New Apartment!

Ok so finally got settled, got my internet, tv, food, bed, guitars... im set. here are some pictures. I am supposed to solo this week but the weather is getting nasty. gonna catch a hurricane coming up the eastern side of the state in the next few days. so no flying. ok im sleepy, heading to bed. take care,
cj
ps. the dude shaving is a Norwegian from Svalbard who lost a bet on a ufc fighter. he had to shave his beard over it!

Just Moved....No Internet

Hey everyone,
I just moved into my new apartment. It is awesome except I dont have internet. So as soon as I get that worked out I will continue the blogathon. Everything is going really well. I am one of the best pilots in my class. I have caught on to flying the heli much faster than my peers. Im not setting any records or anything but I'm doing quite well. We have been working on learning in 5 days what mietorologists take 4 years to learn. Pretty tough. Especially when the avaition industry still uses the same codes they used back when weather was transfered over telegraph.
Well I gotta run.
Take care,
cj
ps. shuttle launch tomorrow. will try to take some pictures.

Hotel Echo Lima Lima Oscar!

Hello!
Tough day today. We were learning about some of the specific aerodynamic dangers of flying helicopters and then I had a tough day on my flying lesson. I was getting excited cause I was doing really well with my flying but today my instructor had me do a few things that I just couldn't get right. It made me frustrated. But it is ok. I only have 2.6 hrs total in a helicopter so I cant expect to be doing perfect.
We were also learning about how the wind can really mess up the helicopter if you are not paying attention to what direction the wind is coming from.
http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/videos/playonevideo.asp?videokey=1611
This is a link of a helicopter pilot that got himself into a phenomenon called "Settling With Power" or "Vortex Ring State." Basically it is caused by the helicopter descending into its own downwash. It is started by trying to hover/land too fast with the wind behind you. The wind pushes your downwash in front of you and you settle down into it. The rotors are not as effective in turbulent air and as you can tell by the video it can be potentially "hazardous." The mistakes this pilot made was coming in too fast with a tail wind and he did not correct correctly. He pulled up the collective, which would normally cause the helicopter to rise, but because the air was turbulent, it had no effect (the warning buzzer you hear is the low rotor rpm horn.) Once they hit the ground the pilot fails to lower the collective (the lever on the left side of the seat) and the helicopter leaps back into the air. Then it hits turbulence again and hits the ground multiple times before finally stopping. This pilot is very lucky he didn't roll the helicopter on its side.
I also got to watch a rocket launch tonight. It is about 8 miles away and is relatively small compared to the shuttle. People told me that the rocket is only 10% of what the shuttle launches are.
cj

The More Moving Parts... The Safer I Feel

Here are some pictures of the flight line and one of the helicopters. The engine is a horizontally opposed flat four (like the ones that are in the old beatles and like the ones that subaru uses.) However they are much bigger. They are a 5.4L engine that has 350lbs of torque and pulls 180hp @ 2700 rpm. The engine redlines around 2800 so we pretty much keep it at 2700 the whole time when we fly.
Oh and that little armadillo was outside my door last night. It was rummaging through the bushes. I thought about grabbing it but I decided to let it go.
Take care,
Cj

One Week Down

I made it! Sorry for not posting but my week is rather busy. I will update at least once a week but will shoot for two or three times a week.
So last week I went to the Kennedy Space Center. It was really cool! The most interesting thing, in my opinion, was the Saturn rocket exibit. That was the rocket that was used during the Apollo missions. The main rocket engine type they used was called the J-1. It was and is still the most powerful rocket engine ever built. One J-1 provides more trust than 230 F/A-18 Hornets. And the Saturn rocket had five J-1's! They said when the rocket was fully fueled that the expansion and contraction from the super cold fuel made the rocket sound like it was breathing. While launching the closest you could get the rocket with out being seriously injured or killed was 3 miles and when fully fueled it had as much explosive power than the atom bomb that hit Hieroshima. So needless to say that I enjoyed my visit.
I started school on Monday and had my first flight on Thursday. It has been a very fun very busy week. My day conisists of waking up at 6 (coffee is a life saver) shower, eat breakfast, class starts at 8, class ends at 12, quick lunch (if possible) then flight lessons from 1-4ish, dinner, home to study, and asleep by 11.
You might be wondering what it is like flying a helicopter. Well... it is amazing! Flying a helicopter as compared to a fixed wing is like comparing driving a V6 rear wheel drive drifting car with stick shift on ice or driving a front wheel drive 4 cylider with an automatic on a one way street with no traffic :P. So if you want it easy, fly a plane, if you want to have more imput on your machine, fly a helicopter (Mason! GIve in to the dark side!)
I will update with some pictures of the choppers and the facilities tomorrow.
Take care.
Cj
Ps. The middle picture is of the saturn rocket and those engines on the last picture are the J-1's, each one is about 30 Ft wide.