Ask d10 about flying helicopters and win $$$ - Page 8

vulturesrow · #71 05-08-2006, 12:43 AM

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Is it true that that in nearly every imaginable aspect, Naval aviation is way cooler than Army aviation? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Some musclehead from California told me.

Boris · #72 05-08-2006, 01:07 AM

Hey d10 - Sounds like you have an awesome job. Helicopter rock. how come the blackhawk's roter is angled so far forward?

mroels · #73 05-08-2006, 01:36 AM

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Are you a warrant or O?

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warrant

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when you getting out?...wanna go work for one of the big PMCs, i'll hook you up...chopper pilots make bank at the company I work for.

BTW, what's the protocol when flying through the airspace of a civilian airport in a foreign country (assuming you're not dropping off teams to take the airport ofcourse)? You have to follow local ATCs, who takes command over your flight path? And how close can you get to a 747 taking off/landing before you blackhawk gets tossed around beyond saving?

d10 · #74 05-08-2006, 11:47 AM

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Has nothing to do with your check ride but...

Does it bother you when movies and tv show the helicopter pilot in the left seat (like an airplane) instead of the right?

Good luck with the check ride.

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Not really. Although the right seat is designated as the pilots seat, in reality either pilot can fly either seat, and assuming that the guy in the right seat is the pilot in command would be a bad assumption. Most pilots will move back and forth so they stay familiar with each seat. If it's just one guy flying, it would be weird to see him in the left seat, but maybe he prefers that side.

d10 · #75 05-08-2006, 11:49 AM

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Is it true that that in nearly every imaginable aspect, Naval aviation is way cooler than Army aviation? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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You have this completely backwards, whoever told you this was wrong. Army anything is better than any other branch. We have more aircraft than the Air Force and more boats than the Navy. Army >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>> Everyone else.

d10 · #76 05-08-2006, 11:52 AM

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Hey d10 - Sounds like you have an awesome job. Helicopter rock. how come the blackhawk's roter is angled so far forward?

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It's tilted 3 degrees forward to allow the nose to naturally stay at a more comfortable attitude in forward flight.

d10 · #77 05-08-2006, 12:01 PM

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Are you a warrant or O?

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warrant

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when you getting out?...wanna go work for one of the big PMCs, i'll hook you up...chopper pilots make bank at the company I work for.

BTW, what's the protocol when flying through the airspace of a civilian airport in a foreign country (assuming you're not dropping off teams to take the airport ofcourse)? You have to follow local ATCs, who takes command over your flight path? And how close can you get to a 747 taking off/landing before you blackhawk gets tossed around beyond saving?

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I'm probably staying around for another 15 years. I don't know the exact point where you would lose control behind a 747, but if I was landing behind one I'd stay about 5 miles back.

mason55 · #78 05-08-2006, 12:15 PM

why do helicopters seem to randomly crash so often, even "without evidence of hostile fire"? Is that just BS or do helicopters really crash for no reason?

d10 · #79 05-08-2006, 12:42 PM

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why do helicopters seem to randomly crash so often, even "without evidence of hostile fire"? Is that just BS or do helicopters really crash for no reason?

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It's almost always weather related. Helicopters mostly fly close to the earth so we typically fly VFR (navigating using visual reference points on the ground). We don't practice flying instruments as much as we should. The story is always the same, some helicopter launches for a mission in marginal weather, you keep pushing forward even though the visibility sucks because you want to complete your mission, next thing you know you completely lose sight of the ground and all you see are clouds. Realizing that's it's been months since you've flown instruments, you don't want to climb up and call ATC to help guide you safely home like you should, because you can probably catch sight of the ground again if you descend just a little bit lower. After all we saw the ground just a few seconds ago so we're probably just at the edge of a cloud. You start descending but before you break out you run your helicopter straight into the ground. It sounds retarded, but stories like that are as common as bad beat stories at a low stakes poker table.

Unless you're in a unit that really cares about keeping current on instruments, you'll only fly IFR once per year in a Black Hawk. Apache pilots will never do it, it's been years for some of them. I've seen a video with a couple very expereinced Apache pilots going into the clouds and the way they handled the aircraft was just scary. Airspeed went back and forth between 140 knots and a hover, torque would routinely jump above 150%, at one point they were at 1,000ft and went into a nose dive that they recovered about 20ft from the ground. They should have been killed, but they made it back home.

vulturesrow · #80 05-08-2006, 01:39 PM

[ QUOTE ]
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Is it true that that in nearly every imaginable aspect, Naval aviation is way cooler than Army aviation? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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You have this completely backwards, whoever told you this was wrong. Army anything is better than any other branch. We have more aircraft than the Air Force and more boats than the Navy. Army >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>> Everyone else.

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No one told me, thats experience talking. And besides, you all wear berets now, that trumps any cool points you might have had in the bank. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]