Trials and tribulations

Well, training is coming along. I've got around 11 hours or so now. With every hurdled cleared there is another waiting in the wings. My current frustration is throttle control. Some helicopters (I think most actually, but don't quote me) have a governor that adjusts the throttle as needed. The helicopter that I'm learning on does not. With every turn, with every altitude adjustment, with just about everything move the throttle must be adjusted. There's a low RPM horn that signals you if the RPM has dropped below the optimum level. Right now this horn is pretty much going off the entire time I'm flying. My brain understands what adjustments are needed and when...it's just getting my body to follow. To add insult to injury, there are so many things that you are doing at once that when I lose my focus because of the throttle..everything else seems to go to shit. gggrrrrrrr. At the beginning of my training I thought that the cyclic was the most challenging control to master...I think I'm going to have to take that back and say that it's throttle control. Serious FRUSTRATION!

Other than that, I fly a helicopter much like I drive a car. I'm a bit of a swerver and I can't park to save my life. I also had a bit of taxi way phobia, but seem to have gotten a little better with that one on my last flight. If it wasn't for throttle control I think I would have conquered the taxi way! My take offs have been pretty decent, but landings and set down have been a challenge. Saturday I'm going to get the "short bus" lesson on landing, which basically means we are going to do everything in slow motion so I can get the pictures (that's one thing I like about helicopters...the versatility! I bet I couldn't get the slow version of landing in a plane unless we were practicing engine out landings).

The book work is coming along, albeit boring. I totally couldn't get through the chapter on weather last night...kept catching myself going in and out of consciousness (damn ADD!). I'm sure that all of this will come with time. Just trying to keep you all updated of my progress.