An Eclectic Mind

Some tips for helicopter pilots (and others).

One of the disadvantages of being on the controls of a helicopter is that you pretty much always have to have at least one hand on the controls. Most helicopters do not have autopilots and, in my experience, I’ve found that releasing the cyclic while in flight is a good way to begin undesired aerobatic maneuvers that are likely prohibited by the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH).

The more you fly a helicopter, the more accustomed you are to dealing with one-handed chores like dialing in radio frequencies, adjusting the altimeter, fiddling with the GPS, and even folding maps. But for new pilots and pilots flying to, from, or through busy airspace, navigating and dealing with other cockpit management chores can be a real challenge.

The key to dealing with this gracefully is preparation. Here are some of the things I’ve come up with.

Organize in Advance

I don’t think there’s any simpler or more important tip to share. By organizing your cockpit in advance, you’ll know exactly where everything is and be able to reach it when you need it. I’m talking mostly about things like checklists, charts, pens, flight plans, and notes. But this could also include navigational aids like a handheld GPS, performance charts, and water or snacks.

My seat pocket includes charts and checklists; my passenger’s seat pocket includes marketing material and souvenir postcards.

There’s nothing that bugs me more than when an aircraft mechanic or cleaner or some other pilot moves the things I keep in the pocket under my legs in my aircraft. That’s where I should find all the charts I use regularly, my preflight briefing card (for passenger briefings), my emergency checklist, and my startup/shutdown checklists with performance charts. These are things I sometimes need to reach for in flight — I want them exactly where I expect them to be — not under the seat or in the back or in the seat pocket of the front passenger seat.

By always having things like this in the same place, I can always find them where I expect them to be. This reduces workload in flight — I don’t have to hunt around to find them when I might also need to do something else.

Use an Airport Frequency Cheat Sheet

I’ve had one of these on board since I bought my first helicopter, an R22 Beta II, back in 2000. It’s a standard letter size sheet of paper with a four-column grid on it. The columns list Airport Names, Elevations, Tower/CTAF Frequencies, and ATIS/AWOS/ASOS Frequencies. Each row is for a different airport in the areas of Arizona where I fly. The type is purposely large, so I can read it from a distance. The entire sheet is laminated so it doesn’t get beat up.

In Robinson helicopters, the floor at the pilot’s seat is carpeted but covered with a sheet of clear plastic. I slip my cheat sheet under the plastic so it’s at my feet. When I fly, I can shift one or both feet aside to get a look at the sheet to find a frequency I need. This is a lot quicker and easier than consulting a chart or fiddling with a GPS to get the same information.

Of course, if you don’t want to go all out and create one of these for everyday use, you should consider creating one for the flight you’re going to take. It can be much smaller — perhaps index card size — so you can slip it in a pocket when not in use. My husband uses sticky notes that he affixes to the yoke of his airplane. Same idea. He doesn’t fly as often as I do or to as many places, so that meets his needs.

Configure Your Charts in Advance

My cheat sheet under the plastic carpet protector and my TripTik on the Robinson-designed GPS tray I use to mount cameras and display charts.

By “configure,” I mean fold open to the area of the chart you’ll need to consult enroute. For most helicopter cross-country flights, you’ll likely use only a few panels of a single chart. But if you’re going on a long cross-country flight, you’ll likely need to fold open more than one chart — or fold the chart you need in a way that it’s easy to get to all panels you’re likely to need. Large paperclips or binder clips can come in handy to keep the chart open the way you need it.

A very smart pilot navigating through a new area will likely use a highlighter — pink and orange work best — to highlight his intended route. This makes it very easy to find the line you’re supposed to be on and keep track of landmarks you fly over as you go.

I’ve actually gone a step farther with this idea. I’ve created a “TripTik” (think AAA) by cutting old charts into pieces that I laminated and put on binder rings. I can clip this loose binder full of map segments to a platform I recently had mounted in my helicopter. As I fly, I can flip through the pages to see the segment I need. It was time consuming and tedious to create and it isn’t quite perfect yet, but it sure does make it easier to manage my charts. (You can see a video about it below.) And yes, I still do have all the up-to-date charts I need on board for every flight.

What’s that you say? You have a whiz-bang moving map GPS so you don’t need charts? Try telling that to an FAA inspector. And then think about what might happen if you didn’t have charts handy, weren’t paying much attention to where you might be, and that GPS dropped dead. That was the topic of an AOPA video I saw a long time ago and it’s stuck with me ever since. Situational awareness is vital to flight. Don’t depend on a GPS to tell you where you are. When flying in an unfamiliar area, always keep track of where you are on a chart.

One more thing about charts: make sure the one you’re carrying is the current one. Airport information and frequencies change. Having the wrong information about an airport you’re landing at or flying near can get you in trouble, as this story relates.

Punch in a Flight Plan

If you do have a GPS, make the most of it by punching in a flight plan before lifting off. This is extremely useful when doing a cross-country flight through relatively busy airspace.

For example, when I fly from Phoenix, AZ to Torrance, CA in the Los Angeles area, I fly through about two hours of wide open, empty desert, stop for fuel, and then spend another two hours threading my way though the busy airspace of Riverside and Orange Counties. This can get really intense, especially when LA’s famous smog has settled in the valleys and visibility is right around minimums. Although I mostly follow roads, I use waypoints along the way to make sure I don’t take the wrong exit (so to speak). Punching these waypoints — airports and GPS waypoints on the LA terminal area chart — into my GPS not only helps keep me on course, but it displays the upcoming waypoint and my distance from it so I can make intelligent radio calls when passing through.

While lots of pilots learn how to use the Go To feature of their GPS and stop there, learning how to enter a full flight plan is far more beneficial on a long flight. Suppose I decided to use Go To to move from one waypoint to the next. That means that as I’m passing through Fullerton’s airspace, I might be trying to punch in Long Beach’s waypoint. While keeping an eye out for other helicopter traffic in the busy 91/5 intersection area. And keeping to a restricted altitude. And dialing Long Beach’s frequency into standby. I don’t know about you, but that’s more of a workload than I want when visibility is 3-1/2 miles in smog. Using the flight plan feature to have all waypoints entered in advance significantly reduces the workload in flight.

Get a Capable Companion Involved

If you’re not flying solo, you may be able to shift some of the work to the person sitting beside you — but only if that person is willing and able to perform the tasks you need done promptly, with the minimal amount of instruction.

I’m lucky. My husband is a pilot, too. He knows how to tune in radio frequencies and use the Go To feature on my helicopter’s GPS. He can read a chart and pull off radio frequencies. He knows how to look for traffic. When we fly together, we share the workload. Since he’s got his helicopter rating, too, I usually put the duals in and he does most of the flying while I handle the cockpit chores.

Not everyone is as lucky. Some companions just can’t figure things out — even the simple things, like tuning in a radio. Entering busy airspace is not the time to teach them. Do it yourself — it’ll be quicker and safer. If you’ll be flying often with a person, give him some training when you’re just out cruising around so he’ll be ready to help you when you’re in busy airspace and can really use a hand.

And even if your companion is capable of doing things, he might not want to. As I mentioned, my husband is a pilot and can read a chart. But is he willing to monitor our progress on a chart in flight? No. He’s not a map person and simply doesn’t like using any kind of map unless he needs to.

I’m exactly the opposite. If I’m not flying, I’ve got that chart open on my knees and can tell you exactly where we are — well, to the nearest finger-width, anyway. I recently had an excursion passenger who was the same way. At the start of each leg of our trip, I’d configure a map for her and show her roughly where we were going. Although she had some trouble tracking our progress on the unfamiliar aeronautical chart format, she put in a good effort and did pretty darn well.

Plan Thoroughly

Of course, to punch in a flight plan and configure your charts, you must have a clear idea of where you’re going. That’s what flight planning is all about. Don’t just wing it (no pun intended) — plan it out completely so you know where you’re going and how you’ll get there.

I can’t stress how important this is for a long cross-country flight. You’ll need to examine the entire route on a current chart to make sure it doesn’t pass through hot MOAs or restricted areas. You’ll need to know where you can find fuel or lunch or maybe even a hotel along the way. You’ll need to learn about weather and NOTAMs and TFRs on your flight path. And you’ll need to get familiar with the layouts of the airports you’ll be landing at.

This is really part of flight planning the stuff you’re supposed to do before you crank up the engine — not cockpit management. But without a solid flight plan, you won’t be able to properly prepare as outlined above to make your cockpit management tasks easier.

Got Your Own Tips to Share?

If you’re an experienced pilot — helicopter or airplane — and have some other tips to share, please do. Use the Comments link for this post to get a discussion going.

Flying airplanes, airports, aviation, communication, helicopters, pilots

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Neighborly flying service folks let me park my helicopter on one of their tie-down spots.

Last year, when I was in Quincy for cherry drying season, I was fortunate enough to get a hangar for two months. Having a hangar can be a pain in the butt when you have a helicopter, but I was prepared and had my tow bar handy. Weather was [too] good and I didn’t fly much. It was nice to keep the helicopter out of the sun.

This year, I didn’t bother trying to find out if the hangar was still available. I doubt it is — someone else was moving in the day I moved out. And since I don’t have my tow bar with me, moving the helicopter in and out would be nearly impossible by myself anyway.

Quincy airport is about 4-1/2 miles from my living space at the Quincy Golf Course. That isn’t very far. But there were other, closer options for parking the helicopter. One was the Ferguson Flying Service right across the street from the golf course. I stopped by there on Monday, before bringing the helicopter in from Seattle, to see if I could park there. They very graciously said that I could.

My parking space at Ferguson’s Flying Service in Quincy, WA.

So I’m parked on one of the concrete tie-down pads they used to use for their crop dusters.

For those readers who are not familiar with agricultural aviation, i should probably explain what a flying service is. A flying service is a company that provides crop dusters and related agricultural aviation services for farmers and growers. Quincy is farm country, full of wheat, corn, alfalfa, potato, and other crop fields, as well as fruit trees and even some grape vines. There are at least two flying services in the area. Each has its own scrawny paved runway and a small handful of crop dusters.

Another view of my parking spot and the plane beside me.

Now, if you look closely at the biplane in these photos, you’ll probably notice that it doesn’t look “airworthy.” It’s not. For one thing, it’s missing it’s tail — or “tail feathers” as one of the local pilots referred to it. Its big radial engine also needs some work. It’s apparently bled out, too — the engine needs some serious TLC.

But Ferguson’s has other airplanes it flies. This one is parked until it’s repaired and ready to fly.

I want to thank the folks at Ferguson’s Flying Service for allowing me to park at their facility. It’s great to have the helicopter so close and it’s great to chat with the guys when I go over to check on it or prepare for a flight.

Flying airplanes, airports, helicopters

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Nothing like airport security!

I took this photo last year after arriving at this airport gate. I wanted to remember how secure my aircraft would be, sitting out on the ramp beyond this lock.

Can you see why I took a photo of it?

Days in My Life, Flying airports, security

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Whoa.

Mike and I flew up to Page, AZ yesterday. We had a few business-related things to do. Among them was to take measurements and photographs of my new hangar.

The hangar is at Page Municipal Airport and overlooks a huge, underused parking area. Beyond that is Lake Powell with Tower Butte and Navajo Mountain. See for yourself:

Not too shabby, huh?

I start flying photo flights out of there in March. I can’t wait.

Flying airports, aviation, Lake Powell

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Adding to my flight journal.

It was 1 PM yesterday afternoon when the Concierge of a downtown Phoenix resort confirmed a Phoenix tour for two at 3 PM, departing from Scottsdale Airport. The helicopter and I were in Wickenburg.

I took down the particulars, hung up, and went into my office. I created a flight plan and the weight and balance I needed to be legal for my Part 135 charter work. Then I took a very quick shower, dressed in black jeans with a button-down Flying M Air logo shirt and black shoes, and fled to the airport with my paper work.

The Flight Down

Things were quiet (as usual) at Wickenburg Airport when I arrived. I opened my hangar and did a preflight. Everything looked fine, but I was low on fuel. I swapped out the old Airport/Facilities Directory with the current one — again, required to be on board for all Part 135 flights — got in the golf cart, and towed the helicopter out to the fuel island. A while later, I had 3/4 tanks of fuel and was warming the engine on one of the “helipads” on the west end of the ramp.

The tow cart owned by one of Wickenburg’s other helicopter owners — there are four of us here — was on the pad beside mine. I wondered where he’d gone and whether he was having fun. Unlike me, he can afford to fly anytime he likes. Flying is costly and I’ve gotten to the point where I only fly when I have to — or have someone else picking up the tab.

That day’s flight was out of Scottsdale Airport, which was about 35 minutes away by helicopter. I wished they’d chosen Deer Valley Airport, which was 10 minutes closer, but I offered the option of Scottsdale and they’d taken it.

[This map, which I created at the request of one of the concierges, shows my Phoenix-area pickup locations. It's interactive, so you can click a blue bubble to learn more about a location or zoom in to see the exact pickup location.]

There was no one in the pattern when I brought the rotors up to 100% RPM and made my departure call. I took off over the ramp, followed the taxiway parallel to Runway 05, and climbed out quickly. I dialed Deer Valley (DVT) into my GPS as I turned to the southeast. Soon I was flying over town and past my friend Tom’s ridgetop home just south of town on my way to the city.

Flying conditions were good. Very little wind, a few high, thin clouds. I’d checked the weather as part of my flight plan and knew the winds were light and variable all over the valley. It was also warm — 75°F. It would be an easy and comfortable flight.

I flew at about 400 AGL over rolling cactus-covered hills. Down below me, here and there, were RVs and ATVs making the most of our public land. The dust from a dirt bike traced the line of a trail in the near distance.

I was halfway to Deer Valley when my TIS woke up and began picking up signals from Sky Harbor. I was very surprised to see a target at my altitude just a few miles away. I looked but didn’t see anyone in the sky there. I was tuned into the Northwest/Northeast practice area frequency (122.75), as I’d be passing right through the Northwest practice area. A flight instructor made a radio call to announce that he was doing ground reference work over the Quintero Golf Course at 2800 feet. My altitude. What the hell was a plane doing down in helicopter territory?

I made a call with my location and altitude about a minute later. I got a bit of pleasure when I saw the altitude indication for his target on my GPS climb several hundred feet. Scared ya.

I didn’t have to worry about airplane traffic as I passed between the hills on the southwest side of Lake Pleasant. None of the training airplanes would dream about being that low. A rocky desert terrain, surprisingly green from winter rains and studded with tall saguaro cacti passed beneath me in a blur. Out on the lake, there were dozens of sailboats — not very common on a lake normally filled with motorboats and jet skis. I descended with the terrain, made another call as I passed south of the New Waddell Dam and Lake Pleasant, and continued southeast.

I tuned my GPS’s comm to the Deer Valley ATIS and listened for the altimeter and runway in use. I wasn’t landing, but I wanted to know what the other traffic would be doing. When I cleared the area near Pleasant Valley Glider Port (P48), I turned more southbound toward Deer Valley. I crossed Carefree Highway a second time and tuned in Deer Valley’s North Tower.

“Deer Valley Tower, Helicopter Six-Three-Zero-Mike-Lima, nine to the northwest with Gulf, request transition along the canal toward Scottsdale.”

“Helicopter Six-Three-Zero Mike-Lima, Deer Valley Tower. Proceed as requested at or below two thousand. Deer Valley altimeter Three-Zero-One-Four. Report over the canal abeam the tower.”

I repeated the altitude restriction and headed toward where the Central Arizona Project canal crosses I-17, just inside Deer Valley’s airspace. The canal crosses both runway centerlines remarkably close to runway ends, but the altitude restriction put me below the landing traffic. It wasn’t that busy at Deer Valley anyway — probably fewer than four planes in the north traffic pattern.

I dropped down to 1800 feet as I hooked up with the canal and began following it southeast bound. The water was glass-like and reflected the few clouds high overhead. I wondered whether the people whose homes backed up against the canal were bothered by a helicopter flying past their backyards.

I made my call abeam the new tower. It’s been in operation about a year now and is huge, towering over the desert floor on the north side of the airport, midfield. I was told to monitor the south frequency. I’d already dialed it in and pushed the radio’s switch button.

I popped up about 100 feet to give myself extra space as I crossed some high tension power lines, then dropped back down to 1800 feet again. By then, I was crossing the runway center lines. Once clear, I called the south tower, requested a frequency change, and got it.

I listened to the Scottsdale ATIS on my GPS comm while I tuned into the tower frequency on my main comm. They were landing on runway 21 and the altimeter was the same. I punched Scottsdale (SDL) into my GPS.

I keyed my mic. “Scottsdale Tower, Helicopter Six-Three-Zero Mike-Lima, six to the northwest over the canal, request landing at the terminal with Alpha.”

The controller was a woman. Although I think I recognized her voice, she obviously didn’t recognize my N-number. She asked if I was familiar and I told her I was. Then she told me to continue inbound and report 2 miles west.

I left the canal and steered more southbound so I could come in more from the west. Now I was passing over homes and freeways, a good 500-700 feet off the ground. I heard the controller talking to another helicopter landing at Westworld for the Barrett-Jackson auction going on there. Then a jet getting an IFR clearance. Then I was about 2-1/2 miles to the northwest.

I called in. The controller cleared me to land, instructing me to stay east of the runway and taxiway. I repeated the landing clearance and restriction back to her. It was only after I’d released the mic button that I realized we both meant west. I debated calling her to clarify, but I knew that she meant west because to remain east, I’d have to cross the runway to the side opposite the terminal. So I didn’t call her. Instead, I just came in over the air park buildings, turning to parallel the runway on the west side for landing. A while later, I was setting down on the ramp with a Landmark Aviation guy in front of me, directing me as if I were some kind of commercial airliner. Silly.

The Tour

My passengers showed up a while later. I was waiting in the terminal for them. I’d wiped down the cockpit bubble to get the few bugs off before going inside to meet them.

They were a pair of newlyweds, in town for the big football game. Cardinals against Philadelphia, I think. He was in real estate and had been in helicopters a few times before. He was also a fixed wing pilot. She’d been in a helicopter only once before. I gave them the safety briefing and loaded them on board. He let her sit up front while he sat behind her.

My passengers wanted to see a mix of desert beauty with cacti and city. I had already planned to take them up to Lake Pleasant and the flight out there would give them all the desert they wanted — and more. Then I planned to take them south, past the Cardinals Stadium. We’d finish up with a flight up Central Avenue, then right on Camelback so they could see their hotel from the air. From there, we’d return to Scottsdale Airport.

The flight was supposed to take 50 to 60 minutes. That’s how I advertise it. I don’t do the same route each time. It really depends on the passengers and the weather and the time of day. Since these folks were staying in a hotel on Camelback, I figured I’d stay north of Sky Harbor so I could easily fit an overflight into my plan. Since I was shorting up the distance that way, I’d have to lengthen it with a flight up to the lake.

Timing is always tricky. You come in too short and the passengers could get pissed off. You come in too long and you’re throwing money away. The trick is finding that happy medium — and being smart enough to adjust speed along the way to make it work.

This particular plan required me to talk to Scottsdale, Glendale (GEU), Sky Harbor (PHX), and Scottsdale airports’ control towers. I had to use six different radio frequencies and change my transponder squawk code twice. It was almost choreographed, like a dance, with very little time between communications points to change frequencies, think of what to say, say it, listen for the response, and react accordingly. All the time, I was narrating a tour, pointing our places of interest, and answering questions. My passengers were very talkative and I had to isolate them three times to hear instructions from a controller.

I like talkative passengers. It gives me a way to read their satisfaction about a flight. I really hate passengers who just sit there quietly. You never know if they’re happy.

Main highlights on this flight included horses in people’s backyards in Scottsdale, open range cattle and cattle ponds, dirt bikers, the lake and sailboats, the canal, Cardinals Stadium, mobile homes on the west side of Phoenix, Central Avenue “skyscrapers,” Camelback Mountain, the resort where they were staying, the mall where they’d used their American Express card the night before, and pools.

The flight took about 52 minutes. I consider that short, but my passengers were happy. I think they had something scheduled afterwards. I walked them back into the terminal, got paid, and left.

The Flight Home

The flight home was about the same as the flight out, but in reverse. I managed to screw up the frequency for the north tower at Deer Valley (should have been 120.2 but I was listening to silence on 122.2) and was off-radio for about 2 minutes. I realized the error and fixed it just as the controller was trying to raise me. I got scolded and felt like an idiot — especially since one of my friends was flying in and probably heard the whole exchange. Sheesh.

Northwest of there, I passed some hot air balloons being inflated. Since one was already fully inflated and I worried about the effect of my downwash, I kept my distance as I circled to take this shot with my Treo. Then I dropped down and skirted the empty desert, low level. I passed by some horses that may or may not have been wild — they didn’t seem the least bit interested in me. More campers, more quads, more lines of dust in the distance. I climbed back up to 500 feet AGL when I reached the homes on the outskirts of Wickenburg. I overflew my house and saw Mike on the driveway, waving up at me, before landing at the airport.

I put the helicopter away, feeling tired, hungry, and thirsty. I’d flown 2.2 hours and had earned enough to make one half of a helicopter loan payment.

Flying airports, Arizona, charter, helicopters, Phoenix, tourism

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