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

[RkyMtnHI]

This was passed on to us last week in a meeting with our FAASTeam Program Director. It's a Civil Air Patrol Risk Assessment Matrix that they use to calculate risks of each flight... i absolutely love it and we are incorporating a version of this into our daily flight planning. I like that it sets standards for each flight, but also that it teaches the pilots-in-training to think about such stuff before every flight they make, and, it keeps a record of those issues..

 

aloha,

 

dp

CAP Risk Assessment.pdf

[Hawkeye0001]

A handful of things that I found out over the course of the last two years. Many of them learned the hard way. So here's my share to help others avoid making mistakes that are already made

Fly safe!

 

 

Ten Things I Learned In The Last two Years

 

1. Suck it up: The biggest challenge in training and working is dealing with frustration. No matter if your boss is choleric, you get stuck somewhere, people pressure you, you preflight the second helicopter that day just to find out on startup that it’s broken as well and get delayed by weather 3 out of 4 times over the course of 4 weeks, just do the following: Lift your shoulders in a shrugging motion, lean back and say the word: “Whatever…” (known by some as the "Bristeaux"-shrug ) There are and always will be way too many things beyond your control and it’s not worth worrying about them. You’ll just develop a stomach ulcer and die. Or die before you have a chance to develop one.

 

2. The PTS describes minimum standards. Go well beyond that standard. Oh, just avoid to tell your student the detailed stuff that is not part of the PTS a day before his checkride…

 

3. If you wonder if your student is still up to speed with his forced landings don’t chop him just to find out he isn’t anymore. The experience everybody talks about is a hard teacher. It gives you the test first, and the lesson afterwards…

 

4. Don’t tell your students: “There’s some rain out there. We cannot fly in rain”. Bullshit! Show your (CPL!) students what that light and dark green patch on the radar feels like when you’re in it and ask them if they feel equally comfortable in just 10dbZ more. And that rain is not necessarily bad. But the terrain you’re in and the VIS and CIG decrease that goes with it might be. Don't let them find out by themselves and under pressure...

 

5. Every helicopter sounds and feels different. At night, that is. And when you are on your own, over the middle of nowhere. Ever wondered if that rattle was there before…?

 

6. Never doubt the existence of Coriolis Effect. Your stomach will give you a memorable lesson. Don’t laugh about people that threw up, you might be next...

 

7. The 3 biggest dangers

- Valleys and rivers: they have a natural attraction to pilots. Pilots like them for the scenery. And they like pilots for breakfast and lunch.

- Wires: wires are everywhere. And in every valley and over every river. Don’t bother scanning for them. You can hover 30’ away from them for five minutes and you won’t see them. Carefully look for structures instead. Don’t fly lower than any structure around you. Have your eyes on the hilltop above you, not in the valley. And if you see the wire, don’t fly right over it. There’s this other one above that’s ½ inch diameter you don’t see at all…

- Hillbillies: for all the brave people under us that fly in WV or KY: don’t think you’re safe, just because you’re at 1500’ AGL… the utility companies over there are NUTS!

 

8. That being said: there is hope for all the people that will never get a Class 1,2 or 3 medical: if you suffer from autism it is very likely that you will find a much better paid job as power line designer in West Virginia. People that span a half dozen 235kV lines higgledy-piggledy between 400’ and 1500’ midair and stretch them over a mile behind several mountain tops without any marking must have some kind of mental disorder. APPLY TODAY!

 

9. Apparently a spinning rotor is no reason not to park a fuel truck with enough fuel for a little apocalypse under it or walk straight under the disc without ducking down. And just because you said “Don’t walk back, there is the tail rotor” don’t expect that people don’t walk back because there is the tail rotor. And don’t think you couldn’t be one of them on any given day.

 

10. Take off with your tanks full and your bladder empty…

Edited January 14, 2011 by Hawkeye0001

[beckwith]

Love that last one Hawkeye.

[RkyMtnHI]

We use SPOTs for all of our mountain flights and solo cross countries.. it is a very cool and inexpensive tool for safety, and, lets your friends follow your flights, as anyone can log on to the SPOT website and track the flights.

 

Now they have come out with a unit that provides your cell a sat connection with blue tooth..

 

unreal!!!!

 

 

http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=116

 

dp

 

attached is a screen shot of a current flight to Colorado Springs... current as in right this minute.. :-) If you are logged into the SPOT site you can click on the numbered markers and it gives you more information; like the gps coordinates and time of report..

[ADRidge]

I've been hammering away at FOI's recently for my initial CFII - H and thought I'd take a moment to talk about study methods. Take this with a grain of salt, as everyone is different, but this is what works for me.

 

In the business of aviation, there are tons of numbers and acronyms to worry yourself with. Vne, Va, Vmini, Vy, warmup and cooldown RPM's, CHT readings, Oil temp numbers, fuel burns, radio frequencies, CAMASFOOT, GRABCARD.... the list goes on and on, and the further you progress in your training, the more you need to retain. I figure between the R-22, the R-44, the 300 series (C and CBi) and Cessna 150, 152 and 172's I've messed around with, I've got about 100 different bits of info in number/acronym form floating around my oversized head. When faced with learning new bits of information in that form, I've found that simply sitting down and writing them out a few times a day works wonders. I take a blank sheet of paper and a pencil, and just fill the page with whatever I'm trying to nail down for the day.

 

I think there are something like 26 different acronyms and blocks of information for the Fundamentals of Instruction. Trying to learn them all at once is just going to burn you out. Break down the information into smaller chunks... maybe 5-10 at a time. Write them out three or four times different ways. Keep doing that until you have them down pat, then move to the next set and repeat as necessary.

 

I've seen many folks, especially at the Private/Instrument level just give up because of the amount of information required to progress in training. It's a shame really. They look at the stack of books, and the FAR/AIM, and they get intimidated. But if you learn early on how to break it down into manageable chunks, it will make the rest of your learning experience, and your career, much easier.

[ADRidge]

One more thought on this wonderfully OVC day.

 

Attitude. It's not just for instrument flight. The attitude you have every day when you walk into the flight school will have a big effect on how successful you are at this pilot thing. I don't mean just having a good self concept and being confident that you can learn this stuff, but even after that when you're getting close to CFI and wondering what your next step is going to be.

 

I look around at the 20 or 30 people I know who started about the same time as me. Only a few have jobs. Why? Part of it is that they went into flight school with a good attitude. They knew they could learn the material and they did. What's more, when the bottom fell out of the helicopter job market, they kept trying. They kept a good attitude, they moved when needed, and they just kept at it until someone gave them a shot.

 

They're all people who carry themselves well, who act professionally and really don't complain too much. This is not an industry for whiny people. There will be many times in your career where you may end up back at square one and have no idea what the next move is.

 

I'm not saying the ONE factor that will GUARANTEE a job is a good attitude, but let's face it. People don't want to hire miserable people as the face of their company. They want confident, happy people who know when and how to deal with the frustrations that come with a down economy. Sure, a good part of at least two of those jobs was being in the right place at the right time, but there were 100 people behind them going for the same job, too.

 

Anyway, when going into this helicopter thing, just know it's not always blue skies and calm winds. It's tough out there, and you will have to learn how to keep your head up.

[RkyMtnHI]

I wanted to bump this back to the front and add a link to Lyn's book:

 

 

 

“Everything you ever wanted to know about becoming a Helicopter Pilot!”

 

This an interactive book filled with tons of info.. here’s the link:

 

http://www.thehelicopterstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CDE1

 

 

 

In all of these pages i don't think this book was brought up.. it should have been on page one..

 

aloha,

 

dp

[superstallion6113]

Lots of good info in here. Good read being in my first semester working towards my pvt. Thanks for all the info and tips!

[Noosphere]

An addition to the list.

 

Ambitions never care about when you did your last flight.

Compare it to going to a gym: If you have been away from training for 5 months, you will

not be lifting the same weights straight away.

 

So dont get into that trap and stress yourself, because your progress will be even slower then.

 

Noosphere

 

 

"A helicopter does not want to fly, it just vibrates so much that the ground rejects it"

[johnnyb]

For student pilots or low-hour pilots mostly.

 

1. Never fly into clouds. When you think you’ll just quickly pop through and above the clouds to get above it, not only are you in violation of regulations but you’re putting yourself in a very very bad place. With low hours nothing will mess you up quicker than suddenly finding yourself surrounded by clouds and although the concept of “relying on your instruments” sounds straight-forward, the sudden loss of visual references coupled with a large amount of ambient light suddenly disappearing will most likely cause you to either exceed the power limits in your attempt to get above the clouds as soon as possible, couple that with aft cyclic to get a climb in and your airspeed will disappear faster than a fart in a tornado. If you’re lucky enough to recognize some of this, trying to fix things will most likely lead to over-controlling since so-far you’re used to visual references and cues to fly the aircraft. It’s worse than being blind. Things will turn nasty, guaranteed.

 

2. You will NOT see the wires, even AS you fly into them. Expect wires to be there even when you think they’re not. Some wires appear on charts but not all do. The ONLY way you will avoid flying into wires is by flying at a safe altitude. Leave the low-level flying for other pilots, don’t be one of them, it’s not worth it. Don’t assume that just because there weren’t any wires yesterday there won’t be any today. If your day cross-country flight plan involves flying over wires e.g. wires crossing a freeway you’re going to be following, make sure you choose the right altitudes and stick to them at all times, if in doubt use a highlighter pen to highlight those areas. I can’t think of something that is going to scare the holy sh*t out of you more than a near-miss on a wire.

 

3. Practice the three types of approaches regularly, and yes that includes steep approaches (shallow and normal are the other two). As a student pilot / new private pilot very few approaches are actually going to end up being normal, most will end being either shallow or steep. Shallow approaches are useful but for a new pilot nowhere near as critical as a steep approach since the ever-looming danger of settling with power is never far away. Don’t practice settling with power without an instructor or any other emergency procedures – your flight school will most likely prohibit this – don’t ignore any limitations imposed on you by your flight school, ever especially landing off-site. Just don’t do it.

 

4. When the proverbial sh*t hits the fan, you’re going to panic, guaranteed. The key is to get over it, to stay calm or to get calm as soon as possible and to continue the flight. The best you can do at that very moment things do go wrong is to have faith that your training is going to kick in and that you’ll be fine. If you accept the fact now that there will be moments when things go wrong, and the fact that you will panic, you’ll tend to be less likely to freeze when those moments arrive. Realize that certain aspects are within your control, other aspects are not, and to expect the unexpected. The realization of these facts is a good step in cultivating the best recognition and decision-making process which ultimately and fundamentally is what flying is all about. After one of these moments, don’t stew on it, go talk to your instructor about it. Only good things will come from talking about it; discuss what happened, how the situation developed, how you handled it, alternative outcomes, what you could have done differently, whether it could have been avoided. Learn from it.

[johnnyb]

Oh, and I forgot

 

5. Fly within your own skill / experience / comfort zone. Especially when talking to other student pilots who may be progressing faster / slower than you are. Everyone is different. Learn to pace yourself, be realistic and avoid doing things which other student pilots are doing. Play your own game and set your own goals. Avoid competition, you will only end up in competition with disaster itself, and you're bound to lose that gamble. Your instructor is the only one who should be involved with you in determining what your milestones are and your progress.