Flight School - first helicopter flight - September 9, 2010

There was a mandatory Open House at the helicopter flight school, Upper Limit Aviation, on Saturday, August 21st.  They needed the students to do paperwork, get paired with their instructors, get their passwords for the online scheduler and other helicoptery stuff.  They also provided burgers and dogs for lunch and there were some chips, but lots of hummus and vegetable finger foods.  Trying to keep the pilots skinny!

Salt Lake Community College doesn't own the aircraft or employ the instructors, but they do keep the money.  All the money required for training goes onto James' SLCC OneCard and then as he flies, Upper Limit debits his account.  This makes the lenders happier because if Upper Limit were to go out of business suddenly (like some private flight schools have done), then the flight school won't disappear with all the money.  Another good thing, James will be getting his ratings AND working on his associates degree at SLCC.

Upper Limit Aviation is just down the street from Life Flight.  After I got off work today, I hopped on the bicycle and pedalled over to Upper Limit.  They let me hang out in the lounge with a window onto the tarmac and watch for James and Jason to land at the end of the first lesson. 

Here are the helicopters in the hangar - James was the only student flying at the time, so the rest of the tiny little choppers were hangared.  The two beginning training helicopters are the R22 and the R44.  The R22 is cheaper, smaller and lighter.  The R44 is a little more expensive, a little bigger and can carry a little more weight.  Lucky for us, James and his instructor are light-weights and James can train in the R22 and save us some money.  He'll have to transition into the R44 for his instrument training, but that's not for a couple more semesters.

This is on the ground just outside of the hangar door.  (Bottom right corner is tarmac asphalt, upper left corner is the hangar wall and hangar floor and the door track)

This is the very first helicopter James got to fly.  It is tiny!  That is the fuel truck behind it.

James and Jason - Jason is from Alaska too!  Kodiak and Anchorage.

According to James, "Hovering is hard." 

It seems a lot of flying in a helicopter is similar to flying in an airplane.  He's able to keep it level and fly in a straight line and make turns and do radio traffic.  But hovering is tricky.  You have to use your feet and each of your hands independent of each other to do different things.  One hand controls the forward and backward movement.  The other hand controls the elevation.  The feet control the spin of the helicopter (keeping it facing in one direction).  So far, when the instructor keeps control of one thing, James is able to do the other two just fine.  But if James has all three parts, then the hover gets a bit rowdy.

One instructor told him, "A helicopter is inherently unstable and wants to fall out of the sky."

James thinks, "GREAT, the helicopter is trying to kill me."

James has now flown with three different instructors (due to scheduling conflicts) and each of them are encouraging - James has good instincts and just needs to practice the new stuff.  Each time, it is getting easier and more automatic.

P.S. Happy Birthday Nick (Sept 8)!  Happy Birthday Carter (Sept 9)!