So this is me My name is Markus Andersson. I'm a 34 year old dreamer that have realized that life is too short for not fulfilling these dreams. One of my dreams is to learn to maneauver a helicopter so that I can fly whenever and wherever I want. I will here share my thoughts and reflections and hopefully I can inspire you to fulfill your dreams.
Had a shitty day yesterday including the Meteorology test (for LFV) that I failed with one point after changing some of my my answers before finishing, NEVER do that! The process if you fail that test is that you have to write a MET test back at the theory school before you can write for LFV again, bah! Did that test today after my solo flight and had a jackpot 21/21 points, so I signed up for the test at LFV tomorrow, please!
Today was a better day. Made a long distance navigation from Bromma airport via Västerås and Eskilstuna airport and then back to Bromma, a trip of about 2 hours. It was good practice, much activity in the air, a bit turbulent, some parts with a bit difficult navigation. Here’s my track:
Everything was planned when I arrived at the flight school this morning and the weather looked good (at least at Bromma airport). The plan was to do a long navigation solo Bromma - Västerås - Eskilstuna - Bromma (about 2 hours flight). BUT (to many BUTs when flying) the weather around Västerås wasn’t that good so we had to cancel it.
Instead we went south for some challenges, autorotations, spot landings etc. Tried to find one of the spot landings that I made on Google maps, one of the most difficult so far, but I couldn’t
Long navigation on wednesday instead I hope! BUT, before that I have the LFV test in Meteorology tomorrow, so I really have to study tonight.
Had a great day in the air today. Before lunchtime I prepared my flightplan for Norrtälje airport (ESSN) and went away on the first solo flight of the day. As the last time I felt very relaxed and pretty much everything worked as I wanted it to do, and even if I haven’t been in that area before my navigation seemed to work since I managed to get back again
After a break for lunch I was a bit short of time to do the other solo navigation to Västerås and Eskilstuna since Bromma closes at 5 PM. Insted I went out for some solo flying in Bromma contol area to get familiar with all the entry and exit point around the airport.Had a close encounter (not that close but anyway) with a small Cessna that apparently didn’t see me. Lessons learned from that is that it’s sometimes hard to see the traffic around and when flying in different directions everything happens very fast.
More flying next week, BUT, now I have to focus on the last theory tests, have to study tomorrow!
Started my day with a coffee and some flight planning at home. Wanted to be really prepared for my first long distance solo flight…OK for me it was long distance, about 1 hours flight from Bromma airport to Trosa airport. Here was my track:
I felt really relaxed during the whole flight, that was great! To celebrate I picked up Jon (my instructor) and we flew to Troxhammars golf course for some meat loaf and some bullshit talking. Spent the rest of the afternoon by practicing some autorotations, spot landings in a bit turbulent air south of Bromma.
Tomorrow I have a day off, no flying, but I will prepare a flight plan for Friday when I’m going to fly solo from Bromma to Norrtälje.
Next milestone on the road to certification! Did my first solo flight from Bromma airport today. Flew to Kalhäll where I landed for three deep breaths before I headed back to the airport again. A bit nervous during the start since I had two Agusta A109 and four cocky pilots from the Swedish airforce 30 meters to my right inspecting my nervous movements with my tiny little R22.
If you never have heard of a drive-by in the air I experienced one today, by the two above mentioned Agusta A109 helicopters that thought I was a bit slow during my approach to Bromma airport…WHAT…I was racing at 70 knots up there! (OK, must admit that I felt a bit tiny…)
Tomorrow I’ll probably fly solo to Trosa if the weather is OK, hope so!
Shit, forgot to mention that I got a “6″ on my language test tonight. As I mentioned earlier there are new rules that says that you have to pass an english test before certification, good idea since I’ve heard too many stories about pilots flying international without speaking any english, here’s a good example:
Carburator ice is a big NO NO when flying a helicopter and today I experienced this little nasty phenomena. During the startup procedures my instructor noticed that I lost RPM. Since I was following my checklist I had turned the carb heat off not thinking that this could cause carb ice already during startup. By pulling the carb heat again we noticed that the RPM began to stabilize and the carb ice was gone. 17 degrees celsius but rain in the air, it’s true what you read in the books. ALWAYS APPLY FULL CARB HEAT WHEN MANIFOLD PRESSURE UNDER 18″ OR WHEN WEATHER IS MOIST/WET.
After that happenig I tried some new exercises, the first one, a bit scary called “Running Takeoff”.
1. Running takeoff
This maneuver is used to transition from the surface into forward flight when there is not sufficient power available to sustain a hover. This might occur if the helicopter is underpowered, is at high gross weight, or high density altitude.
The skids are aligned with the direction of takeoff, and power is increased until the aircraft is light on the skids. Slight forward cyclic is used to start moving the helicopter forward. During the slide, lateral cyclic is used to hold the centerline, and the anti-torque pedals are used to keep the skid gear aligned with the ground track. As the helicopter gains airspeed, the rotor system becomes more efficient, which makes the helicopter lighter, which reduces friction with the runway and allows the helicopter to gain airspeed even faster.
As the helicopter approaches translational lift, the pilot can use some aft cyclic to bring the helicopter off the ground. The reduction in friction will allow the helicopter to accelerate forward. If the pilot pulls back too far on the cyclic, airspeed will be lost and the helicopter will settle back onto the runway.
Here’s a movieclip showing a running takeoff:
Then we flew to Tullinge to practise “Stuck pedals”
2. Stuck pedals from 500 ft
When the pedals are stuck in neutral position we’re not able to control the direction of the helicopter. When lowering the collective the helicopter wants to yaw left, nothing we can do about it except for planning a flat approach to the landing spot with smooth collective movements and keep up the speed that will give us some help from the tail stabilizer. The helicopter will most likely fly with some left yaw towards the landing spot. When approaching the landing we have to reduce our speed gently and meet up with the collective to stop the helicopter. BUT, at that moment the helicopter will start yaw to the right instead. So what we do at this point, to get the helicopter down (from hovering height), is to close the throttle and meet up with the collective (as with power failure from hover). There you are, on the ground, alive!
Here’s a situation where the pilot is doing the maneuver in an emergency situation:
On our way back we did some slope landings and spot landings as well, good practise.
Had a nice day in the air today. Started up with some instrument training from Bromma towards Västerås. I put the glasses where I only can see the instruments and not outside the helicopter, Jon told me to close my eyes while he was fooling around with the helicopte, then it was up to me to clear up the mess using the instruments. Really good practice but a bit booring to do the 5 hours of instrument training that’s needed.
After that we flew to a nice golf course “Frösåker” close to Västerås for some lunch. After a quick trip to Västerås airport I had a break for some planning of the trip back to Bromma. The afternoon session started with a short navigation that probably will be my short nav during my examination, good to learn the area since I haven’t been flying in that area that much.
Back at school I decided to do the EK (solo) and radio test that’s needed before flying solo in the control area. Shit, when will these tests end, can’t remember all the test done so far? Next week I have an english test at Flygteoriskolan, a new requirement since march 2008.
My flight lessons on Thursday and Friday are cancelled because of helicopter manitenance
No flying today because of bad weather conditions. Instead we decided to do the technical course that you have to do before examination. We went through the R22 Operating Manual, discussed the various parts of the R22, followed by a test that I passed, nice!
Had lunch at Bromma airport, followed by a visit in the Bromma Control Tower. Nice to meet the guys that you talk to on the radio and see what they do.
Still haven’t decided how to do with the CPL theory that starts in november…hmmm.
Although it was raining today I managed to fly in the morning. During this session I did the following:
Quick stops
Practiced quick stops on a field on Tullinge airport (only used by the police nowadays). Really good practice. You really need to feel the helicopter movements during the quick stop. When having a stable speed at about 40 knots and an altitude of about 10-20 feet the idea is to get the helicopter to stop while manitains the right direction and altitude. The tricky thing is that when you start the quick stop by flaring, the helicopter wants to gain altitude, therefor you have to lower the collective simultanously. And as an effect of lowering the collective, the helicopter wants to turn to the left, meaning that you have to use right pedal to maintain the right direction. When the helicopter have lost most of the speed you add forward cyclic, raise the collective and apply left pedal. And there you are in a perfect hover!
Failed a couple of times before I really felt what was happening during the maneuver, then I managed to do a couple of good quick stops.
Moving 360 hovering
On the same field I tried to do low level 360 turns forward. Shit, that was tricky! You really need to synchronise the 360 using the pedals with the cyclic to keep you flying forward. Something that I want to practise more, really good practice for the coordination.
After that I did some precision flying and landings in a narrow forrest, where I realized that it’s really hard to know the boundaries of the helicopter. I was like “Shit, I’m gonna hit the trees…” while my instructor was laid back saying “He he, no worries, there’s plenty of space”.
So this is me
