In Alabama, nobody seems to think that it is odd to need to use the air conditioner during the first week of February.
Today I rocked at flight. I got A grades on two of the maneuvers we worked on–simulated engine failures and takeoff/landings–and I was hovering for minutes at a time without assistance from the instructor. If I can keep progressing at this rate, I should be one of the first in my class to solo. The earliest they let anybody solo is a week from today; I hope to get it done then.
Actually, I almost didn’t fly at all today. This wasn’t my fault at all; five minutes after I climbed into the helicopter, the Transmission Oil Chip light came on. We hadn’t even made it to the runway yet. The emergency procedure associated with that light is a single step that we have to memorize verbatim: Land As Soon As Possible. In this context, “as soon as possible” means “land in the nearest area in which a safe approach and landing is reasonably assured; the survivability of the occupants is the primary consideration.” This is the sort of emergency procedure which has people ditching in the ocean rather than waiting ten minutes to get to land; it’s the same EP used when the aircraft is on fire. My IP wasn’t too concerned, though; according to him, 99% of the time that light doesn’t mean anything. It’s the one percent in which it is an indicator of impending catastrophic failure which causes the EP to be so severe.
This case ended up being a member of the 99%. Half an hour of maintenance later, we were flying again. I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow. This stuff is fun!
Completely unrelated: if you have team fortress 2, some time on Saturdays, and feel like being murdered by my avatar a bunch of times, let me know. My steam id is, of course, coriolinus.
Having had x-msn lights in flight, over one hundred miles from land. I flew to the closest island. You’d be a fool to ditch a perfectly good helicopter and take your chances with ditching, all over one chip light.
‘Land as soon as possible’ primary consideration- survival of occupants. I don’t consider floating in the ocean waiting for rescue a good option because of one chip light.
I tend to agree–now. When I wrote this post, though, I had maybe a dozen hours in any helicopter, and the IPs had just finished emphasizing how important it was to treat “Land as soon as possible” issues with dire immediacy.