Hell yeah I did. I've always wanted to be a helicopter pilot for a living, so this was extremely fun for me.

I was flying with an instructor named Adam. The controls were dual recieved, meaning both of us had control of the aircraft at the same time. How it works is he would sit next to me while I pilot the helicopter, and take the controls should I somehow screw things up badly. Thankfully, things never got out of hand. The controls themselves are the Cyclic (The joystick thing), the Anti-torque Pedals (Much like car pedals, except they control the tail rotor), and then the Collective/Throttle (Imagine an oversized parking brake with a twist handle on it) for controlling main rotor RPM. You have to twist it and push/pull it at the same time, really difficult to get accustomed to.

I controlled the Cyclic in my right hand, with the Collective/Throttle in my left hand. Pedals with my feet, of course.

I was flying a Schweizer 300:



It may look a little small, but it's big. Costs around $200,000. I was flying one that had no doors.

So, I arrived at the airport and met Adam, who briefed me on the controls. Then we headed to where the helicopters were. Golf carts were... unavailable so we walked.



That's me on the right, recently got a haircut. =D

Rest is pretty much easy to predict, rotors started up and we lifted off!



Looks like I'm flipping off the camera, but that's my index finger on the Cyclic.

Piloting the thing is very newbie unfriendly. The controls are so sensitive, pushing something an inch nearly flips the helicopter. The Cyclic needs to be controlled with the wrist, rather then the arm.. which is difficult when it's your first time flying 600 feet in the air at 70 knots with no doors. It's even more difficult because the wind up there was 30 knots, which was swirling around in the cabin (no doors, remember?) and blowing the helicopter sideways.



The pedals are odd too, you don't get much vehicle feedback on how you're doing with those, other than the helicopter suddenly spinning around wildly. And the Collective/Throttle thing was near impossible to get right the first time while you're focusing all of your willpower on keeping the helicopter upright.

So I flew down Highway 50 and then followed Interstate 4 for awhile. The view was breath-taking, wish I had a camera with me IN the helicopter (Mother taking pictures). With no doors you can look below and see the ground without the window tint, it was amazing. I love flying.



Nearly missed a bird, looked like a Turkey Vulture.

So, after awhile I flew back to the airport and Adam took over the controls to show me autorotation. Now, I knew what autorotation was, but it didn't stop me from nearly pissing myself when he shut off the engine and the helicopter plummeted from 600 feet, speeding toward the ground.

..what is Autorotation? It's a physical maneuver that allows the helicopter to land safely should the engine cut out. Normally, the helicopter flies by using the principle of lift on the blades to push the air downward, thus propelling the aircraft upward. When the engine cuts, the rotors dont immediately stop. The air rushing upwards through the rotors when the helicopter is plummenting still gives you enough RPM.

For what though? You're still falling way too fast to land, and you're still traveling at 70 knots forward. Well, when you are near the ground, you do what is called a flare. A couple feet from impact, you tilt the nose sharply upwards, killing your current airspeed and downward velocity. It also kills all of your RPM, but by then you can land safely.

So, after that, I practiced hovering over a compass rose painted on the airport ground while pointing at a tree. This was difficult, considering the sensitive controls and that I had to focus on two entirely different controls at once. But, I somewhat got the hang of it in the end.

So, we landed, and that ends this small story. =)

Phew, haven't written a post this big in a long time.

Very nice indeed.

It's nice that you actually did something you've always wanted to do, rather than put it off or dismiss it as impossible like I do.

Righteous. Sexy rad hair also, kekeke.

Lol.

When we all need to gtfo, Electroclan is the pilot of da choppa.

Sounds awesome.

Nifty, I found a nice personal helicopter for $12,000.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mini-500 ... enameZWDVW

Still too young to buy it, but it's good to know that low price helicopters are available. Most are in the 100k-999k price range, with the executive jets. I think it's better to own a nice personal one to rack up hours, employers want something like 2,000+ flight hours for the good jobs. Renting a helicopter is $200 an hour, ouch. So yeah, owning a small one isn't such a bad idea.

Oh lawd, DRLRoadtrip traffick chopper.

Uh.... excuse me? "nearly missed"? Sounds to me like you managed to hit it! GOOD WORK! I hope it died.

Im glad somebody can fly if Data gets nuts

Sounds fun.
I'd like to do that one day.
I can never fly anything, because I'm colourblind ):

Colour blind?

Completely or partially?

Sounds like it was an awesome day! I was thinking about taking flying lessons last summer but never got a chance to.

That's pretty awesome. No passenger seat? Ah well, I'll just hang onto the back.

Looks like it had one... Where else would the instructor have been? o.O

DIBS ON PASSENGER SEAT!

Thanks to RAF cadets, I can be certified to fly a personal plane before I get my driver's license.
So far I've been flying GROB Trainers.

Hell yes. I can finally see people as the pitiful ants that they are.