Becoming a Pilot

[Lv. 100 Garchomp 362]

If you guys have been wondering why I haven't been around, it has been mainly due to disinterest, work, upcoming college in the spring, and pilot training.

 

What is this pilot training, you ask?

 

I'm becoming a helicopter pilot. And not just a private pilot's license- I plan to get all three licenses because I plan to do this as a career. I don't know what exactly I will work for when I do start working for people, but my end goal is to be working for EMS.

 

I currently have 5.5 hours of flight time logged in the R22 Beta II, which is a very small 2 seat 4 cylinder piston engine powered aircraft.It uses a Semi Rigid rotor system with symmetrical main rotor and asymmetrical tail rotor. The longest I've flown it at one time is currently 1.1 hours, though I expect that to increase.

 

Have any questions about this? Shoot them my way! I'll be glad to answer what I can.

 

Fun fact- The helicopter's burn rate is about 10 gallons of fuel an hour. The max useable fuel is 19.2 gallons in the main tank and 10.5 gallons in the aux. tank. That gives the helicopter just under 3 hours worth of fuel to fly with.

[shikaku 706]

good luck with that buddy

[AntyCrix 591]

good luck serp

[Bob Ross Zombie 1512]

NICE! Keep up the good work! Maybe we'll cross paths in the field of EMS someday!

[Howard Dean 2502]

If you guys have been wondering why I haven't been around, it has been mainly due to disinterest, work, upcoming college in the spring, and pilot training.

 

What is this pilot training, you ask?

 

I'm becoming a helicopter pilot. And not just a private pilot's license- I plan to get all three licenses because I plan to do this as a career. I don't know what exactly I will work for when I do start working for people, but my end goal is to be working for EMS.

 

I currently have 5.5 hours of flight time logged in the R22 Beta II, which is a very small 2 seat 4 cylinder piston engine powered aircraft.It uses a Semi Rigid rotor system with symmetrical main rotor and asymmetrical tail rotor. The longest I've flown it at one time is currently 1.1 hours, though I expect that to increase.

 

Have any questions about this? Shoot them my way! I'll be glad to answer what I can.

 

Fun fact- The helicopter's burn rate is about 10 gallons of fuel an hour. The max useable fuel is 19.2 gallons in the main tank and 10.5 gallons in the aux. tank. That gives the helicopter just under 3 hours worth of fuel to fly with.

Nice man

 

I have ground school completed for my PPL but I havent had the time to do any actual flights yet

 

 

 

[centran 4457]

go work for the oil companies flying the important people out to the rigs. $$$

[Lv. 100 Garchomp 362]

go work for the oil companies flying the important people out to the rigs. $$$

LOL and do confined landings 24/7 on oil rigs where it's very easy to collide with the structures? Sounds like a good way to live.

[Ryziou 538]

LOL and do confined landings 24/7 on oil rigs where it's very easy to collide with the structures? Sounds like a good way to live.

Someones gotta do it

[Faded 266]

What kinda training do they do for crash landing? I've always thought it was interesting that you can basically glide a helicopter a good ways to crash land.

[Lv. 100 Garchomp 362]

What kinda training do they do for crash landing? I've always thought it was interesting that you can basically glide a helicopter a good ways to crash land.

For most crash landings you will enter an auto rotation if you can't use your engine or if you have a tail rotor loss/ malfunction. Basically, you use your collective to maintain rotor RPM and cyclic to maintain speed and descent. Near the ground (can't remember the specific AGL atm) you pull back on the cyclic to slow your descent and just before you hit the ground you increase collective to help cushion the landing while moving the cyclic to make sure you land flat.

 

Water ditching is basically the same deal, though it differs slightly. Without power, you do an auto rotation like normal, open the doors if time permits, and force the rotors into the water to avoid getting hurt when bailing. Powered water ditching is you coming to a hover, letting any passenger that you have get out, move away from them so you don't possibly hurt them, and then forcing the rotors into the water before bailing.

 

You'll also train for situations like settling with power, which is basically a quick enough descent rate with too low of an airspeed over the rotors that they are turning in their own rotor wash, producing very little lift. Increasing collective will have no change on your increasing descent rate, and the only way to get out of it is to get enough airspeed for ETL to take effect. This doesn't happen in auto rotations, however, because the air passing over the blades as you descend is used to spin them and produces lift, rather than the blades using the air above (or to the side if fast enough) to produce lift.

[Paradoxical Papaya 200]

Can you be my private helicopter pilot when I become rich and famous? <br /><br />hue

[Lv. 100 Garchomp 362]

Can you be my private helicopter pilot when I become rich and famous? <br /><br />hue

[S.oviate 34]

How did you get started?  I have been very interested in becoming a pilot as well.  There's a flight school north of me that does both fixed and rotatory and there are classes at my local CC but that is mostly for fixed-wing.

[Lv. 100 Garchomp 362]

I started by doing a flight to see if this is something I actually truly wanted to do. After that, I got signed up for flight training at a local heliport that does flight training there. It's 1 on 1 stuff, so you pretty much go at the pace you can go at.