Post party week

An interesting weekend it turned out to be. At the party me and another guy got to load people in AS355's; We loaded people up for 5 minute helicopter rides for almost all day (12-15.30). After that another couple of guys from our school who volunteered for the company got the remaining one hour to load up people. There wasn't a lot of daylight left.

At the actual reception I met a pilot for the company, who is - believe it or not - Belgian and so is his wife. We had a good chat, went to a bar and nightclub afterwards. I got home by 0615. Fortunately it was Sunday by then, not Monday. Anyways, long story short, we decided to stay in touch and I might meet them again for New Years.
It's nice to have an 'in' like that, plus it's a little piece of home you meet. You cannot believe how weird it is to talk dutch ('Antwarps') after not having uttered one word to a person (face to face) in almost 3 months.

This week went by comfortably. I feel I could add another notch or 2 intensity-wise (when talking about studies), but something tells me that pacing myself would be a better approach. I'm flirting with the idea of actually NOT studying AT ALL on Sundays. We'll see how that works itself out.

I'm up to 33 hours (that includes about 5 hours solo time) now and next week I'll be doing my first (dual) cross country trip, followed by a confined approach into a creek surrounded by trees. It will allow me to get a taste of what I will be doing operationally.

For those of you who have been awaiting new pictures, I have to apologize for the delay, I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Busy

It's been a while since my latest update. I got a couple of hours solo under my belt now ! Feeling good and taking one of the helicopters out for regular trips around the airport (circuits) and some low level hovering work. One certainly has a feel for responsibility taking that expensive piece of work around. I'm learning to keep my eyes moving, looking for traffic and talking to the tower. Cool stuff.

Other than that I'm studying every day, trying to learn as much as I can (but thoroughly) every day.

A bunch of students (me included) are helping out at a local helicopter company's Christmas party this Saturday. We'll be giving briefings to passengers, guiding cars around in the parking lot and cleaning up the kitchen. It'll be an interesting learning experience for sure. A good way to make contacts in the industry too. Anyway, very promising stuff.

Will try to get those pictures uploaded, I haven't been able to yet, but I will shortly.

First solo !!!

Yep, finally got there.

Winds were light and variable today and after doing some circuits my instructor told me to do one circuit around the field and land.
Easier said than done, because without the instructor in it, the machine weighs quite a bit less, making it more sensitive and changing it's center of gravity.
So after a smooth power (collective) application, I got it light on the skids, but things didn't feel right, so I lowered the collective again. After repositioning my stick (cyclic) to accommodate for the weight that was gone on the left side (stick slightly left and a bit more forward input too), I hovered for a number of seconds, called the tower requesting takeoff clearance and off I went.
After completing the circuit and the descent I came in for a smooth landing and set the helicopter down safely. This all sounds pretty straightforward and in a way it is, but the feeling to be able to control the machine yourself and doing it for the first time is something beyond words. It's a unique feeling and needless to say I am ecstatic !
This truly made my day (and many many more to come, for sure).

A long awaited update

I know, it's been quite a while since I have updated the blog.

Been busy studying for exams and just got a laptop, so communicating just got easier.
I just passed my navigation exam and am studying to do the meteorology final exam this week too. That leaves me with Canadian Aviation Regulation (CAR's), engines, theory of flight, radio comms, human factors and instruments. If things go as planned I'll do at least 1 more exam next week. Understand that the exams we do here at the school are not official exams, they are exams made up by the school to prepare you for the REAL final exams with Transport Canada.

In other news, I'm looking to go solo soon. The weather has to be right though as we have been facing windstorms a couple of days ago and have had winds between 15-50 km/h since. We want the conditions to be more or less ideal before going solo on a machine whose center of gravity will feel differently (due to the instructor that will be missing).

Anyways, to summarize: exciting times, long days.

I'm working on connecting my phone to my laptop, so stand by for some new pictures being uploaded soon.

Halloween Week

Last weekend me and an american pilot went to Vancouver, as he had not seen the city yet. After looking at the marina of Stanley park, we grabbed a quick bite at Blenz and walked around Robson street, sniffing up the atmosphere (the day wasn't too good sunshine-wise, but a day away from home is better than nothing).
We then proceeded to have pizza at a pretty fancy place on Robson Street called Cin Cin. Wood fired oven made for a superb thin crusted pizza. Add a nice glass of
wine to that ('05 Okanagan Pinot Noir) and a nice comfy cruise home and they day didn't have to be any more than that.

Flying is still done every day, usually I end going up first in the morning (takeoff around 08.00 local). We keep adding in new exercises (sloping ground, advanced takeoffs, soon some radio work too) so that's loads of fun. I'm creeping up on 20 dual flight hours soon and it doesn't really feel like it's been 6 weeks.
Job-wise I'm doing as much as I can right now, which isn't really much except the extra-curricular studying I'm doing. You can't really get a job if you haven't got the actual Commercial pilot's certificate yet. It's like going for a job interview and going like "Um yeah, well, I'd like to start out here, I don't have my certificate just yet, but can you give me the job anyways ?". It doesn't really add up.

Check flickr for pictures of Stanley park and Vancouver along with some other pictures (of me) soon.

In summary for me the following pretty much describes my current view of things:

Time is of the essence, that's why you have to seize every moment.