Cancellation #1
A Familiar Situation
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Flying Hours Today 0:00, Total 0:00
I arrived at Alpha Helicopters at Sheffield City Airport for my helicopter trial lesson. Full of expectation and a little bit of trepidation. I'd been looking forward
to this for quite some time and now being the holder of a PPL(A) licence I was keen
to find out just how different rotary flying would be to fixed wing flying.
Upon arrival I was given the bad news: my 30 minute trial lesson had been cancelled. This brought a wry smile to my face as my fixed wing diary will testify that learning to fly is at the mercy of the elements and at the mercy of the serviceability of aircraft. One thing you don't want to do is take any unnecessary risk when flying and so if the kit isn't up to scratch, don't fly. I arrived at Sheffield to be told that a 'Telatemp' was in the black and, after a call to an engineer the instructor decided to ground the helicopter for the day. A 'Telatemp'? Already a new language on my first day. We went out to the R22 and the offending Telatemp was pointed out to me. A Telatemp is, in simple terms, a stick-on thermometer which is placed on a strategic part of the helicopter. This one was on the pulley arrangement and was indicating that a high temperature had been reached - the mechanism works by a small panel changing from white to black if a certain temperature is reached, and once the panel has changed to black it stays that colour even once the Telatemp cools down.
A blacked out indicator was bad news, it could indicate some friction overload in the system and so best not to fly. By this time the student following me had arrived and he was also given the bad news. But this was a great opportunity for him to do the A-Check with the instructor as though they were to go flying. I was invited to observe and learned a lot about the various parts of the helicopter and the similarities and differences with a PA28 or C172.