Some of the things i learned my first year as a student pilot!

[Little Red 22]

I learned that helicopter flying is the most fun flying of all. Even compared to the Christen Eagle bipane I used to own. Here's a pic of me taking a 77 captain for Air France out for his first ride in the 22.

 

 

I love my choppa, and my hubby for buying it for me (and himself).

 

Susie

[RkyMtnHI]

You all will LOVE this...

 

One of our student pilots, who is also a lineman for AIR2, had this taped to the front of his log book.. now we all do... makes a much neater log..

 

THANKS WAYNE!!

 

dp

[permison]

DP suggested I post this. I used to do a lot of photo flights. Usually the camera person wasn't a rated pilot and "ALWAYS" thought since they had driven to the target before it would easy to see from the air. I can't tell you how many times I spent two or three times as long to get the shot because the photographer couldn't find the target from the air.

 

So I use a car GPS now to get me direct to the spot and use Google maps overhead views to find it before I fly. Works everytime.

[JDHelicopterPilot]

For CFI's and students.

 

Take advantage of Commercial training. Combine the those that are required for the PTS with some "real life" situations.

 

Act as a photographer wanting a photo flight. You can give your student Lat/Long. Have them find it using a CHART! Then plan the flight and est. flight time. Have them program the GPS if you have one. Prior to leaving discuss during the briefing some of the hazards when it comes to photo flights.

 

How about a mock EMS flight? Give your student short notice with a Lat./Long and and LZ you are familiar with but not them. Watch them plan and see how they do. DON'T RUSH! EMS pilots do not rush to the helicopter/scene we just make sure everything is ready prior to the flight.

 

So, have them preflight, check weather and a simple W&B that they can adjust on "scene" to account for the weight of the passenger you are picking up before giving them a "flight request". When on "scene", give them a destination "hospital" and then continue the flight. Toss in a "request" on a bad weather day or marginal one and watch their decision making process. Don't take the flight if the weather is marginal!

 

During the flight, give them some "chip lights" or other "emergencies." Do some autos when you get back. In other words with a good briefing before hand you can make the training really effective.

[yzchopper]

JD,

That's a great idea. I have done the photo mockup with my students but not the EMS stuff. To do this while training for the CPL is a great idea. The checkride examiner will be impressed to say the least.

[Mikemv]

JD & YZ, using Scenarios while building time to the Commercial rating is a great idea. I believe in this so much that I have incorporated "Pop Up" Scenarios(actual missions from my past) into my Seminars as it is in this area when CFIs that are moving on fall short during employment orals and check flights! Lately, in conjunction with my Seminars, I have been working in the SBT, SRM, ADM and RM mind set for helo flight training.

 

To all CFIs, before springing a scenario on a student, take a few ground school lesson periods to go through Chap. 17 of the Pilots Handbook of Aeronatical Knowledge FAA-H-8083-25A. CFIs should plan/lead the first few Scenarios with a student, guiding him through(act as a 135 Chief Pilot and train yourself at the same time), instructing in the useage of the ADM/SRM elements. I suggest you leave EP surprises out at this point until a pilot is performing well.

 

I am hoping to work within the Industry to get flight schools to use Scenario Based Training Programs in Part 61 & 141 environments. The FAA and others have proven it develops safer and more competent pilots in shorter time and are moving in that direction also.

 

I wil be adding some CFI/School Training Seminars to my efforts and help schools incorporate or change completely to this method. The grading System is completely different and must be understood & accepted.

 

SBT is the future but must be taught by a CFI that is trained and knowledgeable in its useage! How many of you were taught about ADM in your first year(first flights)? (back to the original theme).

 

Be Safe,

 

Mike

[C of G]

Hey Mike,

 

That's a lot of TLAs in the first paragraph. I may have missed it, but can you spell those out for me? Thanks...

[Mikemv]

Dear C of G, sorry about that. I have been deep in the Industry Letters & Publications lately.

 

SBT=Scenario Based Training

 

SRM=Single-pilot Resource Management

 

ADM=Aeronautical Decison Making

 

RM=Risk Management

 

RA=Risk Assessment

 

SU=Situational Awareness

 

LCG=Learner Centered Grading

 

 

There are more but many of us recognize these. Didn't everyone learn these in the first year from their CFIs?????

 

Best to All,

 

Mike

[yzchopper]

Mike,

I learned all those during the CPL. I forgot what LCG meant. Thanks for the refresher. I thought LCG = Lower CG. I like your ideas as well to implement the SBT, SRM,RM, RA, SU, and ADM into your/our training syllabus. It would make a world of difference out there to have this stuff drilled in to our heads.

[RkyMtnHI]

I learned this just last week on a photo flight with the doors off.. Matt, one of our ATP friends, flew a photo flight with me into the foothills.. it is amazing what you can learn from people if you just listen and pay attention...

 

use painters tape to cover the seat belt clasp when the doors are off and someone is in the back seat.. it keeps straps and moving people from unclasping the buckle.. and, the tape is easy to break in an emergency.. nice..

 

thanks Matt.. you are going to be awesome at Maverick this season.....

 

dp

[RkyMtnHI]

Humility!

 

 

humility |(h)yoōˈmilitē|

noun

a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness.

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French humilite, from Latin humilitas, from humilis (see humble ).

 

Take this every where you go... as most of you know, i now own a flight school, and see many things more clearly than i did when i started this topic.. if there is one thing that i can add right now, the one thing that stands out the most for me over the past year as an operator, is that i don't see enough humility in the lower time pilots/cfis. When i say 'lower time', i am talking about the folks with 1500 hours or less... in fact, the most humble pilots are always the ones with tons of hours.. 5000 and up.. and that tells you something.

 

As everyone has said over and over, this is a small industry.. folks tell me every day that you NEVER know who you will be working with, or for, in the future. (I was retired and only flying for fun yet here i am almost by accident with a very busy flight operation hiring folks that were my instructors in the past).

 

Keep this in mind every second of the day from the very first time you walk into a flight school. Be professional and polite, be humble, even when you make that magic 1000 hour mark.. As a CFI you are to be admired for all of your work and efforts, and $$ spent to get where you are, you are a professional pilot and deserve the respect and honor that being one commands.. but, in the scheme of things, you don't know sh*t, you are still a beginner and need to keep that in mind. Have respect for everyone and every piece of equipment you come in contact with because people notice, and they remember, and they talk to other people in the industry..

 

I was at Heli-Expo this year, and was considering hiring a CFI that i had spoke with many times, the candidate's resume looked good, the presentation was good, and i was interested. During a three minute conversation with the candidate a friend of mine who flies in the GOM was standing next to me listening to the conversation, as we walked back to the Robinson Display Matt got on his phone and was talking with a guy, a pilot he had trained with in the past.. he had heard the candidate mention what flight school (he/she) was currently working for.. and, in less than five minutes, unsolicited, i had a Chief Pilot telling me his opinion of the candidate. Fortunately for this particular candidate, it was a good reference...

 

This is a very small business.. be respectful, be professional, and be Humble.

 

sincerely,

 

dp

 

i would also like to add that, the folks that i have seen move to the top the fastest, the ones that are now flying EMS and other upper level jobs (some with the minimum hours), are the ones that have the most humility.. it is just a fact.. folks like John, Ed, Mike, Clay, Matt, Josh, Scott, Cayce, Jake.. i could go on an on.

[ADRidge]

That is the best bit of info so far on this amazing thread. Well said, DP.

[SBuzzkill]

Great thread.

 

E6B The first thing I would like to touch on is your flight computers. Learn how to use it!! Learn as much as you can about it and get proficient with it. It's more than just a flight planning tool.

 

Fuel Management On top of simply monitoring the fuel gauge you should perform a fuel check during every flight. We start our fuel check upon level off or entering our mission profile (leaving the traffic pattern). Write the time you started and the amount of fuel on board. 30-60 minutes later close your fuel check by noting the time and amount of fuel on board.

 

Now take out your trusty E6B and compute the fuel burn, the clock time that you will run out of fuel, and the clock time of your reserve and how much fuel you will have.

 

Kneeboard Take the time before each flight to setup your kneeboard. Arrange it so that you will have the least amount of workload in the cockpit to get done what you need to do. Talk with your CFI and other pilots to see how they set up their kneeboards and try to work out a system that works for you.

 

Radio Communications Talking to ATC can be daunting, especially to a new pilot. We get nervous and start forgetting our phraseology and then our minds go blank.

 

"Tower, Jet Ranger 12345 uh... 5 miles.. West for uhh... with Whisky for uh.. "

 

Sound familiar? If you are unsure of what to say on the radio just use simple plain english. It's better to make a call in plain english than to confuse yourself and the controller while struggling to use proper phraseology that you can't remember. That being said, study it and practice your radio calls!

 

Route Planning When you start working cross countries and planning flights, study your routes! Never put all your eggs in one basket. This means putting headings, times, altitudes, etc. on your maps as well as your Nav log. That way if your map goes out the door (doors off this can happen!) you can navigate off your flight log or if your log goes out you can navigate strictly off your map.

 

If you have studied your route you will be familiar with what landmarks you will be looking for at what points and it will help keep you from getting lost. Just the other day I was flying about 100' AGL and I had to navigate off only my flight log. I was familiar with my route so I knew what landmarks I was looking for, and it was easy.

 

Hazards Keep your eyes out of the cockpit as much as possible. There are lots of towers out there that can reach up over 2000' MSL especially down here in the Southeast. They are not easy to see! Wires can be impossible to see depending on the angle you are approaching them from, and there are many different types of wires not just power lines. ALL ROADS HAVE WIRES! Watch for birds in the air and birds on the ground, watch for other aircraft, watch for scud, watch for anything that you can hit!

 

There's a lot more that I would like to add but I have to go take a test

Edited October 1, 2010 by SBuzzkill

[gary-mike]

WOW!!!

 

First let me tell you, I am not a pilot. The only flight time I have is between 2-3 hrs (unlogged) in an F-16D. Some of which I got to be PIC. And I took an intro flt in a R-22.

 

Not relative to this thread (I don't have a 1'st year flying yet). But I have been "lurking" the forums for some time, and this one by far is the best one yet.

 

Without trying to highjack the thread let me tell you some of the highpoints I took and learned from.

 

1. I will print and file this thread for future reference as I WILL FLY HELICOPTERS, and there is more good info here than my "ram" will contain right now.

 

2. Don't try to rush! I am the type that want's something and I want it now. Although it is good motivation I don't want to die before I now how to fly.

 

3. Don't be afraid to question or ditch your CFI if it comes down to it.

 

4. Math,Math,Math.... Thanks for that one. I strugle with the squigly lines and half the alphabet tossed together to represent a number. Not going to stress so much and let it hold me back no more.

 

5. Research schools... Ok I already figured that out on my own since I don't have $80,000 to give away to the first school I find. However I now know more about what to look for and what to ask.

 

I could go on and finish outlining the whole thread as it is all great, but as it is I think #1 probably covered it.

 

Thanks for the Usefull info and great posts, it is refreshing after reading so many from people who have no humility and no drive that expect the industry to come begging for them to fly for them. Yes the job ops are slow, that is why I am still active duty taking my general ed classes leading up to when all I have to worry is the VA paying for my flight hrs.

[RkyMtnHI]

CFIs...

 

Get your night hours while you are teaching.. you probably will not get it anywhere else and if you want to move on, especially into EMS, you will need the time.

 

How do you get it? By teaching instrument... so, you also need a instrument instructor certificate..

 

I was at the Heli-Success Seminar in Vegas this weekend and talked to many of the EMS operators, they are now looking for 200 hours of unaided night time.. The best place to get that, and for most, the only place, is teaching instrument..

 

Speaking of the Heli-Success Seminar.. Lyn puts this on every year and it's the best networking forum you could ever go to. I would put this on your schedule for now-on no matter what level you are at. I was amazed at the folks that were there and how open they were to helping us all.... It cost me just under $500 to go, tickets to Vegas are always cheap.. so, you should add this to your budget NOW!!! Some folks won't want you to know about this because it gives everyone an edge.. trust me.. it's more important that you could imagine!

 

On that subject, something i have been thinking about for a while really came to light this weekend.. Do not look at your CFII as the end goal.. that is just the beginning and you have to keep working and focusing on your future. Do not spend all of your money getting to the CFI as you will need some to continue marketing yourself and networking. You will need to attend events like Heli-Success, you might need to travel to different States to make job interviews and network. Even when you get to the magic 1000 hour or 1500 hour mark, you will need to travel to interviews. Do not spend all of your money thinking you have finally made it.. you have accomplished a lot.. but you still have far to go if you want to continue to move forward. Keep this in mind, network, never stop marketing yourself, times are tough right now and you need very advantage you can get.

 

jmho,

 

dp

[r22butters]

CFIs...

 

Get your night hours while you are teaching.. you probably will not get it anywhere else and if you want to move on, especially into EMS, you will need the time.

 

How do you get it? By teaching instrument... so, you also need a instrument instructor certificate..

 

I was at the Heli-Success Seminar in Vegas this weekend and talked to many of the EMS operators, they are now looking for 200 hours of unaided night time.. The best place to get that, and for most, the only place, is teaching instrument...

 

I remember my instrument instructor tried to get me to go up at night a couple of times. I wouldn't do it. Flying under the hood was hard enough on my stomach. Sometimes the only thing that kept lunch in, was an occasional peak out the window through the corner of my eye.

 

Under the hood at night!...My advice is, bring a vomit bag! Just in case there are any more out there like me?

 

Its funny. I've heard the "get your night hours" thing before. I've got around 270 night hours. Maybe I should try selling them on ebay?

[RkyMtnHI]

I wanted to insert a disclaimer here in this post, and will re-run this from time to time just so you all know where i am coming from.

 

I do not know sh*t about this industry!! i am a private pilot with about 350 hours of RW time and somewhere around 50 of fixed wing i think.. most of my time there is way in the past and it's hard to really total (i'm 54 years old so give me a break on that). I do own a helicopter flight school and I have been lucky to fly many different helicopters and aircraft, and i've flown with some amazing pilots over the years.. so i do have some direct experience, but not enough to think that i know it all by any means. I have been around aviation for my whole life as my father always had one airplane or the other, but i have only been a certificated pilot for a little under three years.

 

The most important thing i have learned in my three years on VR and in the helicopter industry is that the more i learn the more i realize i do not know. It is very frustrating to me to see so many people that in the skydiving world we'd call '100 jump wonders' pontificating about all that they know and how great of a pilot they are, and i am posting this to make sure you all know that i am not that person! I have always tried to focus on the recent things that i have learned and added some hard learned lessons from my past, but mostly counted on those of you that do have tons of experience to add to my topics.

 

People that don't understand that they don't know everything hurt us all.. If you think you know it all, or can't learn anything else, you are part of the problem and will probably hurt someone in the future... PLEASE keep that in mind and refer to my recent post about humility.. it will help you, and it will help our industry.

 

dp

[RkyMtnHI]

Lately i have been accused of being too cautious, and overly concerned with safety...

 

Personally, i take that as a compliment...

 

Something that has come up for us again recently is that very subject.. safety. There are so many aspects of it and i'm sure i don't know them all... but i wanted to address one of them today because it's on my mind.

 

This is focused on CFIs and higher time pilots, but it addresses everyone flying every kind of aircraft.. and has come up a lot at Heli-Ops over the past year. Keep in mind, every time you fly, that people with lesser skills than you are watching you, and they want to emulate the type of flying you are doing. Especially if you are their CFI or their mentor, or someone they look up to. This could be maneuvers that you are doing, and/or, places you land or put the helicopter… There have been two crashes lately where lower time pilots were doing maneuvers that they had seen other higher time pilots doing, and of course, the higher time pilots make it look easy.. don’t assume that the person you’re showing this stuff to understands what it means to land with a tail wind, or exactly what a high DA landing can be like… I constantly tell my team that it’s also about perception.. Something that looks and feels fine to you, might make someone else nervous, so you have to keep that in mind as well.

 

Finally, and we’ve covered this before, almost everyone has video on their phones now, and you might do something that is completely safe and correct, but put on utube could give a totally different impression.. and that’s the one that sticks. (and keep in mind that it will probably be posted to the internet before you get back to home-base, in fact, it could be posted before you are out of sight of the person with the phone.. seriously!). Why is this paragraph important???? Of course it reflects on the pilot in command, whether justified or not, it also reflects on the operator, AND it reflects on ALL of us.

 

If you don’t want to put safety first, and go by the rules that keep us all safe.. then you are in the wrong profession.. and this profession has a way of weeding those folks out, one way or the other.

jmho

 

dp

[clay]

I'm assuming this was in response to the post on JH?

[RkyMtnHI]

I'm assuming this was in response to the post on JH?

 

 

No sir, i do not read JH and have never, ever posted to that site.

 

just some things that were on my mind for a while.

 

dp

[Oil Pilot]

No sir, i do not read JH and have never, ever posted to that site.

 

just some things that were on my mind for a while.

 

dp

 

As a flight school owner/operator, you most definitely should. Sure, you have to sift through some B.S., but there is good information that gets disseminated there and almost always is there long before it appears here.

[RkyMtnHI]

In light of a recent crash in Colorado we have double checked the fuel gauge and low fuel light on our 300c. She was in for a 100 hour about a month ago and is now in for a 1200 hour inspection. Even tho we had this done at the last inspection we had it rechecked today. We were surprised to find that the gauge was already off by one gallon...

 

We drained the fuel in both tanks until the light came on, then we dipped the tank with a stick and marked it on the out side of the tank with tape.. the fuel level is even with the BOTTOM of the tape in the photo.

 

Then we drained the fuel and measured it.. there was just under three gallons left in the tanks.. at a 12 gallons per hour burn that gives you about ten minutes to find a safe spot to land. If you think about it, doing a proper off airport landing with high and low reconnaissance can take at least that long, if you already have a spot picked out (which, you should right?).

 

The moral to the story is.. watch that panel, and if the light comes on.. find a spot to land right now. The other important bit is that in one month the gauge was off by one gallon... we check our stuff on a regular basis.. if you are flying a ship that you aren't sure about.. err on the side of safety. period!

 

The first photo is thru the filler hole on the tank, you can see the baffles on the bottom of the tank, you can tell that the fuel is about half way up the baffle.

 

The second photo shows the tape, the fuel level is even with the bottom of the tape.. not much fuel to say the least..

 

aloha,

 

dp

 

There are more photos on our facebook page:

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Broomfield-CO/Colorado-Heliops/168764329809710

[Trans Lift]

If you think about it, doing a proper off airport landing with high and low reconnaissance can take at least that long, if you already have a spot picked out (which, you should right?).

 

You really think it takes 10 mins to do an off airport landing when your low fuel light comes on or any time for that matter? I land off airport numerous times everyday and it has never taken 10 mins to do a recon and land after my spot has been picked!

[RkyMtnHI]

You really think it takes 10 mins to do an off airport landing when your low fuel light comes on or any time for that matter? I land off airport numerous times everyday and it has never taken 10 mins to do a recon and land after my spot has been picked!

 

Thanks for clarification Trans.. i get in a hurry and don't get it all in there!

 

This topic has been focused on the beginning pilot and that's who i was referring to when i said it 'can' take up to ten minutes (over populated areas, slow to respond, they might not notice the light right off..) i should have been clearer and i appreciate you pointing it out.. of course i wasn't speaking about professional pilots that make multiple off airport landings daily..

 

my goal is to get folks to realize that there may not be as much time to get on the ground as they expect..

 

dp

[Trans Lift]

Ok got you! For students pilots, it does seem valid.