Helicopter Check Ride Part 10 Flight Training Struggles
Aug 15, 2017Helicopter Check Ride Part 10 Flight Training Struggles
Helicopter Check Ride Part 10 Flight Training Struggles
One of our members contacted me last night. She was all excited because she just got a 95% on her written test. I just flat out asked her, "How much do you think Online Ground School helped you on passing the written test?"
She said, "It helped a bunch. I would definitely recommend it for anybody else when working on his or her written test. There is so much information in there and a lot of it is stuff that you're going to see on the written."
Kenny Keller has authored 7 books that have been a huge help to the aviation community. Check them out here by clicking these words: Amazon #1 best seller Kenny Keller
A quote from two members that passed their Check-Ride:
"Hey Kenny,
Just wanted you to know that I passed my private add on. With your course, the Check-Ride was a breeze. Thank you very much for putting together a very unique program and providing support to all of this generation of pilots. Good work!"
"Kenny,
Passed add on Check-Ride, oral 100%. Examiner commented best hover auto ever. Thanks for your training. It has been very helpful. Tell your students to practice headings and altitude hold. My examiner wanted that to be precise with standard turns. Now that I have a license, I will continue to monitor your videos, if that's okay, to keep myself sharp."
That is okay by me, that is what they are there for. Many of our members are already rated pilots working on commercial, working on CFI, and some private owners that use our training to help keep fresh in certain areas. All the members at this time are lifetime members, so the training's here anytime they need it.
Member Responses:
I asked our members, "What is your biggest hurdle you face while you are working towards your helicopter rating? We know for most it is normally the ground knowledge, but we would like to know more specifics. Please tell us in detail what you feel is your biggest concern? You can answer with as much information as you like, brief is ok too!" and these are their responses.
"When I did my Check-Ride the emphasis on weather and all the PT required weather charts and what they mean. How long they are valid, and what their purpose for all are under talked about. Weather is something all pilots have to have good grasp on for their entire training and career. I have a good start to grasping that at the private level could always be helpful. They sneak up on yaw...that's what I remember the most."
"How to get through my check-ride was by biggest hurdle. Not so much the Oral but the practical. Once done I realized what the examiner wanted was the knowledge that whatever happened I would be safe."
"Time management. Full time job, a home life. This can lead to you making tough decisions on staying with the priority of reaching the goal you set."
"Navigation. The actual flying is the easy part for me, it’s when you’re flying to a set point and then all of sudden have to change course to another location."
"Working toward my PPL license in Hungary, my biggest challenge was to define my circle of competence. Knowing what I am capable of and not capable of doing under certain set of conditions such as wind strength, changing weather and traffic, and making the go no-go decision or go around decision. I often was not sure if I am being too cautious or too aggressive in my decision making because I didn’t have reference to compare it to, I.E. not enough experience and confidence. This is why this website is a gold mine. Reference the ground knowledge. I was often struggling to distinguish between the more theoretical knowledge and the things that I really need to know in order to fly safe. For example you learn a lot about the piston engine but no one including the POH of the Schweizer 300 tells you what you should do when oil pressure is down and you see black smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. I needed to dig out these kinds of situations from other sources. Hope this helps. Thanks and keep up the great work you are doing."
Helicopter Check Ride Part 10 Flight Training Struggles
"Fear of the Check-Ride with examiner, knowing they have 18,000 hours and I’m to try and believe my passenger is just a newbie. Your ground school is very helpful. I can go over it as much as needed. I believe it helped me with my autos. Thanks my Check-Ride was a success!"
"Several things come to mind as hurdles. First is the tremendous cost of becoming a rotorcraft pilot. This is the underpinning to all the training because, of course, without the cash the skids don't leave the ground.
That aside, the full spectrum of all the required knowledge can be a bit daunting. But you are looking for specifics, no doubt, so let's focus on one or two."
"Weather. There is no factor in aviation with so many changing variables as weather. We have charts and websites and METARs, etc. So much information at our fingertips and it might as well be written in Greek sometimes. This is an area that gave me particular problems. The solution? Study. One page at a time if you have to, but study. It does get easier, like learning to read when you were a kid. Power management is another area that gave me fits. That takes stick time, pure and simple. So, go flying."
And finally a comment from a new student needing help getting "off the ground," so to speak, with his training...
"Hey Kenny,
I am brand new to flying. I want to know where to begin; to have a set curriculum from helicopters 101 then 201 and so on. That’s boring for advanced guys, but for me it’s really helpful to track my progress and reach my goals. I’m also limited to android phone and library internet computer access at this time. I do appreciate your positive attitude and motivation...it is really inspirational. Thanks!"
Thank you for all your feedback! I will try to address each of these struggles and help everyone as much as I can.
Next, we are going to talk about some of the helicopter-training struggles you guys and girls have been sending in.
No. 1: Weather Helicopter Training
Weather has been coming up as the top one. Moving forward, I am assuming that might change a little bit, but right now weather keeps popping up. For example, one member said,
“When I did my Check-Ride, the emphasis on weather and all the PTS that required weather charts, what they mean, how long they are valid, and what the purpose for all are, are under talked about.”
Weather is something all pilots have to have a good grasp on for their entire training and career. A good start to grasping that at the private level could always be helpful. They sneak up on you and that is what I remember the most. There is no factor in aviation with so many changing variables as weather.
We have charts, websites, METARs etc., so much information at our fingertips, and it might as well be written in Greek sometimes. This is an area that gave me particular problems. I totally get that. Weather is kind of a pain but it is very important.
It is all a part of the go, no-go decision. Making the decision whether you should even fly or not, and those decisions aren’t always easy. So what we do have coming up for you is a 600-page presentation on weather that we are putting together, and it is overwhelming. It is going to be overwhelming for me to get through all of it and get it all recorded. I know it took a long time for the editor of this book to create the weather power point presentation slides. That is the next project because that is what everybody is asking for.
Meanwhile I want to talk about some of the tools we have now in our arsenal for checking weather, and the Fore-flight, which I have been using recently. I am sure there are others out there, and have had people make suggestions on what I should try. Fore-flight is just the one I know many people were using and the one I picked. I have been somewhat slow on the technology end of things.
I’ve been old school and been wanting to stick to the old ways of doing everything, but now that I’ve gotten myself a mini iPad, I’ve started using it and started using the Fore-flight. I realized how cool this thing really is.
In real time, you can pull up an airport and quickly see there is a bunch of green, there’s some yellow. "Hmmm I was going to fly that way. I guess I better pay a little more attention here and see what is going on."
You can look at the map and have a quick view of the weather. You can go to a specific airport, get your METARs and TAFs, and pull those up. This is cool because it gives you a simple breakdown. You can get the TAFs, you can get the METARs, and it seems like a really cool weather tool to just be able to use on the fly. I am just learning how to use this, but it is cool. Click on the corner and you have dew point spread, temperature, visibility, surface wind, ceiling, sky coverage, lightening, obstacles; etc.
Really cool stuff! I am glad I finally jumped onboard and started learning how to use the weather on the iPad. So while we are putting together this new weather presentation, we do have about a 20 minute weather presentation that is in preflight preparation tab under weather information. We do have that you can look at right now and we’ve got another big weather presentation coming up. We want to keep those comments coming in. We will keep tallying them up so we know what the biggest problems are and we will work down the list.
No. 2: CFI Issues
Number 2 is complaints about helicopter CFIs. The following are some of our members' feedback!
“Yep the ground portion was the hardest. I had many different instructors and they were all impatient; didn’t want you to ask questions. Once an instructor learns it they think it is easy and they forget how they struggled to learn it all. I think the general attitude of the CFI is the biggest hurdle. Most places require you to teach and the CFIs feel like they are doing time until they can get out of there. I can’t wait to be a CFI because I plan on having a different attitude that is why being able to watch the videos was helpful. I can watch them over and over until I understood the concept without a cranky CFI.”
“My biggest concern is obtaining foundational knowledge. All my fixed wing and now helicopter training instructors were there to build hours for their future jobs. They did not really want to spend much time on ground training. Students are forced to compile their own study course and hope it will get them through the oral examination. I especially see this as I begin organizing my son’s flight education.”
That is a common problem and I can understand where the CFIs are coming from too. I have been that route. I played the game; new instructor, gung ho and you go out and start doing the job but soon you realize you are working for peanuts and you are going to have to work all these hours and get all this time under your belt before you can even get a decent paying job.
That is where a lot of the frustration comes from with helicopter CFIs. I did the same thing when I was new and got frustrated over time and could not wait to get to the next job, and the next job. Then I did the EMS thing for five years, along with everything else. Now I’ve kind of made the full circle back to instructing again. All these years later this is what I enjoy doing.
This is what I like to do. I like to teach. I like to go out in the aircraft and do emergency procedures. Take somebody from off the street and then help him or her get to the point where they are a rated pilot. In turn, that is why we developed helicopter online ground school.
Many places have great ground school programs and that is good; some places not so much. We are here if you want added help or if you are at a school where you are just not really getting any ground.
Sometimes intructors say, “Here’s the book, read it.” If you are not happy with your CFI, you always have the option of getting another CFI, or changing flight schools, if that is what you have to do. It is your money, it is your training, and you have the right to get quality ground instruction. It is that simple.
No. 3: Landing
The next struggle many students have is landing. At first, I was somewhat surprised. Then, when I think about it, I can remember when I first got started; I struggled with landings as well. I think takeoffs were a little easier to pick up than what landing is.
One member said, "Knowing what I am capable of and not capable of doing under certain set of conditions such as wind strength, changing weather and traffic, and making the go, no-go decision, or go around decision."
One that comes up a lot is, "The last 100 feet of autorotation."
Another member also brought up a very common struggle stating, "Confined area landings are tough because they, by nature, are confining. It can be intimidating to land amongst the trees and wonder if you have the power available to get back out of the hole you've put yourself in." This is a very good one, but we will come back to that in a minute.
Other members have stated landing problems such as, "Weather and landing with no power," and, "Landing with no power or engine," and, "Pedal, power, push, when I'm landing, it just seems counter intuitive."
First, let's start with the general landing. I've trained with some good people, I've had some awesome instructors, and all I've done is take the things that they've taught me and use them when I am in the aircraft teaching people.
The things that come to mind are, first, you have to have a good set up. If you set it up nice, it is going to be nice. If you enter it sloppy, then it is probably going to be sloppy the rest of the way down. That is the first tip.
The next thing that comes to mind is to remember collective controls your angle, and cyclic controls your speed. Learning the coordination between those controls on the approach is the key.
When you first get your approach set up, you should have an imaginary line from the nose of the aircraft down to the spot where you are landing. The whole time you are coming in, you will be adjusting that collective up and down; just little movements to try to stay on that line as you are approaching your landing spot.
The next thing to pay attention to is your speed. It should always look like you are approaching those numbers at the same speed. As you start out, most likely, you are going to be at around 60. It might be 50, it might be 70, depending on what you're flying. We will use 60 for an example. You want to slow the aircraft down from the very beginning all the way down to the end. It should be a slow progression, meaning if you start at 60, by the time you get down to the end, you're going to be at zero. You want to gradually slow the aircraft down the whole time that you're coming in.
Some instructors teach a faster approach. If you are flying the faster approach, that takes more work when you get down to the end because you are coming in fast. Then you have to put a flare on it, and level it back out. Then you are changing power, you are changing your pedal settings, and you might have to mess with the throttle. That is what makes these landings a lot harder. If you use the style of approach where you come in slower, if you do it right, and you come in nice and slow, all those changes are going to be very minute, making a nicer approach.
I know some instructors like to argue and say, "Oh, but, you got to keep that speed all the way almost to the end because of the height velocity diagram."
The high velocity diagram is not geared for landing; it is geared for takeoffs. If you are gradually slowing the aircraft down the entire approach, it just makes the end of the approach so much easier.
Say you start your approach at 60. You have your angle, you start flying it down, you want to slow to 55, then to 50, then 45 etc., at the end you are just coming in slow, very nice and level. Your changes are very small with your controls. I think that is a big key.
Let's talk next about our member who said making the no-go decision or a go around decision. This is one I want to elaborate on. This falls back to setting the approach up nice. If you come around, and let's say you turned a little tight, your airspeed was a little off, and you're trying to fix it all prior to starting your approach. If you enter it sloppy, it will be sloppy all the way down. It's best just to say, "You know what? I'm going to go around and set it up again."
Make your radio call, pull in the power, go around and set it up again. There is nothing wrong with that. Being able to make the decision to go around, I think, is huge. I think it is something that, in general, many pilots do not go around when they should. In that respect, as far as doing a go around, if your gut is telling you to go around, just go around.
Now let's talk about the last 100 feet of autorotation. What I teach is start your flare about treetop level. Most of your handbooks usually say 50 feet. Some say 75 feet. Some say 40 feet. I like treetop level because that is just easier for me to imagine. As I am coming in on my autorotation, I can usually glance over and see the tree line. Right about now is a good time to start the flare.
When I was an instructor, I was struggling with teaching autos and I hired an older instructor to come in, go out, and work with me a little bit. The thing that he taught me was do quick stops prior to doing autorotation because that quick stop is essentially the flare that you are going to do in your autorotation. It happens faster in the autorotation, but it is essentially the same thing.
If you warm-up with some quick stops, it will help with the flare in your autorotation. The other thing that he taught me was, start with a gentle flare and, as you get closer to the ground, make it a bigger flare, a bigger flare, a bigger flare. Start gentle and keep pulling it. You judge, depending on the wind and your conditions, whether you are going to need an aggressive flare, or a more shallow flare. Many pilots pull too much too quick, and it makes it all a big mess.
Let's talk about confined area landings. This falls back to; if you are not comfortable with it, go around. Do not do it. You may choose that this landing spot is just not good. If you have a spot that you were going to try to get in, and you decide it is too dangerous or it is just too tight, then do not do it. Go find another place to land.
We did that often in the EMS environment. You go out to a call; a fire department has a spot set up somewhere. You do your high reconnaissance, and you are thinking, "Man, that's an awful tight spot." Just maybe a quarter mile down the road there is a great big, huge, empty parking lot. The people on the ground do not always see those bigger areas.
Many times we would just say, "Hey, we see your spot, but there's another spot just down the road. It is a lot more open. We're going to go land down there."
So, on the confined areas, do not be afraid to go around. Do not be afraid to abandon it and not even land there. I mean, do you have to get in that one specific spot?
It can be intimidating to land amongst the trees and wonder if you have the power available to get back out of the hole you put yourself in. I have done it where I have gone in somewhere and I was too heavy to get out. I either had to burn off fuel or have somebody get out and walk over and meet you at another landing spot. It does happen. It is one of the things that you have to really consider. Do not top off your tanks and then go fly into a confined area because you probably will not get back out. I have done it. I was not thinking.
That approach into that confined area should be really, really, slow so that you have the opportunity to stop, pull it into a hover, or you have the opportunity to just go around if you see a danger.
Maybe you see a wire in the last 100 feet that you could not see at 500 feet, or a tree, or whatever the case may be. If you are doing a nice slow approach, it gives you the option to just fly away and not make the landing.
Now let's talk about landing with no power or no engine. If you are always, using good technique and you are trying to stay over open areas, and trying to give yourself plenty of altitude, that is going to be your best way of trying to deal with that engine failure. Unless you are working on a CFI, you are not out there doing landings without an engine. You are not doing full-down autos. You should not be if you are not working on your CFI.
There is no good reason to be doing full-downs. Insurance companies do not like them because many helicopters get wrecked with guys doing full-down autos and it's just really not necessary.
In the event you lost your engine, if you have RPM, altitude, and airspeed, and you have an open area to go to, and you do it right, you are probably going to walk away. You might not even damage the aircraft.
If you really lose the engine, we do not care about the aircraft. We want you to walk away. By using good pilot technique and being in a good position, if you do have engine failure, you have somewhere to go. When you get down to the end, you are going to flare it. About 8 to 10 feet, you're going to level it out and cushion that thing onto the ground. Landing without an engine is intimidating and it can be scary.
You cannot let being worried about engine failure completely hold you back. Flying an aircraft that has good maintenance, doing good pre-flights, getting all the required maintenance, and using good pilot technique will most likely help you to survive that engine failure.
I will go back to what I was explaining earlier about the, “Pedal, power, push, when I'm landing, it just seems counter intuitive.”
If you make that approach slow, if you take your time, it makes all those things fit together a lot nicer at the end and it just makes your approach easier to fly. It looks better, and it feels more comfortable.
I really believe that slower approach is the key. I will just go back to that and add a personal experience. I can remember, when I did my private Check-Ride, I flew with an examiner who had been, you know, flying since dirt was new. The guy was really respected in the industry. He knew the young instructor I was flying with, and that this instructor taught the faster approaches.
When I performed the normal landing and we got to the end of the approach, he asked, "What did you think of that?"
I said, "Oh, I thought it was pretty good."
He says, "Wow I thought you were coming in pretty hot. I think that was way too fast." We sat and talked about it after the check-ride.
I passed and it was not a problem. He just explained to me why the slower approach was a better alternative than the faster approaches. He told me, "Hey, this is where the high velocity diagram does not pertain to landing. It is geared for takeoffs. Coming in on a landing, you have low pitch applied, low power setting, you are not working the engine as hard, it is most likely not going to quit. It could, but it's a lot more likely that it's going to quit when you're taking off and you're working that engine hard, pulling power, and you have a high pitch on the rotor blades. Most likely, that's the time when the engine will fail."
I hope that helps. Please, keep your comments coming! This is just the beginning. We really see what people are struggling with and we can continue to produce more videos, more diagrams, and just figure out ways to really help you with these different hurdles in different areas. So, keep the feedback coming and let us know what you think.
Email me your struggles at [email protected]
Helicopter Check Ride Part 10 Flight Training Struggles
Helicopter Online Ground School was founded by Kenny Keller in 2012. He is the author of "Helicopter Check-Ride", which made Amazon #1 best seller upon release. His online video courses include Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor, and Instrument Pilot. Kenny recognized a lack of quality ground training within the industry and has created a video learning platform to compliment any part 61 or 141 flight school program.
All four of these courses are FAA approved for WINGS and appear on the FAA safety website as approved online courses.
The Certified Flight Instructor membership includes access to all of the Private Pilot and Commercial Pilot videos as well, giving the Certified Flight Instructor membership over 40 hours of video to watch. The courses include information on all subject areas, to include the fundamentals of instructing.
Each course includes both practice written test questions and oral check ride questions.
Members have access to a closed Facebook group to network.
Kenny Keller shares his experience and knowledge with aspiring Student Pilots all over the World
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