Hovering
No Wind Cancellations Here!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Flying Hours Today 0:90, Total 7:40
Exercise 8 hovering
We had done some hover practice at the end of most lessons, indeed I had managed 30 seconds on the controls after my first lesson. But now it was time to do some hovering for real – a full lesson on how to fry my brain!
Weather wasn’t too accommodating. Gusts of 25kts from all directions too, the wind was very changeable but generally from the south.
The instructor had kindly completed the A-Check before I arrived, as I’m an early starter I’m usually the first student of the day and so the full A-Check falls to me and the instructor. All I had to do today was to level the rotor blades as they were slightly low on the aft side above the tail boom. A quick climb up the side of the R22 and a heave to push the blades level and all was done. Apparently during start up, and in the windy conditions, the blades could flap so much that they would strike the tail boom. Something we don’t want to experience first hand so time to get them level.
Soon I was on board and making the radio calls. As we would only be operating at the airfield I only replied to the tower with the QFE setting which was quite low, 985mb if I remember correctly. I was waiting to be berated for not responding with the QNH too, but I was spared today. We waited for the operating temperature to rise and then the instructor took over to lift us off the ground and to taxi to the south side grass area of Sheffield airport for the hovering exercise.
We lifted perhaps 4ft off the ground and the instructor noted that the cyclic wasn’t as free as it should be so we quickly landed again. It turned out that in my checks I hadn’t loosened the cyclic friction enough – it was another of those cases in aviation where it is always good to double check before getting too far from the safety of the ground. We lifted off again and taxied to the practice area.
About 7ft from the ground I was given control and began to hover. It is one of those activities that when it is good, it is very good, but when it goes bad it goes bad – and very quickly. I can hold the position for minutes at a time now, but a bad gust of wind will put me off and before I know it I’m climbing, turning, and moving forwards or sideways and losing control. My instructor was being stricter today. It was down to me to recover and she refused to take control at the slightest hint of trouble – of course, she was there whenever I really did begin to lose control.
I found that I was hovering then would start to move sideways and/or forwards and found it quite difficult to get us in a static hovering situation again. Writing this down it is obvious that opposite cyclic would be needed, but with the gusting wind and the collective and the pedals it was much harder than it sounds! So to keep me moving we did a short burst of hover taxiing, keeping the same low altitude of perhaps 7 to 10 feet from the ground I found it easier to move in a given direction maintaining height, heading and a brisk walking speed.
The R22 engine needs to have a break every once in a while when hovering so we touched down and had a short break for me to collect my thoughts and think about what I’d covered. When back in the air it was time to change heading to keep into wind as it was becoming quite changeable. To be honest I was having difficulty in identifying the wind direction as I was being blown all over the place, the nearby windsock wasn’t giving much away either as the direction kept changing. At times I would hover quite well and then turn a little too sharply on the pedals and find myself rotating about a vertical axis and quickly getting out of control until the instructor took over. It was explained to me about the benefits of turning left rather than right with the pedals but the reasoning was lost on me. I also found myself at one point with the wind behind me and that was quite interesting as the small R22 was blown about.
After 45 minutes we decided to call it a day. My hovering had started well, improved, and now with the worsening conditions I was deteriorating. I was at that point in the lesson where I had to consciously think about what I was doing, which in a small R22 helicopter is always a challenge. If you think to hard about things you are too slow and therefore too late and the helicopter is flying you. In retrospect an enjoyable if challenging lesson. My instructor was especially complimentary in the way I had handled the hover in such blustery and changeable conditions. Next time I’m practicing my hovering I hope that today’s experience will make things so much easier.
Later the same week it was time for me to have my medical renewed, it had been almost 2 years since my first Class II medical and I passed again with flying colours. The AME also stated that I would have no problems with a Class I medical should I choose to go for one, which is interesting as my pre-LASIK prescription had obviously not changed and yet it would seem that the rules had now changed.