’ll love it!

[Siko]

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

[Siko]

Penny Whistle said:

I wonder if he said that to his female students ?

No reason why he couldn’t of course but I think he, like all good instructors, altered his patter to suit his students ability/personality or lack of

[Siko]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

Not sure how being drunk, wearing a set of marigolds, and holding a paintbrush covered in smurf-blue paint helps, but you're the expert.

[Earl of Hazzard]

Siko said:

Earl of Hazzard said:

Cheers for the advice!
Incoming bad weather means that my lesson's been pushed back to tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on.

Oh and congrats on the cancer all clear

Thank you Enjoy the flight, you’ll love it!

So I did the flight. And yes I did enjoy it...was mainly just given the cyclic control, which was ok on its own. There was a brief period when I was given all three controls ..and i nearly shat myself

The lesson ended with me in the airfield trying to hover...ha, yeah definitely need a lot more practice!

Like you said though: your inputs have to be so smooth, or else the thing goes everywhere.

I can see me doing it again as it was great fun. The chopper was a Robinson R44


Corfe castle

[Siko]

That’s awesome mate - thanks for posting and glad you enjoyed it! R44 is a bit tasty though - think most people start in a. R22! Let us know if you do anymore btw, be interested to hear how you are getting on - I’m sure you’re aware but helicopter flying is very expensive

PS for some undefinable reason no helicopter pilot calls them ‘choppers’ btw, that’s for noobs

[normalbloke]

Siko said:

That’s awesome mate - thanks for posting and glad you enjoyed it! R44 is a bit tasty though - think most people start in a. R22! Let us know if you do anymore btw, be interested to hear how you are getting on - I’m sure you’re aware but helicopter flying is very expensive

PS for some undefinable reason no helicopter pilot calls them ‘choppers’ btw, that’s for noobs

Only Arnie gets away with ‘chopper’! I know very little about the Robbos, but doesn’t the clock start ticking on the R22 as soon as the engine is turning, whereas the R44 is from skids up, or is that spurious info?

[classicaholic]

normalbloke said:

Only Arnie gets away with ‘chopper’! I know very little about the Robbos, but doesn’t the clock start ticking on the R22 as soon as the engine is turning, whereas the R44 is from skids up, or is that spurious info?

Depends on if you are in the Australian outback!!

[TGCOTF-dewey]

classicaholic said:

Depends on if you are in the Australian outback!!

Surely that's a flying bogan.

[smallpaul]

I watched a helicopter taxi behind a private jet keeping the nose on the centre line, line up at holding point and “take off” using the runway.

Why?

[nordboy]

smallpaul said:

I watched a helicopter taxi behind a private jet keeping the nose on the centre line, line up at holding point and “take off” using the runway.

Why?

Isn't it more efficient? To do with the energy/ power required for lift? Obviously, I'm an expert, having flown in a helicopter at least 4 times (as a passenger)

And Siko, congrats on the cancer all clear

[Siko]

smallpaul said:

I watched a helicopter taxi behind a private jet keeping the nose on the centre line, line up at holding point and “take off” using the runway.

Why?

Good question! Loads of reasons really - going back to my days on the Merlin we could lift another 1000kg of payload if we used a rolling takeoff technique on a runway, using less power/stress than a hover departure. The reason I suspect this pilot did that is because it was a larger commercial passenger carrying helicopter - on mine (apart from offshore helidecks) we fly to performance class 1 (same rules as airlines) which mandates rates of climb etc on a single engine etc, but fundamentally we have to be able to either takeoff and climb single-engined at a defined point or reject and land back on the runway. Also, being able to ground taxi means you can move clear of areas that may be affected by your downwash - light helicopters with skids won’t make a huge amount of downwash but a bigger helicopter can cause very significant downwash and blow objects/people (see an earlier post for my own experience of blowing an aircraft over ).

[normalbloke]

Siko said:

smallpaul said:

I watched a helicopter taxi behind a private jet keeping the nose on the centre line, line up at holding point and “take off” using the runway.

Why?

Good question! Loads of reasons really - going back to my days on the Merlin we could lift another 1000kg of payload if we used a rolling takeoff technique on a runway, using less power/stress than a hover departure. The reason I suspect this pilot did that is because it was a larger commercial passenger carrying helicopter - on mine (apart from offshore helidecks) we fly to performance class 1 (same rules as airlines) which mandates rates of climb etc on a single engine etc, but fundamentally we have to be able to either takeoff and climb single-engined at a defined point or reject and land back on the runway. Also, being able to ground taxi means you can move clear of areas that may be affected by your downwash - light helicopters with skids won’t make a huge amount of downwash but a bigger helicopter can cause very significant downwash and blow objects/people (see an earlier post for my own experience of blowing an aircraft over ).

I do appreciate your sensible answers, instead of my daft foolish ones! I remember doing a running take off once with an ex Army pilot, on skids to get past translation so we could actually climb..