Going on my intro flight today

[Tarantula]

I've been reading on here for a while, and recently registered as I'd made an appointment to take my intro flight... Well, that day is today, and I'm getting more and more excited as time ticks down. For those interested, its with Elite Helicopter Services operating in Englewood (Near Denver), CO. It'll be in a 300C, which seems to be the heli of choice in my area (most places claiming better performance at our altitude (roughly 5280 feet). Thought I'd put my name out, and let you know that I'm not set on training with them, most likely I'm looking at getting an AAS in helicopter pilot from a college roughly 60-70 miles from me. Any comments for/against that? Will it be harder to be hired as a CFI (which I'll get certed for) if I didn't attend the school thats hireing? If I can't get a job as a CFI with the AAS then what low hour required helicopter jobs could I possibly get?

[dogdaddy]

Hey how did your intro flight go?

Inquiring minds want to know....

[Tarantula]

It went great. I had a little trouble finding the place (mostly cause I drove by it my first pass, so I was checking all over everywhere else until coming back). But, since I had left to be about 30min early I arrived about 20 minutes before my scheduled time. Went in, talked with the CFI, and he offered to go out and check out the helicopter since there wasn't much to do in the office. Of course, I said yes, and we head out to the chopper. Its a rainbow colored schweizer 300c. By that, I mean, each part of the body was colored a different solid color. One door was yellow, one green, the front had blue and red coloring, the tail was yellow, and the tail-rudder? was blue. All in all, very very colorful. He explained to me that the story was the original owner wanted something "different" so thats what he ended up with.

 

Anyhow, we walk around the ac, hes talking about it to me, pointing things out, I ask him about the controls (because, on the web, you can read all about pedals, cyclic, and collective, but not really where they are). So he has us hop in, and shows me how the controls manipulate the rotors. He said he already had pre-flighted it. And showed me the startup checklist for it. He saw that they hadn't gotten the fuel in it yet, so he called up and fuel was out in a few minutes. He also asked if we could take the doors off, since it was a rather warm saturday, and I figured, sure, why not, I don't feel like baking in a little greenhouse. So, we flew doors off, which was a really neat feeling.

 

Finally, we're all set, and we take off. I have a headset on, and I try to listen to as much radio chatter as I can. Just absorbing it all in. We start heading off, and he has me take the cyclic and hold it straight and level at 70kts. Well, it was fairly straight and level, but holding it at 70kts was pretty tricky. It took a bit before it sunk in that theres a slight delay between moving the controls, and the helicopter responding. So, finally, I get it down to where I'm only bouncing between 65kts and 75kts. And we see some nice little hills with flat tops, so he takes the cyclic back, and says he's gonna do a normal approach, and then hover. He does, quite nicely, and then lets me have the cyclic again to try to hold the hover. As soon as I took the stick we're bobbing and wiggling all over the top of this hill. Fits with what I've read that hovering is quite hard. After this, we head back, and he has me hold it straight and level again on the way back. I managed to keep it much closer to 70kts this time, bouncing from probably 68-72kts. I was feeling pretty good. He takes it back over, and puts it back down where we left from. He shows me the shutdown checklist, and we go through that, and then we end up chatting about things in his office for about another hour or so.

 

All in all, it was a great time, and I definately am hooked! As I said, I'm looking into trying to utilize the financial aid from AIMS CC to pay for my flight school (while pursing an AAS for helicopter pilot). Still waiting to hear back from them on it, but I'm definately going to pursue it further. If thats not an option, chances are I'm going to have to put off training until I can save up more money. Either way, I definately know that I will make it happen. As soon as I can.

[dogdaddy]

Thanks for posting that! On my intro flight we took the doors off too. Otherwise it would have been very hot in there. We flew over a field of cows and I was so fascinated with those cows. But my favortive part was when we started the engine. We were on grass that hadn't been mowed in awhile. As the rotors started to pick up speed the grass was swaying and I knew something exciting was about to happen.