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Old 5th April 2025 | 04:35
  #57 (permalink)  
Ascend Charlie
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Joined: Sep 2002
: CPL
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From: Great South East, tired and retired
Gordy, I rode with some very skilled longline pilots in B212 doing things like positioning towers for the chairlift in Northern Queensland, and putting the "AMP" signs on top of Sydney Tower after the Olympic statues of athletic sports were taken down.

The thing that surprised me was how accurate they were in positioning things 200' below the skids (and with the hover reference 1000' below, in the case of Sydney Tower) but also how the cyclic was battering me around the knees to hold position. So, the comments from Bell are true in that respect.

I have also seen junior pilots in the Huey (<500 hrs) "sawing" the cyclic back and forth on approach to landing. And I have seen VERY experienced pilots throw the aircraft around - one of them became known as "Chuck", because most of his passengers did so.

Robbiee, in my school, use of the governor was restricted to nav trips, where the left hand was holding maps or making notes. Otherwise, it was relying on the correlator (surprisingly good) and small adjustments of the throttle to keep the RPM where they should be. Back in the Bad Old Days, we also had to be proficient in using manual throttle in the turbines of the Hueys before we went solo. Anticipation was the key - small throttle movement followed by small lever movement, up or down. Had to fly a circuit in manual fuel from hover to hover.
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