That little model became my new best friend over the past three lessons.
So you know what happens when you get to fly a lot? You have to catch up on ground lessons. My last three trips to American Helicopters resulted in just that. Lot's of ground school.
I'm not going to go into an incredible amount of detail here, but I'll touch on the topics. Basically I learned about every mechanical and electrical component of the R22 helicopter, and the various physics that act upon it at different parts of flight. Today we shifted gears and we starting talking about different flight patterns and airspace restrictions.
Needless to say, it's been a while since I've been fully engaged and intrigued in what I'm learning, mostly because the Coast Guard has dozens of "Mandated training" that has been going on lately, so it was quite refreshing!
Okay before I wrap this up, there's one super cool thing I learned that pilots can do when they fly to an uncontrolled airstrip after hours. Many of these airports have something called pilot controlled lights, which means that when a pilot is trying to find the runway, they key up the radio to the frequency of that airport, and press the send button either 3, 5, or 7 times. Depending on how many times you hit that button, turns the airport lights to either low, medium or high. Sweet right?!
Just think of the possibilities. If you live next to one of those type of airports, you could get a VHF radio in your house and turn on those lights whenever you please. Pretty much the ultimate party trick.
Okay that's all for now, below is a picture of the trailer with the extra classrooms in it that we were in. Notice that it is INSIDE that hanger. That just makes me laugh for some reason.
