Totally bummed

[Witch]

I went for a ride with the chief pilot-heretofor known as Jerry- and did some of the most crappiest flying I have done-sans hoverautos.

 

I don't get it.

 

He showed me a few things Nick hadn't, like flying without the governor, and low rpm recovery. That was ok for the most part. At least I had a good time with those things.

 

He chopped the power for a hover auto. That caught me off guard because I was thinking I was going to chop the power. Came down bouncy to say the least. We did another and I did a little better. Then came that dang auto from about 500AGL. CRAP!!! Well, we entered, fell, flared, and leveled out. I thing I flared a little high, but he said it was OK.

 

He then had me fly to the maintenance hangar without the governor. This had us going down the taxiway at 75 AGL doing about 50 kts between hangars. OK, time to try to look sharp and not fly into the fence he wants me to set down next to. OK, that done I lower the bird and bouncy bouncy. I think I really suck as I, for some stupid reason, apply carb heat. Oops. Throttle down and apply friction. Turn the already turned off governor off, flip it back on, realize it's on, and flip it back off. Lower the flaps...oops, wrong aircraft.

 

Anyway, Jerry said to fly with Mike and work on power recovery, hover, trim, and a couple of other little things, then fly with Jerry again and get soloed.

 

The reason I'm bummed is because I let the machine get ahead of me and I have to fight it to get it back. I know my reaction time is a little slow, but trying to keep ahead of it seems to make things get out of whack in the first place. I guess time will tell, and I need more time. Flight time that is.

 

I gotta go, the daughter wants to do that myspace thing. I think she chats with a Congressman or Senator or something.

 

Later

[Jackelope]

Sounds frustrating. But it's enlightening on some levels for a guy like me who's not started up yet (Still in the damn sand box) Do you think maybe you were a little nervous flying with the big-wig?

 

I always like reading what guys who are going through the training have to say. That way on some levels I know what to expect. So thanks for posting

[Witch]

I wasn't so much nervous in as much as forgetful. I simply forgot how to fly. I know it's supposed to be like riding a bike, but it's harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.

 

Really, I was just having a bad day of flying. Mostly because of a stupid fight I had with the spousal unit that was knawing on my craw. I was still grumpy when I got home. The review just made it a little worse.

 

On the other hand, the gov off flying was good and flying to the maintenance hangar was fun. I guess that in itself made for a decent end of flight.

 

I ain't sayin' nuthin' 'bout th' auto either.

 

Later

[Hawkdriver]

I wasn't so much nervous in as much as forgetful. I simply forgot how to fly. I know it's supposed to be like riding a bike, but it's harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.

 

Really, I was just having a bad day of flying. Mostly because of a stupid fight I had with the spousal unit that was knawing on my craw. I was still grumpy when I got home. The review just made it a little worse.

 

On the other hand, the gov off flying was good and flying to the maintenance hangar was fun. I guess that in itself made for a decent end of flight.

 

I ain't sayin' nuthin' 'bout th' auto either.

 

Later

 

 

Everyone has had good days and bad days, especially when still in training. It's normal to be nervous or to the other extreme want to show what you know. It just adds to the anxiety of the moment.

 

Bottom line good or bad day aside. You learned something added to the experience bucket.

[Gerhardt]

A bad day but the best thing that could have happened. You learned a lot. I went for a fixed-wing biennial a few months ago and it's been so long since I've flown a 150 that I made several blunders. A blow to the ego to be sure, but I felt better afterward having learned from my mistakes.

 

Every time you learn from a mistake while flying is a good thing. I've had my -h add-on only since the beginning of the year but I still find something I'd like to do better on every flight.

[Guest pokey]

well ya know what they say: "a bad day of fishin' beats the heck outta a good day at the office"

[FauxZ]

I had similar results with almost all of my Private stage checks. I'd start out the flight confident and ready to go and by the time we were done I was a disaster. I'm not normally intimidated by the examiner, but I'm pretty hard on myself when I jack things up. Every time I make what I consider a stupid mistake I get a little more tense, and that never helps with flying.

 

Let me see, on my first stage check I managed to roll ON the throttle after entering the auto (nice red line there), I failed to do any of my procedures for the settling with power demo, and I redlined the motor a second time on the low rpm recovery (poor motor)..

 

Second check ride, same guy, but I did much better. Couldn't do a 180 auto to save my life and was having trouble with slopes. Of course it winds were 15kts (did one slope then told him I'd gladly come back another day.. he was satisfied with that).. Then on to my check ride i kept forgetting to add carb heat and various other blunders I felt were inexcuseable. I did ok, passed every one (except the first one) with a "good job, make sure you work on that more."

 

Granted some of my issues are probably due to my over critical nature, but I think my biggest issue was not knowing what to expect from the other pilot. When you fly with the same instructor for a long time, you know what to expect in terms of reaction to your sucesses and failures. When you don't have those cues, and you're trying to show your obivously green skills, it adds a whole other level of tension to the situation. My instructor and the pilot I did my checks with were almost perfectly opposite of one another. Imagine having Mrs. Doubtfire as a nanny one day, and Xena the next. ..

 

Your milage may vary of course, but keeping this in mind when I do my stage checks now helps lower my personal tension a bit, and keeps me from loosing focus on my flying.

[Witch]

Every time I make what I consider a stupid mistake I get a little more tense, and that never helps with flying.

 

I know what you mean. AMEN.

 

Let me see, on my first stage check I managed to roll ON the throttle after entering the auto (nice red line there), I failed to do any of my procedures for the settling with power demo, and I redlined the motor a second time on the low rpm recovery (poor motor)..

Man, you just want that engine to blow up, don'tcha? I read somewhere a long time ago that AC engines were engineered to go something like 25% overspeed without damage. I'm wondering if it still holds true with these Lycomings? Or maybe that was for Contenentals? Hmmm.

 

Granted some of my issues are probably due to my over critical nature, but I think my biggest issue was not knowing what to expect from the other pilot. When you fly with the same instructor for a long time, you know what to expect in terms of reaction to your sucesses and failures. When you don't have those cues, and you're trying to show your obivously green skills, it adds a whole other level of tension to the situation.

 

I did fly with one guy once-he works for Hillsboro now-and his style was basically by the book. You do this by the book, you do that by the book, everything by the book. I think he liked rote memorization. He was fun to fly with. I'd like to fly with him again but I'd have to go to Portland, and that's too much of a drive. Maybe to get some time in "Die Schweizer".

 

My instructor and the pilot I did my checks with were almost perfectly opposite of one another. Imagine having Mrs. Doubtfire as a nanny one day, and Xena the next. ..

Xena is cool, but Gabriel ROCKS !!!!!

 

 

Later

[joker]

As an ex-stage check pilot here's a few thoughts:

 

Remember, that 'every pilot' has been through checkrides and stage checks. We all remember sitting in that seat.

 

Most stage check pilots want you to pass. Most examiners want you to pass.

 

Stage check pilots are as much checking your instructor for standardisation as they are checking you.

 

Having to repeat areas in a stage check may save you money in the long run, and may even save your life.

 

Your instructor wouldn't put you forward unless he knew you 'could' pass.

 

When conducting a stage check, I wouldn't necessarily be looking for expertise and 100% accuracy. So long as your flight was confidently above the limits of the Practical Test and within the confines of the FAR it would pass.

 

What I would be looking at mostly would be the ability to recognise one's own mistakes and correct appropriately. So if coming in way too hot on an approach, I would expect to see a go-around.

 

There were a couple of areas where I would expect any pilot to be accurate in. For example, I would expect (for R22 or S300) verbatim knowledge of the 'Emergency Procedures' section of the handbook. I would expect for any hazards the student to be able to say what it is, why it is, corrective action, avoidance.

 

Of course I'd expect a private pilot to have better knowledge and understanding than a pre-solo, and a commercial pilot to have it better than a private pilot.

 

At the bottom line, the question I asked myself is:

 

Pre-solo: Can this pilot operate safely without danger to others?

Private: Can this pilot operate safely without danger to others and without danger to himself?

Commercial: Would I like my grandmother to fly in his aircraft?

IFR: Hey, I might be flying on a jet in the same airspace as him in his helicopter. Do I feel comfortable with that?

 

So really that was it for pass criterea with me. Not looking for hotdogs, or experts.

 

Stage checks can be harrowing as can checkrides. But learn to deal with them emotionally. If you work in this industry you'll be having one every year (or even more frequently - I get a checkride evey 6 months!) for the rest of your working life.

 

Joker

[Goldy]

Witch- are you better today than last year? Of course you are....get over it, you'll get it all with time..dont try and rush to solo...BTW, I'll paypal you over the weekend !

 

Goldy

[flyby_heli]

I read somewhere a long time ago that AC engines were engineered to go something like 25% overspeed without damage. I'm wondering if it still holds true with these Lycomings? Or maybe that was for Contenentals? Hmmm.

 

For any engine to be certified as an aircraft engine, they have to go through a variety of tests. They are supposed to be able to handle a beating. The minimum requirements involve 50 hrs continuous groundrun with minimum oil, maximum cyl head temp, maximum oil temp and maximum RPM. They also do all the other possible settings (normal oil, low oil temp, high CHT, high RPM...and so on). And the 50 hours are just a minimum, most factories go way beyond that testing.

 

Also if someone can find a training helicopter that has never been oversped, (besides from the ones sitting on the assembly lines ready to go) I'll take my hat off for them!!

 

 

"Die Schweizer".

 

I couldn't help but notice you have called it "Die Schweizer" ("the Scweizer" in German) in quite a few posts. Any particular reason for that? The main office of Scweizer Aircraft Company has been in Elmira, NY since the company was icorporated in 1939, and has nothing to do with Germany as far as i know....

[spw1177]

I will give you the best peice of advice that I ever recieved about taking a check flight. Just fly the helicopter. Its tougher than it sounds, but it will make a world of difference. And fly it the same as you do when your flight instructor is in that other seat. We have a tendancy to become self-conscious (and often quite nervous) in situations where our performance is being evaluted and spend more time thinking about what we haven't done, what we should be doing, what the person in the other seat is thinking, what that person in the other seat is expecting, etc., instead of concentrating on what we are actually doing.

 

Don't concentrate on how you are doing, concentrate on what you are doing. Fly the helicopter.

 

Don't worry about all that other stuff, especially on a stage check, that's what the debrief is for. You can learn a lot about your flying on a stage check and it will help you become a better pilot.

[Witch]

Oh boy did I start a thread.

 

Sherman, set the Wayback to 1986. I took my first check ride-in a Chreokee-and I was a basket case. I did alright as far as flying, but I knew I screwed up on a few things, especially flaring too high. I still passed, so to speak. My private checkride has me in a straitjacket. It blew me away when he gave me that piece of paper that said I was now a pilot. I thought I totally screwed up the whole flight. Go figure. Joker, at the time I was in the Air Force I had high expectations from my superiors. My supervisor pushed me for excellence. That was also expected while off duty. I was pushing myself for excellence in piloting. When I thought I screwed up, I was generally hard on myself. Bob, my IP, convinced me to not quit and that flying isn't meant to be like a rigid "Fly by the book" regimin, but rather a pleasurable experience on every flight. If you screw up, you can always fix it. No pressure to be like a stiff "Peter Professional" fighter pilot with a stick up his a$$. I like what he said next and I'll always remember it. "You ain't a Thunderbird pilot. You ain't gonna have a crowd in front of you. Flying is for you and you only. F**k the rest and have fun." I remember that so well.

 

So what if I forgot how to fly Wednesday. I still had a little fun and I need to work on a few manuvers (that weren't demonstrated to me). I'm still hard on myself because of that perfection complex thingy, but I'm over it for the most part.

 

Next question?

 

Goldy, I'm over it. I got over it yesterday at 4:36 while watching Oprah.

 

Next?

 

Ooh, a firetruck just went by. See, short attention span.

 

Next?

 

Ah, "Die Schweizer". Schweizer ist Deutsch fur leute von Schweiz. Schweizer auf Englisch ist Swiss. Also, die Schweizer flugzeug Gesellshaft auf Englisch ist the Swiss Aircraft Company. The three Schweizer brothers started the company, and even though they're not German, their name means "Swiss". Their ancestors were probably from Switzerland, and when they immigrated they were probably given the name "Schweizer" because they came from Switzerland. They probably had a different last name but were given that instead. Something I remember about Ellis Island and last names. German is spoken in most of the Cantons-States.

 

I say "Die Schweizer" because it sounds kinda neat. I'm an a$$ I know.

 

 

Next?

 

SPW, I was flying the helicopter. I was just having a crappy day flying the helicopter. Not so much about being nervous flying with the chief pilot, I was just having a bad day.

 

I did ok on the auto-which I hate, I did ok on the approaches and landings, I did ok the pedal turn, and I did ok on the gov off bit. I had 1 great take-off out of four. That bummed me. I did a crappy quick stop. That bummed me. I did bad recoveries from low power. That bummed me. The trim strings were sideways. That bummed me. I pulled carb heat and flipped the governor on and off a few times after landing. That...well...cracked me up. I'm sure if Jerry didn't think I could fly the bird, he wouldn't have let me fly it to the maintenance hangar and park it next to the fence.

 

Wanna know something funny? I don't remember making a whole lot of radio calls. Probably because I didn't. I'm just a little helo in my own little world. I didn't get docked for that at least.

 

Anyhow, I'm flying with Mike instead of Nick next weekend. We'll do some more manuvers and I'll fly with Jerry again. I'm not nervous, just a basket case.

 

Later