Teaching Yourself to Fly a Helicopter

[Shawn Coyle]

I've just come across someone who taught themselves to fly a helicopter (and survived without any accidents).
Story was totally believable, but very strange.
I wondered if there was anyone else out there who had ever heard of (or possibly) done the same thing.

Seems he built a Rotorway Scorpion from several kits, one of which had a book by Rotorway on how to teach yourself to fly a helicopter. He followed the instructions in the book to the letter (use a lose tether - 6" or so per side, front and back, tether the tail boom). Once you've learned to hover within those confines, then loosen the tether to 1 foot, when able to hover accurately there, etc.
He did take one lesson after doing the tethered hover stuff, in an R-22 and was pretty surprised at how easy this was to hover. (for those of us who find it not so easy this in itself is an interesting insight).
When he finally went to the Rotorway school they asked how he had learned to fly. When they found out he'd used their book, they replied that they thought they'd managed to recall of the books, evidently due to liability issues (quite rightly).

Anyway, if anyone has any stories I'd like to hear about it.
Shawn

[Check 6]

I know of one person who did this circa 1975-6 at the Watsonville Airport in California (KWVI).

He is the inventor of the Plantronics microphone and had a sizeable warbird collection (P-38, B-25, P-51, PBY).

His name is Keith Larkin. Keith had purchased an Army surplus OH-23D (Hiller). I was teaching his teenage son to fly it and offered to do the same for Keith, but he insisted on teaching himself.

I do not believe Keith ever received his R/H license, but did teach himself to fly it without incident. It was quite amazing at the time, but Keith was a unique pilot and WWII veteran.

[rotorfan]

Having trained in the R22 and thinking myself slightly above average at operating machinery, the thought of teaching oneself to fly rotary-wing is not only preposterous, it's just about scary! Yes, I can believe that it has been done, but they must be exceptional people.

Regarding learning to fly, Shawn, I enjoyed Art and Science greatly well before I broke down and decided to spend copious amounts of cash on heli training. I don't know if the book saved me any money, but at least I understood why I couldn't make the machine behave properly. Thanks! Looking forward to your contributions on the forum.

[ 06 January 2002: Message edited by: rotorfan ]</p>

[CTD]

Hey Shawn,

Long time no see! I just gave up the crash-test-dummy world and am now working in your old building in good-ol' YOW. I'll drop you an e-mail on Monday.

As for teaching yourself to fly helicopters, I suppose the guy's story is similar to how people learn to fly those remote control helicopters. Just seems a tad risky to me.

All the best, and welcome aboard.
Brad

[twistair]

Shawn,

I know a Russian homebuilder, who built his two-place helicopter (based on Kamov Ka-26 engine, M14V26 - the derivative of famous M14P), and learnt to fly it - he has no flying experience at all before this!
I saw his 2-hour video with his steps shown.
Anyway, it's obvious that the proper training with an instructor is a must - the only mistake may become the final.

Cheers,

Alex
<a href="http://galsaero.al.ru/" target="_blank">Rotors in Russia</a>

[Constable Clipcock]

Why, everyone knows Sikorsky did his R/W training at an 'approved school'!

Of course it can be done. It simply doesn't come highly recommended.

[helmet fire]

You can survive Niagra in a wooden barrel too - but why would you?

Mind you, I have come across the odd pilot that must have been self taught because it was impossible to teach him anything!! :) :) :)

[t'aint natural]

Shawn:
Stan Hiller taught himself to fly in his first helicopter. Unfortunately his first flight lasted three seconds, the time it took to roll over in the driveway of his home. Subsequent flights were more successful.
The deal with Rotorway is that you go to the factory and they teach you to hiver in 7.5 hours. They then give you a 'hover only' endorsement, and even if you have no other flying experience, you can go home and legally fly your Rotorway for as long as you like, as long as you stay in the hover. This allows you to flight test your aircraft as you build it. When you've mastered the hover, you go back to the factory and they teach you the next bit. As far as I know, nobody has ever been killed at this game. I believe also that Rotorway are talking about increasing the hover-only requirement to twelve hours.

[RW-1]

As far as flying is concerned, it could be done, but once that person has an emergency, or gets into an unfamiliar (heck forward flight the first time would be unfamiliar huh? :) ) flight condition, they might be lost.

On a side note, most model heli pilots all learn on their own, while sims and buddy boxes are available, nothing beats burnin fuel hehe ...

[H-43]

We had a pilot who flew for us during the late 1980's that had taught himself to fly helicopters. He had worked for Cessna as a new plane delivery pilot and as a crop duster accumulating many thousands of hours and decided that he wanted a new challenge. He bought a Hiller UH-12 (not sure which model) and proceded to learn how to fly it. By his own account everything went fine until a gust of wind pushed him up and across his fence onto a neighbors property. He got it down ok but after the experience wasn't sure he wanted to try again so he hired a commercial pilot to return the helicopter to his proper and continued teaching himself to fly. By the time he worked for us he had over 8000 hours of helicopter time.