Thurs 20th Feb
We get given Ex 24 , Sloping Ground, and give back a bit of it immediately afterwards. It goes OK. Maybe things are coming together, I think. Little do I know... Next we get told we're giving back Ex 20, 21, 23, and 24, all in one session.
Mike sounds all enthusiastic about it, and I try to convince myself I can do it, and pretty much succeed. But it doesn't work. Precision Transitions go fine, but I have the same problems as before doing downwind quickstops, and if I can do one I can't talk about it at the same time. After a few attempts I say to Mike that this is crazy, I simply can't do it, I don't know why or what's going on but we have to sort it out. He says to go on to something else. I "teach" crosswind and downwind takeoffs and landings OK, manage a downwind transition from the hover to forward flight, and get myself all over the place with the forward flight to hover one. By this time I'm in such a state that I can't either think or fly, let alone do both at the same time. We've also had an hour, and stop. But I've made a decision. I need to talk to Mike. I can't just go blundering on, hoping it'll all work out OK when it so obviously isn't. Mark is now quite happy and things are coming together, but they're not with me. This is not just my lack of confidence; I'm not blind, and this is real. Despite having said to Nr Fairy and Mrs Nr Fairy last night that talking to Mike wouldn't help, I HAVE to do something. So I go in and ask to do just that. It goes surprisingly well. To cut a long story short, we end up agreeing that the problem is my flying, and probably caused by my early training. Since I know my early training was cr@p - and that's an understatement - and have been trying to tell anyone who'd listen for years (and hardly anyone would; they just tried to reassure me) - this is no surprise. But what can we do about it, I ask? Well, he says, the only problem is the expense, I'll need a few extra hours. Is that all? Suddenly I feel as though I've dropped a great weight. I'm not a hopeless pilot who'll never ever reach the required standard; I've not been so badly trained that the problem is insurmountable (though it's harder to break old habits than learn them right the first time)...I'll just need a few extra hours. What on earth have I been getting so upset about? I say OK, no problem; should I make arrangements for a sixth week (groan; I wanna go home
) Mike says maybe, but maybe we can do it all next week anyway. I feel six inches taller, and the sun is shining again. In the late afternoon we get given confined areas, and I tell Mike that's the first time I've been taught a vertical letdown in an R22 in an area where you'd have to do one - my first instructor was obviously scared of them. You see the problems I'm having? I discuss PPL training etc with a friend on the phone in the evening; she went to a wellknown and respected school, but said despite emphasising that she had the time and money and wanted to learn properly (she had previously qualified on both f/w and microlights), it was till rushed, some exercises skimped over etc. Something is very wrong in the helicopter training world, IMHO. At the end of this thread I think I'll give you an account of my early training. It might help someone recognise and avoid the same thing. If you think it's just Whirly being self-indulgent (or plain wrong!) you can skip it. But IMHO someone has to speak up sometime. Anyway....
Friday 21st Feb
Mike has a crisis to deal with, so Mark and I do some mutual flying. We give each other Confined Areas in detail, then bits of what we feel like. My dreaded downwind quickstops go much better...but will they when I'm with Mike. What is it about the roleplay and the instructor/student scenario that I find so hard? In the afternoon we get a briefing on how to teach instrument flying, then get given it in the air. I'm very tired after a long and stressful week, and find it hard to concentrate, but really work at it, as I may need to do it for real someday...and I may be tired. I chat to a friend who used to teach canoeing, often to people who'd been badly taught in the first place, on the best way of relearning bad habits. He's very helpful, and I have a bit of a plan of campaign...
I'll post this, then post about my early training...
I went for a trial helicopter lesson, simply to try something new after about a year with a PPL(A). I had no plans to take it any further. But I loved it, and (apparently) amazed my instructor - let's call him Joe - by (apparently) hovering with all three controls for a few seconds. The reason for all the "apparentlys" will become clear soon. Anyway, I went back for a full day, with the same instructor, who seemed a nice guy, with great interpersonal skills, interested in me, and we got on really well. It went well, and I decided to at least have a few more lessons, and told him I wanted to go solo, and possibly even get my PPL(H).
My first 20 hours were delightful. I seemed to be able to do everything easily, and Joe just kept telling me how well I was doing. We zoomed through all the early lessons so quickly I couldn't believe it; I'd struggled with my PPL(A), but I just seemed to have such an affinity for helicopters. After about 16 hours Joe caught me looking at the First Solo photos, and told me I was already well beyond that standard, but the school had a policy of not sending people solo until they'd done 20 hours. I was ecstatic, and unconcerned; I'd decided to finish the PPL anyway.
With hindsight, I realise that even then I thought things seemed a bit odd. Jope would tell me I'd done really well after some exercise, and I'd say; "But I wasn't doing it accurately". He'd say it was OK, it was good enough; it didn't matter as we'd go over it all later on for my GFT revision. I assumed it was different from f/w, and believed him - what did I know. Then, sometimes I'd hover in a difficult situation, or takeoff or land, and was sure I felt him on the controls. He'd tell me how good it was, and I'd say: "But you were helping me"; but he'd assure me he hadn't been, not at all. So both my instructor and my helicopter were giving me signals that all was going well and I was picking up the skills naturally, and I believed it. Until one day, after being told how wonderfully well the lesson had gone, I said: "So when do I get to go solo". It's unlike me to be that forward, but....well, I could obviously fly this machine, and we were well on through the syllabus. Was I imagining that Joe looked nervous, when I told him I now had over 21 hours? Anyway, he arranged for a solo check ride for the next day.
As soon as I tried to take off with...let's call him Sam, something felt different. I'd never had any problems with takeoffs or landings... or so I thought. Here, suddenly, I couldn't do them. Sam took me to the hover square to go over them, but I just couldn't do them, and clearly had no real idea of how to. I obviously couldn't go solo, and drove home disappointed...but with my mind in a whirl. What the hell had been going on?
The next time I flew, Joe said that "they" had decided that I needed a little more practice, that it was OK, we'd carry on with the syllabus, but do a little takeoff and landing practice at the end of each session. But things had changed. I was suspicious. I felt this guy had been stringing me along. I thought he'd been coming on the controls without telling me, and now I tested him; I'd freeze as I was landing, and I knew he helped me, though he still assured me he wasn't. I didn't know if it was deliberate or accidental, but I wasn't happy either way, I didn't know what to do, and was gradually ceasing to trust him. I also wondered just how bad I was. After all, I was flying the helicopter...or was I? I considered changing instructor, but was determined not to rock the boat until I went solo...and when would that be?
When I finally did my first solo it gave me enough confidence to be angry and determined. I phoned the school owner the next day, and said I no longer trusted Joe, explained briefly why, and that I wanted another instructor. I was so definite that he agreed instantly. Even then I began to wonder about what later became a constant question for me: "How do I know what I don't know?" I knew I'd been badly taught, but had things been missed out, and how would I know? I tried to ask both the school owner and my new instructor, but felt as though my fears were brushed aside; I'm not particularly articulate so maybe it wasn't their fault. Anyway, I reassured myself that maybe we'd just have to do extra GFT revision, which was indeed the case, and I got my PPL(H). I'd been overconfident during my time with Joe, and to some extent I still was. And I decided to go commercial if I could, and started to hourbuild. And I more or less forgot about my fears until I oversped an R22 some six months later, and realised that although I had indeed been responsible for what happened, perhaps it wouldn't have occurred if I'd been better trained about checks, if I'd understood better how helicopters worked, and especially if I'd had some governor off explanations and practical training. My discussions on this with the school owner having led nowhere except to anger on his part, I contacted the only other experienced instructor I knew of at that point, and got some extra training. In fact I told him of my fears, and said I wanted to go right back to the beginning!
He told me it was impossible and unnecessary, obviously thinking I was over-reacting. Nevertheless I made him sit in with me for the start-up, and he did find one or two things I wasn't doing - no-one had checked after I stopped flying with Joe.
So I carried on. I went to a new school, with whom I did my CPL. There it became clear that parts of the PPL syllabus had been missed out, or skimped over. Having wondered before if I'd got it all wrong, I became more certain that I'd been absolutely right.
Now I'm doing it again in far more detail for the FI course. I'm finding out how helicopter flying should be taught...and it's certainly not how I was taught, far from it. Even allowing for individual differences, my early training was cr@p. I was strung along, patronised, made to feel good and happy - but not taught to fly properly. I'm fairly certain some of the instructors at that school were fine, but why did no one check on me till my abortive first solo attempt? And why didn't they attempt to rectify things afterwards? It was, as I see it now, a complete cover-up - and never mind the consequences to me, the paying customer.
I saved a few hundred quid at PPL level by going to a cheaper school; it's costing me a lot more than that at CPL and instructor level. And I worry as to whether it can even be rectified. To anyone else going this route, please please please check and ask around first!
Don't ask me to name and shame; I've thought about it, but I won't. Firstly, I still could be wrong about what happened. Secondly, the published word appears to have a truth and reality beyond just opinion - and this is of course just my opinion. But if anyone wants to send me a pm about any of this, feel free. I'd be happier if you explain roughly why you want to know. And I'll emphasise again, it'll be purely my opinion.