I began my training in November as a SPL(H) and by Christmas had progressed to hovering lessons
While nursing a mild hangover during the holiday period Christmas/NewYear
as one does, I received a phone call one morning from my instructor
informing me that he was at the airfield all by himself and would I like to come out and join him for a lesson -- why not I thought and I said I'd be there in an hour.
Moving swiftly along we got airborn and as you all know how easy it is to hover in the begining
After 20-30 mins or so of sweating (alcohol) and wondering why I was performing like my first ever hovering lesson and struggling so much with the controls and decided that this aint working
Instructor agreed and we said we would call it a day, so hovered back to the helipad (badly) and set it down.
Once we were on the ground I quickly descovered the problem -
Frictions still on
Neither I nor the instructor for that matter had released the frictions before lifting off, the whole lesson was conducted with frictions on
Biggest lesson I learned that day was
never ever attempt to go flying with alcohol in your system
a lesson I still standby today
Even now as an Instructor I have turned away students who turn up for lessons with the smell of drink on them with a warning that I lessons would end permanently if it happened again
Only happened a few times but there were no re-offenders
Sir Niall Dementia I know exactly how you felt
Pv