Hello all-
I added a helicopter private to my ATP ASEL/AMEL certificate. Here's the blow by blow:
The oral went fine. The DPE has a reputation for working airspace very hard, so I was generally prepared, though I blanked on a pretty easy question (When is an airfield VFR?) It took me a minute to look it up, and while he wasn't happy, I think he knew it was just a brain cramp. I have a couple of friends who had the same examiner, and they said that he'd keep going until he found something you didn't know. Eventually we were going over some national park areas and I had to look up how high the G airspace was over them (14,500')
He worked on some weight and balance with me and wanted to know the bad things that could happen to the helicopter if we were out of CG. Not too tough of questions, but he was looking for weaknesses.
I did the preflight earlier in the morning and he seemed satisfied I knew how to do one. He looked over the aircraft, checked documents, and strapped in. I started up, got ATIS, and made a point of making sure he saw my notecard with all the local frequencies to demonstrate cockpit management.
After a good pickup, we departed the airport and I climbed to 1500' (btw- this is in an R22) and demonstrated settling with power. Following that we moved over to a local mountain area and he tried to guide me to some poor choices for pinnacles. I talked my way through the manuever and did a good job of it coupled with a steep approach.
Then we went to another local airport and I demonstrated a normal approach and landing. A trip around the pattern and I did a straight in autorotation. I overshot a little but was within tolerance. He had me go around again for a shallow approach and a running landing, and he didn't like that I stopped after getting on the ground so quickly. He was looking for me to drive around a bit, but again it was within tolerances.
There was a slope next to the runway and we did a slope landing. It took me a few tries and he seemed to be getting agitated that I wouldn't put it down on the slope. I didn't like what I saw and so took my time. He made some remark about not liking the my slope landing, though my pickup from the slope brought a compliment from him. Then it was back over to the runway for a hovering auto, which went fine.
That was followed by a max performance takeoff, which was fine. We then switched off the governor and I had to manage the throttle by hand back to my home airport (a very quick trip) and brought us to a normal landing on the ramp.
I shut down and while the rotors slowed he shook my hand and congratulated me on passing, then complained that 30 hours isn't enough time to add on the category and he's getting tired of seeing applicants without much, much more time. I'm not sure what he wanted me to say to that, so I just agreed that with lots more money I'd have flown a lot more.
A little more paperwork and I got a new temporary ticket!
Lostcomm
I added a helicopter private to my ATP ASEL/AMEL certificate. Here's the blow by blow:
The oral went fine. The DPE has a reputation for working airspace very hard, so I was generally prepared, though I blanked on a pretty easy question (When is an airfield VFR?) It took me a minute to look it up, and while he wasn't happy, I think he knew it was just a brain cramp. I have a couple of friends who had the same examiner, and they said that he'd keep going until he found something you didn't know. Eventually we were going over some national park areas and I had to look up how high the G airspace was over them (14,500')
He worked on some weight and balance with me and wanted to know the bad things that could happen to the helicopter if we were out of CG. Not too tough of questions, but he was looking for weaknesses.
I did the preflight earlier in the morning and he seemed satisfied I knew how to do one. He looked over the aircraft, checked documents, and strapped in. I started up, got ATIS, and made a point of making sure he saw my notecard with all the local frequencies to demonstrate cockpit management.
After a good pickup, we departed the airport and I climbed to 1500' (btw- this is in an R22) and demonstrated settling with power. Following that we moved over to a local mountain area and he tried to guide me to some poor choices for pinnacles. I talked my way through the manuever and did a good job of it coupled with a steep approach.
Then we went to another local airport and I demonstrated a normal approach and landing. A trip around the pattern and I did a straight in autorotation. I overshot a little but was within tolerance. He had me go around again for a shallow approach and a running landing, and he didn't like that I stopped after getting on the ground so quickly. He was looking for me to drive around a bit, but again it was within tolerances.
There was a slope next to the runway and we did a slope landing. It took me a few tries and he seemed to be getting agitated that I wouldn't put it down on the slope. I didn't like what I saw and so took my time. He made some remark about not liking the my slope landing, though my pickup from the slope brought a compliment from him. Then it was back over to the runway for a hovering auto, which went fine.
That was followed by a max performance takeoff, which was fine. We then switched off the governor and I had to manage the throttle by hand back to my home airport (a very quick trip) and brought us to a normal landing on the ramp.
I shut down and while the rotors slowed he shook my hand and congratulated me on passing, then complained that 30 hours isn't enough time to add on the category and he's getting tired of seeing applicants without much, much more time. I'm not sure what he wanted me to say to that, so I just agreed that with lots more money I'd have flown a lot more.
A little more paperwork and I got a new temporary ticket!
Lostcomm
