Leap

[maximus]

Well I took the big leap today. I tooked my first flight in an R-22. It was amazing. Hovering was like flying on ice. I got a good handle of things by the end of the flight. It was really neat tracking a course while turning the helicopters heading.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Well I took the big leap today. I tooked my first flight in an R-22. It was amazing. Hovering was like flying on ice. I got a good handle of things by the end of the flight. It was really neat tracking a course while turning the helicopters heading.

Geez, when did you go for this flight? 2AM?!? You posted at 5 in the morning...

Good for you... I still have yet to take my first helicopter flight--afraid what it might do to my already decimated budget.

 

[RotaryWingBob]

Well I took the big leap today. I tooked my first flight in an R-22. It was amazing. Hovering was like flying on ice. I got a good handle of things by the end of the flight. It was really neat tracking a course while turning the helicopters heading.

Good for you! We'll make a rotorhead out of you yet

Learning to hover is, for most of us, difficult. When it finally clicks it's almost like you're just a bystander -- your feet and hands are doing what they need to by themselves. It actually becomes effortless.

I had lunch the other day with the CFI who taught me to fly helicopters (and who has something like 6,000 hours, mostly in Hueys). I made the comment that when people ask me which is harder to fly -- fixed-wing or helos -- I answer fixed-wing. But I told hime that I couldn't figure out whether helicopters really are easier or whether it's simply because I like helicopters better. He told me he thought they really are easier -- no GUMP or any of that stuff -- but that he thought it was harder to learn to fly rotary-wing than fixed.

It's pretty much true too, that if you can fly a Robinson, you can fly just about anything, including turbines.

Let us know how your training goes!

 

[Everskyward]

I still have yet to take my first helicopter flight--afraid what it might do to my already decimated budget.

You're right to be worried. BTDT.

 

[RotaryWingBob]

Good for you... I still have yet to take my first helicopter flight--afraid what it might do to my already decimated budget.

It's true, you know, Troy.

That's why all helicopters are placarded:

WARNING! The Surgeon General has determined that rotary-wing flight is highly addictive!

 

[TDKendall]

I'll take a Bell 47G, thanks!