Today was the my first helicopter lesson!
I had been thinking, for the last 6 months or so, about going from my private pilot’s license and now that things are starting to slow down (as in the MA in Art History will soon be over) I decided that now was the time.
I had taken a few airplane lessons back in 1997 and then stopped, but I always wanted to continue. I have been up in small little airplanes, helicopters, gliders, and floatplanes. I am also a huge aviation history buff and have been for years. So flying has always been something I wanted to do. It was my goal to get my license before I turned 30, but that’s come and gone. So now the goal is to get it before I hit 40.
I was suppose to have my lesson on Tuesday, but it was too windy. So we went out today. The weather was a bit gray, but not too windy. Instructor Steve from Complete Helicopters showed me around the helicopter and then we had about 1 hour on the ground and 30 minutes in the air. Did I mention how small the helicopter is? Really, really tiny. There was so much going on with looking at the instruments (like the GPS), looking outside, keep an eye open for birds and planes, plus feet on the peddles and one hand on the collective (which controls the altitude) and the other hand on the cyclic (the joystick, which controls forward, backward, right, left, etc), it was overwhelming, scary, amazing, fun, and wickedly cool. I had such a good time. I was surprised it was not too bumpy or loud.
