Getting Closer

My apologies for not posting in a while. I've been really busy with school and alumni weekend in NY. Last weekend I drove to Crown King, AZ to pick up my friend to catch a flight back to NY. I would have said this was the worst trip I've ever taken but I'd be lying because the trip to take Mike back was actually the worst trip of my life. Crown King is a town of about 50 people on the top of a mountain about 100 miles north of Phoenix. It takes 3 hours to drive there and half of that you're on a dirt road where you can't drive over 15mph. The majority of the road is one lane with steep cliffs throughout. The drive up to pick him up wasn't too bad just long and extremely boring. The drive back up to drop him off however is a different story. It was about 1am and at the bottom of the mountain the fog was so thick you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you. At the top of the mountain it was snowing like crazy and there was about 4 inches of snow already on the ground. Mind you, both Mike and I are exhausted from a long sleepless weekend which only made things worse. I was so tired I couldn't drive back down the mountain without a little sleep. So, I stayed on his couch for 2 hours where I then woke up at 4:30am and proceeded down the mountain. The conditions were the same as coming up except more snow on the ground and rain at the bottom. I would have just stayed the night and drove back Monday but I had a 9am flight that I couldn't cancel. So that's my alumni weekend story. Needless to say, it was quite a time and I didn't tell you about the stories while at Bonaventure!

Finally on to the flying updates. My last post was about my stage check where I've progressed to the final stage of my private license. This requires learning a few new maneuvers and cross country flights. I've also started my solo flying which consisted of 3 supervised solo flights and 1 unsupervised solo flight. The supervised flights are approximately 30 minutes long where I drop the instructor off on the side of the airport and he sits in a lawn chair with a portable radio and watches me perform landings. The unsupervised solo was me taking off from the ramp all on my own and flying around the airport for 1.5 hours. The first supervised solo went well except it was a little hectic because right in the middle of it, the tower announced a runway change. This is where I have to perform a 180 and make traffic in the opposite direction. It may not sound like a big deal but when you're up there all alone for the first time and have never done this before, it's a lot going on at once. My unsupervised solo also went well except towards the end when another helicopter decided to almost hit me! I was flying in what we call the pattern which is a circular motion around the airport for the taxiway. This helicopter was approaching from the north and the tower cleared him for a direct landing at the helipad. This is all normal and fine as long as each aircraft stay in pattern they are supposed to fly. So I'm in my downwind pattern and he's entering his final approach for the helipad but ends up overshooting his path and coming into mine. He was almost directly in front of me coming at me at one point but I had been watching him the whole time and I just shifted to the left and notified the tower that I had him in sight. All was well and it wasn't too big of a deal other than he just made a mistake. It's important to remember though, even the littlest mistake in the air can be fatal. He ended up getting scolded by the tower as he was shutting down.

As far as my upcoming training, well pretty much all I have left is flight planning which is pretty familiar to me since it's almost identical to airplanes. After that, I do some cross country flights to other airports in the area, touch up on my recent maneuvers that I've learned and then take my test. Some of these maneuvers include steep approaches, running landings, slope operations, and hover auto-rotations. If all goes well, I should have my private pilot's license for helicopters in a couple of weeks. It may take a little longer as I'm going to Anaheim, CA with a friend to a helicopter convention this weekend. I'll post as I keep progressing but so far all is well. I filled up my second page in my logbook totaling just over 40 flight hours.

Stage Check

I've been really busy lately which is why I haven't been blogging. The reason I've been so busy is because I had my first stage check today. The stage check is a mock test that another instructor gives me so I can prove that I am proficient enough to fly the helicopter solo. It's also a good check to make sure my training is going as it should be and to evaluate any further topics I may need refreshing on.

The ground portion went pretty well. It's all a learning process so there were some things that I was unclear about and some things that I just simply forgot. It's nice that you do the stage check with a different instructor so that you get some tips and tricks from another vantage point. Same goes for the flight, although it's pretty straight forward. I have certain maneuvers I have to perform and standards they must be within. The flight was a little more hectic as it was the windiest day I've ever flown in and I haven't had a lot of practice in windy conditions. Even straight and level flight was all over the place so it only got harder as I performed some emergency procedures.

I'll spare you the details but the instructor said I did well and that he didn't see any reason I shouldn't pass. His notes get reviewed by the Chief Flight Instructor who then determines whether or not I can progress to the next stage. The plan for now, unless I find out otherwise is to move on to the next ground stage tomorrow and a flight in the afternoon.

I've arranged to go to the Heliexpo in Anaheim, CA in a couple of weeks with another student. We're going to drive out there and stay for a few days. Simply put, the heliexpo is basically a giant helicopter convention. It's a great opportunity to network(not that it will help much now but it's never too early) and also a great way to see pretty much every different helicopter on the market today. If nothing else, it will be a fun road trip...I hope.

As far as PHX goes, well I still love it and I have some news that will make you northerners feel a little better. I actually had to pull out my sleeping bag and use it for additional heat at night! I guess the three other blankets weren't enough. Don't get me wrong, the nights are still beautiful here, I just tend to be on the colder side. I've also managed to check out my hot tub for the first time and boy is it hot. I think they could save the complex hundreds of dollars if they just turned the heat down to a comfortable level! I shouldn't complain, after all it is a "hot tub" right?

I almost forgot....The Super Bowl was quite a let down for Arizona. Although it was a great game, myself and thousands of others wished the Cardinals could have brought the title home. The football scene has died considerably since the loss. The weeks leading up to the big game were pretty intense. People here had plans for the big day immediately after they beat the Eagles. There's always another season...Go Bills! Oh and Nascar starts up real soon so that should be exciting.