Finally got to take the controls of a helicopter (good weather and the part-time instructor’s schedule aligned). Joris climbed us to 1500′ and handed over the controls. Straight-and-level: easy. Climbs and descents: move collective a bit. Turns at 60 knots: easy. Apparently flying a Diamond fixed-wing airplane is good preparation for helicopter work because one flies with pressure on the stick rather than movement of the stick. Then we went to Minuteman airport. I descended to pattern altitude and entered a left downwind for 21. Joris took the controls and brought us to a point 5′ above the unused grass 12-30 runway.
Joris suggested that I try one control at a time, while he worked the other two to compensate. Pedal turns: doable. Controlling altitude with the collective: doable. Controlling horizontal position with the cyclic: fell apart into lethal oscillations within 2 seconds (literally; try after try after try).
I was apprehensive about getting into an unfamiliar machine but never felt scared when in flight, despite the fact that we’d removed the doors for a better view. Before my pilot-induced oscillations got too dramatic I would hear “I have the controls” in my headset. Joris is a great instructor so if you live in the Boston area and have some spare time (and $190/hour) on a Saturday or Sunday, a visit to East Coast Aero Club at Bedford (Hanscom) is highly recommended.
It looks so easy to hover a helicopter and yet it is impossible for 99.9% of beginners.
Food for thought (category: how much smarter people were way back): Igor Sikorsky invented the helicopter and then taught himself to fly it. Taught himself.
> taught himself
better: taught himself AND LIVED.
I had my first flying lesson (in an airplane, though) on Wednesday — and it was most certainly a great experience. I’ve described it in my weblog.
The price for my hour in a plane in Dublin − by the way − was pretty much the same at €145/hour.
Allright, it seems I’m unable to remember my own web address. It should be my weblog.
Steffen: You might want to ride with a different instructor. Straying into controlled airspace is not a normal thing to do on a flying lesson. Nor are slips normal for a first lesson. [You might want to come to the U.S., by the way, where a typical flight school charges $60-70 for an hour of time in a fixed-wing airplane such as a Cessna 152 or a Diamond Katana.]
Yeah, out West (Oregon) I got lessons for $50 an hour plus gas costs in a Cessna 152; this was in 2000.
Hmm… Straying into controlled airspace is bad. He should have steered you away from it well before getting near… is that what he was doing, or were you actually in controlled airspace?
But being in controlled airspace and doing slips are not bad, not even in a first lesson. It’s all in how the instructor presents it.
I’m not an instructor, but I hope to be one sooner or later. At this point, I’d say one of the big jobs of the instructor in the first lesson or two is making sure the student is comfortable and having fun. Steffen’s viewpoint was, “Fly was SO cool,” so the guy did a good job as far as that goes.
If my girlfriend wanted to learn to fly (she doesn’t 🙁 ), he would have had to do things differently. He’d need a much nicer day, not to fly quite so close to other aircraft, not used slips, avoided bumpiness, and generally had a very nice, but boring flight. That’s the kind of thing that reassures people. Of course, if you know the person pretty well, then maybe you can step outside of that tight box and show more of the capabilities of the plane….
BTW, here’s another vote for getting your pilot’s license in the States: $57 rental of a Cessna 152 at KBJC, right along the front range of the Colorado Mountains. Beautiful. That’s where I did it.
Rudy
(not crossposted to steffen’s blog, I couldn’t get the system to log me in.)
I recently attended a presentation by silverstatehelicopter.com (one of the ten worse websites). They made an interesting and even compelling presentation — they are a flight school, but not really. What they claim to be is a rapidly growing helicopter operator — tourism, air taxi, lift, … an operator that needs pilots and that believes their competitive advantage lies in training their own pilots themselves.
Intriguingly, they claim that since 1997, the helicopter industry outlook has turned 180 degrees in many ways. Prior to 1997, there were no job openings. Since 1997, Vietnam era pilots have been retiring at upwards of 7,000 per year, and they are not being replaced my newer military pilots. The reason is twofold: one, the military is not cranking out as many pilots as they had been, and two, the military (apart from special ops), doesn’t fly anything similar to what civilians use: smaller Bells, Robinsons, Schweizers, …. The other revolution in the industry outlook has been that for whatever reason, (I’m thinking good economy, they were somehow attributing this to 9/11) since 1999 business has been booming in for helicopter manufacturers and vendors.
In short they claim, there is now a shortage of commercial helicopter pilots.
It’s very serendipitous then, because they are training pilots! In fact, they will get you a school loan that doesn’t need to start being repaid until 18 months later. Presumably in those 18 months with them, they take you on a 2-3 times per week basis through your private, commercial, and instructor certifications. And you’ll get about 150-200 hours for your money and experience in Robinson, Schweizers, and maybe some in a Bell. They will not guarantee to hire you, but they would like to….
So upside: no loan payments until you have a job, and a reasonable shot at a job with them. Downside: no job and a $40K loan.
It sounded very interesting, and they had about a dozen of the best painted, cleanest aircraft I’ve ever come across (no doubt the Las Vegas Tourist economy demands clean well painted aircraft). (The Schweizer 300s all had some seal leaking oil around the rotors.)
Philip, have you heard anything to backup/refute their two claims: there is a pilot shortage and the business outlook is good for the operators? What publications or sources would you look to to research these claims?
Jerry: My flight school’s difficulty in finding an instructor points to a commercial helo pilot shortage of sorts. On the other hand the corporate jet pilots that I meet at FBOs sometimes tell me that they were military helo pilots and went fixed wing because there were a lot more jobs. Basically as a jet airplane pilot you are banking on (a) Americans wanting to visit their Aunt Martha, and (b) American shareholders continuing to pay for corporate executives flying to their vacation houses in Gulfstreams. It would be foolish to bet against these trends.
I can’t see any similarly powerful trends buoying up the market for helo pilots.
That said, if flying a helicopter is what you love to do and you work hard at it you can probably eventually get a job. Probably you would get to return to base and your comfy home every night, unlike the corporate jet pilots. But probably you’d also have to expect a substantially reduced lifetime income.
Eh, who knows. I suspect I’m too old (a few years older than you) to get a job as a corporate pilot. I found it interesting that at the helicopter presentation said the prime age they were looking for was late 20s to late 40s. For teaching!
Another interesting aspect to this all is that as tech jobs flee the country, service jobs will remain, and being able to outsource piloting to a Bombay based beowulf cluster is still years away, so having a pilot job as a sideline, side career, then fulltime career… could be a useful career parachute, so to speak.
hi, im interested in the pilot to heli ratio of silverstate. i attended the seminar myself, it was a good one, but with helicopter jobs being seasonal i’m a bit worried about working as a helo pilot with 40k loan and not being able to sustain the number of working hours the presentor/president was talking about in the seminar. can somebody help me on this one. ty and have a nice day.
I just attended a Silver State Seminar. He stated he needs 4 pilots available per air craft. He is expanding to the other side of the rockies. Or at least attempting to. I am glad I found this website, it has helped me to step back and formulate some questions, if I should get a call back on my application. There were 650 attendees for 80 class positions. The cost is now up to 51K after finishing the school. Thats a pretty big jump since Anthony’s mail dated 9/3/04.
I just missed the seminar but have a cd coming from Silverstate after calling them. They gave me their web address to download a application from ,I have a question for you guys of knowledge ! Im a type 2 diabetic with neuropathy and are prescribed morphine for the pain control. It does not affect my balance or cordination but would it stand in the way of receiving a pilots license ? And what about Felony’s ? any help on these areas would be appreciated. nwscootertramp@aol.com
I just missed the seminar but have a cd coming from Silverstate after calling them. They gave me their web address to download a application from ,I have a question for you guys of knowledge ! Im a type 2 diabetic with neuropathy and are prescribed morphine for the pain control. It does not affect my balance or cordination but would it stand in the way of receiving a pilots license ? And what about Felony’s ? any help on these areas would be appreciated. nwscootertramp@aol.com