Hi everyone,
Let me start off by saying I don't mean to cause any offence but I feel that some of you may not like what I'm about to say.
Let me start off by telling you a bit about myself. I'm currently a Civilian Gliding Instructor at RAF Kenley where I teach air cadets to glide...it's a weekend thing and a great hobby. Being RAF that it is, we sometimes get to do other things. Last year I went on an Instructor Development Training course, which is designed to allow us to fly other aircraft and go outside our comfort zones.
Part of the course involved having a 20 minute jolly in an RAF Squirrel. Now 5 minutes of that was engine start up and a running crew change. In the 15 minutes of actual flying I was taught to hover, take-off and land and allowed to practice it all twice.
Now I happened to mention this on YouTube and it prevoked a big reaction from people saying it wasn't possible to learn all of that in 15 minutes. My attitude was it was fairly easy to fly a helicopter. Now I'm not saying that I'm a sky god, as 7 other people did the same thing on the same day and a further 8 people done it again 2 weeks later. However, I still think that it was easy. Obviously I wasn't perfect...I was a tiny bit twitchy as I wasn't used to the sensitivity but nonetheless, it was safe, to a good standard and a right laugh.
Now, a few people have challenged me to prove my allegations so that's what this post is about.
Is there anybody on here who would be willing to offer me a free flight in a helicopter from Blackbushe, Hampshire, with conventional controls (i.e. not a Robinson) to prove that it's common to learn what I claim. This request is mainly aimed at people who have to do a flight to keep up their hours, with me riding shot gun.
If anyone would be prepared to do this then please E-mail at
[email protected]
I wouldn't mind another place to go from, provided its not to far from Blackbushe.
Anyway, kind regards to all you professionals, Adam