Reply to: Helicopter pilot

[Churchill]

pay no attention to that animal, South Africa is a lovely place to learn...

Yes it is. Unfortunately the flying environment is nothing like the UK.

[scooterscot]

pay no attention to that animal, South Africa is a lovely place to learn...

[Churchill]

Vito,
another option is to go the fixed wing route PPL, and then do a conversion to rotary, not sure about the cost, but MET, LAW, NAV , R/T are all the same exams, just performance and aerody are different.

You could go to the USA and do a "sausage" factory PPL for about 5K , get the licence and then come back and convert.

I'm off the week after next to play with an amphibious beaver, something which I am teaching my toddlers to say with relish .....

Conversion is a waste of money. You only save on the exams so what's the fecking point?

As for learning to fly in the states, nope, nope, and thrice nope. By all means do some hour building but FFS, learn to fly in the environment in which you're most likely to fly when you've got your ticket.

[Vito]

true enough, but I can't say that having a death grip on the collective everytime the engine note changes is my idea of fun, not flown a 22, but had a go in a bell 206 once and that was very nice. I'm one exam off my fixed wing CPL.

Vito,
another option is to go the fixed wing route PPL, and then do a conversion to rotary, not sure about the cost, but MET, LAW, NAV , R/T are all the same exams, just performance and aerody are different.

You could go to the USA and do a "sausage" factory PPL for about 5K , get the licence and then come back and convert.

I'm off the week after next to play with an amphibious beaver, something which I am teaching my toddlers to say with relish .....

Thanks...but as mad as this sounds, I'm terrified of planes!!! Helicopters I undertand the whole concept and how they work...planes I just can't get my head round...the more I look at them, the more I am convinced it is not possible for them to fly and then do a controlled landing!

[Vito]

Vito,
Your other post today was asking how long you'd be able to stay in bed before you wet yourself. Are you sure you're ready to take the controls of a complicated flying machine?

Yep...it shows I'm crazy enough!

[barely_pointless]

If you can fly an R22 with all its twitchiness you can fly anything. It's still the safest Helicopter available considering flight times and number sold.

Its big brother the R44 is lovely. Even better now it's got fuel injection and you don't have to keep pulling carb heat all the bloody time!

true enough, but I can't say that having a death grip on the collective everytime the engine note changes is my idea of fun, not flown a 22, but had a go in a bell 206 once and that was very nice. I'm one exam off my fixed wing CPL.

Vito,
another option is to go the fixed wing route PPL, and then do a conversion to rotary, not sure about the cost, but MET, LAW, NAV , R/T are all the same exams, just performance and aerody are different.

You could go to the USA and do a "sausage" factory PPL for about 5K , get the licence and then come back and convert.

I'm off the week after next to play with an amphibious beaver, something which I am teaching my toddlers to say with relish .....

[hyperD]

Vito,
Your other post today was asking how long you'd be able to stay in bed before you wet yourself. Are you sure you're ready to take the controls of a complicated flying machine?

Vito, never fear, let me introduce you to the Little John Portable Urinal:

Transair

Or if you're a big girlie, then the Lady J Portable Urinal Adaptor:

Transair

[minsky1]

East Midlands Helicopters ...... about 10k plus vat if I remember correctly for PPL course.

Its on the A60 just outside Notts on the Loughborough road.

There is a good lesson by lesson diary entry on their site of a guy who did the whole course and passed.

[scooterscot]

ahem

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6706253.stm

Another one for Janes weekly... tune in same time next week.

[Churchill]

heard a mayday on the radio a few weeks ago, R22 calls Brisbane Radar with "mayday mayday charlie -???? Victor...R22...engine failure - Borrowrula...." , we kept quiet and listened in on area and brissie radar had a cathay 747 try and call up the r22 to see if he was alright.

bout 10 mins later brissie radar calls cathay and tells him he's got the pilot on the phone (landline) and all's ok.

chilling stuff , you really don't have much time or margin in those 22's

best place to look for info on learning and what's what is

www.pprune.org and go to the wannabee's section

If you can fly an R22 with all its twitchiness you can fly anything. It's still the safest Helicopter available considering flight times and number sold.

Its big brother the R44 is lovely. Even better now it's got fuel injection and you don't have to keep pulling carb heat all the bloody time!

[barely_pointless]

heard a mayday on the radio a few weeks ago, R22 calls Brisbane Radar with "mayday mayday charlie -???? Victor...R22...engine failure - Borrowrula...." , we kept quiet and listened in on area and brissie radar had a cathay 747 try and call up the r22 to see if he was alright.

bout 10 mins later brissie radar calls cathay and tells him he's got the pilot on the phone (landline) and all's ok.

chilling stuff , you really don't have much time or margin in those 22's

best place to look for info on learning and what's what is

www.pprune.org and go to the wannabee's section

[sli_gryn]

i know a commercial pilot (airline captain in oz) who decided after 15 years of flying the big things that he'd try his hand at whirly birds. he was training in an R22 (little conventional engined thing) and was told that if the engine stopped, he had about 2 seconds MAX to put the thing into the correct attitude for an auto-rotate or else he was in a body bag.

funnily enough, he never completed his training. anything with that slim a margin for error to even begin the recovery process was too risky for him.

[scooterscot]

They do say that there's a "Jesus Bolt" on an aeroplane and that a helicopter is constructed from "Jesus Bolts".

As someone who works in reliability helicopters have too many moving parts for my liking -

[thunderlizard]

Vito,
Your other post today was asking how long you'd be able to stay in bed before you wet yourself. Are you sure you're ready to take the controls of a complicated flying machine?

[OwlHoot]

Second rule of flying : Don't hit anything big.
First rule of flying : The earth counts as big.

or

Second rule of flying: Takeoff is optional
First rule of flying: Landing is compulsory