For as long as it's been since I've posted, you could have almost finished the whole entire pilot training program! I'm not ignoring my dream, I promise. I'm trying to find a way to continue school. Yes, still :(
I have thus far been hired at two places, moved 2 times, adopted a cat, and gotten married in Hawaii. Busy life, I have - me and my cats :).
Meanwhile, I am attempting to finish the situation with my ex-husband and our house that we still own together (yes, still), and working on my degree (one more time - yes, still).
I did take a nice break for a while, and no I haven't tried a lot of scholarships, but we have a plan!
Once we complete our lease, we are going to be shopping around for jobs and schools in Seattle or in the Washington area.
Exciting, right?
We are excited but just a tad nervous to make our next steps into the world!
I realize it's been quite some time, so I thought I'd give everyone a quick update before heading off to do some homework. Currently I haven't been able to fly since my check ride which was the week of Thanksgiving.
I PASSED, by the way! So now that I am a rated Private Heli pilot, what is next?
Well, as we all know, aviation takes a lot of money out of flying so financially it is almost always a struggle to find that next way to fund your habit. I feel like somewhat of a crack addict!
I need to get my fix O.O
So in lieu of these events, I have taken up a second job. I work between 10-14 hours a day, and I am still attending my college which means I am doing classes as well. Soon, I should be able to attempt to get another student loan from my "lovely" government, and then I will be starting to learn Instrument Flying. In preparation for that, I am hoping I will be able to get a head start and contact some friends who can help me prepare for the Instrument Written Exam. As I know a lot of my readers aren't in the United States, this just is a test you take where you have to pass with a 70% or better. I will practice day and night with a program which will help me prep for this test. Getting it done as soon as possible could possibly save me thousands of dollars. IN THE MEANTIME... Does anyone know of any great scholarship websites that might help me out?? It would be greatly appreciated!
Go ahead and comment on my Pilot in Heels Facebook Page or send me a message on there or at tiffanyskaar@gmail.com! I would love to chat or answer any questions!
So my dear friends, the time has come for my check ride. It is literally right around the corner! Rule of thumb for our school: If you pass your stage 3 test (the test with the main instructor at your school) then your check ride will be just as good, if not better. I am not very nervous at this point, just more looking to learn something from a pilot with thousands of hours in many aircraft.
I wanted to mention something for my future: I don't currently have the funding to continue my education at this point. I will do whatever it takes to finish my training, but at this point my check ride will be the last flight I take until I figure something out.
I will have to borrow money from my fiance in order to pay for my check ride, what a saint he is.
When it comes to loans, I have them deferred until I get my bachelors degree as long as I am taking classes as a full time student. Once I stop flying, that is no longer the case and I will have to sort things out another way.
Because of my past (and we all know how divorces go) my credit is no longer the gleaming picture it once was to no fault of my own. I will be unable to get a loan without a co-signer (none available to me) until that is fixed and currently it is out of my hands legally. Trust me, if I could have done something about it by now, I would have. So that whole option is out of the question.
My next option is scholarships, grants, and federal aid. The past two years I have been unable to receive federal aid and do not qualify for any grants and I have no idea why. I can get small loans through my college which only help to pay my tuition each semester and is not enough for flight school.
After I receive my license my next goal will be to find and apply for any scholarship that I am eligible for.
The options after that are extremely limited. I've heard of people who have paid for their education (although this is somewhat about 25 years ago) strictly with cash, working two full time jobs to get the money needed for EACH flight. If that is what it takes, that's what I'll do.
Meanwhile, I plan on attempting to self-educate myself about the other certificates I want to get whenever possible, hopefully somewhat minimizing the amount of education I will have to pay for.
If anyone has any other ideas that could help students pay for education, I am begging you to let me know!
Thanks guys, I'll let you know how the check ride goes.
P.S. I plan on editing a video as soon as I have enough footage to edit :)
So this morning I went on one of my last solo cross-country flights. I ran into (well, not literally) one of my instructors who is getting his fixed wing license while I was transitioning from one town to the other. We had a short chat over the radio and I was on my way.
Upon my return and landing on runway 35, I looked to my left and saw three blackhawk choppers flying in formation off the runway heading into the distance. It was perhaps the most beautiful sight I've encountered yet! I'm kicking myself for not being able to take a picture or having a camera attached to my head to film it from my perspective.
Which brings me to my point. I've seen many a Youtube video where people have used the GoPro camera. Although I enjoy the idea and I could potentially learn a lot, I don't relish the idea of spending so much money on a camera if it doesn't turn out as practical as I'd like. However, my sporty father who likes to sled has used cameras on his helmets before and they have worked out well.
I'm going to start figuring out how to work his spare camera and using it to film my lessons. Credit to my dad for letting me use his expensive equipment! The next step is trying to figure out how to edit the footage and shape it from a horror movie in slow motion to an action movie with exciting music.
If all goes well, you will be able to learn along with me to the tune of happy music. Unfortunately, I don't get to listen to the music while I learn so consider yourself lucky :(
I have to find a cable that will attach without being too costly and finding a way to hold the bigger part of the system without being in the way of controls while I fly. It isn't a GoPro, but another competitor close to it, and it should work just as well, if not better! I'm hoping while in flight you will be able to read the gauges along with being able to see clearly outside.
In my head, I don't know if it would be very interesting to watch a lot of videos of someone sitting in a metal ball floating around the sky under a giant fan staring at the ground, but I have to remind myself that not everyone gets to sit in aircraft (helicopters especially) even during their lifetime while I get to sit in them more than a couple times a week.
So I will ask my readers this:
Would you like to see something like that?
Would it be interesting for someone to watch?
And what other things could I do to improve and make videos that are entertaining?
This morning I woke up early like I usually do for work, 5:30 am. This time though, I wasn't going to work. I grabbed my headset bag, my flight plan, sectional, and sunglasses, and headed to the airport.
With the feeling of fall in the air, I tried to huddle up in my hoodie and do my preflight quickly! You can definitely tell that fall is on the way! I set my sunglasses on the empty seat next to me in the helicopter for when the sun came up. Flipping my nav lights on and rolling up the throttle, I lifted off the ground and took to the crisp morning air. The exhilarating feeling of looking to the person next to you and seeing the empty seat instead is a bit of a chilly feeling at first if you are nervous.
"Gggosh! Is that Pottsburg or is that Panstown?"
After a few minutes in the air my mind and body calmed itself and settled into its routine, practiced muscle movements, and training took over. Going into the pattern, calling anyone out there in the world who is listening, and letting them know my intentions was eerie without the sound of other traffic around me or the reply of the ATC tower.
A check ride shouldn't be an extremely hard or daunting task to complete. After all, if you fail, you aren't condemning yourself to never getting your license. You are only postponing it. One fact that I like about check rides is that if you botch something up, it doesn't mean you fail completely! It only means that he will come back at a later date and redo that part of the check ride with you. Unless, of course, there are a lot of things that need work and then you'll get the pink slip.
My home airport on a sectional
My first destination has a golf course right next to it. Usually you get people who stare at the aircraft, watching as we wave back to them while in a hover on the runway. Today, it was the usual golfers who are not phased by a bright orange helicopter flying only a short distance away from them. They were probably more cranky about the fact that the wind from the helicopter was messing up their shot than seeing something out of their ordinary everyday lives.
After that pattern and taking off again, away from that airfield I went. Heading northeast towards the foothills I changed my gps and radio, checked my carburetor heat and looked for my next checkpoint. Curving around the Delta airspace in which I feel at home in, I glanced at my surroundings and tried to block the rising sun from my view by using the windshield. Winding around towers, watching for crop-dusters and my next airport, it started creeping into my mind the thought of doing a check ride. Although I'm not too worried to do my check ride, it's a little different to think about when you are on the ground, sitting in a warm office with your instructors whom you trust and allow your worries to spill out. It is a completely different matter to think about a check ride when you are alone in the aircraft with the sound of the engine roaring in your ears while you try to summon the courage to realize you are doing it by yourself. No tips from the instructor can echo through your headset now! One pointer that I have heard is that if you blow the DPE away on your ground work, then he'll be more likely to make excuses for you on the check ride. Perhaps a wind gust did it? People don't enjoy having their judgement tested. He will be thinking "I really had this one pegged. This one really knows what their talking about!"
Finally, I came upon the second destination in my flight. Even though I've been to this one several times, I still always have a bit of a hard time spotting that airport. It always seems to pop up on me a couple miles away as I am arriving. Although it was a bit windier, and definitely over the 10 knot report from my home airport only 10 miles away, there is no reporting station there so I could get away with it. For those who don't know, solo student pilots have a 10 knot limit on flying.
Why not get in the extra practice? I quickly did that pattern and was off onto my next leg of my flight plan, where I had decided to go around one airport which is usually busier and stop off on my last destination. I knew I would be a little late getting back to the airport, but my ground speed was showing 70 with indicated airspeed at 85. I had a headwind. If you go into your appointment with a point to learn something, you will come away better on every check ride than before. If you fail, you will know exactly why you failed and it'll be obvious what to do better next time. It also would help you calm your nerves before or during the check ride to try to learn something. After all, he really is just a CFI with another certificate.
In the same sequence if you have too high confidence or too low confidence, it might not look good to your DPE, so keeping that in mind will benefit you either way.
Historic building that my school is in. Those are our helicopters.
On my way home and knowing another student was waiting for the heli I knew it was no reason to rush. He can sit and wait patiently for me! But one thing that I could do was attempt to efficiently use the wind to push my ground speed faster. I came in for landing on the runway, taxied to my school and set the heli down smoothly. You never know whether it'll be a good day or bad, and on the other hand if it'll be just another flight in your logbook, or one of your most memorable yet. Overall, the check ride is nothing to be scared of, just remember that even though it may be nerve-wracking to show them what you can do! You've already done all the hard work. It may be a bad flight in your opinion but if he gives you a handshake and hands you your temporary certificate (remember, it's good for 120 days!) that it'll also be your most memorable to date!
I have tried many ways to find ways to keep
my mind excited about studying. There are several things I've done, but overall
I will explain the main tips that I have used to study throughout the majority
of my license. Here are a few tips that could help you
along your journey to get that license.
I
color coordinate my planner for ease-of-use and to make it exciting for my mind
to look at.
1. Get a Planner. I say this because it is easy to get caught
up in other classes, work, relationships, any anything else that your mind will
use to try to distract you from studying.
If you have strong enough will-power, you can use the planner to your advantage
down to 15-minute increments of study time depending on the type of planner you
buy. This gives your mind a goal to get to. Our mind likes goals and likes to
complete things.
It's easy to justify if you convince yourself to study for half an hour, give
yourself a break, and then study for another half hour and be done for the day.
Whatever timing that works for you, always make sure that you give
yourself a break in increments of time. A tired mind is like a fussy 6 year
old.
2. Make Lists Lists help to organize the mind and free it
from cluttering thoughts that might confuse other information that is more
important to remember.
I frequently will make a Goal List on the side of my planner explaining what I
would like to accomplish in the MINIMUM that week or sometimes I will break it
down into days.
In the rotorcraft private pilot license, there seems to be so much information
that could be broken up into parts, yet seemingly it all falls together! This
makes it hard to organize studying sometimes because if you break it into
lessons, then you are only on one subject. To be effective and increase the
minds reaction time to find and remember the answer, I mix subjects together.
On one day I might schedule to study Emergency Procedures. Another day I might
be
scheduled to do the Pitot/Static System or the different types of turbulence.
These "side tasks" I add every day along with the current flash cards
I have scheduled to study.
These are separated per subject.
3. Flash Cards These have to be the most obvious and
frequent way to study.
In order to make it easy to organize my flashcards, I have color coded them
with a dot in the upper right-hand corner in each category it pertains to with
crayon.
I have more than 300+ flash cards in my Tupperware. Staring at that massive
pile sometimes stresses me out! I split them into piles of 25 cards and put a small
clip on them. The cards are shuffled randomly.
How I Study Them:
These are thrown in for random selection
Since my cards are in piles, I make it
my goal each day to study one pile of them by the end of the day.
If I get a card correct, I put a check mark in pencil in the left corner and put
it back in the pile. Once a card gets 3 check marks, I can take it out of the
pile and continue on until the pile is done.
Once the pile is done for the day, I put it back in the Tupperware separately
from the piles I haven't done. That way the next day I can go over that days
pile, and two other piles that have already been checked off 3 times.
Daily, I do about 50-75 flash cards each day on top of the random subject I
have chosen to study as well as any particular activities my instructor has
assigned.
4. Use Acronyms Using silly words for things put an image
into your mind, making it easier to conjure up that image when being asked
later about the same subject.
For example, we must memorize the certifications of categories and classes of
airmen and aircraft. These words really don't have an easy way to remember
them, so I made up some silly words to use: Aircraft Categories goes like this:
Air (aircraft) Cats (categories) are Normally (normal) Utilized (utility)
Aerobatically (aerobatic).
On the notecard, it looks like Aircraft Categories: Normal, Utility, Aerobatic. That sentence is quite simple, but I
sometimes get even sillier with my words and created this one for the Aircraft
Classes:
Aircats (aircraft) are Classy (class) around Rotating (rotocraft) Gerbils
(glider) with Balloons (balloon).
This gives the picture of a cat who likes to watch gerbils being nice (classy!)
around gerbils (who run or rotate in wheels) with balloons tied to them!
On the notecard it looks like Aircraft Class: Rotorcraft, Glider, Balloon.
5. Quizzes One way to test yourself to be sure that you
have actually soaked up the information instead of somehow finding a way to
cheat (permanent marker on cards, anyone?)is by using quizzes!
At least these aren't done with a teacher breathing down your neck. If
possible, get a few copies of each quiz that you intend to use. That way you
can do them over and over if you miss any, or use to test yourself later. Also, even though it is time-consuming, I
will go through my notes and make my own quizzes.
Some would say this is contradictory because as you ask the questions, you
already know the answers. In either case, you are still looking at the material
and it is still considered to be studying.
6. Keep Yourself Motivated After months of studying the same thing, the
mind starts getting bored. You start noticing that as you go through your
flashcards you skip some of them because "Meh, I already know it."
This is obviously the boredness kicking in! It's never good to slack, either.
You may think you know that one card, but the mind will eventually forget the
little things, which may be vital to your checkride.
3 Ways that I use to keep myself motivated
to keep studying
1. Set a goal (everyone knew this one was coming). Overall, the goal is to get
your private pilots license. This is great, except, how long from now will that
be? That is too broad of a goal to base each day off of.
Successful people write out spider-graphs. You know, those graphs that include
the big idea in the middle, surrounded by smaller ideas, and even smaller ideas
on those ones? If you create a bunch of short term goals, it lessens the work
that your mind thinks you have to do, making it easier in your head to
complete.
Eventually, stepping over those small
pebbles, you will turn back and realize you've crossed a mountain.
2. Give yourself a treat at the end of a big
goal. Whether it be a new video game, a book, or an expensive night out with my
hubby, I choose whatever it is that will make me happy and give me something to
look forward to.
If you don’t reward yourself, you are going to put pedal to the metal and push
yourself to a breaking point where you just don’t want to do anything!
3. Let someone else know your goals.
In this respect, if you tell someone about your goals, they are more apt to ask
you about them. To avoid embarrassment or feeling guilty, you will try harder
to keep to the tasks so that when that person asks, you can say that you are
doing well! Have the person you choose be a trustworthy and supporting friend
or family member. Ask if they are willing to help you hold up to your goals.
7. Learn
Your Learning System
There are many different
ways that people learn. You can also be a mix of learning styles, but overall,
the more you know, the easier it will be to learn or memorize material. The
benefits of knowing how you learn can be exponential in helping your studies go
smoothly and at a good pace.
This Learning Quiz is a quiz that will show youyour
learning technique. This website shows a lot of different styles of learning,
and you can click on each of them for tips on how to incorporate into your
studying.
8. Chair
Flying
Chair flying sounds like a
weird situation where you would close your eyes, listen to music while pretending
to clear your mind and honing your soul into nature in some strange meditation
type situation. In no way am I going to claim that you will magically know how
to fly if you imagine things going correctly every time you chair fly!
Although, wouldn’t that be awesome?
Chair flying isn’t that strange and many instructors will tell you to go home
and do this as your homework assignment. While it is still fresh in your mind,
sit down and imagine your flight that day. Usually if you slow it down and pay
attention to each detail, you can “fix” the problems that you faced that day.
The goal for this is to get
the neurons in that part of your brain to connect solidly between the reactions
that each control provides when you make an input. Basically, we’re building
muscle memory.
Eventually, you will be so natural at it that you can so much as “think” of
what you want to do and it’ll already be happening in the helicopter because
you’ve already made the inputs without knowing it.
ASA Prepware
9. Use a
Study Aid Program, Even After Your Knowledge Test
I use ASA’s Prepware to keep
my skills up on questions that may be in the check ride that might not
necessarily be asked specifically in my flash cards or lessons to study. Such
as the FAR/AIM or scenario-based questions. I used this program to practice for my knowledge test. Our
school requires us to get 3 tests with 90% scores before we can go take the
official test.
10. Study
in a Group
The results of a group study.
If you can befriend anyone
at your flight school and get together to study with them, it’s a great way to
challenge yourself and improve both of your skills. Sometimes there are things
that they don’t think to ask of that you do, vice versa. Also they might have
additional studying tips that helped them memorize things in some way.
So overall, hopefully I've provided some tips for any student and not just aviation students! Although it was lengthy, those are a few tips that I mainly use to help keep myself on task and making sure that I am progressing at home more than I am at school (in ground lessons), just to save myself some money.
A lot of the lessons that you pay for "reviewing" ground can be money in your pocket if you do more at home, where it's free to sit on your own couch and do the same thing you'd be doing at school.
It also might help to study in strange positions, like upside down on the couch!
Flying is something that you can't imagine until you do it. When you do get to fly, and not just as the passenger, it feels wonderful. Only a few steps away until I can fly this bird on my own!
My first couple of flights to get back up to par have been pretty good. The first flight went amazing. I impressed my instructor and myself by not having too much rust built up and I remembered how to fly more than I expected.
turbine windmill farm. the clouds show the turbulence.
The second flight we did we went to the bottom of a hill where there are the giant turbine windmills on top. It was fun trying to do 360's and ascending and descending turns with turbulence while your instructor tries to distract you :p that's their job! I'm still having a bit of a hard time with approaches, but that will come in time. I can do it, just not as perfectly as I would like.
One thing a student should remember is that they are not looking for perfection when you are first starting out. I'm told I am very hard on myself and that I am usually doing better than I actually think. My third flight went pretty well. We did pirouettes (I know its a dance term but we like to think we are light and smooth on the pedals like dancers are with their feet :) and I did very well at those. We hovered around a painted object on the runway at about the same altitude and distance away in a circle in a little bit of wind.
Collective control. Throttle twist
We practiced governor off work for my first time, which is interesting and requires more concentration than usual. For those who don't know, in layman's terms the governor essentially adjusts your throttle to what power you need to pull from your engine at any given time. If you turn it off, you need to watch your RPM's very carefully and keep it in a very small point on the tachometer to fly. This means you are always adjusting. This is important to learn because governors fail occasionally and if it does you don't want your blades to slow down passed a certain point, or you will crash and die. Okay okay, you might not die, but its possible. Or your governor could speed the engine up and you could cause severe engine damage and damage to other components.
I thus far need to work on trying to understand the radio talk a little more and to be more outside of the cockpit (which I should have learned long ago) and using a little bit more situational awareness. I plan on using liveatc.net to help me understand the radio a bit more. I understand the lingo for the most part, its actually understanding what they are saying. Just practice is all.
At the end of the flight my instructor told me good job good job, maybe one more flight and we will send you off to do emergency procedures with the instructors that are qualified. When I looked at my schedule for the week I noticed that I am scheduled with those instructors that will get me through to soloing. I suppose it's about time although I am still nervous. I've had a mock test where they sit down for two hours and ask you question by question about anything you have learned. They try to trick you! I've been fooled a couple of times and I was nervous enough to get a few things wrong, but overall he said I would definitely pass a private pilot (only counting the lessons we were reviewing) and I even had a lot of commercial pilot information that impressed him. Confidence booster! They will ask if you are sure if that is the answer or they will ask if B is the answer instead of what you said which was A.
Stick to your guns! I sometimes have a hard time or I get nervous and second guess myself. Over time though I am learning to trust my first instinct.
ON THE AGENDA:
- practice regular and hovering autorotations until they say I would survive a crash if one were to happen when I solo
- oral test about lessons 1 through 6.
- SOLO!! (stage 1 of 3 complete)
After soloing:
ok, my night flights wont look AS awesome..but still!
- start studying lessons 7-14 which I have already acquired (stage 2 of 3 complete). It's been a while so that might take some time.
- Start learning lessons 15-18 (the last lessons of private pilot and stage 3)
- start doing cross-country, night flights, and cross-country solo flights
- there's a flight in there somewhere where the tower and my instructor will devise an evil plan to confuse and elude me. I will be sent all over and around the airport in a crazy fashion following radio calls and dealing with traffic under pressure. That one will be greaaaat.
Really I don't have all that much left to go. A LOT of flying is coming up!
And, of course, more studying. :)
Sorry for such the long post!
Until next time!
Wow, it's been a good - oh, 6 months since I've blogged. But for good reason, my dear ones!
If you don't have your medical certificate and you have any reason as to why it would be delayed to the FAA, let me just foremost you in this:
GO GET IT LIKE, YESTERDAY.
In my humble experience with this situation, just take heed and do it like right meow. It took me from October until February for them to process my registration with them and give me my certificate. That doesn't mean I couldn't fly (obviously because I didn't have it before), but it does mean that it would have been a waste of time and money for me to fly during that time.
Alas, I begin flying next week. Today is Sunday and I fly Tuesday and Thursday. I better get used to it again!
To recover from my slightly off-kilter situation, I thought I'd retain some pride and let you all know I have not just been sitting on my bum! I did get through the next stage in my training (aside from flight-planning but that is next).
The goal thus far is to knock all of the rust off my flying, and solo as soon as possible, so I can start flying to surrounding cities alone and to get my hours built up. Without supervision. Just me and the chopchopchop of the blades...one of the most monumental things about being a flight student is that first solo flight.
How much further would I have been if I hadn't had to wait? My goal for having my private license was February and here it is...come and gone. I could have been doing instrument flight training with the foggles right now :( Ahh, soon young padowan!
On the other hand, I really just can't wait to start flying and doing my autorotations again!! I have my new kneeboard to use as well!
Goooood morning everyone! I finally have a moment to breathe, and decided I'd write a post. So in the Privates license, there are 3 stages at my school. I am on Lesson 5, going on lesson 6, and there are 7 lessons in the first stage. So I am almost through one milestone! (It's always important to note here that every time a lesson is done, it's a milestone. Every flight even!)
Lesson 5 has been all about Emergency Procedures, memorizing all of them and other information we need to know as pilots.
Today I started autorotations.
Autorotation - A state of descending flight.
Why do we practice them? They are practicing engine failures in a helicopter. I suppose they do them in a plane, too.
We began starting out with doing an intro into an auto, instead of me trying to learn everything all at once, we are going step by step. Which is great! So far the intro is basically just : Do your checks (Three in the green, engine rotor, no warning lights, carb out of yellow, gas, trim down) Then you can begin your autorotation!
You announce, "Auto in 3-2-1" and then goes as follows: Lower collective Right pedal Aft cyclic Off throttle, Catch RPM. This should be done in the time it takes to say, "Autorotation" out loud.
Need to keep your Rotor RPM in the green arc (101-104% on the tachometer) and then when the RPM goes down, you lower collective a little to keep it in the green. If it goes up, raise collective a little to keep it in the green arc.
Then you do more checks, which include: RPM, Airspeed, Trim strings, Landing zone. Then you keep an eye on that for a while, as you are correcting each thing.
Then as you come down, at approx 40 feet AGL (above ground level), you roll on throttle and accelerate out of it and climb. IN AN INTRO AUTO.
In a full autorotation practice, the POH has power failure above 500 feet (this is on page 3-2).
1. Lower collective immediately to maintain RPM and enter normal autorotation.
2. Establish a steady glide at approx. 65 kts.
3. Adjust collective to keep RPM in green arc or apply full down collective if light weight prevents attaining above 97% RPM.
4. Select landing spot and, if altitude permits, maneuver so landing will be into the wind.
5. A restart may be attempted at pilot's discretion if sufficient time is available (see air restart procedure)
6. If unable to restart, turn off unnecessary switches and shut off fuel.
7. At about 40 feet AGL, begin cyclic flare to reduce rate of descent and forward speed.
8. At about 8 feet AGL, apply forward cyclic to level ship and raise collective just before touchdown to cushion landing. Touch down in level attitude with nose straight ahead.
Along with a million other things, this is one thing you have to memorize and know by heart. Doesn't seem hard, you say? Well, you aren't in school to be a pilot, eh? :)
I decided that I wanted to get a sticker for my car that says something along the lines of "i'm a student pilot, I don't speed." lol because as a pilot knows, a speeding ticket on your record is something that your bosses will look at.. (what else will you do to break the rules while you are flying a helicopter for their company?).
A few weeks ago, I was invited to go with the base manager of my school to fly over our river and drop off ping pong balls to the public in a public duck race event. I was super excited because it was my first "commercial" type of experience!
Alright, I'm going to go relax on one of my first days to relax in months!
This is one of the helis that is at our school! I just googled this photo so I shouldn't get in trouble, and the school will remain unnamed :) I have actually flown in this exact heli before :) So proud!
This video is what a full down autorotation looks like. every auto (except hovering autos) looks like this except for the touchdown. So, yes, I will be learning that. :D YAY! Doesn't look too hard. What I think might be a little difficult will be the hovering autorotations.
The hovering autos video is right below:
While we're at it, lets do a dynamic rollover video DONT TRY THIS AT HOME lol:
Dynamic rollover is a powered roll that happens at a 15 degree tilt. The heli goes over that 15 degree tilt or pivot point, and you cannot recover.
Alright, that's all I've got for y'all today.
So as time goes by so fast, I know that eventually, I am going to take a look one day and realize I've been in school for 6 months and that I'm about to solo in the helicopter by myself. I am super excited about this! James's next flight is three days from now and he will be soloing. He has been in school since about February. As for now, I've learned that when you are in school for such a dynamic and complicated field..that there is so much I don't know! I'm excited to learn, but a little overwhelmed.
The first thing I would tell a potential student about learning how to fly a helicopter would be:
1. It's going to be hard. Really hard. Probably one of the most difficult things that you will have to surpass. 2.It will test your patience, and your willpower. You definitely do need 4-5 hours a day studying. 3. The faster you go, the further you'll soar. What I mean by this is that the more time you put at home studying, the faster your classes will go, and the sooner you can get going with your new adventure of piloting. Also, it saves you money on student loans :) 4. TRUST your instructor. Your instructor is obviously your key to success while you are learning. They will be the ones to help you along your way if you have a million questions and a good CFI (certified flight instructor) will be patient and supportive. 5. Feel the fear, and do it anyway. The only way that you are going to succeed past the fear roadblock is to ignore it. Fear means that you are out of your comfort zone. This is good. If you don't have any fear, something is off or your instructor isn't pushing you far enough. 6. Positive thinking. You MUST think positive. Even if you have a crappy day at school, you've got to find a place in your mind where you come to agreements with yourself and find the attitude that you want to be in. Ultimately, it's you who decides how hard it is going to be to YOU. 7. Willpower. Definitely the most important. You are going to be making decisions as a pilot whether to fly or not, or be in situations where you really do need to have all of the knowlege you were taught in school, even if you haven't practiced it since school. This is where the willpower comes in. Even when you are out of school and past being a CFI and are in the job market, you need to have the willpower to study study study everything and persevere through anything that comes to you to be the best pilot that you can be.
"To master a skill, you must input at least 10,000 hours"
- Unknown
This may not make much sense to someone who hasn't been introduced to this field, but it is completely different than memorizing some answers and knowing how to do a calculus problem and reading a book and doing a book report on it for English. This tests WHO YOU ARE.
Anyway, if I didn't have any confidence in myself as a person, it would be a million times harder to do what I and many others are trying to do. So take it as it comes, keep a positive attitude, and fulfill your best potential. It also helps SO much if you have someone who absolutely believes that you can do it. When you feel down, talk to them and listen to what they have to say about your successes.
Onto lighter subjects, I HOVERED today! Also, I passed my first and second lesson test. Now the next lesson I will get is pattern-work and more intense aerodynamics. Very excited. I am in a great mood with school and I got a great result out of persevering for my first two weeks of school. I'm not sure how fast other people learn to hover, and I know it is different for each person and there isn't really a time limit to how fast because you go at your own pace, but on my second hour of hovering I picked it up. I am definitely not finished learning hovering because it is something that every pilot still has to work on, but I am proud of myself and it makes me want to move forward! Or..aft cyclic? :p
[Enter picture of me hovering here. :( aww, I don't have one!]
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."
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!
Hello All,
I accepted my student loan and finished getting everything ready for school, yay! I am just waiting for the check. I am scheduled to start classes on the 27th. Lots is going on lately, James and I are trying to hurry and move so that we can get settled in before I start school. Once I get my check, though, I can start flying! Very excited.
I'll update when something new happens!
Do you understand?! This is one of many languages in aviation. There's many different things to use when you are planning a flight. This is only one. It talks about weather and visibility. The breakdown is as follows:
KIDA is the name of the airspace by the airport in my town. 271653Z is the date and time. 27 (the 27th) and 16:53 is the time. It's not military time. It's Zulu Time. It's the standard international time. In this case, 16:53 is 12:53 PM. (Zulu time is calculated by taking the 1653 and subtracting 16 from it. Then it's just military time from there.)
The wind is at 17 knots, in 240 degrees on your compass, which is about southwest. The gusts are at about 25knots. As a student pilot, our school doesn't allow us to fly past 25 knots so this is discretionary.
There is 10square miles of visibility.
The clouds are broken at 04,100 feet up.
The temperature is at 9 degrees celsius, and the dew point is minus 01 (to calculate if you need carb heat or not, these two numbers need to be within 11 points of each other. Today we will need carb heat in our helicopter to fly safely :D) A2993 is the setting that you set your altimeter at in your helicopter, which is a device used to measure barometric pressure, and it's used to tell pilots how far up they can fly. You set your altimeter at 2992 which is the national average of the US. Then, it will give you the elevation that you are at. Then the altimeter will change off of the pressure of the day. RMK and A02 are just the descriptions of the machine that was used to find the information for ADDS.
The TAF is basically the guestimates they have for the weather in the next few hours time.
Hm. Sounds like a lot to learn. And that's just the beginning of finding out your limitations for that flight you're about to go on. There's so much more!
Weather maps, Sierra, which is information for IFR conditions and mountain obscuration (so if a pilot can't see out the windows and are using only their instruments to fly, this will tell someone where the obstacles are...like big buildings in a big city? Yes! Is it scary to fly when you can't see and only rely on a machine to tell you if you're going to hit a skyscraper? Probably, but, FLY IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT :)), Tango (which helps pilots learn about any turbulance that may be occuring), Zulu Airmet (for info about icing in the air), and Pirep which is several pilots own accounts of the weather out there that machines didn't capture. The pilots report to the Air Traffic Control tower, and they record the information. These are only a few more things that pilots use to guide them in flight!
Currently, James is learning about weather. I read somewhere that when you study to be a pilot, students shouldn't just say, "I'm learning how to fly!". What would be more accurate would be to say, "I'm learning how to fly and I'm going to be a weather expert!!", because there is so much more to learn besides flying. Obviously as you can imagine, the weather is one of the biggest - If not THE biggest - factors in flying. Especially for helicopters as a small rotorcraft.
The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.
The idea to start this blog came from three ideas. 1. To show friends, family, and anyone else who wanders upon it what I've been through, and my experiences and life. 2. To put out into the webspace a rare find about pilot school and beyond. I've been searching to find a blog to show the experiences one goes through as they learn and grow as a pilot in school and as a professional working in the field. I did find one once, and then it disappeared. Disappointing! 3. And lastly, to see my progress as I grow as a person and to inspire myself by seeing what I have accomplished so that I have confidence to progress when things get hard!
Sounds all important, doesn't it? Meh, it should be fun.
To start, I'll begin by telling all zero readers I have right now, about myself. I am a 20 year old typical american girl. By no means am I perfect, OR innocent ;) I aspire to learn, I aspire to grow as a person, and I am very strong-willed. I am divorced, I've been through hard times, and I know what it takes to succeed in every aspect of my life. I love helping people and teaching people and feeling that gratitude with it. I am a genuinely happy person, and I am very honest and sometimes a little too outspoken. Oh, and stubborn. Yes, I am :)
I didn't wake up when I was 5 one day and decide that I was going to be a helicopter pilot. I struggled with finding what I wanted to do with my life since then, though. First it was a veterinarian, then an interior designer, then a web designer and computer programmer. Now, it's an entrepreneur, and also - you guessed it! I struggled with finding happiness from about 18 to just recently. I couldn't fathom how I was going to get from my current place in reality, to the life that I want, doing the job that I was doing, and with no direction to go. I'd been married for two years and things just weren't what they were supposed to be. By no means does this mean that I gave up on anything easy, but my husband and I decided it would be best for us to get a divorce. This obviously as you can imagine, changed my life drastically. Then, I met this wonderful person who changed my life even more. He shows me every day the best things about myself, and lets me realize on my own my true potential. He also introduced me to Helicopters as a career.
If I had gone back in time and told myself a year ago, that I was going to pull a massive student loan (two, actually) and go fly helicopters, I'd seriously tell myself to get the heck out! Even not knowing everything that it entails! And yes, I know there's more coming :) I believe that anyone who wants to pull a student loan this big or even bigger (for the surgeons out there) is NUTS! But that's what I think it takes to make it. It takes considerable risk. But you must put yourself in a position where you MUST follow through, because sometimes that's what it will take to persevere through the massive undertaking.
That kid that I mentioned earlier? Yeah, his name is James. He's becoming a pilot, too, and I've been with him every step of the way (well, except the flight time) and I've learned so much. I definitely have an advantage over every student who is walking into that school for their first day of class. Unless Daddy taught them and they just want the certification. No, i'm doing it the old fashioned way, and I'll be a better pilot because I am going through all the schooling. I am currently enrolled at Utah Valley University (UVU) and I start classes in a month, June 27th. My major is Aviation Science and I'm going for a Bachelors Degree. My first classes are Aviation Law, and Air Transport Management.
Well, I'm ready for this ride--Or should I say flight. Are you??
