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First Flight in a Turbine.

My first flight in a turbine helicopter was on 2 Feb 1995. It was in a Bell UH-1H out of Lowe Army Heliport. My instructor's name was Gary Southwell, and we were Defender flight. The green hat class.

Not only was that my first flight in a turbine helicopter, it was my first flight in any helicopter.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember the smell of jet exhaust, the slowly growing whine of the turbine as the engine started, and the excitement and anticipation I felt knowing that I was about to take this big green beast into the wild blue over Lower Alabama. It was a pretty amazing experience.

All of my helicopter time is in Turbine aircraft. I am eagerly awaiting the day that I take the controls of a piston Helicopter for the first time. I know, I'm going about it all backwards, but thats about the story of my life.

Unfortunately, I do not have any CFI ratings, so pretty much the only way I'd be able to fly a piston helo is to rent one on my own dime, but I dont have any dimes that big just yet. I'll get there tho, some day.

When the day comes, I will gladly tell my story of what it was like to fly a piston helicopter for the first time after years of flying turbines. Its the opposite of what you asked, but I think my excitement about flying a piston bird is almost equal to a piston pilot's eagerness to get into a Kerosene burner.

On Flight Problems

In my whopping 3200 hours, I've had a few "Aw Hell"'s in helicopters, but have thankfully (knock on wood) not yet had to exhibit in public my supreme expertise (ha!) in the art of the Autorotation.

In the Huey I've had:

"Flight Control Malfunction" - This is what they call it when one rotor blade decides it no longer wants to play and starts to depart the aircraft, albeit very slowly. The maintenance pilot said I could have flown at least another 3, maybe even 4 minutes before I got Blew Blades (One blew this way, one blew that way).
Landed in the Santa Fe Rail Yard in Barstow, CA, got the attention of some visiting hobos, and wound up spending the night guarding the aircraft from the relative warmth and comfort of a large Gov't van, with a borrowed Great Dane (Dog) and an Beretta 9mm Pistol (I Think the Pistol was to shoot the dog if he became romantically inclined at 3am).

Compressor Stall - A REALLY loud "BANG" coming from the back of the aircraft, accompanied simultaneously with an uncommanded left yaw, and then a strange look from the co-pilot as I lowered the collective and made a running landing in the desert (We were only at 15' agl when it happened). This gave us the opportunity to admire the Mojave Desert landscape, in August, for a good 4 hours until the Maintenance pilot arrived.

High Side Governor Failure - The engine and rotors get really loud, and start going really fast, so we put the Governor in Manual Override, and landed. Just like we were taught.

Drooping Rotor RPM - Caused by my inattention to detail and checklists, and a co-pilot who was anxious to get into the fight. Oh yeah, and we were 10' agl in a complete brownout, heading towards a GP Large (Big Tent) with about 100 people in it about 50 yards off the nose. Remedy - Roll the throttle all the way up and fly away.

Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness - This was almost a daily occurance when flying the OPFOR mission. OGE Hovers in excess of 5000' msl, close to MGW, in the Desert, in high wind conditions. You do the math. We were very well trained for this tho, and always gave ourselves a plan "B" (See Advice from Experience thread below) in case we experienced LTE.

Engine Fire - But not really. Just a miswired warning light.

More Chip lights than I care to remember.


In the 430 I had:

Engine Oil Sump Chip light that would not burn off. Required us to roll the engine back to Idle and make a single engine rolling landing. No big deal, and no emergency declared, altho that didn't stop the Fire Trucks, Police Dept, Ambulance, FAA, Good Humor Ice Cream Truck and Fuller Brush Salesman from following us in to the ramp.

Gear Unsafe - Had to drop the gear manually a couple of times due to a faulty Hydraulic valve that was keeping the left main gear up. No big deal.


Now Airplanes are another thing. I've had two engine failures, and one off airport landing. One failure was on takeoff (C-182RG) and I was able to get the bird back down on the remaining runway (Twin Falls, ID), and the other (C-172RG) failed about 10 minutes after takeoff, and I was forced to land on a 2 lane highway about 35 miles northeast of Palm Springs, CA.

I've also had a complete electrical failure at night in IMC in an F-33A Bonanza. Had to fly with a liplight and the backup guages. Not really a big deal. Squawked 7600 and stayed on my flight plan until I reached VMC, then landed. This was before cell phones, and before I invested in a transciever.

All things considered, I've been pretty lucky. My training has been good, and my emergencies fairly minor. Bob brought up an interesting point about airline pilots. I just watched a movie not too long ago about an Air Transat (Canada) A330 crew who lost both engines to fuel starvation, halfway across the Atlantic. They were able to glide the airplane over 100nm to an island in the Azores. And then there's the United DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, IA. I had a chance to meet Capt Al Haines. I can only hope that when it hits the fan, my skills are half as sharp as that man's.

VFR vs IFR

VFR, or Visual Flight Rules, means flying the aircraft primarily by outside visual reference. IFR, or Instrument Flight Rules, means flying by reference to onboard instruments and is normally used for flying in clouds and low visibility (aka IMC or Instrument Meteorological Conditions). The physical size of the instrument panel has nothing to do with whether or not an aircraft is certified for IFR or VFR.

IFR vs VFR Certification in most aircraft is simply a matter of what kind of equipment/avionics is installed. IFR requires a minimum number of specific instruments to be installed in the aircraft, and those instruments must meet tighter calibration criteria in order to be certified for IFR flight. You can have two of the same kind of aircraft, and one can be IFR while the other is limited to VFR. IFR aircraft can be flown in visual conditions or IMC, whereas VFR aircraft can be used for IFR training in visual conditions, but may not be intentionally flown in IMC. Confused yet?

When I was just starting out many years ago, I was very intimidated at the thought of flying just by using instruments. Today, I would much rather fly IFR due to the level of prescision it demands. There is nothing quite the same as flying an ILS down to minimums (normally 200' ceilings and 1/4 mile visibility for helicopters) and having the runway just magically appear in front of you. I guarantee you it will impress your passengers every time.

Takeoff is at your own risk

Because of the large number of helicopters here in Iraq, I still get a taste of the rotary wing world on a daily basis.

As helicopters have the ability to takeoff and land sans-runway, they often operate from "non-movement" areas (which I think is a funny title, since everyone is always moving within them...). Since ATC cannot accept responsibility for clearing a pilot to takeoff or land from a "non-movement" area, they issue the caveat "Takeoff is at your own risk".

Every time I hear it, I kinda mumble to myself "Takeoff isalways at your own risk...you're the one in the aircraft!" (same goes for landings) Then it hit me, what a great title for a JH discussion.

How many times have you found yourself thinking, attempting, or actually doing something you knew in your gut wasn't such a great idea? I'm not ashamed to admit I've done it more times than I care to remember, and each time, I learned a little more about why I get paid to know when to say "no". In my own defense, I don't think I've ever made the same gross error twice, but I have found some interesting ways to find myself wishing I'd stayed on the ground.

Being here in a "combat zone", we get asked to do some pretty unusual things. The "rules" as they apply to aviation bare little resemblance to the system back home, and this place is often compared to the Wild West due to the often chaotic airspace and lack of clearly defined rules. The basic standing rule for flying here is: "Don't hit anything". How you follow that rule is normally left almost completely up to the PIC. Point being, if you can't stand up for yourself and what you know to be right/safe, you're dangerous. While there aren't quite as many people trying to remove you from the sky, the same basic principle applies back home as well.

I guess it goes back to understanding the meaning of the title "Pilot In Command". It takes guts to say no to a 4 Star General, but it also takes guts to say no to a Chief Pilot or Director of Operations. As difficult as it may be, there are times when your job requires you to stand up to the very people you're trying to please. You, as the Pilot In Command are the final authority with regard to the operation of that aircraft on that flight. Takeoff is always at YOUR risk, but not necessarily at the risk of the people asking you to make the flight. You owe it to yourself, your passengers, your family, your friends, and your employers to always make the safest, most informed decisions possible. Never let pressure to make the flight get in the way of your better judgement. You may be fired, you may be ridiculed, you may feel inferior, and another pilot might take the flight. But really, so what? In the grand scheme of things, all that matters is that you arrive home in the same condition you left. You can get other jobs. Nobody ever died of ridicule, and you never need to feel inferior for making a conservative judgement call. It is ALWAYS better to err on the side of safety. Live to fly another day.

You run the flight, or the flight will run you. Takeoff is at your own risk.

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