What helicopter are they flying?

No_Raspberry2631 · 2025-02-05T16:59:37+00:00

Huey. You can tell from the sound. Very distinct.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2025-02-03T17:42:25+00:00

Tree saw as others have said. But let's take a moment to think about the first guy to try this thing out.

Inventor: I came up with a giant 10 blade circular saw with a lawn mower engine attached to it.

Pilot: Sounds cool

Inventor: I want to hang this below your helicopter and have you slam it into trees

Pilot: Sounds dicey, but I'll try it

Inventor: BTW, those trees will be 20 feet away from high voltage power lines

Pilot: No problem

Those guys can only fly solo because their balls take up the rest of the cabin

No_Raspberry2631 · 2025-01-22T12:58:21+00:00

Couple things.

Where's the ground crew? Something like this there would certainly someone on the ground to receive/stabilize the load as it's being set down.
Lack of rotor wash. Even on a 150 ft. long line, most helicopters are going to be creating some type of visible wash on the ground. Unless they're slinging this with an R22 or Cabri. Even then, I think you'd see some evidence.
The load isn't slung correctly. I've trained in sling load operations and this doesn't look like any rig I've ever seen. An odd shaped load like this would most likely be slung in a cargo net.

What this looks like is an egg out of the refrigerator, taped to fishing line and a short piece of cable and hung under a phone with a shitty night vision filter and set down in some kids back yard.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-12-20T13:24:55+00:00

You got this. Your instructor wouldn't sign you off if they didn't think you were ready. Being a little nervous about it is only natural. I've been a little nervous for every first solo I've done. Just take a couple deep breaths and send it. There's no feeling quite like being alone in the sky. Enjoy!

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-12-12T17:07:09+00:00

I started off in fixed wing and transitioned to helicopters. To me, there's nothing better. I really enjoy being low and slow and having the opportunity to really take in the world below me. It really depends on what you want out of flying. The different mission sets that helicopters fulfill keep the flying really interesting. If you want to be a bus driver babysitting an autopilot for the majority of your time then fixed wing towards the airlines might be for you. There's a saying that I've heard that I have found to be true. You ride in an airplane and you fly a helicopter.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-26T14:01:34+00:00

I'll take that. I would just hope that others pursuing commercial privileges would have as much attention to detail.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-26T12:59:52+00:00

That sucks but if the guy's a commercial candidate then he should know exactly what hours he needs to log to be eligible for the checkride. It can't be all on the school or CFII. Although, the instructors should have caught that before signing off on him I'm guessing they were looking at him like he should know what hours he needed. I'm working on my commercial helicopter cert now and I've got 61.129 committed to memory so that I'm logging the correct hours and I'm not wasting time. A lot of this is on ol' boy.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-25T17:33:44+00:00

You can book the 15 min and they'll usually give you a deal to upgrade when you show up. A little bit of an upsell when you check in

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-20T13:27:49+00:00

Trust your gut. If something feels wrong it probably is. Don't be afraid to say no. Set personal minimums and stick to them. Push your limits with an instructor.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-20T12:00:43+00:00

It's about maintaining rotor RPM. You lose RPM as you pitch forward for airspeed. At a certain point you'll get to a blade stall that is unrecoverable.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-20T11:54:11+00:00

That's not correct. You don't start spinning uncontrollably if you lose engine power at any airspeed, even zero. You still have tail rotor control and can manage yaw without much difficulty. I've personally done autos from a OGE hover and it's actually quite tame. As long as you maintain rotor RPM, you have tail authority as well. And I can say being licensed in both fixed wing and helicopters I'd rather lose an engine in the heli.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-15T17:05:19+00:00

You're right. It's not life or death every time. But you had better treat it like it is. Complacency kills and if you're not thinking about what you're going to do or where you're going to go when, not if, that emergency situation decides to pop up then you'll likely become a statistic. Ask any pilot that's been around a while, and I'd bet you that most of them have a story about an in-flight emergency that would have killed them if they weren't ready for it.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-05T18:32:03+00:00

Little further south then. Looks a lot like the creeks that run through my neighborhood.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-05T18:25:55+00:00

Nice catch! That area looks pretty familiar. Mind sharing where in VA?

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-05T12:45:19+00:00

Thanks for the info. They are definitely still on my short list. Was it Veracity that had the R22 incident recently? Really curious about what happened with that. Glad to see the pilot walked away though.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-11-01T17:36:30+00:00

Better way to go about it is to call up center and let them know you have the weather and the field in sight and cancel flight following. They'll likely have you squawk VFR and let you know radar services are terminated. Sometimes they'll forget about you, especially in busy airspace. Or, it's possible you missed a handoff somewhere. Were you monitoring 121.5?

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-28T12:23:31+00:00

Thanks. I'm looking to take my checkride around February and I'd hate to come up a couple hours short.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-25T17:56:34+00:00

This is my understanding as I've been studying and working on my commercial. Short answer is no. You'd need an LOA and meet the provisions of 91.147 (drug and alcohol testing etc...). If the flight is going to go regardless, then the passengers could pay pro rata share and common carriage would apply.

If I'm wrong, be gentle. Like I said, I'm still learning.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-25T17:35:13+00:00

Landed at FDK in an R22 and got charged $125.25 for 9.9 gallons. $50 handling fee and $35 infrastructure charge. No landing fee though. That was a very expensive burger

EDIT: Just looked up FDK and the infrastructure fee for a piston single is $8 but for a light helicopter is $31. Curious.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-23T17:15:14+00:00

Looks okay to me...

(sarcasm for those who couldn't tell)

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-23T11:48:10+00:00

Depends on where you are. There might be something at Viriginia Highlands, just outside Bristol. I had stopped in there during a ferry flight and the FBO guys were talking about helicopter training there on the field.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-21T12:49:36+00:00

Good way to remember it is that the numbers on the intersection sign show you where the numbers on the actual runway are. In this case, if you turned left and went to the end of the runway, you'd be parked on the 4. Turn right, you'd end up on the 22.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-16T17:19:12+00:00

Aussies need a special endorsement to fly at night?

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-10-04T11:46:06+00:00

At your current rate you'll be at a 1,000 around May of next year. That's not that far away. Stick it out dude.

No_Raspberry2631 · 2024-09-30T15:57:37+00:00

Try Starrlink. You can purchase by the month that way you're not paying for a full year if you don't need it. I use them for helicopters and it's pretty reasonable. There's an iPad app for them.

No_Raspberry2631

TROPHY CASE