Helicopter Check Ride Part 11 The Heli 3's

Helicopter Check Ride Part 11 The Heli 3's

Three Stages of a Thunderstorm

      Starting off, we are going to do the three stages of a Thunderstorm. I pretty much guarantee you a 99.9% chance that the Examiner is going to ask this on the Private Pilot Check-ride. An examiner might even ask you this on a 135 Check-ride if you are flying EMS, "What are the three stages of a Thunderstorm?”

      The answer is Cumulus, Mature and Dissipating. Commit those to memory so that you can always know it and any Check-ride that you have, BOOM, Cumulus, Mature and Dissipating.

 Helicopter Dynamic Rollover

      It is a very common mistake to mess up terminology! We all do it from time to time. The three things combined together that can get you in to Dynamic Rollover are a Pivot Point, Rolling Moment, and Exceeding the Critical Rollover Angle! The Examiner is going to ask you what are the three things that combined will lead to a Dynamic Rollover situation. 

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

     Onset of Retreating Blade Stall

      At some point, the Examiner is going to ask you, "What are three things that you will notice at the onset of Retreating Blade Stall?"

The three things that you need to know are:

·     There will be abnormal vibration

·     The nose will begin to pitch up

·     The helicopter will start a roll to the left, (in a counterclockwise rotor system)

     If you say those three answers, he may say, "Great! But why does the nose pitch up?”  The nose pitches up due to Gyroscopic Precession.

      “What is Gyroscopic Precession” may be his next favorite question. Gyroscopic Precession is when a force is applied to a spinning object. It is felt 90 Degrees later in the plane of rotation.

     These are some of the key things an Examiner might ask at a Private Pilot Check-ride, so be prepared and make sure you understand it.

Helicopter Check Ride Part 11 The Heli 3's

 The Three Types of Icing

      At some point the Examiner is probably going to ask, "What are some forms of icing?" or "What are the three main types of icing?”

      These are Rime, Clear and Mixed. In a Helicopter, do we want to fly in icing conditions? No! Do you even want to go when they are forecasting icing? No! In a Helicopter, you want to stay so clear of icing it is not even funny. Any time that you are near freezing, and it is just a few degrees above or below the freezing level, you had better be extremely careful, especially if there is moisture in the air.

     Recapping, the Three Types of Icing, when the Examiner asks you, Rime, Clear and Mixed. Commit those to memory. 

 AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETs

      Now, I want to talk about AIRMETs, SIGMETs and Convective SIGMETs. The Examiner is going to ask you about them.
     So, what are they? An AIREMET (AIRmen's METeorological Intermation) is most generally geared towards smaller aircraft, not specifically just to them, but geared for smaller aircraft. An AIRMET is an advisory of hazardous conditions, like IFR conditions, moderate turbulence, icing, and things of that nature.

     A SIGMET (SIGnificant METeorological Information) is to a broader range of aircraft and could be basically any and all aircraft. This includes things such as severe icing, severe turbulence, and things along that nature.

     Convective SIGMET is BAD weather. Like REALLY BAD weather. This includes, but is not limited to, embedded thunderstorms, hail that is 3/4 of an inch or greater, tornados. DO NOT attempt to fly in this weather, and if you are in flight, LAND!

     Those are just some quick breakdowns, but the Examiner IS going to ask you about AIRMET, SIGMET, and Convective SIGMET. Spend some time going over these and understanding the difference between the three. 

Helicopter Check Ride Part 11 The Heli 3's

 LTE: The Three Different Wind Directions

      I guarantee the Examiner is going to ask you a little bit about Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness, or LTE. A very important thing to remember is the three different wind directions relative to the helicopter that can get you into this situation.

      First is the left quartering wind from the front. It comes in and catches the vortices from the rotor system and blows them into your tail rotor.

      Next is wind from your left hand side that blows at the tail rotor. In this case, it is actually blowing its turbulence back into itself.

      Last, a wind from behind you that comes in and causes a weather vane effect. It makes the Helicopters tail want to go left and right, which makes you go back and forth on the pedals trying to control the aircraft.

     You need to know these three types of wind. I should mention, this is for a Helicopter with a counter-clockwise rotating system.

     Those three winds again, that you need to know; quartering wind from the front left, wind directly into the tail rotor, and the wind coming up from behind you. If you want to memorize the actual degrees, that would be awesome, but to me knowing the general wind directions are really important. They are what will get you into trouble.

 Three Things That Cause Settling with Power

      I have said this several times, but it's an important message. Our Examiner says, as a Helicopter Pilot, it is one of the things that will get you into trouble quicker than anything. So you have to commit this to memory; Rate of descent 300 FPM or greater, using 20 to 100% of power, and airspeed less than ETL.

      This has to be committed to memory! When I failed my first Private Pilot Check-Ride, it was one of the things I stumbled on. One thing the Examiner told me was to make sure that I know it, and I know it well, so when I am asked I can just go boom, boom, boom, Rate of Descent 300 FPM or Greater, using 20 to 100% of Power, and Airspeed less than ETL.

 Three Situations Conductive to Settling with Power

      I think it only makes sense that I talk about the three situations conductive to Settling with Power now. These are the three main situations that pilots will do to get themselves into Settling with Power.

     The first one is, attempting to hover above the hovering ceiling, which makes complete sense. If you try to hover at a point that is above the ceiling, it is not going to do it, and it is going to settle with Power.

     Number 2; hovering out of Ground Effect without precise attitude control. The example here that we all like to use is, photo flights. You are doing a photo flight, you are trying to hold a shot for the photographer and the wind is not directly off your nose. Maybe it is quartering off to the side and you are kind of paying attention to what he is doing more than what you are doing, as far as the control of the aircraft. You can get yourself into Settling with Power because you just are not as on top of the controls as you should be. Always pay attention to the controls!

     The third one, that is the most popular of the three (not that they are popular!), is Steep Approach Downwind. This sounds simple because you do not want to land downwind. However, a mistake pilots make is that you think that you know where the wind is at, but maybe the wind has changed.

      If you have gone from one airport to another, or while you have been out flying the pattern the wind has just changed and you did not realize that you were landing down wind, there is a high possibility of Settling with Power. Maybe you just did not do the best check, you start doing a steep approach, and the wind is a little bit behind you. There is a very good possibility that you are going to get into Settling with Power.

     Again, the three situations that can easily lead to Settling with Power are attempting to hover above the hovering ceiling, hovering out of ground effect without precise attitude control, and a steep approach downwind. Those are the three main ways that cause people to get into it, so you have to be careful. Use good pilot technique, and really just do not put yourself into those situations. 

 RPM, Altitude and Airspeed

     Next, let's talk about RPM, Altitude, and Airspeed; the 3 forms of stored energy. I shot a short video on this a few months ago and I wanted to hit it again because, to me, it is one of the most important things when you are out flying the helicopter or any aircraft. RPM, Altitude, and Airspeed are important because if you are using good pilot technique, and you are managing these three correctly, you are probably going to handle about any emergency or any engine failure. You just need a spot to land.

      If you are lacking in any one of those three areas, and you come across some type of emergency, the outcome may not be so good. Not only do you want to memorize RPM, Altitude and Airspeed, you also want to use those in your piloting technique, your takeoffs, landings, and pretty much everything you do. If you have all three, you are having a really good day.

 Three Elements of Rotor Blade Coning

      The 3 Elements of Rotor Blade Coning are Weight, Centrifugal Force, and Lift. I think about the helicopter when it's just sitting in the stationary position. The blade is drooping down due to the weight. As the blades start to spin and we get up to operating range, but before we pull the collective, the blade moves directly out due to centrifugal force. Then, as we apply collective and apply the lift, the blade comes up due to the weight of the aircraft being suspended by the rotor system.

      Memorize these three because the examiners going to ask, Weight, Centrifugal Force, and Lift.

 Three Types of Night

      Some of you out there never have trouble with any of these. I for one have to review this all the time because I screw it up.

First the definition of Night: The time between the end of evening civil twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight. -As published in          the American Air Almanac - converted to local time.

     The next one is, when must your aircraft position lights be on? They have to be on from Sunset to Sunrise.

     Last one, Night Currency. To be current at night in order to take up passengers in the preceding 90 days, you had to have three take offs and landings in the category and class of aircraft you want to be current in for your passengers. These 3 take offs and landings must take place one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise, as published in the American Air Almanac.

       I have always had trouble with that and I have to review it all the time. The point being, a good pilot uses his resources, you cannot remember everything. Be good with the FAR/AIM, be good at research, and know where to find your answers.

Helicopter Check Ride Part 11 The Heli 3's

 Three Different Types of Rotor Systems

      A common question the Examiner will ask on about any Check-Ride is what are the three types of Rotor Systems?

      You have the Fully Articulated, Semi Rigid & Rigid rotor systems. He will also want you to understand some of the differences in these three Rotor Systems.

      Fully Articulated blades, like on an Enstrom, can lead, lag, flap, and feather independently. Semi Rigid blades, like on the R-22 or the Jet Ranger, the blades flap as a unit and the rotor system is under slung. However, they do not lead and lag. The only thing the Rigid System can do is feather.

      Know the 3 Rotor Systems, know the differences between the 3, and know which one is on the aircraft you are flying.

 The Three Squawk Codes

      Emergency Squawk Codes! I want to make sure I cover the three Emergency Squawk Codes you NEED to memorize. You have 7500 Hijack, 7600 Radio Failure, and 7700 Emergency. I was just talking to two students about these, and some of the memory aides that were popping up were; 75 you need a 45 (if you catch my drift being hijacked). 76 get a fix, since it means radio failure; you have to fix the radio. 77; going to heaven. 

      I am also amazed sometimes with fixed wing pilots. Doing an add on when you ask them about the codes, they mix them all up all the time, even though they are not very hard. They are also easy to get confused, especially on a Check-Ride when you are nervous...same old story there.

 Three Documents

      There are three documents that you need to have with you and on your person when you go fly. These are:

 Government issued photo ID
Pilot Certificate
Medical Certificate
 

     You have to have those three things! As a Student Pilot, your Pilot Certificate and Medical Certificate are going to be the same. Include your Government Issued ID and there is all three. You have to have those things with you at all times when you are exercising your Pilot privileges.

      Commit those three things to memory, guaranteed the Examiner is going to ask you on the Check-ride as one of the first things. Memorize it and just know it. It is not super tough, but we all get nervous, and it is amazing how some things that are simple to remember become the easiest to forget. You may be well organized when you are at home or with your instructor. Then Check-Ride day comes, and you get Retreating Brain Stall. If you have not heard that yet, you will. Everybody gets it on a Check-Ride, not just some, we all get nervous.

 Three Weather Briefings

      The three Weather Briefings are Standard, Abbreviated and Outlook. 

      Let's say, I get up this morning thinking about doing a cross country flight to get some maintenance. I look out the window and see that it looks bad outside. Should I just give up there? No. Instead, I should call in, even if the weather is good, and get a Standard Briefing. The Briefer can give me detailed information about the current weather in my location, along my route, and at my destination so I can make an informed decision on when or if I can fly today.

      Let's say the Briefer and I both think the flight won't be possible, but a couple hours later I decide I would really like this maintenance done today. I can call back, and because I already called once before, I can get an Abbreviated Briefing. With an Abbreviated Briefing, I can get only the specific information I need or am curious about. I may get lucky and be able to fly today after all! Even if I was told I could fly today at the very beginning of the day, it is always good to keep updated with abbreviated briefings just in case something changes.

     Then you have your outlook briefing. An outlook briefing is for a flight that is six hours or more in the future. It is not because you want to go to the beach tomorrow, and you are just going to bug the person from flight service. You are calling about an actual proposed flight that is further than six hours into the future and you want to get a general idea about the weather and if the flight is going to be feasible or not. 

     Those are just a quick breakdown of the three types of briefings. Make sure you fully research these; this is another area the Examiner is going to ask about. You have to know these three. You have to know them for your written test; you have to know them when you are calling up flight service, and you have to have an intelligent conversation with the guy. You need to know the differences between the three and if, how, and when to use them.

 Three Things for a Flight Review

  ·     Flight Review used to be called Bi-Annual Flight Review

·     Must be a minimum of 1 hour of flight, and 1 hour of ground

·     Must be done every 24 months

      What documents you need to keep on your person, what do you need to do to keep current, what are your privileges?

      For example, what can and can't you do as a private pilot. That is all the stuff he is going to hit at the beginning of your Check-Ride. You want to be good at that stuff because you want to start your check-ride out on a good note.

 Three Things on Aborting a Helicopter Flight

      I want to get right to the point on this one. This is something we need to spend a bunch more time on, but I want to talk about something real quick. While flying EMS,

 I had the opportunity to fly a BK117 and an EC135! It was a ton of great experience, and I think one of the best things that I ever got from their training was from the chief pilot. He was a former line pilot and check airman. He told me, "If you’re flying along on an EMS flight and all of a sudden you find yourself descending and slowing down from where you want to be to feel comfortable, it's probably a pretty good time to turn around and go home."  I want to add a third on to that, if your guts telling you that too, it is a great idea!

      There are all kinds of factors that get involved in deciding when to turn around and go back, or when to land, get down on the ground, and get to a safe spot. We also have outside pressure, no matter what kind of job you are doing. It does not matter, they all have pressures and we have pressure we put on ourselves.

      Three things; and you cannot find this in any textbook anywhere, it is just something that I kind of like and tell myself. I still go back to the days when they said, if you are slowing down and you are lowering your altitude, it is a good bet that it’s time to be going home. Turn around or find a place to land. And if your gut is telling you as well, that's everything in life! Usually your gut is right!

 Three Scales on the E6B

      I want to talk about the 3 Scales on the E6B, the A, B, and C scale. When you are working through these problems, A scale is on the outside, B is in the middle and C is on the inside. Remember A is Distance, B is Minutes and C is Hours.

      I also want to point out that your equations for working out the different problems is on the E6B. So when you are with the examiner on your check-ride and you get nervous, just remember the A, B, and C scale, and your equations you need to work the problems are right there with you.

      I am not an expert at this. If I do not teach cross-country for a while and I go to show somebody, I have to sit down and review it. I don't just work with it enough to always be current and ready to go with it, but when you go on your check-ride you want to be good with it because he may say something like, "Your cross country planning looks good, but I think I want to go somewhere else now. Go ahead and pull out your E6B and figure what the changes are going to be in the time and the amount of fuel that we are going to need."

     Don't panic, and I have seen people do it. They are twirling the E6B around and they forget to look right at the equations. Keep calm and remember everything you need is right there with you for reference.

 Three Things You Notice Onset of LTE

      There are three things you need to think about. 3 Situations that can put you into the onset of Loss of Tail Effectiveness, or LTE. The first is High Gross Weight - High Density Altitude. I put those two together because you can always count High Gross Weight and High Density Altitude. Almost every single time you talk about anything bad performance wise, helicopter emergencies, or retreating blade stall anytime you have High Gross Weight - High Density Altitude. Just about anything is a concern.

     The next I want to mention is Low RPM. Anytime you let your rotor RPM fall below the top of your operating range, as your main rotor slows down your tail rotor slows down as well. This means you do not have as much tail rotor authority. You have to be careful anytime the RPM's start creeping down. This is a good reason to stay on top of that RPM and get it right back up to the top of the green range.

     And the last one is Low Air Speeds or Air Speeds Less than ETL. Or you could say Air Speed Less Than 30. Anytime you are below ETL you have to be careful. You have to be careful of out of ground effect hovers with high power demand. You have to be careful of tail winds. So these are some of the things you need to be thinking about on the LTE, and the LTE is one that maybe we don't always think about as much as we should. Helicopters do get wrecked over the LTE with guys and gals putting themselves in a bad position and not being on top of the RPM and pedal control.

     The examiner is going to ask you about LTE. He's going to want you to understand how it can happen, and what the winds are. We already covered that in one of the earlier "3's", but we will throw them in again. The first is when the wind corners from the front, with the wind blowing the vortices of the rotor system into the tail rotor.

      Next, the wind coming directly from the side, blowing the turbulence from the tail rotor back into itself.

      Last, anytime you have a tailwind, you have to stay on top of those pedals. Those three winds are the other 3 parts of the LTE that we like to talk about.

 GENTLE AFT CYCLIC!

      I was doing some ground schooling the other day with a student, and we were talking about Low G. He said, "Oh yeah Bump the Aft Cyclic,"

      I said, "No, don't bump the Aft Cyclic. Where did you get that?"

      It is Gentle Aft Cyclic. In some specific helicopters, if you made too large of an abrupt aft input, you could chop off the tail boom...not a good thing. So the recovery for a Low G situation is Gentle Aft Cyclic, then correct for the roll.

      That is pretty much the way it’s written, and that's the terminology that you should use. If you get yourself into that Low G situation, you would need first, Gentle Aft Cyclic input to reload the rotor system and then correct for the roll.

      This is one time when you do not want to use your own terminology or something that sounds close. The terminology for a recovery from low G is, Gentle Aft Cyclic. Commit that to memory!

 Three Airspeeds

      I think we should talk about the 3 Airspeeds, Indicated, True, and Calibrated. Now some people may say that is pretty simple and easy, but then again maybe it's not.

      The point we keep going back to is when you go to take your check-ride we all get nervous, and I have taken quite a few check-rides in my lifetime. The simplest things, sometimes, are the ones that come back and trip you. Some things you might have down, the complicated areas; and you might do very well on that. Then the simplest thing can completely slip through your mind when the pressure is on.
     The first one I think about is Indicated Airspeed. What is Indicated airspeed? It is what you read right off your Airspeed Indicator. If you look down and read 70 Knots, or 70 MPH, that is your indicated airspeed. 

     The next one is True Airspeed. This one I always have trouble remembering and I have to look it up. True Airspeed is your airspeed relative to the surrounding air.

     The last one is Calibrated Airspeed. Calibrated Airspeed is Indicated airspeed corrected for installation and instrument errors.

      Remember those three Airspeeds; Calibrated, Indicated, and True. Know the differences in the three and, as I said, they are not very tough. In the heat of the moment, the simple stuff can really trip a person up.

 Two Sets of Threes

      Now I am going to give you two sets of threes - double bang for your buck. The first one is geared towards any of the training helicopters and the second is going to be more for pilots flying the Enstrom.

      The first I want to talk about is a Normal Take Off. There are three things you can do to get through a normal take off without changing your power. One method of taking off, this is not absolute, but I do this this all year round. Whether its summer time, whether the performance is good or bad, we do not change the power on a takeoff.

      First set the hover power for the day and start creeping forward very slowly, so slow that it's painful. Keep that slow speed and keep building it and building it until you get to ETL.

      Once you get to ETL, push through that ETL to keep the aircraft low to the ground. Continue your take off and then once you get to around 30, (for some helicopters) and you are above ETL, you start the last step.

      Adjust your cyclic to get your climb speed. In most helicopters, you can do your entire take off and never change that power. The beauty of that is you get that airspeed for your climb, get the altitude that you want, get over a clear area and then change your power whether you need to add or lower power.

      The reason that is, they tell us, is that if you are going to have an engine failure it will most likely happen while changing power, especially if it is already on the verge. It is most likely not going to happen when the power is just at one setting. 

      This is a good procedure for doing take offs. Many people want to pull the max power, stick that nose to the ground, and take off like a mad man. That is OK, if you are not concerned about an engine failure. We prefer the slow take off that way, if you have an engine failure, the nose is straight and you can slide that thing right on the ground nice and level. If you have your nose pointed down and have an engine failure, you could possibly nose dive into the ground.

      The second one I want to throw in is a cool thing a guy in Cleveland taught me years ago. 30 and 30 make 60. If you are having a good performance day in an Enstrom, if you hold 30 inches of manifold pressure, do that slow take off, then wait until you get going. Once you are going, push through ETL. Right about 30, start your climb, then you can adjust the cyclic to give you 60 on your airspeed with a 500 feet per minute climb.

       I have done it and it is cool how it works. 30 and 30 makes 60. It is a good method to use.

 Three Things Starting your Descent

      Now I would like to talk about starting your descent in the pattern. This is another one of those things that seems like it should be fairly easy, but when you're new, trying to learn the pattern, all the different things are going on around you, it is easy to forget. When you are abeam your spot, do three things once you have everything ready and downwind checks are done along with the radio call. To start your descent abeam your spot you go; down collective, right pedal, then aft cyclic.

      If you can remember these three things, it will help you a lot when you are out there and learning the pattern. I am amazed at how many times I ask a person how they are going to initiate their descent, and many crazy answers come up. Those are the three things that you want to do; down collective, right pedal, aft cyclic.

      One interesting thing is, it seems that just about everybody at some point in his or her training forgets to push the right pedal. I say that I don't even need to be there, and all that I would need is a recorder in there that says, "Right Pedal....Right Pedal....Right Pedal!!!"  I do not know if it is the left-brain, or right brain, or what kind of a problem there is, but for some reason people do not want to push the right pedal in general. It is just an interesting fact. It is amazing how many times this issue pops up.

 Three Things for Student Pilots

      I want to discuss three things for student pilots doing their add-ons'. When you are first getting into this, there are things that you need to know if you are going to go fly. It doesn't matter where you are at.

     The first thing that I want to say is if you are going to pursue the rating, you are going to have to commit yourself to studying. You could have your instructor hand feed you all of the ground that you need, but most likely, he does not have the time to do that or does not want to do that. You are going to have a lot of studying involved, just make up your mind that right from the beginning you are going to study. You are going to have to do what your instructor tells you, what he shows you, and you are going to follow a good course of action. That is the biggest part of it. It takes a lot of self-studying.

      The next thing that I want to mention is get your medical in the beginning and get your written test out of the way. So many times students get close to solo and we harp along the way, "Get your medical and get your written done."  If we don't force you to do it, half the time you won't do it. So make up your mind that you are going to get the test prep book for the written test, study, and get that out of the way. The sooner you can put that to sleep and forget about it, the better off you are going to be. It is the same thing with the medical. Many guys wait, and they wait, and then end up holding up their solo. In time, it ends up costing you more money if you do not get that out of the way.

     This last one is another one that I have mentioned before. If your instructor is flying you more than an hour in the beginning, he is stealing your money. Now, I am not talking about cross country, I am not talking about if you have the money and after an hour of training you want to go somewhere and go grab lunch and you are willing to pay for it. That is one thing. But I just had another guy call the other day and he has 44 hours. He has not soloed and without a lot of background I said, "Well, one thing is to make sure that your instructor is not flying you more than an hour at a time in the beginning."

      "Funny that you say that," he says, "because my logbook goes 1.6 hours, 1.7, 1.8..."  Again this guy has never soloed and just done stuff in the pattern.

      I have been doing this for 15 years, and I can say 99% of everybody can only handle about an hour. You can fly longer, but you are learning curve is going to go down after that hour. When learning complex material, the human brain can only handle about an hour before it needs a break.

      The people that I am flying with now, within about 52 or 53 minutes, we are back on the dolly and shutting down because you want to end on a good note. If you go any longer than that, your performance is just going to go downhill. If you are trying to clean up some kind of an issue at the end, it is usually just going to get worse.

      There are three important messages for you guys and girls getting into this, and I just wanted to touch on that with some of the things that have come up here in the recent past. I am guilty, too, of not pushing my students as hard as maybe I should to study, and so I am turning over a new leaf now. There are times I have to come down on them a little bit...well not come down on them... but... that is one thing that I need to do is kind of kick my students in the rear just a little bit and really harp on getting the ground done. Let's hit the ground, let's get the medicals done, and let's get these other things done and out of the way and move on. 

 Three Steps on Lift to Hover

      Let's get the Enstrom fired up, and here we go! Clear on the left, clear on the right, engage the clutch. All right everybody, here we go! Three steps of a good pick up.

      The first step is to get the aircraft light on the skids. In the Enstorm we start at 2300 RPM, start letting the collective come up, and we'll hear a horn. The horns off so what I am going to do first is get the aircraft light on the skids. I am looking outside, then back inside, and once the aircraft gets light you want to pause and neutralize all movements.

      What is the nose doing? Is the nose trying to go a little bit to the left? Is it trying to pull to the right? Do you feel the nose going down or coming up? Make those adjustments once you are light. Get everything where you want it.

      Next, gently lift the aircraft up. You all get a chance to see something many of you may have never seen; the Enstrom bounce. That is what the Enstrom does when you get it light; it starts bouncing around and some people want to rush through a pick up because they do not want to feel that bounce. It is just part of flying an Enstrom, and it is not really a big deal.

      Now the other thing I want to mention is when I was training to be a pilot, I flew with a young CFI. He did a great job. Every so often, I had to fly with the senior guy, and he would always kind of come in, kick your butt, whip you in to shape, and make sure that the younger guy was doing what he was supposed to.

      He said, "You've got to be careful lifting this thing up."  He called it a two-step process. Get the aircraft light in the skids, pause, neutralize, and then gently lift the aircraft into the air. I have never forgotten him saying, "Experienced pilots roll these helicopters over from not using a good process picking the aircraft up and rushing the pickup.

 Three Things You Must Enter In Your Log Book

      The PTS explains that during the beginning of the Check-Ride under Area of Operation Preflight Preparation the first thing that is going to come up is these three things:

 ·     Pilot Certificate Privileges and Limitations

·     Medical Certificate Class and Duration

·     Pilot Logbook or Flight Records

      Of these, we are going to talk about what you log or put in your Pilot Logbook. I was doing ground school with one of my students one morning and he says, "Do I have to log every single hour?"

     That is a great question! That comes up in Check-Rides all the time and this is one that is easy to pass over. What do you have to log in your logbook? One of them that come to mind immediately is that you have to have your currency for passengers, any flight that you did in the preceding 90 days, and to make sure you are legal to take up passengers. This must be logged in your logbook.

      Second, you have to have your flight review in your logbook.

      Third, you also have to have any of your requirements you need for whatever specific rating you are going for.

      You MUST enter those three things in your Pilot Logbook. If you are not going for a specific rating and you are not going for anything special, there would be times that you would not have to log it. However, if you are going to be a career pilot then of course you want to log every single hour of flight time that you legally can.

 Three Definitions

 Angle of Attack: The angle between the chord line of the airfoil and the direction of the relative wind.

Chord Line: The line going down the center of the rotor blade from the leading edge of the rotor blade to the trailing edge of the rotor blade.

 Relative Wind: The flow of air in respect to the rotor blade. 

      Commit these to memory! The examiner is going to ask you about these three things, we know that for sure!

 Smooth Control Inputs

      I want to end this chapter with the three key terms for learning to fly helicopters. These key terms will help perfect your maneuvers. They are Smooth Control Inputs. Remember those three words! Everything we do in the helicopter is Smooth Control Inputs. There is never any reason of any kind to jerk any of the controls abruptly in the helicopter, even with the emergency stuff we do. Everything is nice and smooth!

     One example is quick stops. I've had one of my instructors early on say we should probably call them slow stops, not quick stops, because that gives you the impression that you have to yank the cyclic back and jerk the collective around. That is not the case. The true trick to learning to fly these things is Smooth Control Inputs.

      That is like the quick stop. Even though you quickly decelerate the helicopter, the control inputs should still be smooth.

     You cannot go in with the mentality of, "I'm going to get a monster grip...I'm going to forget to breathe."  You have to psyche yourself up and say, "I know these are the things I'm going to do, but I'm going to work hard to fighting those off."

 Really, the trick to getting through the training, and to save some money, headache, and heartache, is to just go in with the attitude, "I have to use Smooth Control Inputs."  Those really are the three key terms and I have thought that for many years.

      That is what people have so much trouble with, learning that light touch. We joke all the time about, "use the force Luke," and one of my students has his Yoda Tree he focuses on when he is trying to hover. He finds his tree and we have a lot of fun with it because it is true what they say sometimes. It is more like you are willing it to move than actually moving it.

Helicopter Check Ride Part 11 The Heli 3's

Are you missing out on our free podcast collection?

Let Helicopter Online Ground School help you with all of your ratings! We have four FAA certified courses, Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Instrument Pilot, and Certified Flight Instructor. We have a bundle pack called Professional Pilot Lifetime Membership, which includes all this for life.

Any course completion will automatically award WINGS phase credits and you are on your way to satisfying the flight review requirement.