RPM -- 100%
Systems -- Check.
Avionics -- As Required.
Crew, passengers, mission equipment -- Check.
We have priority over lanes 2 and 3, we have priority for takeoff. *key radio* 'Taking off lane 1, standard auto.' Clear right and above. Clear left and above."
I must have said all of that a dozen times today, with minor variations depending on the maneuver. Saying all of that isn't very tough though. In fact, I could probably have it all memorized in less than a minute if I didn't already know it. The problem is that while I am saying it, I'm supposed to be flying still. And we're not talking about cruise altitude, cruise airspeed -- no no -- we are talking about hovering, turning, and talking.
Flight school is fairly unique in that it waits for no one. A week ago I took my first flight. I'm pretty sure I would have died or, at a minimum, destroyed the $1.3 million aircraft had it not been for my Instructor Pilot (IP) and his eleven-thousand some flight hours. Before getting on the controls I found myself thinking -- "I drove a stick-shift for years, how hard can this really be?" Ah, how humbling that first day was.
You see, my IP is smart. He also has a sense of self-preservation. That's why when he passed me the controls for the first time, he didn't just update his will and then pass me the controls. No, he passed them to me one at a time to let me get a feel for them. "You have the pedals, I have the cyclic and collective," I remember hearing him say. Then he took them all back, and passed me a different set, and so on down the line. Finally he was ready to practice his 3-foot 30 degree bank angle recovery ability, so he gave them all to me. And I hovered. I hovered beautifully actually. And as the 3rd second ticked off the clock I started thinking that people were talking it up to be too difficult. But before I could finish the thought I was pitching and rolling all over the place, making horrible over corrections constantly. I guess my IP wanted me to see day 2 though because each time I thought we were headed for the deck he would snap it back to a steady 3-foot hover. It was almost as if there was a button on his side that he was pushing....a hover button...
By the end of my first week I would say I found the hover button. I'm not going to try to tell you that I was rock-solid in my hovering ability, but I was functional with the hovering and was doing all of the hover-taxi work myself. My pedal turns are pretty shaky still (I like to yank up on the collective...there's something about turning where I feel like I'm going to hit the ground?), but all in all I am picking it up pretty quickly. Of anything I've ever learned how to do, hovering a helicopter has been the most difficult by far. It was such an information and sensory overload on the body...I can't really describe what it feels like trying to make the proper corrections. I'm now in my second week, and today I got a good chance to practice hovering while talking. It definitely added another dimension to the already difficult task, but I got better as the day went on. I have my solo ride in a week or less, so it's a good thing that I'm picking it up. The solo ride is my first flight without an IP in the helicopter at the other set of controls -- just me and my stick buddy out flying around.
I'm getting paid to fly a helicopter. This will probably be my response for the rest of my life when I'm asked "How was flight school?" I think that being an aviator is the best job in the Army (sorry Ben), but I think that statement above leaves out a big chunk of the story. While I am really glad that I am learning how to fly, I would never call flight school fun. Every day consists of 3-4 hours of academics, 6-7 hours in transportation to or at the flight line, and 2-3 hours of studying and memorization. It doesn't help that flying is extremely stressful. Getting paid to fly sounds like it would be great -- and don't get me wrong, it is -- but it is definitely not enjoyable. You see, the whole time I'm flying I am being critiqued and graded by my IP. There are also about a thousand things to do while flying other than flying. Radio calls to make, safety callouts to make, procedures to follow, fuel checks to do, tons of stuff. Constantly. The whole time. Not to mention the daily oral exams where we have to stand up and recite our memorized limits and emergency procedures in front of the flight commander, all the IPs, and the rest of the students. It all adds up to a very challenging and difficult learning process. Leave it up to the Army to turn something fun like flying into something stressful and difficult.
I do really enjoy the fact that flight school is challenging me. In a lot of ways it's the most challenging thing I've ever done. Weekly tests, daily oral exams, and constant flying improvements to make are pushing me to my limit -- and I love it. So where did I get time to write this blog post you ask? Well, we had a test in academics today and a test at the flight line. Plus our flight commander forgot to give us stuff to memorize for tomorrow....so rather than work ahead like a good student would, I'm pretty much taking the evening off.
It's probably the most overused cliche in the Army, but I can't help but post this picture to describe flight school:
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