"If you can keep it inside a football field, you'll be okay".

Mr Chapman was a great instructor pilot. He was patient and wise with many years of flying time under his belt. He was already greying and I knew he was getting toward the end of his career. If I had to guess, I would say that he was the oldest IP there and even many years senior to the Chief Instructor Pilot. He was alot like Diable in that he really hammered home "Attention to Detail". During the initial stages of flight instruction, we focused on preflighting the aircraft. I could write a book about that but suffice it to say that every nut, bolt and washer had to be visually inspected and many had to be touched and manipulated by hand to see if it was moving as it should or not moving at all..............as it should. Once we had finished the preflight, then there was a before starting check list. After that, there was a pre-take off checklist. After all that, there was a flight to one of the stage fields. They had names like "Soc Trang" and other villages and towns in Vietnam. I thought they would teach us how to hover first and then transition to all the other phases of flight but I was wrong about that. We worked on straight and level flight with alot of emphasis made on altitude, heading, airspeed and engine RPM control all the while doing instrument checks to make sure that all the operating levels stayed in the green. I had a little advantage over some of the guys that had never flown before. I'd had a little stick time over the years and knew enough about how it worked in a fixed wing aircraft to make some adjustments to helicopter flight controls. I'll not forget the odd feeling I had when the cyclic control stick was pushed forward during take offs because in a fixed wing, that was completely the opposite of what I'd experienced. From the very beginning, Mr. Chapman taught me the smallest things that every helicopter pilot needs to know. When I was first given the stick, I was using my arm and hand incorrectly. He told me to look at his right arm and note that he rested it on the top part of his right leg. By doing that, he told me that I wouldn't get into any "P I O", which was "Pilot Induced Oscillations". The result of resting my forearm on the upper part of my right leg allowed me to use only my wrist and hand when making control changes. As I recall it, he said something to the effect that "You can't grab the cyclic like a spoon when you are beating a cake mix for your mother". In any event, I nailed the control part of the cyclic stick and immediately learned that sometimes the smallest adjustments produced the best results. When we arrived at the stage field we started our approach. As he began the approach he told me to put my hands and feet on the controls while he was making the approach but to do so with only the smallest amount of pressure. I followed those instructions and understood quite hurriedly that slowly lowering the collective control stick, reducing power in very small amounts while staying in the green with the engine and rotor RPM, adding a touch of right pedal to counter act the torque and slowly moving the cyclic rearward, would produce what he called a "Sight Picture". A Sight Picture was actually a maneuver. It would allow you to visually put the threshold of the runway on a specific part of the chin bubble and therefore give you an angle of attack to use as a target. Once you had the Sight Picture where he wanted it, only small corrections were needed to nail a glide slope that would take us to the threshold. I managed to get that one right after a couple of approaches and asking him, "Can we do that again". He never failed to let me attempt any given maneuver whenever I asked for a repeat. It was a big confidence builder for me because in a matter of a few lessons, I felt really comfortable transitioning from traffic pattern altitudes as I lost altitude on the base to final leg of the approach and finally lined up the helicopter with a Sight Picture on final approach. Auto rotations were next. I'm thankful that he explained the maneuver before we did the first one. My initial reaction was one of surprise as I couldn't visualize "Turning off the power and flying to the ground to a touch down WITHOUT THE ENGINE ON". Despite that, when he showed me how it was done, he was talking a 100 miles an hour about everything he was doing as he was doing it. He would say "Ready?", I would answer "Yes Sir" and he would roll off the trottle, lower the collective to take all of the lift out of the rotor blades and push right rudder in to keep the heading straight. Despite it being an approach, he didn't pull back on the cyclic. This time he pushed it forward. He would tell me it was important to keep your airspeed up when doing auto rotations because doing so would allow you to transfer energy at the bottom of the approach when you "Flared" the helicopter. He further explained that he could actually gain rotor RPM even though the engine was not being used and he could do that by hauling back on the cyclic to transfer that forward speed to higher rotor RPM....and then he added, "Just like a leaf that twirls down". After I had managed to get through enough of those to satisfy him, he said: Now, my boy, it's time for you to hover this helicopter". We had heard stories about the first day of hovering and I was somewhat nervous but he calmed me down and assured me that I was going to still use the right arm on the right leg and still do many of the things I'd already done. At that point, he hovered over to the hover practise area which was nothing more than a large field adjacent to the stage field. When he stopped the helicopter 3' off the ground, he told me to stop "Following me Through", let go of the controls and to put my feet on the anti torque pedals. I did so and as he was hovering, he did pedal turns and let me experience the amount of control input needed to do that. After a couple of turns, he had me do it with my feet being the only thing that I was utilizing to make the turns. He had me take my feet off the pedals and grab the collective. I did that and as he hovered, he let me experience the small inputs that were needed to keep engine RPM and altitude in check. I caught on to that immediately as he had already taught me how to use my ears in determining the "Right Sound" that the engine should make when it was at the proper speed. I was beginning to like this alot as doing it one by one seemed to give me the confidence that I could do it. As a final step, he took the pedals and collective and gave me the cyclic while reminding me that it would only take small control inputs to keep it in place. I over controlled the first few times we tried it but before long he was satisfied with that and we broke for our lunch period. We went to the building and had the daily sandwhiches that were provided for us inside the stage field terminal. After lunch, we were off again for more hovering. This time, it was my turn to do or die. He told me that he would get it to 3 feet and then it was up to me. MY GOD, I didn't crash but I flew in every direction possible except backwards. He kept saying: "Think ahead of the aircraft, fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals." As I worked my way through it, I managed to calm down and get the hover down pat. It really is hard to do when you are doing it for the first time on your own without his feet and hands also on the controls. Despite that, after the earlier crazy attitudes the old Hiller was taking, I finally hit it on the head and could actually do it. He told me to set it down and then pick it up..............slowly, very slowly. I got through that okay and he had me do numerous pedal turns and more sit downs and pick ups. At the end of all that, he announced that he was very pleased and was ready to return to the Main Heliport after one more trip around the traffic pattern. He took us to the take off position, announced "You have the controls" and I picked it up, took off, made a full traffic pattern and an approach to 3' where he took over. I couldn't believe I made it without some kind of screw up. He let me fly back to the Main Heliport and allowed me to do most of the flying except for that part where we flared to stop and hover to our parking spot. I remember it well because I expected him to make me do all the work after I had managed to get the hovering part to an acceptable level. I'll leave you with that for now as Tim Jr and I have some errands to run but Stand by, I have another Diable story AND my first solo coming next. TB