What are the differences between flying a helicopter and an airplane?
That's Life!!
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 396
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From: Out of the sand pit, carving a path through our jungle.
Once had a brilliant T-Shirt that read:-
With the exception of my North-Sea flying, that about sums it up!!
Helicopter Pilots
Have seen places, most people only DREAM about!
Have seen places, most people only DREAM about!
With the exception of my North-Sea flying, that about sums it up!!
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 13
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From: uk
fix to flexy
I flew fixwing for many years, mostly singles, but twins on occasions. all the work was low level and working with an observer documenting things.
About 8 years ago I moved to rotary. I have now spent the last 4 years on a Hughes 500d working for an organization documenting illegal activities all over the world. The difference is extreme ! I now have about 4000+ hours and every day is a new challenge. A lot of the time I work from the deck of a ship, but I may well be positioned in the jungle or on a remote glacier.
My last trip, a week ago, was from UK to Gambia in the 500, coming down the Moroccan coast at 100' using the updraft from the cliffs to generate forward speed, then going across the Western Sahara. I am now working with some local authorities arrestng illegal fishing boats.
Doing this in a fix wing just doesn't cut it, Choppers are the biggest rush, and being able to position a machine from 5000' down onto an area the size of the skid pattern is a wonderful reward for MANY hours of thinking 'I'm going to have to stick with fix wing 'cos I just can't get a handle on this hovering bit' !
I have done a couple of positioning flights from Alaska to Mexico and from Alaska to Montreal, and it makes you realize what a beautiful world we have when you can transit at low level and see so much. Helicopters rock.
About 8 years ago I moved to rotary. I have now spent the last 4 years on a Hughes 500d working for an organization documenting illegal activities all over the world. The difference is extreme ! I now have about 4000+ hours and every day is a new challenge. A lot of the time I work from the deck of a ship, but I may well be positioned in the jungle or on a remote glacier.
My last trip, a week ago, was from UK to Gambia in the 500, coming down the Moroccan coast at 100' using the updraft from the cliffs to generate forward speed, then going across the Western Sahara. I am now working with some local authorities arrestng illegal fishing boats.
Doing this in a fix wing just doesn't cut it, Choppers are the biggest rush, and being able to position a machine from 5000' down onto an area the size of the skid pattern is a wonderful reward for MANY hours of thinking 'I'm going to have to stick with fix wing 'cos I just can't get a handle on this hovering bit' !
I have done a couple of positioning flights from Alaska to Mexico and from Alaska to Montreal, and it makes you realize what a beautiful world we have when you can transit at low level and see so much. Helicopters rock.
Joined: Sep 2002
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
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From: Great South East, tired and retired
Originally Posted by Bertie Thruster
A wheeled undercarriage helicopter can climb from brakes off to 5000ft quicker than any wheeled undercarriage piston fixed wing.
He sneered, but refused to accept the challenge, because one condition was that the race was from a standing start, outside the aircraft, which was to be parked in the lines!
Crazy Scandihooligan
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 482
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From: Damn, some mountain goat is nibbling my ear ;-)
FW Vs RW
Think of the nose end attitude in an engine failure and ask yourself (Do you feel lucky..well do you!!), is this a good time to be in a plank...
MD
MD
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 579
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From: Canada
Because of their limited range and speed the helicopter alternate airports are usually influenced by the same air mass as the departure and arrival airport. With fix wing the alternate is usually in an entirely different air mass than the departure airport. Pressurized aeroplanes can usually get on top and out of the weather, and thunderstorms are a lot easier to go around at 25, 000 FT that at 5000. In other words, when flying IFR in helicopters you are always flying in crap.
Then of course there’s the ice issue as few helicopters are equipped with anti-ice.
Personally I find fixed wing IFR a lot easier than helicopter IFR, with the exception of dealing with engine failure emergencies; the absence of asymmetric thrust on twin-engine helicopters makes handling the emergency much easier.
Of course , I may be wrong.
Then of course there’s the ice issue as few helicopters are equipped with anti-ice.
Personally I find fixed wing IFR a lot easier than helicopter IFR, with the exception of dealing with engine failure emergencies; the absence of asymmetric thrust on twin-engine helicopters makes handling the emergency much easier.
Of course , I may be wrong.
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,635
Likes: 1
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Wizzard said;
Hendrick FOCKE said;
"... hovering, the longitudinal oscillations .... values of 12 seconds were ascertained. With this time of oscillation of a dynamically unstable character, the helicopter could be flown without difficulty.
The Fa223 is statically and dynamically completely stable around all axes other than the longitudinal one. At traveling speed of 140 to 150 km/h all controls can be released, because longitudinal instability disappears at about 120 km/h. Then this aircraft behaves just like a normal airplane and is automatically stable.'
The Fa233 --> http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?h...uber/fa223.htm
Who said that helicopters MUST BE unstable?
Who said that helicopters MUST HAVE a single rotor?
Basically, in a fixed wing aircraft you take your hands off of the controls and say "look, no hands!" In a helicopter you take your hands off of the controls and say "look, NOOOoooooo!"
"... hovering, the longitudinal oscillations .... values of 12 seconds were ascertained. With this time of oscillation of a dynamically unstable character, the helicopter could be flown without difficulty.
The Fa223 is statically and dynamically completely stable around all axes other than the longitudinal one. At traveling speed of 140 to 150 km/h all controls can be released, because longitudinal instability disappears at about 120 km/h. Then this aircraft behaves just like a normal airplane and is automatically stable.'
The Fa233 --> http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?h...uber/fa223.htm
Who said that helicopters MUST BE unstable?
Who said that helicopters MUST HAVE a single rotor?
Last edited by Dave_Jackson; 30th March 2006 at 05:49.
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 5
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From: Budapest
Well. Helicopters are more fun to fly but airlines pay better.
I'd like to work in the airlines (alleviating boredom by wondering what to spend my huge salary on next) and fly helicopters in my copious spare time.
I'd like to work in the airlines (alleviating boredom by wondering what to spend my huge salary on next) and fly helicopters in my copious spare time.
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 1,113
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From: UK
Ascend Charlie; in the early '90's I witnessed a Seaking beat a Tornado, from brakes off to 5000ft. At the start both aircraft were side by side, brakes on ready to roll, at the end of the runway.
The fast jet mates even had someone on the Seaking to time the event and ensure fair play.
The fast jet mates even had someone on the Seaking to time the event and ensure fair play.
That's Life!!
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 396
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From: Out of the sand pit, carving a path through our jungle.
There are times when it's beneficial to be able to stop and ask directions, can you land a 737 next to a farmer's house and enquire, "wherethefeckarewe?"
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,635
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From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Sailor Vee;
can you land a 737 next to a farmer's house and enquire, ...
Could this be a current premonition of a future reality?
The Boeing 737-700 was the benchmark for the American Helicopter Society's heavy lift rotorcraft design conference in January/06.
can you land a 737 next to a farmer's house and enquire, ...
The Boeing 737-700 was the benchmark for the American Helicopter Society's heavy lift rotorcraft design conference in January/06.
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 30
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From: LONDON
rotor/fixed
WHEN YOU SAY TO A CHAIN SMOKER,DONT SMOKE ...YOU KNOW ,YOU GOING TO GET LUNG CANCER.....WHAT HE/SHE DO....IGNORE YOU AND CARRY ON SMOKING....HELI PILOTS..ALLWAYS .LIKE TO KISS THE DEATH AND GO IN STYLE.ONLY 1400 APPROX CPL [ H] IN UK.
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,012
Likes: 1
From: USA
I posted this on rec.aviation.rotorcraft back about 4 years ago, and found it in a search yesterday. It says how I feel:
Mara,
I've been squeezing the cyclic since 1968, and its always been a gas. The
typical helicopter job matches the typical airplane job in hours and pay,
except for the major airlines, where ALPO (did I spell that right?) somehow
got the world to believe that an airline pilot is like a brain surgeon, but
with better sex life.
I think the typical helo driver has to think more, has to work more at the
controls, and has to expose himself to more hazardous situations to make a
living. Every airplane lands on the same runway (bush pilots excepted) and
every helicopter pilot is endangered by the fact that all it takes to design a
heliport is the ability to spell "H".
How many airline pilots would put up with a telephone pole exactly in line
with final? What airline would allow its operations to land long, over the
high tension lines?
We earn our pay by being able to do the un-usual, which is why the job needs a
helicopter to begin with. We have a saying in the Sikorsky pilots office, "If
the place needs helicopters, it isn't worth visiting." We earn our pay
figuring it out on short final, going into rough country where the Wx Channel
is the best we've got and landing on platforms at night with rain on the
bubble and nothing to look at but the platform, because the horizon took the
nght off.
Read what the pros - Bob Barbanes, Micbloo, Flyinrock, Butch Grafton and 180
Walt, for example - have to say about this job. I think in 50 years, when all
the flying transport is done with microchips and lasers at the stick, they'll
tell tales about the helicopter folks who kept the greasy side down during hot
insertions, and who brought out the wounded, or pulled crews off the rigs when
the hurricane had started to make white froth, or who winched up scared
sailors from crippled freighters, or who landed beside icy highways to whisk
injured kids to surgery in minutes.
I've landed next to rushing streams in the Phillipines where monkeys in the
trees laughed at me, and I've tossed rocks off needle-thin spires that no
human has ever climbed, and I've put my aircraft's belly into the water to
save some poor soul who jumped from a bridge,and I could have done none of
these things in an airplane!
I'd puke if I had to walk into a terminal wth a Jepp case, climb into a big
aluminum bus and drive down highway Victor boring!
If you can't do what you enjoy for a living, you're already dead.
Nick Lappos
It it can't hover, it really doesn't fly, does it?
Mara,
I've been squeezing the cyclic since 1968, and its always been a gas. The
typical helicopter job matches the typical airplane job in hours and pay,
except for the major airlines, where ALPO (did I spell that right?) somehow
got the world to believe that an airline pilot is like a brain surgeon, but
with better sex life.
I think the typical helo driver has to think more, has to work more at the
controls, and has to expose himself to more hazardous situations to make a
living. Every airplane lands on the same runway (bush pilots excepted) and
every helicopter pilot is endangered by the fact that all it takes to design a
heliport is the ability to spell "H".
How many airline pilots would put up with a telephone pole exactly in line
with final? What airline would allow its operations to land long, over the
high tension lines?
We earn our pay by being able to do the un-usual, which is why the job needs a
helicopter to begin with. We have a saying in the Sikorsky pilots office, "If
the place needs helicopters, it isn't worth visiting." We earn our pay
figuring it out on short final, going into rough country where the Wx Channel
is the best we've got and landing on platforms at night with rain on the
bubble and nothing to look at but the platform, because the horizon took the
nght off.
Read what the pros - Bob Barbanes, Micbloo, Flyinrock, Butch Grafton and 180
Walt, for example - have to say about this job. I think in 50 years, when all
the flying transport is done with microchips and lasers at the stick, they'll
tell tales about the helicopter folks who kept the greasy side down during hot
insertions, and who brought out the wounded, or pulled crews off the rigs when
the hurricane had started to make white froth, or who winched up scared
sailors from crippled freighters, or who landed beside icy highways to whisk
injured kids to surgery in minutes.
I've landed next to rushing streams in the Phillipines where monkeys in the
trees laughed at me, and I've tossed rocks off needle-thin spires that no
human has ever climbed, and I've put my aircraft's belly into the water to
save some poor soul who jumped from a bridge,and I could have done none of
these things in an airplane!
I'd puke if I had to walk into a terminal wth a Jepp case, climb into a big
aluminum bus and drive down highway Victor boring!
If you can't do what you enjoy for a living, you're already dead.
Nick Lappos
It it can't hover, it really doesn't fly, does it?
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 13
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From: uk
uplift
Try it !
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 643
Likes: 30
From: Global Vagabond
In terms of operations, give me a helo op over fixed wing anyday. In my experience there is a definite difference in attitude between the two, the rotary guys are far more results orientated - goal focussed if you like. Fixed wing ops tend to have far more crew "issues" and can be hard work, especially in terms of building working relationships, with people who can seem confused as to where they fit into the overall scheme of things, tends to be more of a problem with the younger crews... 
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 4,330
Likes: 74
From: White Waltham, Prestwick & Calgary
Having been dual qualified almost from year one, I have to say that I prefer helicoptering, but it's more down to the work that you do, plus the type of machine. You can do lots of things in a Beaver/Otter that you would never do in a 747 so the same arguments that apply to a helicopter could also apply. Landing a Beaver in crossed headlights at night in a large black hole is just as challenging! Finding it in the first place equally so!
I think the comparison could also be airline/corporate flying vs utility. I would much rather fly a Beaver in the mountains than a helicopter on an airline-type schedule.
Phil
I think the comparison could also be airline/corporate flying vs utility. I would much rather fly a Beaver in the mountains than a helicopter on an airline-type schedule.
Phil
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
From: uk
Heli v fixwing - no contest
A fixwing flies you - you have to fly a heli.
A fixwing has a captain, navigator, and engineer - with heli, you are all 3.
A fixwing you flightplan before you leave - with heli you do it on the run.
A fixwing, you walk aft to the can - with a heli, you go behind a tree.
A fixwing, it's a controled crash - with a heli, it's precision parking.
One could go on - we work hard, are hands on, and spend most of our lives in the dead mans curve.
A fixwing has a captain, navigator, and engineer - with heli, you are all 3.
A fixwing you flightplan before you leave - with heli you do it on the run.
A fixwing, you walk aft to the can - with a heli, you go behind a tree.
A fixwing, it's a controled crash - with a heli, it's precision parking.
One could go on - we work hard, are hands on, and spend most of our lives in the dead mans curve.