Learner flyer

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr

I finally used my last birthday present from Kerry at the weekend driving up to Redhill for 2 hours of helicopter lessons. Excitement levels were sky high as well as the nerves as I wanted to get the very most out of the day as well as the possibility of taking it up for serious. With the inheritance money it could actually be feasible for me to change career.

Before the briefing, we were shown around the hanger which stored all the expensive, privately owned choppers. One notable helicopter was owned by an arms dealer/manufacturer, owning the Heckler & Koch brand supplying many of the world's special forces' guns. The better choppers costing at least £2 million.

The briefing was about 10 minutes explanation on the controls and the instructor telling me the rules of the lesson. I had to repeat that 'I have the controls' after receiving them just to make things safe. The other thing which caused some thought was the instructor informing me that if I couldn't go on any further before an hour was up was to admit it and not to try and carry on. I wondered how common it was for anyone to get that stressed out and give up.

We were just waiting for the learner-copter to become available (costs £70k to buy) and were told that the guy was able to fly on his own but practising around the field. As the guy got out Kerry mentioned he looked like Simon Pegg. With the situation we were in it seemed quite plausible. We approached him and I shook his hand in astonishment, proclaiming him as The Simon Pegg! But, alas he was not after saying 'you look like him as well', only the best ever lookalike to shame me in confusion (again!). Later, the instructor told me that the actual computer programmer had approached a celebrity lookalike agency with earnings up to £100k.

The actual lessons were quite intense and required absolute 100% concentration. We went out towards Tunbridge Wells and tried each of the 3 main controls individually. The handbrake thing called the 'collective' made you go up and down, the foot pedals turned you left and right in rotation like an office swivel chair, whilst the joystick or cyclic angles the top rotor blades so you can go back/forward/left/right.

What made it triply difficult was the minuscule movements needed to do anything. No wonder that previous trips up, the pilot looked like he wasn't doing anything. It took awhile to get anywhere near a safe, smooth movement and quickly got in the habit of verging off to the right. Some of the time was following a railway line towards a town which gained some confidence then practising some turns along the way. One cool moment was simply directing the copter to go through two large building cranes just like a video game (though actually we were quite a bit higher to do that). Changed altitude along the way as well as the slightly scary engine off scenario. The blades kept spinning and we went down gradually until the pilot switched on the power.

All this concentration just brought home the significance when the pilot asked me to fly back to the airport as he asked, 'you know the way back from here don't you?'. No, was the honest answer and just proved the point of how much there is to learn with the instruments to read, the navigation, avoiding air traffic, radio comms, the wind direction, visibility etc!

The second hour (yes, all that before in one hour!) was a shortened version of the above and returned to the airport field to practise hovering. More confidence points added for the rotation control then a real test of concentration simply hovering in one spot for a long as possible. The best time I could get was under 2 minutes. Another factor to consider was the time delay of the controls so any compensation of movement would need to be foreseen and adjusted by a fraction of a millimetre.

I'm still thinking over the idea of doing more and according to the instructor there's a high demand for pilots. A quick look on the internet didn't uncover any proper salaries quoted so I'll keep thinking and looking for more info before I decide.

Full set of helicopter lesson photos on FlickR - thanks to Kerry (and waiting patiently whilst I flew around).