Normal Approach to Birchwood Alaska in the R22 Helicopter 23 May 2010

I added another video to "My Video Series" on YouTube

It was a nice day to get out and have some fun flying a helicopter. Notice the Cub landing ahead of me on final to 19R? I'm following landing 19L. Notice the other R22 helicopter in the field? That's Dusty teaching a student how to hover an R22 helicopter. My wife Mary was my passenger who shot this video while I made the approach and transitioned back to the NE ramp to land and shut her down.

12 December 2008 SOLO!

12 December 2008

Solo!...what a great feeling! Marcus Roulet, Chief Flight Instructor for Alyeska Helicopters, was my instructor that day. I believe I had approximately 29 hours; I would have soloed sooner if it wasn’t for my flight physical at the Heart of Eagle River clinic in Eagle River, Alaska. I ended up waiting an extra two and half weeks for my 3rd class physical. I found out the doctor doesn't sign his own flight physicals, he sends them into Anchorage to the main FAA Flight Doctor to be signed. In the mean time I kept flying. Lessons learned: 1) Ask your flight instructors who they go to for their physicals and take their advice, 2) get your flight physical done as soon as possible in case there are issues. I waited until I had 19 hours in my log book assuming the physical would only take a couple of hours and I'd have the medical certificate in hand when I walked out of the clinic. Live and learn.

I need to stress this point about soloing -- there is no correlation on how good a pilot you’re going to be by the number of hours it takes you to solo (within reason :-). Flying helicopters is about being patient; it's about proficiency, consistency, a good attitude towards safety, learning to relax on the controls, and having FUN flying the helicopter!

Photo credits go to Marcus Roulet

Learning to Fly/Hover the R22 19 Oct 2008 @ 9 hrs

So I had this great idea...I'll have my wife, Mary, shoot a little video of me hovering at approximately 9 hours of flight time. I thought I was pretty good at hovering until I felt the pressure of Mary using the video camera. My instructor was Nico von Pronay. Those hangers in front of me and the helicopter behind me were a little too close for my measly 9 hours. I could imagine splintering rotor blades as they smashed into the building and that parked helicopter. I was too careful in the beginning and felt tense which would translate into overcompensating with the controls and those dam pedals were so sensitive. It's all a part of learning to relax with the machine.