Thread: who has a pilots license

Originally Posted by Costabro

Wullie, that's the most interesting story I've heard in a while. I got my private's certificate a couple of years ago and am just a checkride away from getting my instrument rating. I'd LOVE to get a heli rating, but, correct me if I'm wrong, don't ya' have to be under 210 lbs to be a student in a R22? I'm about 30 lbs away from that now and it'd be quite a loss in both fat AND muscle to get there. Also, once I've finished getting my commercial license and mult-rating, I'm planning on taking a little aerobatic course as a graduation present to myself BTW, I'm 38, married with 3 kids, work full time, and go to school full-time.....so don't any of the rest of ya' start going on about not having time!! $$ I'd understand, kinda', but not time!

If your concerned about weight then you have a couple of options. you can find an in structor that uses an r44 or you can find one that uses a schweizer. of course the r44 is a four place, much more roomy, and has better auto performance but will run you about $200 more an hour but you get the benifit of a governor/correlator for colective control. the schweizer is smaller than the 44 and roomier than the r22. you also get the benifit of having to make throttle adjustments during collective pulls to maintain sufficient rotor RPM. The robinson ships are the only ones (aside from the Helicycle which is an experimental kit helicopter) that use a governor/correlator for collective control and maintianing rotor RPM. all others have a throttle control on the collective to adjust engine power which you use to maintian rotor rpm during flight.

Originally Posted by jebbaker

If your concerned about weight then you have a couple of options. you can find an in structor that uses an r44 or you can find one that uses a schweizer.

Why would an instructor bring his dog?

Originally Posted by jebbaker

of course the r44 is a four place, much more roomy, and has better auto performance but will run you about $200 more an hour but you get the benifit of a governor/correlator for colective control. the schweizer is smaller than the 44 and roomier than the r22. you also get the benifit of having to make throttle adjustments during collective pulls to maintain sufficient rotor RPM. The robinson ships are the only ones (aside from the Helicycle which is an experimental kit helicopter) that use a governor/correlator for collective control and maintianing rotor RPM. all others have a throttle control on the collective to adjust engine power which you use to maintian rotor rpm during flight.

I don't understand 'helio'...sorry! But, thanks for the advice. $200 MORE an hour??!! Holy. Crap.

ha....funny. Schwiezer 300. Two place piston powered. Used to be made by hughes aircraft and was a military trainer.

R22 per hour of instruction for me is $350 for a 2 hour block in which we fly for 1 hour.

R44 per for the same is $500. The prices will be a little less if your not in california. seems everything is a little pricey here.

yup...helicopter triaining can be a tad expensive. but there is nothing like picking up calling atc and nosing foward and off you go. runway.....we don't need no stinking runway!!!!

or...you could learn to fly a gyro. looks like a helicopter. flys like a fixed wing. uses car gas. and they have the word "experimental" on them...heh heh

Or you could buy a helicyle for $45,000 with turbine engine. Fly all your single pilot time and cross country on it, fly only your instructor time on the R22 and come way ahead than $350.00hr. Even after you get checked out on with your private heli rating, you can't fly for hire until you get at least 100hrs. Which almost force you to be an instructor, until you get your 100 hrs. If you want to do instrument, I recommend you do it on a fix wing and then practice for a check ride on the heli and get the instrument ratings for fix and rotor. My son is doing his commercial at this time (fixed wing) and it is expensive, can't imagine doing the whole thing on helis. Then, to earn 1/3 the pay! Helis are definitely a blast to fly! And money is not everything! Enjoy your training, it is super hard to hover, once you do that is down hill from there, well maybe except for auto rotation.

I have maybe hundreds of hours on RC helis, which are much much less expensive, but not quite as utilitarian, as a real Helicopter. Double O

the helicycles are cool. i would love one. this is an expensive hobby for me at the moment so i am just working on my private rating. gyros is what i will ultimately be getting into in the end and having a helicopter rating makes certain things easier. getting a gyro add on after a heli time is easier and you get all of the vfr, cross country, and towered airport training.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I learned years ago, when you fly in a small plane you don't eat no big meals before-har har.

Going cross country in a clipped wing cub. Outside air temp in the high 90's, LOTS of plowed patches of ground under us. Decided it was lunch time. Dug out the baloney sammiches and tried to eat. Hardest part was hitting your mouth with the sammich. I had mustard smeared all over my face from missing my mouth because the cub was bouncing up and down so much. We had a great laugh admiring the mustard on each other's faces when we stopped for gas in Amarillo.

I've NEVER been airsick, nor seasick. Had some world class acro pilots in hot planes try to make me puke and been stuck on the ceiling of a C-54 when she hit a down draft and dropped 6K ft faster than a cat can lick his butt. The worst part of that ride was when it quit dropping EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING that was on the ceiling came down. I landed good. Some other boys weren't so lucky, there were several broken bones and busted heads. I went through two typhoons in the S China Sea where the boat was rolling so badly that there were footprints a foot or two up on the walls of the passage ways. Great sport when a carrier is rolling that much.

This is what we used to do for giggles every now and then.


Not my video and I wasn't there, but I've done the same thing.

Hi Jeb,

That's so cool that you're getting rotorcraft training! I've got a few hours of solo time toward my Private *Certificate* (tip for FAA tests: it's a "certificate", not a "license"). :-)

Thats exactly why I got my ADX (Aircraft dispatcher for those who may not know) and stopped right there, I can ride up front and not have to do a darn thing, for the most part.