All was glorious — a cloudless sky above, a most delicious view around. . . . How great is our good fortune! I care not what may be the condition of the earth; it is the sky that is for me now. — Prof. Jacques Alexandre Cesare Charles

Good day, all!
I've been in school about a week now. I've had 4 flights. I am currently working on hovering! I started hovering on my second flight. The best way that I can explain hovering is sitting cross-legged on a yoga ball with fans rotating around you, trying to balance. That's my favorite to tell people :) I've got so much to study and I have my first test on my next class day. Since I've studied with James so much  the last few months, I do know a lot. Currently my homework includes the following:
1st Lesson - definitions for blade flapping, feathering, lead & lag. The 3 types of main and tail rotor systems and what they do. PLENTY of things about the R22, which, gladly, I knew a lot of it already, its just a lot of fine tuning! All about the powerplant of the R22, assembly of the swash plate and main rotor hub. The main and tail rotor gear boxes, all about the drive train, electrical system, all of the aircraft lights, fuses, fuel system, oil system, different fuel types which to use and what colors, all about the pitot static system, VSI, ASI, and ALT how they work and their errors, Magnetic compass and its errors. That is just my notes that i've written down. I also have things highlighted in the POH (Pilots Operating Handbook). I know I will have that thing memorized! I've gotten a few YouTube videos that my teacher has showed me and I'll add them at the end of the post.
2nd Lesson - AERODYNAMICS YAY! It's actually not as bad as it sounds. If I haven't bored you already, let me talk about science! Air Foils, four forces of lift, the 3 different types of drag, the equation of lift, which I'll just show you! L=(CL)(1/2 P)(S)(V2). YEP. I'm not going to go into explaining all of it at the moment because I'm not sure how much will be incredibly boring to someone who isn't interested and I need to study, but YEAH. The different vibrations and what can shake the helicopter apart (kinda cool, very dangerous).
My instructor has also recently taught me how to calculate the DA (Density Altitude or, how dense the atmosphere is. Determines the performance of the helicopter at that altitude and temperature.) It's a fun math equation. I go to aviationweather.gov/adds click on TAF, then type in your airports location and then metars and tafs. That is the same codes that I have used in one of my last recent posts.
The next thing that I am learning is pattern-work. I am learning all about the upwind leg, downwing leg, base leg, and final and the knots and altitude that you should be at while in each of these turns.

I need to catch up on my blogging, this is why my post is so long, so bear with me! The next one shouldn't be as long. The youtube videos I have gotten from my instructor are these:
For lesson 1 - Youtube search this: s-61 sea king rotor head animation - This will give the student an animation that shows more realistically what the rotor head is doing as it moves up and down and around. This helped me to understand the actual movement when I move the controls as I am flying.
For lesson 2 - Youtube - how wings work smoke - This video is from Cambridge University where they used an airfoil to explain bernoullis principal and stall of a blade.

I found a great website that made me laugh about hovering and this is a quote from it:

"Why is Hovering so Difficult?

Hovering is commonly described as being like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. While this analogy is vastly over-used, it is not inaccurate. The helicopter has three highly sensitive controls, all of which operate differently and all of which affect each other. To further complicate matters, there is a lag between operating each control and the helicopter responding. And to really confuse the new student, there is a different amount of lag for each control."

You can read more at Suite101: Helicopter Flying Lessons - Hovering

Basically, no one can TEACH hovering. The instructors just have to sit there and save their lil bums from crashing while the student figures out how. Meh, I'll figure it out. Right? lol.

Alright, here's a picture from lesson 2 of my studies, basic aerodynamics. This is the drag velocity ratio, meaning all of the drags put together on a chart to show when they are affected by flight. This picture was found on Google :)

The only difference on what I have learned is that Profile Drag is not in this picture, and the Stall is called LDMax, meaning the most amount of lift for the least amount of drag. In the helicopter, this is 53 knots which makes it easier for the helicopter to climb!

Alright that's enough for todays "lesson" kids!

See you very soon!

-Tiffycakes!