I began flight school in the Brown hat class. Orientation and classroom studies were interesting, however students were eager to fly. Two weeks later, an hour bus ride took us to the training area. The hanger was enormous and the ramp stored helicopters lined up as far as the eye could see. The head instructor assigned students to fly, Hiller H-23s, Bell TH-13s or TH-55s- I was assigned the latter. I was excited as they were the newest, and the H-23s had a unfortunate safety reputation. Our flight instructors explained the general syllabus for …show more content…
I was fortunate, being 2nd in my class. That experience was almost as frightening as my “solo” fixed wing experience. When the instructor exited the helicopter at 4.5 hours and walked away, I feared death. He casually related; “Okay, you’re ready; One trip around the pattern and land.” What happened to the 6-12 hours? Every second of the hover I expected to be out of control so I took off without hesitation. I completed the pattern and landed, and I’m grateful there wasn’t remote instrumentation evaluating the flight- or my vitals. Others were not as lucky; several people were “washed out” or “set back”, there were a couple minor crashes and one significant one- nonetheless nobody