Something Completely different

As the title says this week i did something different to the norm. I gots me a ride in a helicopter!!! Met a fella called Alin at the ATPL's tother week whos doing the heli-course out of Weston. Got to talking about exams and all and whether studying together was a possibility. Also the thought of taking each other up to see how the other half live or fly. So i got the chance first on saturday, the most beautiful day in so many weeks, with loverly blue skies and warm sunshine....wow

When i got to Weston Alin was already out doing his pre-flight checks, i joined him out there and got my first proper look up close and personal with one of these beasties. Little bit different somebody put the prop on the roof instead of in the nose and made it a wee bit bigger at the time. The other shocking thing was the shear size of it- from far away they looked absolutlely tiny but gettin up close and personal, there was actually pleanty more room inside it then probs a 172, and defs way bigger then a 152.

The other interesting thing to discover was how much longer it took to get the thing up and running, checks, engine start, wait for engine to warm up a taste, start rotor, sync rotor, more checks and more checks, we (in our planes) wuda been half way to kilcock already!!

Eventually it was time, the man gently eased her off the ground a couple of feet and then headed off away from the parking area. He asked me if i wanted a slow departure or a fast one?? No contest there.. so we were away at speed and rising up as we went.

So how was it, a lot more unstable then the fixed wing but i spose thats to be expected, tho after the initial few seconds that wasnt an issue anymore. Much better view from the front, down to the lack of engine bay and prop up there, and dispite only being 20odd kts slower, it felt a lot slower.

We went out as far as kilcock, did a couple of steepish turns, and a sudden increase of speed thing, before heading back in to the field.

Lotsa fun, and really interesting to see the differences

From HELI

My Ride for the day

Inside and out

Closest i've ever been to the VOR

Token 2 person pic

The lift off captured -I cudnt resist adding the music

A busy week

Been up 3 times this week and racked up 3.5 hours worth of flying, kinda like last yr and the ppl - all along with studying hard for more atpls which im back into already - fun fun - tho the coolest thing is that with those three odd hours I now over 100 hours worth to my name - YAY!!

First off last friday i took myself off for a short 55 min flight - cudnt be arsed to plan a route or play with winds so decided to track out on a VOR radial towards mullingar and then turn round and pick up another one home - didnt quite get as far as i was looking to cus of low cloud but ya get the idea

Then yesterday i took davey from school up for a while. We headed up towards lough sheelin near cavan where his cousins live - we spotted there house flew round it for a while and waved at who i can only assume was one of his cousins below

and this morning i took emma (cousin) up to Dundalk, back to drogheda, and then home via newgrange and slane. Emma brought along not only a camera but also a dvd camcorder so got another take off and landing video'd to play with - gotta try get em into some format that can fit on here

Me and Davey - loving the cheesy grin

Me and Emma - not as cheesy

windymills

Drogheda Viaduct

Luas bridge after being put in the photocopier increased in size a bit and moved up to Drogheda

Aunty Olga came to fly

Had a plane booked on wednesday, and in the end decided to take my mum up again with the hope she mite get to see more then she did the last time. Also took Aunty Olga with us because she had mentioned how keen she was to come too - so plan was to head up towards Dundalk before turning back towards Drogheda along the coast, but of course the weather wasnt quite gonna let us play so nicely. Got as far up as Navan in decreasing hoz viz but found a low layer of cloud ahead of us towards Dundalk. Had a look at snipping in below the cloud but it was down to nearly 1000ft and with some parts of High ground ahead. So in the end turned back to Navan on down to Trim and then South West towards Kinnegad before turning back to the airfield. 

So clearly mum is a bit of a bad omen as far as visability is concerned, but at least we all got up for an hour and sounds like both enjoyed it

Next passengers are the guys from school hopefully - tho gotta go do my exams first!!

Your Aircraft for the Day


Your Pilot for the Day - Pete the Pilot

Three More people in a Plane

Kilcock - Pass it pretty much everyday we fly 

Trim - With its great big landmark castle - see it for miles

Low Passing Cloud

Mum Locked in the Back Seat

How to refuel an airplane

View Larger Map

Church Stretton

Been in Engerland for the last week, and while over here decided to take the opportunity to fly people around. So today myself kieran, and gavin headed up from filton to go fly by kieran's house in Church Stretton. Lifes a bit different flying over here, new aircraft type, new airfield, new chart. But it all went pretty well was on track most of the way around and maybe a little faster then planned.

First stop was Clun a small village which one of kierans friends, Martha lives, circled round it once or twice with us waving down to them and vice versa, then on up to church stretton and 2 passes with kieran loving the fact that he could see all the bits he knew so well. After that back towards filton via Great Malvern, landing under the watchful eyes of concorde

Lots of fun, and hoping for decent weather on monday

Kieran Surveys his ride


Concorde looks on


Second Severn Crossing


More Second Severn Crossing


Martha's House in Clun - Shes standing in the back garden


Kieran's House (somewhere) in Stretton


Church Stretton itself


Look '3' people in a plane - thats me and '2' passengers

Ross' at last

At last ross the weather and me managed to find a day where we could meet up and go flying. In the end decided to fly the route i was sposed to fly in my flight test but didnt finish because i was far too good to need to do the whole thing :) Have been checked out on a 172 in the last week too, its a bigger plane that has seats in the back to carry more people at a time. So had been hoping Ciara (ross's gf) would come to but the lisbon treaty ended that idea. still took the 172 cus i wanted a little experience without an instructor sitting beside me and keeping tabs on me.

Anywhos up to killashandra which is in Cavan picking out which lakes we wanted to own along the way. Wind seemed not to be quite what i had planned for and so ended up a bit off course along the way, but sorted that out and back on track without too much hassle. My other plan for the flight was to visit an airfield called abbeyshrule for a touch and go (land and take off again straight away) - completely different airfield to Weston, much smaller and not tower telling you what to do - so it was an overhead join - descent into the circuit pattern before lining up on finals. While doing this i was announcing my position on the radio, but not receiving any replys or anything due to the fact it was Air to Ground radio, once again something i'd not encountered before. So it was a little strange to say the least but we survived and i must admit that my first landing in a 172 and at an unknown airfield without a instructor sitting beside me went pretty blinking well and i was very very happy with it.

Touch with both wheels before pouring the power back on to pick up speed and lift off again - little shimmy from the nose gear so eased back on the controls to counter it and climbed out in a loverly straight line, with enough calmness to wave at the bloke in the car beside the runway -
From there it was round again and straight back to Weston.

A robin landing before we could go

A Lake - Somewhere

Abbeyshrule finals

Abbeyshrule - very finals

ByeBye Abbeyshrule

Told ya he came too - didnt get a 2of us pic tho

Newgrange

After weeks of promising me and robs went up last week for a sightseeing trip to newgrange and slane - after the most awkward of starts including forgetting about a 2nd headset and a pretty dodgey looking Heading Indicator (as it span round in circles) we got up up and away. Slight nav issues on the way (that'll teach me not to plan routes properly) but found the boyne, followed it to slane where robs could see bits he'd kyacked/canoed on and then on to fly around newgrange, wave at the tourists and back home

Newgrange from behind we kinda crept up from the right of this pic circled round and the back to the front past the front of it

Newgrange from the front

Slane bridge where robs went kyacking - apparently they start up river abit, down over the 2 weirs and then out on the bottom side of the bridge

Slane Castle itself

Dublin

Wednesday last week and i decided on a beautifully sunny day i was going flying - after wondering about where to go for the hour, i decided it was about time i headed in over the city - So in the end it was up from weston down to blessington lakes, over the hills to Bray, then up the coast to pidgeon house towers, before hanging a left and flying up the liffey back to weston.

This has got to have been one of the top flights yet, purely cus i knew what i was flying over!! The lakes were easy to spot from miles off and on the way there flew pretty close to the aircorp base at baldonnel, luckilly they'd gone to the seaside for the sunny day and werent about, turned at blesso and climbed up to 4000ft to clear kippure, before dropping back down to 2000 and past the sugar loaf. Once at Bray it was straight up the coast, past dalkey, dun laoighre harbour and over the sea to the towers. Then up the middle of the city, spotting everything, the docks, croke park, trinity, even looked down on work. On up past the park with the zoo and marys house, and finally over liffey valley shopping centre and back down to land very nicely - So the only hassle is i think i need a co-pilot to come with next time and take soooo many more pics!!! any volunteers??

Blessington lakes

Sugar Loaf - (now my desktop)

Deansgrange/newtown park ave - we think the pitch is newpark school

Dun Laoghaire Harbour

Pigeon House Cooling Towers

Trinity College