Officedesk, I crossed over about four years ago in a Bell 47. One of the hardest things for me was the throttle: keeping the RPM in the green. I make my living crop dusting so being low to the ground and making corrections constantly weren't new to me. At first I stayed a little behind the helicotpter. What got me was the constant corrections you have to make, or maybe it has become so second nature in my crop duster. But, as all helo drivers know, when one control input is made you have to counter with all of the others.
Steep approaches was another thing that was hard to get used to. I kept over shooting the spot. Eventually it all came together.
There is one thing that struck me as different going from planes to helos. In my crop duster there are days when the turbulence is so bad that my helmet will bounce off the side glass on each side of me. I had always heard that the rotors absorb much of the bouncing around when flying in a copter but hadn't thought much about it until my first day going offshore, in a B206L, the platform called us on FM and told us to go back to the beach because the winds were gusting to 50 knots. At that time my front seat passenger said over the intercom that he was glad because it sure was rough. I thought about it for a minute and asked him if this was a rougher than normal trip. He looked at me as if I was crazy and asked me if I didn't think it was rough. I then told him that if this was as bumpy as it got in my crop duster I'd never complain about turbulence again.
Flying helicopters definitely takes more concentration and forethought. I think that it would be a lot easier to go from a helicopter to an airplane because in a sense you can be lazy in a plane; but, if you take the same attitude in a helo it will get you sooner of later.
It is also a lot more physical in a helicopter. For example, a couple hours spraying in a helicopter is equivalent to 4-6 in my Thrush. You just never get to relax.
I could go on and on but I'm going to a Tim McGraw concert and my wife says I have to get ready.
Barryb
