Advice Requested

[Shanwick Shanwick]

Can anyone help with this one?

I have a fixed wing ATPL with 5000hrs and would like to do my PPL(H).

Could you tell me what is required from me in terms of hours and exams?

Thanks.

[MightyGem]

To get it straight from the horses mouth, so to speak, try CAP 54.

[Chip Lite]

First of all you need the services of a friendly surgeon, being fw fraternity you will no doubt have membership of BUPA or someone or other. Get them to give you a partial frontal lobotomy. You are now part way there.

Next find an old washing machine and park it on an old, uneven surface. Sit on it and switch it on, whilst sat upon this bucking, mechanical broncho, start rubbing your stomach with one hand and patting your hand with the other. If you can manage this for 5 minutes without falling off or being sick, then you may want to consider the next step:-

Book a trial lesson in an R22, if you are larger than the average jockey and your instructor is anything but a Smurf, then after you after you have shoe-horned yourself ino the cab', you will then have an experience tantamount to what the Wright bros must have felt back in 1903, the thrill of being levitated into the air. It will feel unstable, unsafe and if you are lucky- like them, brief!

Why? Unless you are loaded and can buy your own. If you have a PPL, then £200 an hour to go nowhere slowly, seems a bit of a waste of time!

[Floppy Link]

Advice1 - do it!
advice2 - when you are tensed up trying to control the runaway beast in the hover try wiggling yer toes, it worked for me!

[Corporate Yank]

Here's the deal. Get yourself a pogo stick and practise riding until you think you're pretty good. Than ride that mother across a hardwood floor covered with grease and ball bearings. If you survive, you will be well on your way to mastering the art of hovering. All bull**** aside, these machines will definately sharpen up your control touch for FW. You may have an advantage from a FW background if you have a good FW instrument background. To start IFR ratings in RW could be a handful.-CY About wiggling your toes, until you develop the "touch & feel" on a chopper, you'll have to wiggle your toes, arms, and even your testicles until it all gels into place. It's maddening, but a real treat when everything comes together.-CY

[This message has been edited by Corporate Yank (edited 29 September 1999).]

[Floppy Link]

in terms of exams your fixed wing commercials probably should cover you for the PPL(H)
I think the only ones you will have to do will be
Helicopter PofF and Helicopter tech which is covered in the type rating oral for your 1179
but like de man say, check CAP54
there is no such thing as a category like single-engine piston land for heliocopeters, for each type you want to fly you need an 1179.
If you get hooked you'll end up with lots of type ratings
And lots of new experiences much more interesting than a night Corfu - LHR at 1000ft from south to north via the helilanes - awesome!
Forget what all the fixed wing types say. If the truth be known, secretly they're jealous and they're not sure they could do it.
Just do it, it's mucking fadgic

F L

the views you get from "going nowhere slowly" at low level are superb

[This message has been edited by Floppy Link (edited 02 October 1999).]