"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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RCE wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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RCE wrote:
"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
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On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 07:57:09 -0500, "RCE" wrote:


want to hear something really weird? i love flying in helicopters.

go figure.
Helicopters are like bees. Technically impossible to fly.

RCE

I survived a helicopter crash in West Virginia. Well, I call it a crash.
We had an engine failure and the pilot did something or other with the
rotor blades so that we landed. We landed hard, there was some damage to
the copter, but we all walked away.

Never will get in one again.

It's called "auto-rotation", one of the first things you learn (after
hovering) in helicoper flight instruction. Similar to the seeds with
"wings" that fall from (elm?) trees.

I did one in a Robinson R-44 in Florida. It's all in the timing
(sprinkled with a lot of luck.)

The downward motion of the helicopter keeps the rotors spinning, then, at
the last second, you apply full collective to pitch the rotors for full
lift, hopefully for a soft landing.

RCE

It was the luck part that I appreciated. I figured and still figure that
since I walked away, I shouldn't tempt fate again in a helicopter.

I think you are smart. A helicopter is a very complex machine that, by it's
nature, resists every attempt to fly. Even Sikorshy had a hell of a time
getting one to fly until he discovered and realized the laws of gyroscopic
progression. Good helicopter pilots are strange ducks. They have a sense
of balance that defies logic.

I decided to take helicopter flight lessons while in Florida and went a
couple of times. It's not for late bloomers. When you are young your
balance (inner ear) systems work well, but as you get older it gets
difficult to keep everything together. Flying a helicopter is like trying
to accurately navigate a narrow path standing on top of a 5 foot diameter
beach ball, except the beach ball analogy is only two dimensional, the
helicopter is three. I quickly realized that if I want to continue flying,
I should stick to fixed wing aircraft. Even *that* was a little unnerving
for a late bloomer like me. Flying "under the hood" and practicing forced
take-off stalls (where you stand the airplane up on it's tail until it can't
fly anymore and falls off into a spin) did nothing to enhance the hobby of
flying for me. Young guys and girls learning this yell "WOW"! My exact
comments, the first time, was "Ohhhhh... ****!"

RCE

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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Three friends of mine were killed flying their own planes, or flying in
their own planes. A fellow I worked with in Michigan, Morgan O'Leary, was
director of PR for the Michigan Democratic Party and a former newspaper
reporter. He died in the early 1970s. Walter Reuther, the great UAW leader
and a mentor of mine, also died in a private plane crash. And a third
friend, a local printer, crashed his stunt plane into a bridge abutment.

I hate flying.


Sad. I just found out last night that the president and CEO of the company
that acquired mine back in '00 was killed in a crash of his private plane in
California two weeks ago. He was a long time private pilot with a strong
sense of adventure.

RCE

On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 11:38:23 -0500, "RCE" wrote:

Sad. I just found out last night that the president and CEO of the company
that acquired mine back in '00 was killed in a crash of his private plane in
California two weeks ago. He was a long time private pilot with a strong
sense of adventure.

Yes it is sad. It has been said there are old pilots and bold pilots,
but there are no old, bold pilots. It seems to be true. Private
aviation has a terrible safety record compared to commercial. Almost
everyone I know who flys a small plane has had, or knows of, some
serious mishap. One of my neighbors down the street is crippled for
life from a small plane crash.

I took a few lessons back in the 60s because it seemed like a cool
thing to do at the time but I never really got comfortable with the
idea of bouncing around in something that light, and with only a
single engine.