Hover button....

Cobrahistorian wrote:

Evening all... For todays lesson, I'd like everyone to take out their skateboard and place it on the ground in front of you.  Now step up onto it, placing one foot firmly in the center.  Don't let that second foot touch it!  You have to tuck your right foot up behind you and keep it there.  Now, once you've got that, take your broomstick... no, don't act like Harry Potter, balance it vertically on the tip of your index finger... good.  Ok... hey, don't let that right foot touch the board!  Ok, now, continue doing those two things while patting yourself on the head continuously.  Very good!  That's basically what I did for the better part of an hour today.  Today was my first flight!  Hovering is one heck of a challenge.  By the end of the training period, I was getting a handle on it... a little.  Its hard, but man is it fun!  The Apache screaming past me in the Bearcat corridor going the other direction was pretty cool too! Later guys! Jon

Stories like this makes a person appreciate tandem rotor aircraft...set the pedals and leave them alone and all you have to worry about is cyclic and collective/thrust, not only in a hover but through most parameters of flight except for turns, banks, and pedal turns. Another thing that is nice about 46s and 47s is you don't have to worry too much about CG

Jonathan Primm

Ah, yes!  The old "death grip"!  White knuckles, if you could see through the Nomex flight gloves.  Then was taught the "thumb and forefinger" technique.  It's amazing how you stopped sweating so much when you found the "touch"!  Then it was fun hovering instead of seeming like a death sentence on death row. 

Its funny, I keep trying to tell myself to relax.  At altitude, I have no problem.  Having some fixed-wing time helped a lot in that aspect.  Hovering wasn't all that bad. I was able to hold my heading pretty easily.  My biggest issue was forward and aft cyclic.  Apparently I was inputting both fore and aft and didn't even realize it.  Ended up taking off unintentionally three times, much to the enjoyment of my IP, who promptly curved us around and put us smack over our hover spot again.  I'll get it today if we fly.  Its cloudy and windy, so I don't think we will, but we'll see. 

Now SEFs at altitude?  Nooo problem. Greased that sucker into a perfect auto and recovery yesterday.  THAT was FUN!!!!

Welcome aboard - you are gonna have so much fun it will be some of your best memories of life.

Can't say enough how important it is to choose a reference point well out  in front of the machine.

After that it is like riding a bike. A noisy, vibrating, hot, uncontrolable bike but a bike all the same.

I agree that you have to be gentle on the cyclic - if you can see it move it is probably too much. Pressure not movement.

Easy to say - hard to do- "Use the collective to adjust your altitude. Use the cyclic to control your position over the ground. Use the pedals as necessary to control aircraft heading." I can still hear my instructor "Outo Al" in my headphones. Of course he would then place one finger on top of the cyclic, one on the end of the collective and do a flawless hover pattern saying: "It is not, as I am demonstrating, half as difficult as you are making it!" I still can see the dings in my old helmet where he used to hit me with his clipboard - all in fun of course! Great guy! 30 years later we are still in contact.

If you find you are trying to squeeze toothpaste out of the cyclic try placing the stub of a pencil between your index and little fingers with the other 2 on top. When you tense up the pencil will hurt your fingers and you will relax your grip. Unless you are a glutton for punishment! - I have seen this work a lot. In the old non-PC daze a cigarette worked even better - as long as it was the student's cig and not yours and he cleaned up all the tabacco from the floor after the flight.

Jon,

   Ya'll ought to try it in  the Mattel Messerschmitt (AKA TH-55). In addition to the flight controls, we had that darned manual throttle to contend with.  Soloed 37 years ago; March 9, 1969. IP was Capt. JW McElroy. Nice guy. When I looked over half way through the pattern and realized he wasn't there, I nearly soiled myself. Our first day trying to hover was a real treat. 55's fluttering in all directions. It still astonishes me that no one played mingle wing on the stagefield that day.

Hang in there, the technique will hit you like a bolt from the blue. Sort of like when you know you have the right woman...only your brain doesn't turn to mush!

I swear...the 40 some odd hours I spent sweating in the H-300C (basically a TH-55) were probably some of the fondest yet hardest working flight time I've ever logged.  The worst was doing 180 autos on the reef runway taxiway at Honolulu Int'l, and having the crosswind through the cockpit rip the damn velcroed cushion in the middle loose.  Talk about mastering many tasks at once!  I sure would have liked to have been on the outside looking in on that one.  Musta looked like a monkey &^?!ing a football!

ANYWAY Jon, like many have already said...just about the time you've convinced yourself that "I'm never gonna get this down"...That's when miraculasly it just clicks for ya.  Now it might not be pretty, but it clicks.

Have a blast with it Bubba!  The future brings feet on the floor, SAS 1, SAS 2, and depending on the aircraft commander you're flying with maybe even SAS 3

From a former victim of helicopter flight students - Greetings!!!

I was a victim of Ft. Rucker flight students during the Florida Phase of Ranger School.  We were conducting helicopter rappelling with student aircrews - great fun and laughs ;^)

The student flying the UH-1D from which I was rappelling was having serious trouble maintaining his altitude - When I left the skids we were about 60 feet up, but before I reached the ground, the student lost about 20 feet in altitude and I landed on my butt with 30 feet of rope still behind me!!!  The Ranger instructor was laughing while telling me to get off his rope!! 

Of course, that was better than when I was the safety trying to hold onto ropes that were dropping and rising by tens of feet.  Luckily none of the helicopters rose so far that the Ranger students ran out of rope before they reached the ground - OUCH!

But we Rangers never enjoyed the sound of helicopters more than those coming to take us out of the field - we quickly forgot about being dropped off on the wrong LZ four fays previously!!!

HOOAH!!

 As the Navy Liaison Instructor for the Flight Medic Course there at "Mother Rucker". I can attest to the fun we have with the student pilots. We use them for our Medevac final exercises. It makes them feel like a real Dustoff pilot for an hour and our students look like a deer in the headlights when we explain what the orange doors on the 60's mean.

The last class was great. Our student flew great once he figured out how to start the thing.....

Snakedriver,

I agree with you on the TH-55, I began my instruction on the 300C, and still to this day, I don't see what all the fuss is about having "high turbine time."  I felt more cockpit management and more going on during a VFR flight in a 300C than a turbine, especially with a manual throttle you really learn to manage your power.  Unlike say a Blackhawk, where you can yank an armpit full of collective and watch the torque only slightly dip! 

Winnie,

Nope, not allowed to use any friction and only the IFR birds have Force Trim.  I did hear about the finger on the thigh trick and I plan on using it Monday (today was our second weather day in a row!) 

Jon,

   Fugetaboutit! There are no tricks! Their is no magic formula...it's Karma. Relax..Feel the aircraft...it is you; it's a part of you. It will do what you will it to. Forget about the mechanical BS. Honest to God, Jon, when you relax , caress the controls..balance..float.

Bugs

Once you get the hang of that -67, everything else will be easy.

I can't speak from personal experience but I have flown with alot of stick wigglers and some of them turned out to be pilots...and out of those pilot's, I like flying with one or two of them.  The ones who get it and become good pilots learn not to try too hard and don't try to out think the situation.  I have seen all of the tricks mentioned used and they may or may not work for you.  The only one that I will repeat is find a reference point far from the aircraft, it won't move around on you as much and makes it easier to hold your position, this may be especially helpful in the NVG portion.  FLIGHT TIME is the most important factor.  You will learn to feel the aircraft and know what everything is doing and not fight the controls.

Just a CE's point of view.

Mac

FOUND IT!!!

I was a hoverin fool for about an hour and a half today!   My SEF at altitude looked like crap, but my hovering and hover taxiing was AWESOME!!!  Standard Autos tomorrow... psychin myself up for the rollercoaster ride!  Did some landings, etc.  Had a really good time, even with the 20kt wind. 

Bugs, you said the magic words.  The second I tense up on the controls, things start gettin wonky.  I just relaxed, felt the aircraft and counteracted its movements. 

Hey Jon,

Congrats, Jon, glad to hear you are up and flying. Would have said something sooner but been out of the loop for a few weeks, my last computer picked up a nasty bug (thank goodness for teenagers that shut off your firewall and anti-virus to play games on the net) and finally decided to put it out of it's misery (the computer not the teenager). Well Congrats again, good luck with the training and maybe we'll run into eachother on the Hill sometime (just hopefully not you in a helo and me in my worktruck).

Keith

P.S. The Apache does have wheels, no need for hover taxi.

Hey Jon,

   It won't take long and you too will be like that masterful IP you have that can hover the machine with one fingertip on the top of the cyclic.  Great to hear that you are finally in the seat and having the time of your life. Let me know when your Solo day is and I'll try to take a "training flight" to Cairns.  Drop me an e-mail and let me know how you are doing.  Stay safe and have fun.

Solo on Monday.  Got a little behind due to weather and some difficulties that my stick buddy's having with his size (6'4 300lbs!).  Getting left seat checkout tomorrow and I MAY get to go then, but will probably go Monday.  Hope the winds hold out for us! 

Now if I could only find the autorotate button.....

Good luck to you Jon, let us know how it goes.

PS autorotation button is right next to the hover button

    No confirmation here. However, reliable military sources have told me that F-16's were scrambled from Eglin to check out an erratic blip showing up on the screens in southern Alabama!