So what's so great about Shawn's book?
Well, everything, frankly. It's been reviewed here before, but not until I got my sticky fingers on the pages did I discover what I had been missing!
CYCLIC AND COLLECTIVE. Not an easy book to find on bookstore shelves. I finally got mine this week by stopping in at the National Test Pilot School in Mojave, where Shawn is chief helicopter instructor. (And got a fascinating tour of the facilities and their fleet of extraordinary aircraft. Dazzling. Not to mention the challenge of trying to keep up with a brilliant expert in the field.)
The book: actually structured informally as Book 1 (pp 1-200, text for beginners w/piston-engine helis) and Book 2 (in same binding, pp 201-480, advanced & turbine operations). All 480 pages contain in-depth analysis of what goes on with rotors beating atmosphere into submission; and every page has at least one bit of delightful HUMOR (beat that, FAA Rotorcraft Flying Handbook). Example: "There is no doubt the first ten or so hours of helicopter flying are among the most humbling experiences one can go through. There are many parallels to learning to ride a bicycle . . . [footnote here says 'Except the falling off part'] or windsurf [footnote: 'except drier']"
Good news is, the inherently deep technical subjects can be read with enjoyment by nearly any helicopter pilot--if the material is too technical for you to understand, at least the sideline humor keeps it light--and additionally punctuates essential, or ignorable, subjects to keep you on track. And that inherent easy digestibility, in turn, allows a noticeably deeper and more thoughtful analysis of everything-helicopter.
The anecdotal reports of strange-accidents-that-happen are invaluable lessons in Murphy's Law--for instance, the middle-European sightseeing helicopter that crashed & killed 8, for unexplained reasons. EXCEPT that its normal tiedown was on a slope, so any water getting into the fuel tanks would be in the downslope corner of the tank, undiscovered during preflight--AND at takeoff the water would flow (downhill) to the front edge of the tank, away from the outlet; and then at approach-to-landing pitch-up the water would flow downhill to the outlet at aft edge of tank AND THENCE TO THE ENGINE! Exactly where the aircraft crashed!
And other jewels. "That helmets save lives should not be questioned. What should be questioned is the mental health of anyone who says they won't wear one." On immersion suits: "How long can you tread water? (With apologies to Bill Cosby and the Noah sketch.)" The lift equation: "Aerodynamicists use calculus to estimate the toatl lift on a single blade and then the whole rotor disk. We won't be doing that - the reader will probably be delighted to find we will hardly touch the formula again."
I've only read 10% of the book so far, but just had to share the fun. I could go on and on--as a matter of fact, I have. More to follow, but the only way to get the full thrust is get your own copy--www.helobooks.com, P.O. Box 787, Mojave, CA 93502, 661-823-8068. $44.95 (and no, I don't get a commission of any kind--but just think of all the complicated arguments we can get into here on pprune once we have a common--er, un-common?--frame of reference.)
Dave
helimaverick-at-large