'Best' helicopter to learn to fly in....
I expect there are plenty of ex-mil instructors like me with many thousands of hours instructional time who could pass on our experience but would have to go through a full FI (H) course to do so despite having held CFS qualifications for many years.
So you still have young and inexperienced instructors teaching newbie pilots - seems bonkers.
So you still have young and inexperienced instructors teaching newbie pilots - seems bonkers.
The following 2 users liked this post by [email protected]:
Hourly paid is the model for all UK "down south" schools.
ie.
crap weather, can't fly = no pay
student turns up late, no time to fly/do ground = no pay
trial lesson doesn't turn up = no pay
aircraft goes tech = no pay
ie.
crap weather, can't fly = no pay
student turns up late, no time to fly/do ground = no pay
trial lesson doesn't turn up = no pay
aircraft goes tech = no pay
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 392
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Best Training Helicopter
As a ‘’Trainer’, surely it’s the Hughes/Schweizer 269/300 (preferably the ‘C’).
It’s the only one that was specifically designed and developed as a ‘trainer’ - most notably for the US Army as the Hughes TH-55
Seen it quoted that 30,000 US Army pilots trained on it, flying more than 3 Million hrs over three decades.
Dependable rotorhead and tail rotor, forgiving handling, robust undercarriage……..perfect prelude if progressing to the MD500 or EN480B.
Biggest issue likely to be the limited no of flying schools operating them.
It’s the only one that was specifically designed and developed as a ‘trainer’ - most notably for the US Army as the Hughes TH-55
Seen it quoted that 30,000 US Army pilots trained on it, flying more than 3 Million hrs over three decades.
Dependable rotorhead and tail rotor, forgiving handling, robust undercarriage……..perfect prelude if progressing to the MD500 or EN480B.
Biggest issue likely to be the limited no of flying schools operating them.
I keep memorizing to fly till all four corners have landed and still dump the collective too eary. I don't know how to get the S-300C to ground resonance, I'vee seen videos alright, but I can't imagine what I'd have to do get that going if it can take my ignorant eary collective dumps w/o any complaints. Maybe my habit of "****, again too hard to early i can do that better" and repeating the very landing right away may have masked any GR I would have expreienced, but when I train in the heli square I'm not passing time but want to get it right, hence I repeat until satisfied.
Keeping the ground resonance danger in mind has me continue to cling on to pitch and cyclic way past "landing", just in case it might start to wobble/rock, and has me on alert when spooling down RRPM, but I never even got close to any hint of GR.
That said I'd put in my vote for a rather mid-priced school, one that actually cares for security. My school recently got itself another S-300C from England. Inspection of the local maintanance pro showed quite a lot of faked "AD compliance claims" in the logs.
The schools boss fired up some UK lawyer and sued the hell out of the seller while having the mechanic "redo" all the missing AD and service works before letting us hire-by-to-hour clients even sit in it.
When I complan about a badly calibrated throttle correlator I can be sure it'll be fixed at the next 100h inspection, they really listen to my rants and act accordingly!
No idea how you would recognize that culture of a training school from the outside, though.
Maybe it helps that the school is "renting" its fleet "by the hour" from the actual AC owner.
Schools which actually own their machines might be inclined a little more to squeeze out more flying hours ?
As you might have guessed I truly recommend S-300C, especially for learning as they are great two seaters (forget the "middle seat" it does not exist) with an extremely forgiving design, furthermore a non-teeterring head means no mastbumping, fuel injection means no "cabri float bowl incidents" and of course no carburetor icing issues. For me the safest design flying today.
Last edited by Reely340; 15th Jul 2023 at 20:10.
The most common way of getting ground resonance is to bang the aircraft down on its rear dampers first, even then normally caused by dampers being wrongly gassed ie over or under pressure
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: somerset
Posts: 50
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As a ‘’Trainer’, surely it’s the Hughes/Schweizer 269/300 (preferably the ‘C’).
It’s the only one that was specifically designed and developed as a ‘trainer’ - most notably for the US Army as the Hughes TH-55
Seen it quoted that 30,000 US Army pilots trained on it, flying more than 3 Million hrs over three decades.
Dependable rotorhead and tail rotor, forgiving handling, robust undercarriage……..perfect prelude if progressing to the MD500 or EN480B.
Biggest issue likely to be the limited no of flying schools operating them.
It’s the only one that was specifically designed and developed as a ‘trainer’ - most notably for the US Army as the Hughes TH-55
Seen it quoted that 30,000 US Army pilots trained on it, flying more than 3 Million hrs over three decades.
Dependable rotorhead and tail rotor, forgiving handling, robust undercarriage……..perfect prelude if progressing to the MD500 or EN480B.
Biggest issue likely to be the limited no of flying schools operating them.
As a side note it really gets my goat that instructors aren't paid more, after all what industry other than ours has the new guys teaching the newest. That in my humble opinion is why we see such a degradation in training standards. Example for you did an assessment ( I am an examiner )on some guys wanting a PPLH skills test.. They had never done EOL's to the ground in fact hadnt even done an auto with the engine set at idle ( instructor didnt think it was a good idea ) hadnt done stuck pedal landings, never turned the aircraft to look behind before transitioning away. Didnt know what a power check was before doing a recce of a confined area. I could go on
I feel that I should give some perspective to what 'Hughes500' has said here.
Fact, I have 32 hrs rotary flying. My fixed wing hours are irrelevant.
I've flown 2hrs in a helicopter in the last 9 months. I presented myself to Hughes500 at a rotors running helicopter at an unfamiliar airfield. I strapped-in and he said "takeoff, go over there!". No checklist or time to settle-in so to speak
There was no exercise plan or pre flight brief given by Hughes500, I spent most of the 40 mins wondering who had control, and there was no debrief performed.
So before he shouts on about how crap I was, he should take a very long look in the mirror; I guarantee that he won't see a professional pilot looking back at himself!....So Hughes500, how about you set an appropriate standard and example before you belittle others from your mighty pedestal.
You are able, in your social/professional standing to be a role model; your actions speak louder than words. So give the bull**** a rest and practise what you preach! Act like a professional."
Strange post
I was taught by H500 & dont recognize the person, I was told what we were going to do we went and did it then we talked about it.
I feel that you have taken a general grump personally, it is not the person I flew with.
I understand that a lot of FI dont do autos to the ground, (we always did at idle), we did stuck pedals always rotated to check we were not being snuck up on by some one/thing.
We did at least one of these exercises at least once a lesson.
I was taught by H500 & dont recognize the person, I was told what we were going to do we went and did it then we talked about it.
I feel that you have taken a general grump personally, it is not the person I flew with.
I understand that a lot of FI dont do autos to the ground, (we always did at idle), we did stuck pedals always rotated to check we were not being snuck up on by some one/thing.
We did at least one of these exercises at least once a lesson.
Last edited by 500e; 24th Jul 2023 at 16:24.
The following users liked this post:
Join Date: Nov 2023
Location: montana
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Helicopter instruction: R22 or R44?
Hi,
I was offered instruction in either a R22 or R44, the former being more expensive, of course.
What are (if any) advantages of having flight instruction on each model?
Thank you
I was offered instruction in either a R22 or R44, the former being more expensive, of course.
What are (if any) advantages of having flight instruction on each model?
Thank you
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Americas
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by [email protected]
I expect there are plenty of ex-mil instructors like me with many thousands of hours instructional time who could pass on our experience but would have to go through a full FI (H) course to do so despite having held CFS qualifications for many years.
So you still have young and inexperienced instructors teaching newbie pilots - seems bonkers.
So you still have young and inexperienced instructors teaching newbie pilots - seems bonkers.
Who taught you?
For context; I was taught by an inexperienced pilot - made it & grateful. Gainfully employed since 1996.
As an inexperienced instructor i taught some of the highest time S92 pilots in the world currently.
Last edited by Senior Pilot; 11th Dec 2023 at 03:30. Reason: Fix quote