Finally- A Deatiled update!

Well, I am on my day off so i figure I would write a detailed post, and since I have time, I will do that! Right now I am just sitting in the coffee shop, waiting for the new OS to load on my Blackberry so I have nothing but time right now! lol.

So like I said in my last post, I am and have been a full time Flight Instructor/Charter Pilot since Aug 2008, and how is it? whats it like? Well I'm gonna tell you! And you are going to listen, well read, since you came here!!! :P

My Flight Instructor training was conducted by one of the best instructor's I have ever met, we spent alot of time taking about teaching methods, how to teach exercises, how to deal with students, etc I spent hours creating lesson plans, notes, studying back on general knowledge and a new area for Instructors- CAR's Licencing and Administration. Finally in Aug, in probley the most 3 stressfull days of my life I completed the requirements for the rating. Sunday I woke up, and didnt sleep except for a 3 hour nap, till Tuesday night. On Monday, I had my written exam with Transport Canada, which went well, and it covered Instructional knowledge, general knowledge, flight test standards, Administration and licencing, PASSED of course, then on Tuesday morning, the local friendly Transport Canada Inspector showed up to give me my checkride. The checkride for a Class 4 flight instructor is rather intresting, it follows the same format as the other checkrides, with a intro, paperwork, brief, preflight, fly, debrief, excpt this time it was mostly ME doing the talking :D, we started off with the paperwork, then talked about teaching concepts, Admin and licencing tasks, then I was given a outline of a student's training background and approprietely select a lesson, brief it, then we would go fly it. I did this, we went flying, I taught the inspector the items in the lesson and he acted like a student, we flew back, I debriefed the inspector as he were a student, then he debriefed me as a Instructor candidate, and told me I had Passed!!! and now was a Class 4 Flight Instructor, then I hopped on the sked to YVR-YQQ-YBL for 7 days off, The checkride went off easily and all that and I was very happy to have it done and looking forward to Instructing.

I solo'd my first student in October, and sent my first two students for Private Pilot flight tests in December, both passed, on the same day, I as the recomending instructor was probley more stressed then the students!

Well the big question is How do i like this intresting job of mine- teaching people how to fly- teaching people to "slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God" as the poem goes. Well, I love it, its somtimes a challenge but very satisfying, It keeps you on your feet, one lesson you can be teaching someone their first or second flight,then the next flight you are doing a lesson with a licenced pilot doing recurrent training, lots of variety, and you get to learn alot about people and how they learn, what teaching method works best for which, etc but when you see that the student has mastered what you have taught them no matter what curve ball you throw at them- that is a very satisfying feeling.

Also during the new year, I became a student again as well! LOL, I completed my Multi-Engine rating, which is alot of fun, and now I am just completing the requirements for my Multi Engine Instrument rating.

As a Flight Instructor, I consider it a great responsibility, People pay alot of money for my services, and not only that, I consider it a requirement to give my 100%to my students because I have to teach them correctly and how to be a safe, competent pilot, so I am constantly keeping my knowledge up to date and expanding my area of knowledge and refining how I teach, etc and I enjoy it, I mean I have not really read many books in the last year that were not aviation related, but its a satisfying feeling to be able to teach and understand a wide area of knowledge, keeping proficent in everything, not because I have to, But i WANT to, because my goal is to be the the most knowledgeable, proficient, safe Flight Instructor I can be.

Everyday seems to be different, one day doing charters, the next I am instructing students and ground school, I like the variety. This summer promises to be a busy one, with lots of instructing, and finally meeting the requirements for what I have been striving for! The upgrade to Class 3 Flight Instructor.

I have had many friends and collagues help me along the way and give me the support I needed and kick in the butt as well, so I would like to thank them, Lil!!, Sar!!!, and the instructor who trained me to be a instructor (HW).

It is a satisfying feeling to know that for the last year I have finally "arrived", I know many people consider the Flight training side of things to be entry level in Aviation, and I enjoy teaching enough that I know I would like to stick around flight training full time till at least I have my Class 2- Flight instructor rating, and then I know once I do decide to move on to the next stage of my career, Medevac flying, that I would still like to Instruct in some sort of capacity on a Part time basis, even if it is just teaching ground school.

So far its been fun, challenging, satisfying, and I love it.

Thats it for now! Thanks for reading! And promise I will update me! lol,

Matt

Wow

Wow, I looked at the last time I made a entry on here and it certainly has been awhile! 2007 was my last entry! Well since my last entry I have completed all that I set out to do. I completed my Commercial Airplane licence, Completed my Diploma in Business Administration, moved to a different area of the province (The Okanagan) and completed my Flight Instructor rating. Since August 2008, I have been a full time Flight Instructor/Charter Pilot, and also in my spare time have completed my Multi Engine rating and by the end of this month, weather permitting will have completed my Multi Engine IFR Rating.

This summer brings the promise of alot of flying, upgrading my Instructor rating class (YAY!), Looking forward to it.

This entry is short, I will write more later...promise! :D

Holds

Hey,

Sorry for no updates, I am working on a big one, Night Rating (Circuits, Dual, Solo, X-Country), Building time start, Ground school and Uni Classes, I will try to have a nice post by monday.

Sorry!

Matt

Starting the new road?

Well Like I said, I am back, a few days late (In my last entry I said I would post again in August) and because of some of my readers from my heli blog, asked me to keep a blog about my CPL-A, FI training, I thought I would.


I started my uni. program on Aug 20, starting with orientation, and our first class that very afternoon, I will explain a little about this program as it is unique. The Program is a Diploma in Business Administration- Aviation Option. The business portion of the program is the normal 2 year business diploma program- Fit into 9 months, and out of the 9 months we are only in Business class for an average of 2 weeks a month, so it is quite fast paced, classes run 0900-1630 and we only work on one course at a time. The time we are not in Business class we are flight training, so we alternate between 2 weeks of business class and 2 weeks of flight training, which makes for a interesting schedule, we could also fly when we are on business course blocks but with it being darker and darker each day it's not really worth it. Our first course was only a week long, and was called Interpersonal Business Communications, and was a interesting course, and was all about communication in the work place, conflict resolution and prevention, etc in other words, How to communicate nicely :). This course was only a week long then ended and a flight training block began, so I am not back in business class till the 17th of Sept. So I have been flight training.

The flight training has been going great, Since I have 50 or so hours to build, the way the flight school handles build up time and CPL training, is a C172 check out and exam first, then some general "rust removing", and some sim training Night Rating and Mountain check out, then you are sent off to build time, then begin the CPL Training. The Flight School I am training with has some top notch Instructor Pilots/Charter Pilots, and great equipment and m/x as well. The Cessna 172 check flight went well, the usual Steep turns, stalls, forced approaches, circuits, precautionaries, diversions, your normal tasks, it took 2 flights due to time and other books, but it was nice to practice it all to get back into the swing of flying airplanes again. Then since Victoria is unlike any airport I trained at (Where I trained for my PPL-A, and CPL-H was the same airport and the airport had one runway and taxiway and was just a MF/FSS) we decided I should do some circuits alone and a flight or two solo out to the practice area to get myself familiar with the much busier airspace and radio work then I am accustomed to, and this all went fine, and I am now getting familiar and comfortable with having to talk to Clearance, Ground, Inner and Outer Towers, It's always interesting for me getting my taxi clearance but so far I haven't had any runway incursions so thats a good thing :P, I guess you can call it Small Town Airport Pilot goes to the Big City Airport's to fly? :P None the less I am getting familiar with it all.

The Sim training was focusing on getting familiar with VOR and ADF work, which was always a bit confusing for me, but my instructor explained it to me in such a way that I picked up right way, and before you know it I was doing VOR and ADF intercepts quite easily and was enjoying it! (Is that possible?!)

Onto Night Training, this is much fun, I have never flown as a Pilot at night, so I began this fun rating this week with the Night Briefing and a dual night flight. The night flight dual, for the first time was amazing, everything was so calm, the weather, basically no other traffic around, we flew over the city for an hour or so, then headed back to the circuits. I found it took a few landings to get use to landing a night, but I done well enough that I didn't break the gear :P and by the end of the flight a few of my landings were pretty close to greasers, if i have to say so myself :P we then moved onto landings without the landing lights on and those went fine, nothing too hard, and then various combinations of lights on/off/ and flap and speed settings. My next two flights were at night, solo. In these flights I found I was learning to get the A/C to do exactly what I wanted, and it felt great, to descend at a certain rate, at a certain speed, and turn at the right point to be lined up on final, then to start flaring at the right time to make a somewhat smooth touchdown, felt great. The first night I flew 2.2 solo, and the 2nd night I flew 2.9 solo, both flights went great and I felt i honed my night skills even more.

So next up is the Dual Night X-Country and then the Solo Night X-Country and then I am finished the night rating, then onto the one day mountain flying check out which should be fun and I am looking forward too. Those are scheduled for next week and the following week if the weather co-operates.

As a side note, I have been talking with flight instructor friends about their jobs and flight instructing in general, and I am getting more and more excited about when I am a flight instructor about April 2008, I am definitely not doing it for the hours, and for sure not the money :P but for the opportunity to teach others this great thing called Flying! :P. The plan is I will do the airplane flight instructing on my weeks off from flying helis. To quote a fellow blogger who sums it up quite well "I keep thinking of when I first started my flight training. How much I looked up to, and wanted to be like, my flight instructor. Someone is going to look to me for all the answers, and is going to trust me with their life. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and hope I can handle the responsibility."

Well thats it for now, I have a few more flights scheduled but the school is quite busy but like I said my next flights are the Dual Night X-Country and the Solo as well, and the mountain check out. So Stay tuned!, Promise I will have some photos next time!!

Diverting

Well, having my CPL (H) License is great.

But, for various reasons (One of which I am told is my Age/Lack of "Life Experience" and "Life Maturity") I have been unable to find a full-time job in the helicopter side of the industry, well it's discouraging to say the least, but Life goes on, and maybe some day down the road down the road I will be a Full-Time Helicopter Pilot.

But at the present time I have been "Diverted" As you can say, After my Job Hunting road trip, I done some thinking, and As you know I already have my PPL (Airplane), so I thought about it, and how I dont have a real preference between flying Airplanes and Helicopters, I decided to come back to fixed-wing for a few years, get a few thousand hours doing instructing and charters, then maybe go back to helicopters. Thus, I decided to upgrade my PPL (Airplane) to a Commercial One, and add a flight instructor rating, and a float rating just for fun.

So I have applied, and was accepted within a day (Acceptance into the program was based on Aviation Goals, Background, etc) , to a University Aviation Program, for a "Diploma in Business Administration- Aviation Option", Which I begin in August, I will be taking Business Courses from the Uni, and Fixed Wing Flight Training with the school thats associated with the program, and the funny and cool thing about that is, the instructor who trained me for my PPL (airplane) moved on to another company last winter, and well, she moved onto the school that I will be doing my CPL/Instructor rating at, so I've been told she will just continue on as my instructor, so thats cool, since I found she was a great instructor. The program works great- I get flight training to attain my CPL-Airplane and Flight Instructor Ratings, and a business background from the uni courses, which will come in handy, since my goal is to be in a management/ownership position in a Aviation business one day.

Well thats it for now, See you in August!, Have a great summer.

Matt

March 26-2007

On March 26 (Monday) I passed my flight test for Commercial Pilot (Helicopter) on the first attempt.As with any big test or exam, one is a little nervous or stressed, I had a whole 2.5 hours of sleep before I headed to the hanger to start the big day. The weather of the day was great, not very much wind, blue skies, 22,00ft celings, a great day for sure.When I arrived at the hanger, I completed the final stages of the nav exercise (inputting winds, leg time's, weather package, notams, etc.) and then the oral portion of the ground section began with questions on my routing, maps, symbology on the maps, airspaces and weather minima, radio frequencies, aircraft documents, systems, speeds, limitations, emergencies and all the other questions that come with this part of the flight test, when this part came to a end, I was briefed on how things would happen for the flight portion of the test (It is a FLIGHT test after all ). For the final portion of the ground section, I DI'd the machine, explaining what I was looking at, what I was looking for, and why I was looking, and then the examiner asked me various questions about the aircraft parts , and then it was time that I gave the standard passenger briefing, preety easily done, the entire ground portion went very well. Had to remind myself and be reminded not to be nervous or get stressed haha.Now it's really show time, the flight portion began. The Lift off, hover check, and all that went well and we were off on the navigation portion, this went well as the winds were as forecasted, time for the diversion, which went good,preety easy ,now onto the confined area and sloping ground landing, which both went well, nice recce's and approach and landing no trouble here of course, on departure from the confined I was given a simulated MR TEMP light, so it became a rejected departure, and I turn around and landed in the spot I had departed from, now it was time to depart the confined and climb so we may began the instrument flying exercise, which went ok, the wind picked up a little and their was a little bit of turbulence, but nothing too major or too challenging, and then it was onto the steep turn, for this I chose a 30 degree bank at 80 knots and 3,500 feet, this went well, held altitude and speed, and bank. Now it was time to head back to the airport for the real fun stuff, we entered the circuit to a hover landing, and then it was off for a few more circuits, with hover and no hover landings and take off's, and a stuck pedal was also thrown in, which went good, I was a little nervous about it before the flight test but it went fine, and then the engine failure, which went off without a hitch (no pun intended ) now it was time for the 180 and straight in autorotations, now the wind direction had shifted a little and made this interesting, but in the end it went ok, now it was time to head back to the base, and on the way I was given the simulated engine failure/forced approach, which required a 180 turn back into the wind, this went ok. Now it was time to come back to base , I made a smooth approach and landing,and then it was time for the debrief, which started off talking about how I was on the ground portion, which was done well, and the points in the flight portion, I scored mostly 3's and 4's on the flight portion, and when the examiner said I passed, I asked him, FULL PASS? And he said yes, full pass, then I had the ear to ear smile that's still on my face haha. And their you have it folks, From Zero hours helicopters to flight test, dealing with west coast weather, training on the coast, from R22's to 44's and the 206, now all I have to finish is the last few hours of the 206 training, which should be finished by the end of the week, and I will have that little piece of paper saying I am a Commercial Helicopter Pilot (Helicopter) RH22, RH44, BH06. Then the real fun begins, and I look forward to it and espically will enjoy getting back to working. So I will report on the last bit few hours of 206 training I have to do. Thanks to all who read my training blog and to those who replied to it was well. It's been fun thats for sure.

Have a good day.Matt

P.S: Oh neat, I just noticed this post, was my 100th post on Vertical, but my member number is preety old (655) as I have been around for awhile but never posted much, anyways 100th post!

Mar 20-2007

Just a little update, I have not forgot about this blog haha, I am back to the hanger on Wednesday and will be flying a few flights of emergencies, and autos, etc. and will be having flight test in a few days. Any tips or words of advice on the flight test? I feel confident in everything,just having a little case of the nerves even though it is still a few days away, I guess as anyone who has a checkride or test would be a little nervous haha Have a good day,Matt

March 8-2007

Hello Hello,volition: If I remember correctly, he's got his written done.This past week was a interesting one, Logged about 5 hours dual consisting of pre flight test stuff, emergencies, autos, stuck pedals, etc., and polishing everything up, to better then flight test standards and not accepting any deviation of any kind, the emergencies, forced approaches and all that went well, the nav stuff was good, just have to remember "Altitude Airspeed Heading Accept No Deviation", I was then signed off on the recommendation for flight test and I was scheduled to do the test on Wednesday, so I planned the trip assigned and went thru the POH a few more times, and felt confident and ready for the test, and the day I was signed off, Tuesday, was a great day, calm winds, great vis and celings, blue sky even well then comes Wednesday, for most of the day the wind was gusting up to 25 knots, didn't let up much during the day, so, because of that, we did not do the flight test that day. So the new date for the flight test, due to examiner availability is around the 25 or 26th of this month.Sorry the entry is so short, see you in a few weeks. Have a good day.Next Edition: Matt's Flight Test, weather dependant (Gotta love Coastal Weather haha)Matt

March 6-2007

Well, a bit of a interesting week, 1 Dual flight in the 206 doing emergencies, 2 solo flights in the 22, and 2 dual flights in the 22, one a pre flight test and the other flight doing stuck pedal's.The flight in the 206 doing emergencies, went well, it's amazing how much inertia the 206 blades have, I started off with a simulated hydraulic failure and that went ok, then came the Auto's both straight in and 180's, then came engine failures in hover. All the Auto's and Engine Failures were child's play compared to the R22, you have so much more time to react and everything is much smoother, its just a overall smoother ride, a joy to fly, I cant wait to finish the endorsement on it, once I am finished my flight test.The two dual flights in the 22, went ok, stuck pedals and pre flight test, I will be doing another flight before the flight test to polish the emergencies, auto's and engine failures in the hover. The ground portion of the pre flight test went well, got 3's and 4's. The two solo flights in the 22 were fun, one was a couple of diversions to some neat places, a nice 2.1 hour flight that ended up being, and the other solo flight was doing steep turns, confined's, slope landings, those went ok.The big flight test is sometime this week, I was scheduled to do it tomorrow (tuesday) then I got bumped to Wednesday, but I have a feeling with the forecasted weather (oh wonderful west coast weather ) that it will not be till near the end of the week so that puts me finishing all my hours sometime mid-late next week. I am beginning to learn not to count on doing something on a specific day, but sometime during that general time frame, this is aviation after all Well Thats it for now, thanks for reading, and have a good day!Matt

Feb 25-2007

Well, Lots to talk about this entry, Slinging in the R22 and Finishing up my R44 endorsement. The weeks weather was decent overall, hoping it stays that way for a few more weeks as I am scheduled for the flight test some time around the 5th or 6th of March. The Slinging and Longlining in the R22 was fun and I can definitely say a learning experience, we started out with a 25ft line, then went to a 50ft line, then a 75 ft line, with and without cargo, pickup's and set down's with the load and the hook, hook up's with the line and the belly hook, how to stop the loading from swinging and what to do when the load is swinging. Overall a fun and challenging exercise, hanging out the door in all weather conditions haha, The most I had was a bit of a wind and rain, must be real "fun" with a 20 knot wind and snow. By the end of the 2 days of slinging, I found i was just starting to grasp what it was all about a real "feel" thing for the machine similar to hovering, you just have to do it haha, and had my spot nicely about 4 or 5 times. The R44 endorsement went great, learned alot, I flew a few flights doing confined's, emergencies,auto's, engine failures in hover/hover taxi, which I found alot more smooth and slower then the R22 of course,and mountain pads, and I learned quite a bit with the mountain pads, like always take a reference where your pad is, be slow,steady and gentle (well that goes for all flying haha), one thing that I had a little trouble with was keeping the airspeed just on the edge of translation and gradually re-loading the disc and decreasing the airspeed until your just at a hover over the pad, the first flight I had some trouble with this, but went home that night and thought the whole procedure over and over again, and the next day's flight I did not have any trouble at all with the pads, but now I see why Coastal BC is such a challenging environment to fly in, with the environment and weather you can get in this region. I finished my R44 endorsement on Friday AM, with my last flight in it being emergencies, autos, confined's, and mountain pads.Friday Afternoon, I went over the 206 RFM a few more times just to get everything drilled into my head then I went for my first flight as pilot in the 206, and wow, what a nice aircraft to fly, you just basically have to think of your turn and your already turning, so for my first 206 flight it was nothing to hard, just take off's, landing's, hovering, turns, and then done a couple of confined's and a few mountain pads, I will be doing emergencies on my next flight, So I will be finishing my time in the 206 this week, then it's back into the R22 for flight test prep and flight test, then flight test like I said is around the 5th or 6th.Well That's it for this entry, thanks for reading, Next Edition of Matt's Training Blog, weather Dependant (haha) will include 206 emergencies. Still having fun and cannot wait to get back working in the industry Just a few more weeks.Thanks Again for reading, have a good day.Matt

Feb 18-2007

Hello hello,Thanks for the replies, The past week has been a fun and good one, thats for sure, I flew about 4 hours in the R44, and man that is a nice machine to fly, it sure loves to fly thats for sure, and on a few confined's I found myself too high because I hadnt descend enough, but I just have to tell myself now, that I have to start the descents earlier then I would in the 22. I find the 44 just alot more stable then the 22, its a real joy to fly, geez I am starting to sound like a advertisement for the R44 . So this upcoming week I will be doing emergencies and slinging on the 44, those I am looking forward too. Weather wise the past week was alot nicer then it has been been so I am hoping the weather will continute to hold out haha.Well Thats it for now, next edition of Matt's Training Blog will tell about R44 Slinging and Emergencies, should make for a good entry, weather dependant of course Thanks for reading and have a good day!Matt

Feb 9-2007

Hey Everyone,Thanks for the replies, no checkride this week, got weathered out, gotta love West Coast Weather. So this week I've been studying for the ride, reading the Flight Test Guide, etc.Have a good day,Matt

Feb 3-2006

Hello Hello,Another week down, a few more to do, its getting exciting, this week's flight were a mix of dual and solo, again, these flight were concentrating on accuracy and proficiency on Confined's, Steep Turns, Quick Stops, Sloped Landings, Diversions, Instrument Flying, also done some stuck pedal work dual. Confined's and Sloped Landings are coming along nicely, getting even more smooth on the sloping ground ops, "feeling the machine" as it's said, I just have to remind myself to slow it all down and not be any kind of rush, just "feel the machine" haha. The confined's are rounding out now as well, altitude and speed control is good, and keeping the circle around the confined is good as well, just have to remind myself to always be aware of where the wind is coming from so i can be sure to alter the circle to account for this.Quick Stops/Steep turns: Quick stops are fine, nothing major I found was catching me here, and the Steep turns I found where alot smoother when I wasn't glancing inside too much (I'm a VFR not IFR Pilot!! i have to remind my self haha) in fact on a dual flight the difference between a steep turn where I used the T&B indicator and the next steep turn without looking at the T&B indicator, the steep turn that was the most smoothest was the one that I was not looking at the T&B indicator, and it felt alot more smoother as well, so lesson learned here. Diversions: Done a couple more diversions, some interesting ones, everything went fine here, didn't get lost and all my calculations were pretty much bang on.Stuck Pedal Dual/ Engine Failure in hover Dual: This was interesting to learn, and the latter was just refreshing, The stuck pedal's were definitely not as bad as I thought they were going to be and I picked it up pretty quickly.That big time is getting close now- Flight Test, I broke 75 hours this week and 30 PIC, and I should be doing my flight test by the end of next week, and my flights this week were within flight test standard, so I am just reviewing the Flight test guide and Flight exercises and all the other stuff, to refresh everything and this upcoming week I will be getting ready for the flight test. Will be a exciting week, Still enjoying it all .Thanks For reading, have a good day.Matt

Jan 28-2007

Allo Allo!This past week alone I racked up some hours, Today (Saturday) I flew 2.5 hours PIC, I have been concentrating on general accuracy/proficiency in Diversions, Confined Areas, Sloping Ground Landings, Steep Turns and Quick Stops. Diversions, getting use to/proficient and efficient at these now, I average 2 diversions on each solo flight, interesting places round 'these parts. Confined Areas, getting more accurate and proficient with these, and every confined you go into is different in some way even if you were just in the same spot the week before. their is so many up around here, lots of choices and lots of good spots, it's nice to be able to land in the confined's now, of course sloping ground is usually included in the confined area landings, I find the sloping ground landing's make you a even more "smooth hands" pilot as you are "feeling the machine"when you are increasing collective. I still would like to do more confined's to get better at them and will be doing alot more in the coming weeks in addition to the flight test prep .Steep Turns/Quick Stops are coming along as well, on my flights today I had virtually little to no change in Altitude and Airspeed before, during and after the task.Thing's I will be working on will be mostly be the same, just aiming for even more accuracy, smoothness and proficiency.I ended this week with 69.4 Hours TT heli, getting closer to the flight test, I anticipate will happen in early February. Having fun and enjoying it all Thanks for reading.MattEdit: Been having great weather the last few days, hope it lasts for a few more weeks!

Jan 19-2006

Hello,Well it's friday and time for another entry,As you can tell from my last entries I have been getting ready for the written exam, So I have not been doing very much flying been studying instead, and yesterday I made the drive to the TC Office in YYJ and wrote the CPHEL Written Exam and................PASSED! . Now I can get back to flying Have a good day.Matt

Jan 14-2006

Haha, Thanks Everyone, doesn't feel much different being 19 haha. Anyways, down to business. Since the last entry, I have started doing sloped landings with the instructor, more diversions, and more confined areas, and a progress check. I am scheduled to write my CPHEL Written exam on the 18th of this month (This coming Thursday) in YYJ, so I have been studying for that, I am currently sitting at 61 hours TT (heli).The diversions are coming along fine, talk about learning how to multi task haha but you get the hang of it pretty quickly, nothing too new here. Some interesting places I have been diverted too as well, and I haven't lost myself yet .The confined areas are coming along too, getting more efficient at those, and along with the sloped landings we have been going to some nice confined areas for practice. The progress check I had with the CFI went well, which was like a mock flight test with both ground and flight sections.Sorry this entry is so short, not too much different flights, just more solo, and the 2 dual flights (Progress check and sloped landings) the rest has been solo nav and solo confineds. Thing's will start to get interesting in the next while with the upcoming written, and my flight test could be near the end of this month or the start of February.Thanks for reading, and have a good day!.Matt

Jan 3-2006

Well I hope you all had a good christmas and new years, It sure has been awhile since my last entry, I have still been practicing confined areas, and nav trips (both short and one long) and also was shown steep turns and quick stop's and quick stop 180's. Nav: I done a long nav today, That was interesting and fun, It was a route between my base to another airport for a stop and go, then off to another airport to refuel and then to another airport returning to base, in total it took 3.0 hours and was about 167 miles round trip, The weather was good especially considering the marginal weather the BC coast has been having, so today turned out to be a great day to do the long nav trip. The trip went along without a hitch except for some turbulence and a headwind nothing too bad. Steep turns: nothing too new here just reviewing/dusting off the cobwebs, just a little more sensitive in the heli then it was in the trusty C172.Quick stops: One word- NEAT It's amazing the versatility of the heli when it comes to quick stops and quick stop 180's, and I have only had 2 flights with them included in it. I got the hang of them pretty quickly. I finished off today, with a TT of 53.9 Heli, so I now meet the requirements to write the written exam, But I am not going to write until I feel I am good and ready and getting 75-80% in each section in the practice exams. Also 53.9TT Heli means I am just a little over the half way mark for the course, a interesting milestone when you look back to just a little more then 2 months when I just began this course and how far one has come in this relatively short time and looking forward to the next exciting 50 hours ahead, which I am hoping to be done by Early/Mid Feb and it look's like I will be done by then (knock on wood) and that the weather starts to improve too as well haha.I have a few photos I took a few week's back and will include them in this post.Still Just plugging along here, Sorry this entry was so short, Thanks again for reading, and have a good day.Matt
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Dec 16-2006

Well Well, I know it has been awhile since my last posting, I wanted to wait till I had a few things to talk about. The last 2 weeks have been interesting, as you know we have had some interesting weather here on the "Wet and now Snowy Coast" But I did manage to get in a few flights, and refine everything even more and correct one problem with how I was holding the cyclic and of course ground school and studying and doing a few practice exams for the big written. Didn't get to do sloped landings lesson yet due to the weather, but it's coming though.I covered 3 Solo's focusing on Confined's, 1 Dual flight on Take Off's and Landing (Correcting that cyclic positioning error I mentioned), 2 Dual Nav X-Countries and One Solo Nav X-Country.The Solo flights focusing on Confined's are getting better, I am getting more efficient at going through the Six S's and I have not been too high or too low on my approaches, so it's "just right" and my circles are circles and the altitudes and airspeeds are consistent.The Dual flight on Take Off's and Landings was to correct a problem with how I was holding the cyclic as the R22 has the ever so nice "T Bar Cyclic" and I was holding the cyclic when I was solo in such a way that I did not have alot of movement with my wrist and the movement was restricted somewhat because of this, and it was affecting my take off's and landings, It only developed over a few flights solo and it was just because I had to hold the cyclic alot more forward and to the left so it changed my positioning of where my hand held the cyclic, but over one flight we fixed that into the position it is supposed to be in all the time, and I am use to the new better way of doing things and it is working for me.The Dual Nav X-Countries, were nice, it was just getting back into the swing of things (map reading, etc.) since it is just basically a review (a good review though) of map reading and all that nav procedures, we also threw a diversion in their, and that went well, nothing new for me here.The Solo X-Country was good, the route was a interesting one, the first leg was following islands and the coast and the 2nd leg was through hills so that was interesting reading the map from that to confirm positions and such,did not have any problems though so that was good, On the first leg I had a projected G/S of 85 but in Reality when I was flying it I had roughly a 30 knot headwind......when the F/D for that time and altitude (3000) was predicted for 17 knots. But it was good none the less and I enjoyed it, and getting back into the swing of navigating and map reading, etc solo and the flight went smoothly save for some light turbulence which didn't last too long anyways.One of the flights that I did solo for the confineds, I flew Dual with the instructor from our base to the Airport, dropped the Instructor off on the heli pad, and then went off solo, and then came back to the airport and landed at the helipad, picked up the instructor and flew back to base, and this flight, the entire flight was so smooth, all the confines, dummy approaches, landings at the helipad at the airport (no hover landings) as well as the take off's and the ones from the base as well, everything was spot on and done well, I was very happy with myself for the flight, and the landing back at base, no hover, was In my humble opinion, nicely done. it felt good all around that flight, one of my best and favorite flights with regard to performance. All in all, it was a good and productive 2 weeks , for a total of around 48 TT (Heli)So, Onward and Upward and stay tuned for the next edition of Matt's training blog.Thanks for reading! Fly Safe and Have a good day.Matt

Dec 4-2006

Post #68
MemberGroup: MemberPosts: 93Joined: 13-February 04From: CYBLMember No.: 655
Well Another Week in the history books, a very productive week even though I only had 3 flights, but they were good flights.This week I was concentrating on the Confined Approach, specifically the High/Low Recce's and the Dummy Approach and Maneuvering in a Confined Area. I had a tendency to end up too high on my dummy approach and have to overshoot, and come in at the proper height on the 2nd pass. On my 2 solo flights I corrected that problem of being too high on approach (No not that kind of high ) and on my last flight I nailed all of the confined areas, at the correct height, speed and to the spot I intended to come into a hover at, that was a good feeling of accomplishment. The circle around the confined (on the recce's) was initially a little "non-circle" but on the 2 solo flights, I corrected this problem and again, On my last flight I flew nice circles around all of my confined areas, again, a good feeling of accomplishment to have that tendency fixed. I just need to relax when I'm coming in for landing, the last few feet I seem to get nervous then I screw up what would of been a nice landing, as my CFI says "just reeelllaaaxxx" so I will have to try that I think I was just focusing too close to the machine as opposed to a point a little further away. On another note, I attended a company christmas party (For the company I use to work for before I started Flight Training) and it was very nice, Just reminds me of what a great industry that I am getting into and the great people that you meet in this business Didn't manage to get any good quality videos or pictures this week so I will try again next week. Until then....Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next edition of Matt's Training Blog: Episode: Sloped Ground Landings!

Nov 27-2006

Well It's been a week since my last entry, and I'm glad to report I flew 2 flights 1 Solo and 1 with the CFI, If I recall correctly, so for the rest of the time it was ground school, this time on Nav, which was all review for me and I just planned out some nav trips. It's amazing how much you lose "it" after a few days/weeks of not flying but it comes back to you so quickly after a few minutes or an hour or so and you are back into the "groove" of things.As you all know I have been working on the Confined Areas, particulary the High recce, and the Low Recce and the dummy approach, all challenging things at first but with a certain resemblance to the Precautionary Landings in fixed wing (The Recce's and the questions you ask of your selected landing area), and the High/Low Recce's are doing fine but it's on the dummy approach that I am finding myself not extending far enough on the downwind and ending up too high when I should be lower for the dummy approach. With my flight with the CFI on Friday, we corrected that problem (Not extending far enough on downwind), and started doing landing's in to the confined's and those were fine, also doing turns around the tail and take off's and set down's in the confined areas (pretty big confined's at this point still). Also was taught how to read the wind if their is no visible wind (reading the difference between GPS G/S and IAS and A/C Drift as well). I unfortunately did not get any new pictures or video's this week other then the sunrise shots I posted in the Photos From the Field thread), but I will try my best this upcoming week. The upcoming flights will be 2 Solo practicing the High/Low/Dummy/and final approach (no landings in confined areas solo yet) then another flight with the CFI to check my progress. Ended the week with, 34 hours or so If I recall correctly.Well, That concludes this edition of Matt's training blog, coming to you live from the now SNOWY West Coast!Also, Here's a link to the sunrise photo's I took this week.Matt's Sunrise PhotosMatt

Nov 19-2006

Hey Everyone,Thanks for the replies, Preety short entry sadly yet again, the weather had us grounded all week, on Friday morning though, it did look promising, so we DI'd and rolled out the machines and fuelled them up and got ready to launch, then the windy suddenly picked up and my hopes of going flying that day were squashed, my classmates that were scheduled to go dual flying went, but since I was supposed to go solo I was not flying. My poor logbook has not been written in since the 10th of this month, but I guess not flying for a while is "industry training" eh?! haha. So for the week we were having ground school and studying, Met. in particular, so unless you guys want me to give a lesson on met., this is preety much my blog entry haha, I am gonna try and get some video of me landing (if I fly next week) so I will post that.Thanks and have a good day,Matt

Nov 10-2006

Well Well Well, Another Week Down, New Lessons learned, and those would be Advanced Take Off's and Landings and introduced today was Confined Areas.This week I was checked out for solo flight to and from the hanger (CCR6) as we are not the Airport, I flew a few circuits off the pad here at the hanger with the instructors, then was checked out for the solo to and from the hanger, so after letting the instructor out, I blasted off solo for the airport to complete circuits and hover practice and Take Off's and Landings every 90 degrees on the compass rose at the airport. I also practiced turns around the nose, and those went surprisingly well, I had only done them once before with my instructor and they were sad to say the least, but I come back after 20 or so hours and then bam! I can do turns around the nose preety well, both to the left and to the right, the left one is not as quite as nice as the turns to the right but they are decent. The Advanced Take Off's and Landings were fun and I picked it up quite quickly, I just have to remember when I am doing them solo to anticipate the need for a shallower approach and descent becuase the a/c is that much lighter.The Confined's were well, the High Recce and Low Recce and down pat, it's just the point to break off the teardrop and prepare for the dummy approach that is screwing me up. Im always too high, but I just start learning them today, but still I should be able to do them decently. The Questions related to the recce are all down pat (habit from fixed wing days with some changes made)All is going well, just want to work on the confined's alot better.Thanks for reading, until next time....Matt

Nov 6-2006

Thanks for all the replies!Well, Not too much has happend since the good ol first solo. The day after the solo I got another 0.9 PIC, just doing hover practice, circuits but it felt good, none the less.The R22 sure feels when different, even the positioning of the cyclic, and also how much power is available.Then for the rest of the week, the weather was crap so we studied and had ground school, today as well, was ground school and studying for most of the day. Learned alot and got to review it as well, so I am understanding it even more.Hopefully the weather clears up enough soon.Sorry the entry is short haha.Have a good day and thanks for reading.MattNEW R22 PIC!