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