An Eclectic Mind

I answer another request for “my insights” submitted via e-mail.

This morning, I got another e-mail message today from someone interested in starting a career as a helicopter pilot. Here’s the content, with identifying information XXXed out:

I ran across an article about you and Flying M Air in this years Az. Highways and thought you might be able to offer some advice when you had some free time (though reading about all of what you do on the job, I’m thinking you don’t have much free time).

I am currently a director for a large multi-national XXX company in XXX doing global IT security operations, as I have done for other fortune 500 companies for the past 8+ years. I foresee another 2-4 years in the industry as I try and setup my exit strategy from corporate America. The deeper I get into the business side of things (finishing my MBA at XXX in May) and coupled with what I already know from doing IT security for large corps, the less I like the idea of spending the next 20 years behind a desk working for a corporation.

I’ve always loved helicopters as far back as I can remember. Tried to get a guaranteed shot at them in the Army but they wanted me to be in the infantry first so I entered the Air Force as an EOD tech (not helo’s but still fun). I did get to partake in several rides in Blackhawks getting air dropped into zones for work and training. Had a blast, even in the back of helo.

You seem to have escaped the corporate trap and entered the world of helicopters so I am hoping you can share some tips/pointers on how to enter the field. My current research and plan has me thinking I go to XXX helicopters to start training in 2010/1 and start to work my way up to get commercial to instructor tickets while working corporate job. Then I am not sure how to make the break from corporate America into aviation. I am really interested in medevac jobs as well as other jobs around XXX (versus long range/extended travel as I have a family based in XXX).

So in an attempt to wrap up what has become a long winded email, any insights, pointers, advice you might be able to share when/if you have some free cycles would be greatly appreciated.

First, I want to say that it was a pleasure to receive an e-mail like this from someone who was actually literate and could explain himself clearly. I suspect this guy can succeed at whatever he puts his mind to.

In formulating a response to him, I realized that although this blog has lots of posts containing my thoughts and opinions and experience on the topic, there isn’t one post that links to all of it. So I composed a response to him that collected the links and offered some additional words of advice. I’m repeating that response here for the benefit of folks looking for the same kind of information. In the future, I’ll simply link to this.

Thanks for writing.

I need to clarify something: I didn’t escape corporate America for a job as a pilot. I escaped for a freelance career as a writer. That’s where I make my money. If I had to depend on flying income and my flying business to cover all helicopter costs AND pay me enough to cover my mortgage and other living expenses, I’d be broke.

I’ve written about helicopter pilot careers extensively in my blog and that’s probably the best place to get my insights. Here are some specific posts to get you started:

• The Helicopter Job Market (be sure to go through ALL the comments)
• Helicopter Training and Broken Promises
• How to Start Your Own Helicopter Charter Business
• Real Pilot Experience
• Two Ways Not to Ask for a Pilot Job

And, for a lighter look, check out the video in this post: The Truth about Flying Helicopters

My biggest piece of advice is to NOT sign up for any “program” that takes you through the process of getting your ratings if that program requires an up-front commitment. You’ll understand why if you read the “Broken Promises” link above.

Don’t be lured by promises of a high-paying job as a helicopter pilot. It will likely take at least 5-10 years to quality for such a job and right now, the helicopter pilot job market is absolutely overflowing with low-time pilots competing for the entry level jobs needed to move forward in a career. If an employer has a choice between a 25-year-old career pilot and a 40-year-old on his second career, who do you think he’ll choose? Hint: inexperienced kids are willing to take all kinds of crap from employers because they simply don’t know any better.

Be a pilot because you love to fly — and be prepared to sink a LOT of money into flying before you see any money in return.

On that dismal note, good luck.

One more word of advice: if you want to be a helicopter pilot, subscribe to publications about helicopters, such as Vertical (excellent), Rotor & Wing (so-so but free), and HelNews (Australia-based but excellent). If you’re going to participate in helicopter forums, take every comment with a grain of salt and try to block out the comments by the trolls. I don’t think forums are worth the time, but I have limited time and patience; if you have more, give them a try. Immerse yourself in the helicopter pilot/flying community before making a career decision and spending a lot of money on training.

Flying advice, business, careers, helicopters, pilots

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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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In Texas, anything is possible.

This morning, I did a quick search of the NTSB reports to get some info about an R22 crash in Skull Valley, AZ that happened over the weekend. One of my Twitter friends, @heligypsy, had DMed me on Twitter, asking if I knew the people involved. I didn’t, but I know the terrain. A high density altitude photo mission in an R22 is never a good idea, and I had a sneaking suspicion that the details would confirm this. Again.

While my search for information about that accident came up empty — too new to be in the records — it did turn up another interesting helicopter accident, CEN09LA201, which occurred in Texas. The first paragraph of the preliminary accident report sounded downright weird:

On or about May 15, 2007, at an unknown (possibly, 1300) central daylight time, a Robinson R22, N456PH, piloted by an non-certificated pilot, was substantially damaged when it struck a pole and impacted terrain either during takeoff or landing at a ranch in Midland, Texas. Visual meteorological conditions are assumed to have prevailed at the time of the accident. The personal flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 without a flight plan. The pilot reportedly was uninjured. The flight originated at an unknown time and location.

How many NTSB reports have you read that include the words unknown (two times), possibly, assumed, and reportedly?

Turns out, the accident did not occur on the report date of March 10, 2009. It occurred nearly two years earlier:

On March 10, 2009, FAA’s Flight Standards District Office in Lubbock, Texas, was contacted by a local rancher, who said there was a 2-year-old wrecked helicopter on his property, and he wanted permission to dispose of it. Unaware of such an accident, an FAA inspector went to the site. The inspector confirmed that an accident had occurred and had never been reported. The rancher said he became aware of the accident around July 2007.

The report continues with some aircraft history that sums up a few facts:

• The helicopter owner had been taking flight lessons in Tucson.
• The helicopter owner had planned to use the helicopter to give sightseeing flights in Mexico.
• The helicopter owner had put exactly 1.9 hours on the helicopter after transporting it by truck from Arizona, where its last maintenance work was done, to Texas.
• The crash had occurred when a main rotor blade struck a pole while the helicopter was either taking off or landing between two buildings on a Texas ranch.

Here’s the final line from the report:

According to FAA, the pilot’s name does not appear in their pilot database. According to the rancher, after the accident the pilot, who was uninjured, extricated himself and walked away.

Now if he was really smart, he would have come back with a flatbed truck and carted away the evidence of his stupidity.

But then what would I blog about today?

Flying helicopters, pilots

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When a pilot’s attitude problem leads to safety issues.

Last week, Mike and I took my brother and sister-in-law for a day trip to a popular scenic destination here in Arizona. I’m purposely being vague here to obscure the identify of the subject of this post.

The airport we landed at has a special helicopter area that consists of a large landing pad and six parking spaces. You can see the layout in the image here, captured from Google Maps. I’ve never seen anyone use the big pad. I parked in the spot marked “My Heli.” When I touched down, all the other pads were empty, although as we walked away, an Enstrom flew in and parked at the other end of my row of pads. He was gone before we returned a few hours later.

Some Background on the Parking “Turf War”

One of the helicopter tour operators at this destination uses the pads marked #1 and #2 in the illustration. About a year before, right after they started operating, I landed at the airport and attempted to set down in my usual parking space. A pilot was spinning on #2 and asked me to park on one of the other pads. Not knowing why — but assuming he had good reason to ask — I moved over.

I later discovered that he liked to take off through the spot where I normally parked and I was in his way. That kind of pissed me off. After all, I usually come with passengers and it’s a long enough walk to the terminal. My usual spot was the safest (pointing my tail rotor away from where people were likely to be walking) and most convenient (shorter distance to the terminal). I decided that I’d park there whenever the spot was available.

Another time when I came in for a landing, the same pilot asked me again to move over. When I said I preferred to park where I was, he said he was worried about damaging my blades as he went in and out of his spot. I didn’t say what I was thinking: how bad a pilot could he be that he couldn’t avoid another helicopter on such well-spaced pads? Instead, I told him I wasn’t worried and I used my blade tie-downs before leaving the area.

When I arrived the other day, I was glad that other pilot wasn’t around to ask me to move. Just in case he was out and about, I did tie down my blades.

An Unsafe Departure

We returned to the airport after a nice hike and walked back out to the helicopter. Now there was a tour helicopter on the pad marked #1. He’d just started up and was warming up the engine with passengers on board.

I wanted to get some video of my helicopter sitting on the pad with the scenery behind it as a jet took off on the runway. I asked my passengers to stand by the blue X while I did this. I assumed that the helicopter on pad #1 would depart along the markings in the helipad area. That’s what we’re trained to do. That’s why there are markings there. My passengers would be well out of the pilot’s way and safe — or as safe as possible in an active helicopter landing area.

I assumed wrong. The helicopter picked up to a 10-foot hover and hovered straight out toward the opposite pad, right next to mine. (See the straight green arrow in the illustration.) It was less than 15 feet from my waiting passengers as it paused at the back edge of the pad, over concrete and dirt. Dust, small pebbles, and grass clippings went flying all over us. Then the pilot took off, leaving us to brush debris out of our hair and clothing.

I was angry. The pilot’s departure was unsafe. Not only did his unusually high hover put his own passengers at risk in the even of an engine failure, but his proximity to us was downright dangerous. There was no reason for his departure route. He could have more safely departed across pad #2 (which was empty) or behind (above in the image) pad #2.

My husband, Mike, who is also a helicopter pilot, commented on the departure immediately, calling the pilot an asshole. I couldn’t agree more.

The other company helicopter returned from a flight and landed across from mine in pad #2. My group climbed into my helicopter and I started the engine. While warming up, the helicopter on #2 changed passengers. By this time, we had headsets on and were monitoring the radio. The pilot politely asked if I was ready to go. I told him I was still warming up and that he could depart. He picked up into a hover and hovered from the pad to the taxiway (see the bent green line in the illustration) — as I assumed the other helicopter would have done — and departed.

Teaching Me a Lesson?

I was almost ready to do my mag check when the first helicopter returned. The flight couldn’t have lasted more than 8 minutes. The pilot came in on the taxiway from the northeast and asked on the radio if the “Robbie” would hold position. (The way he said “Robbie” was definitely condescending; sit a guy in a turbine helicopter and he forgets what he learned to fly in.) I told him I would remain on the pad. As he taxied in for landing — before he even touched down– he told me that if I’d park at one of the other pads, I would be out of his way and my passengers wouldn’t get dusted.

This absolutely enraged me. This was obviously the same pilot who had told me to park elsewhere in the past. Apparently, he’d purposely hovered past my passengers — my family members – putting them at risk — to teach me a lesson. Now he was making sure I understood. He also very condescendingly added that they like to see out-of-town visitors, but it’s better if they park on one of the other pads.

Until this point, the parking situation had been a turf war between the tour operator’s pilots and the other helicopters who land and park at that airport. But with this incident, it became a serious safety issue. I got extremely rude to the pilot on the radio — I admit it — and, after telling him that I didn’t like him putting my passengers at risk, I said that I’d park “Any damn place I wanted.” He told me not to “cuss over the radio” and then tried to smooth it over by saying he was trying to be courteous. I told him he should be safe first.

Why?

The question I have after all of this is, why?

Why should a pilot care where other pilots park, as long as they’re not in his assigned space?

Why would a pilot purposely put people on the ground at risk to prove a point?

Why would a tour company hire a pilot with an attitude like this?

As you might guess, I didn’t let this go. I reported it to the FAA. I did it more to get the incident on record than to initiate any kind of action. If anyone else complains, I want my complaint to provide additional evidence of an ongoing problem.

The way I see it, each pilot represents all other pilots. When one pilot does something stupid and dangerous, he’s making all of us look bad. I work too hard to keep my own operations safe and trouble-free to tolerate this kind of bull from a pilot with an attitude problem.

What do you think about this? Use the comments link or form for this post to share your thoughts.

Flying airports, helicopters, pilots, stupidity

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A wasteland of advertising.

Okay, so maybe I’m being harsh and unfair. I just watched two back-to-back episodes of House on DVD and the Hugh Laurie character’s cynicism really rubs off on me.

But look three of the five most recent “discussion topics” in a helicopter-related group I belonged to on LinkedIn:

ABC Helicopters in ABC Florida
We are a flight training school that operate R22, R44,Schweizer 300’s and a Jet Ranger. If you are looking to become a Commerical pilot contact us at ww.abc.com

and

I am new to this group and looking to expand my network. I offer Helicopter flight instruction, demo flights, rides and rentals.

XYZ Choppers provides flight instruction, demo flights, helicopter rides, and helicopter rentals in Robinson R22 and R44 helicopters.

XYZ Choppers LLC is a Helicopter Flight school that is dedicated to the education and understanding of Helicopter flight concepts. As a student of XYZ Choppers, you will be learning how to fly in the fist 5 minutes of in-flight instruction. From the first lesson, you are on your way to becoming a helicopter pilot. We stress education in our ground school and consistently challenge your skill as a developing helicopter pilot.

and

Residential Airport Communities / Airpark Location Ideas?

I’m currently 70% sold out of AAA Estates Airpark on Lake AAA in east TX. See http://www.AAAestates.com/
I’m very interested in locating a new airpark location/area (City/State 300-500 acres) and would love to hear some ideas. I would be interested in an area/place that has the four seasons or very close to that.

Are these people freaking kidding me? How could any of these “discussion topics” be considered discussion topics? They are blatant advertisements, plain and simple.

My understanding of “discussions” is that people share ideas and opinions about specific topics they’re all supposed be interested in. I don’t think advertisements or solicitations for “ideas” that are obviously posted to get attention for business endeavors fall into that description.

I’m already a commercial helicopter pilot. That’s why I joined the group. I have no need for entry level training or helicopter “rides.” I’m not interested in giving people advice about real estate.

I’d like to see the group turn into something of real value to commercial helicopter pilots. The ads I’ve been seeing don’t meet that criteria.

Is this the way LinkedIn is going? Are the group discussion areas becoming a Craig’s List for a specific topic?

If so, I want nothing to do with it. I have to look at enough advertising every day. I shouldn’t have to look at it when trying to network with and learn from people with similar interests. I just dropped out of both groups I joined last month. Frankly, I have a lot better ways to waste my time.

Flying, Social Networking advertising, helicopters, pilots, professional

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