Helen Krasner - Helicopter Flight Instructor Course Diary

By HelenKrasner

Published byHelen Krasner at Smashwords

Copyright HelenKrasner 2012

All rightsreserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photocopy, recording, or any information storage andretrieval system, without permission in writing from theauthor.

About ten yearsago, I arranged to do a five week intensive flying course to becomea helicopter flying instructor. I had been planning this for sometime, but in the end it was all arranged in rather a hurry theinstructor had another student and was ready to start now; could Ijoin that course? Helicopter instructor courses are few and farbetween and they depend on there being enough students who want todo them at a particular time. So I agreed, but it wasnt easy forme. I barely had the required flying experience, and I needed toarrange house and cat sitters and sort out some other domesticarrangements. Then I had to drive around 200 miles to the airfieldwhere the course would be held and try to find myself some localaccommodation for a few weeks.

I did it all -but perhaps the hurried arrangements led to some of the problems Iencountered later. With hindsight I can see that maybe I simplywasnt psychologically ready for such a demanding course. I couldhave done with more time to prepare. But I didnt know that then. Iwas keen to start, and flushed with enthusiasm, and I offered towrite a regular diary about the course on the forums of a wellknown aviation website of which I was a regular contributor. I didthis, keeping it up until the end of the course.

The diarybecame amazingly popular, although at the time I never quite knewwhy. Readers seemed to think that it provided not only usefuldetails about how a rotary flying instructor course worked, butalso fascinating insights into my life. I was completely honestwhen writing, and when I was finding things hard, I told mydiary.and my ever increasing numbers of readers. Indeed, the diarybegan to act as more than communication for me; it was a form oftherapy and I poured out my soul to it. This was the case right upto the somewhat unexpected conclusion.

After thecourse I began to work as a flying instructor, as originallyplanned. My life moved on, and for a long time I hoped that thediary would quietly die. However, every so often different peoplewould find the thread and a new generation of pilots and helicopterenthusiasts would tell me how useful it was. At first I wasannoyed, but gradually I stopped caring. And now, after many years,I can see how useful that old diary might be, not only to thosecontemplating doing the flight instructor course, but indeed toanyone attempting something difficult, demanding, and supremelyimportant to them. It is, perhaps, a good lesson in coping withdifficulty, disappointment, and the problems of life ingeneral.

That, then, iswhy I have decided to publish my diary. What follows has been leftalmost exactly as I wrote it all those years ago, with just a fewalterations and additions for clarity. I sincerely hope that youfind it both useful and entertaining.

HelenKrasner

March 2012

Chapter One:Planning and The First Week

Tuesday 21st January

Well, its all arranged! I'm off to Thruxtonto start the FI (flight instructor) course next Monday. I hadn'tplanned to start for a month or so, but....well, never mind allthat. I've found a cheap room - well, more like a large cupboard -in Andover. And I've finally got my 300 flying hours (300.1 to beprecise), including a little left seat practice today with aninstructor who had no students in the nasty weather. I flew him toa pub for lunch, so he was happy, and in return he threw in apractice engine failure when I was low level, flying downwind,approaching the airfield, and talking on the radio. I think hecalled it confidence building. I can think of some other names forit myself!

I had vowed that I wouldn't do any more livediary-type threads. It's scary, since I don't know where they'regoing. If I find it really hard, do I really want to tell the wholeworld? So...I'm not promising anything. Especially as with 30 hoursflying and 125 hours ground school I really can't see myselfhaving that much time or energy. So...we'll see... Maybe you canwatch this space. But only maybe...

As an aside, this is how Ive been told thecourse is likely to go, from someone whos already done it:

Week 1: Nothing to this instructinglark.
Week 2: Oh dear...
Week 3: OK, Ive paid for this - I might as well attend.
Week 4: I might, if I'm lucky and everything goes well, scrapethrough.

So lets see how it turns out for me. Im abit nervous, but I dont think itll be too bad.

Tuesday 28th January

The course started yesterday. Over theweekend I worked out how to get from my bedsit to the airfieldwithout a complete tour of Hampshire and Wiltshire, and I alsofound Tesco and stocked up on loads of microwave meals. Iconsidered reminding myself of the basics of how a helicopter fliesetc, and gave up on the idea; we have 125 hours of ground schoolfor that.

Yesterday morning I finally met Mike Black,the instructor; then Dave (the other student) and I had a whole dayof ground school with him. Sods Law that it had to be when therewas good flying weather. Well, Dave got to fly as well as he had todo the pre-entry flight test, but I'd already done mine. So farit's been all theories of learning and teaching it feels a bitlike my psychology degree course all over again, not that Iremember much of that. But it's at last getting vaguely helicopterorientated, with talk of us giving briefings

Wednesday 29th January

We finally get on to something flyingrelated!!! We have mammoth briefings on Exercise 4 - Effects ofControls, then Exercise 5 - Changing Speed and Power (or somethinglike that). It's a kind of combination of the briefings being givento students with asides as to how we do it as instructors, andsometimes it's hard to tell which is which. But there seems to bean awful lot of it, and I'm getting scared already of the idea ofdoing it myself. I ask Mike if we're expected to give it back tohim tomorrow, ie do the briefing ourselves. He says he's not quitesuch a bastard as that, and we won't be giving briefings till nextweek. Phew, so I don't have to panic yet.

Howling gales, so no flying yet. We then do abit of Principles of Flight, and I realise how much I've forgotten.I spend the evening trying to revise, and getting panicky about allI don't know.

Thursday 30th January

Still howling gales. Will I ever fly again? Ican't cope with all these hours of ground school, and Dave has anengineering background and has done his CPL (Commercial PilotsLicence) ground exams much more recently than I have, and is reallyshowing me up. We get given Exercise 6 - Climbing, Descending etc;then Exercise 7 Hovering; then a bit about takeoffs and landings.In a break I take a deep breath and ask Dave if I can practice abriefing on him. I decide to try to explain Inflow Roll, and in themiddle Mike walks in. He says to carry on, and I do, but from thatpoint on I get in a complete mess, getting it all backwards. Havingproved to myself that (a) I can sort of speak in front of anaudience, and (b) even if I cock it all up the world doesn't cometo an end, I actually feel lots better.

Friday 31st January

WE FINALLY GET TO FLY!!!!!! The wind hasdropped at last. I take the first slot, being taught to fly againas though I were a student, but from the left seat. Mike doesExercise 4 with me; then next week I get to give it to him. I'mglad I did that bit of left seat practice before I came here to dothe course for real, as I feel fairly comfortable. In fact, it goesquite well, and I really enjoy it.