Learning to Fly
BEGIN IN AN AIRPLANE
This advice is only valid if you are interested in learning to fly both types of vehicles. If you only plan on flying a helicopter, there is no need to spend the additional time and expense to also learn to fly an airplane; just stick with the chopper. If you are considering learning the skill to fly both airplanes and helicopters, consider starting with the airplane first.
It might sound strange seeing as how I've already discussed how superior helicopters are to airplanes, but there are a few reasons to consider training first in an airplane and then moving on to a helicopter. The first is expense. A private airplane on average costs about $75.00 per hour to rent. Compare this to the $200 per hour rental cost of a helicopter. This will lessen a considerable amount of stress when it comes to the harrowing task of learning to land. Knowing less money is on the line will take much pressure out of the experience, ensuring a greater chance of success.
Also, as I have mentioned before, we as a society understand airplanes better than helicopters. We have much more cultural experience with them, even if we haven't flown in one ourselves, through literature and television and movies. This means it is simpler to grasp the concepts of flying an airplane than it is a helicopter.
One of the main reasons to start with airplanes first is the amount of time required to gain your license. The FAA requires that those seeking a helicopter pilot's license spend 40 hours in the air, but students usually end up spending about 60 hours before they are capable enough to get their license. A new pilot must learn plenty of new skills in addition to the actual operation of the helicopter: all the rules and regulations, how to read charts and understand airspace, how to talk on the radio, how to navigate when on a cross-country flight. Add to this the actual flying of the helicopter and you see it is a substantial amount of time dedicated to learning to fly.
Now, if you are already a certified airplane pilot you already know these things. The only thing you need to pick up is the actual flying of the helicopter. The FAA therefore lessens the required hours for flight prior to gaining your license down to 30, and students are mostly able to pass their checkride with about 40 hours of flight time under their belt.
THE ROBINSON R22
The vehicle you will most likely learn on will be the R22, a helicopter designed by Frank Robinson as a light commuter craft for traveling from country homes to city places of work. The helicopter is fast, light, and virtually maintenance-free. It's the perfect commuting vehicle, except that those he designed it for didn't want it; the rich prefer to sit in traffic in their luxury SUVs rather than fly easily to their offices.
The result was that the world's cheapest helicopter went unnoticed by the public, but not by the flight schools. The schools snapped up Frank's creation, something he had not designed them for. There were a few things he probably would have changed about the chopper had he known what they would end up being used for. For instance, a higher inertia rotor system might have been added to allow for a greater gap between the student's slower reaction times and the vehicle responses. An important note about the R22: it can only carry 400 lbs. This means that you probably want to pass on the fast food as you're preparing to learn to fly.
CHOOSING YOUR SCHOOL
When looking for a school to teach you how to fly a helicopter, most students look at the price tag. Price is important, but there are a few other things you should consider as well. First, make sure they have more than one helicopter available for training. There are several conditions that can affect whether or not you will be able to fly: unfavorable weather, an unavailable instructor, a vehicle being down for maintenance, or a helicopter being scheduled by another student. Therefore you want to take as many of these issues out as possible. Look for a school that has at least three training helicopters and two instructors.
Instructors for helicopter training should be relaxed and comfortable, even with students who make lots of mistakes. Tension in your trainer will only make you flight worse, not better. Also, the best instructors will be able to talk you through a maneuver yourself rather than having to put their hands on the controls and show you themselves. Once you've learned the basics - how to hover and fly straight-and-level-I suggest taking a lesson with each instructor at your school to find the one that fits your personality the best. A really good instructor will help you learn faster, which will save you money in the long run.
A strategy you might consider is the use of multiple instructors. You might for instance select an instructor who has less flight time logged but explains things well for those basic techniques and then switch to a more experienced trainer for the complicated maneuvers. Those maneuvers that require more skill, and therefore more training, include 180-degree autorotations, slope operations, throttle chops, and hover autorotations over anything other than a smooth paved surface.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: LEARNING ON THE GROUND
The Robinson R22 has been crashed by so many students that all kinds of legal preventatives have cropped up. In order to even sit in an R22 you must first log hours in ground instruction. A lot in the ground lesson will be about energy management. A helicopter has three kinds of energy it uses when it flies. There is the potential (altitude,) the kinetic (forward speed,) and angular momentum (blade speed.) A lot of your safety while flying a helicopter deals with managing these three types of energy. When you fly an airplane there is much more leeway when something goes wrong. You have a greater amount of time to adjust, since you have the chance to coast without the engine running while you try to figure out the problem. Not so with a helicopter. If the blade speed shifts even ten or fifteen percent off its norm you have only a few seconds before your flying vehicle becomes a falling one. In a R22 this time is only about a second and a half. In the larger helicopter models this time might be extended by a couple of seconds due to the greater weight of the blades, but this is still a narrow margin for error. This is why training on the ground about ways to deal with these issues is so very important.
YOUR FIRST TIME IN THE AIR
Once you have logged your ground instruction hours you will still spend about half an hour or so in a preflight checklist around the helicopter to make sure everything is up to snuff. If it's a nice day out you'll probably remove the doors to ensure you have cool, comfy first flight. If this is the case do yourself a favor and empty out your pockets. There is no worse embarrassment than losing your wallet your first time up.
The majority of your time during your first lesson will be spent hovering. Although this isn't the most exciting exercise, it is very important. It usually takes about five hours of practice before you master hovering, so don't expect miracles your first time out. It's frustrating, but you'll get there, I promise.
One of the most seductive things about learning to fly a helicopter is the image of landing in your own backyard, stepping out as the blades slow to a stop, and walking up to your back door, your commute completely traffic-free. As nice an image as this is, learning to hover is best done with plenty of space, usually a runway where you have room to waver as you practice. Another reason to practice at an airport is access to services. If you run out of fuel, you'll need someplace to top up the tank. Many large airports will allow you space to practice your hovering away from major traffic routes, and will be there if anything goes wrong.
Just about every instructor will start by giving you only one control to master at a time. They will handle the cyclic and collective pitch, while you focus on the antitorque pedals. In this way you can practice pedal turns. When you are comfortable with this one piece of the puzzle then they will switch out and give you practice with the collective while they take the cyclic and the pedals. Now you can practice going up and down. Perhaps you will land. The last step is taking over the cyclic. Remember that you fly with pressures not with movements, be very light on the controls and they will respond with what you need.